Illinois Trip Odds and Ends

This is the final post of a travel series of a week I spent in Illinois to spend time with my children.  To start at the beginning go HERE.  The rest of the posts are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Once a year I leave my husband behind and I go to visit my children for a week or two.  It's my way of spending more quality time with the kids and getting out of the house during our long Wisconsin winters.  Hubby would come with, but someone has to stay home and feed the wood stove or else our house would freeze.

I've covered all the main attractions we visited in Illinois in the posts listed above.  In seven days I visited two conservatories, a zoo, downtown Chicago, several small towns, and I did a lot of shopping!   However, we did a lot of little things too so I decided to wrap them all up in this "Odds and Ends" post.

The highlight of my week was getting to see both my children perform.  They are both musicians.  Jordan plays the drums and Ashley sings;  although they both play other instruments too.  On Sunday morning Jordan played in his church's worship service.  I really enjoyed the music.  They took a lot of old hymns and re-worked them to make the music more modern.  Jordan has to play in a box in this church, which he doesn't like, but he loves the church and playing on the worship team.

That night my daughter had a gig in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  She was asked to sing for a group of believers who miss traditional worship so they gather together once a month to sing hymns.  I fall kind of in-between traditional worship and the latest worship trends, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this service.  Of course, the sheer beauty of Ashley's voice contributed enormously to the service, but what really struck me was how the people worshipped.  They all sang so loudly and lifted their hands to praise God.  It was such a beautiful experience.

This is Ashley just moments before the service began.

Ashley had a rehearsal prior to the service, so while she was rehearsing I went shopping!  I found the cutest little cookie shop I ever did see!  It was the week after Valentine's Day so they had a lot of cookies decorated for Valentine's Day and also Winter Cookies.

Aren't these fun?  They look so delicious, but I don't know if I could dare bite into them!  They are too pretty to eat!

On Tuesday Ashley had a doctor appointment to find out the sex of her baby (it's a girl!).  The appointment lasted all morning, so we didn't have a whole lot of sight-seeing time between her doctor appointment and when she had to go teach voice lessons.  So we stopped in St. Charles for a little bit, then we headed to Wheaton so I could enjoy a cup of coffee from a quirky, fun coffee shop.

At River City Roasters I finally had my first fancy latte artwork!  It was so fun receiving such a pretty cup of coffee;  and it was the best cup of coffee I ever had in my life!  I can't wait to go back and get more!

The weather was in the seventies that day, so we were able to sit outside and enjoy our brew.  Wheaton is such a pretty little town.  It has the cutest shops with brick paved roads.

Ashley had to teach a few voice lessons that afternoon in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, so I went with her.  I walked around the cute little town just enjoying the beautiful weather and the lovely town.

This tiny, adorable candy house is in Glen Ellyn.  I couldn't believe how small it was!

Thursday and Friday were shopping days.  I don't have a lot of great stores where I live, so whenever I travel, I love to shop.  We went to my favorite outdoor mall in the area (Oakbrook Center) and I was so happy to see an Altar'd State store.  The first and only time I ever saw one was when my husband and I went to The Mall of America last Christmas.  If you never heard of this store before, you really must visit one.  They are the most beautiful aesthetically pleasing stores and I love their merchandise.  They sell Christian home decor and jewelry, and gorgeous fashion.  They also play Christian music while you shop.  And be sure to check out their dressing rooms while you're there:  they are so luxurious!  They also have a prayer book where you can stop and write in a prayer request and their staff will take time to pray over those requests.  Isn't that wonderful?

On Friday winter returned and our summer February weather ended. :(  After spending the day shopping for items for my new master bedroom, we headed back to downtown Wheaton for some macaroons.  They don't sell macaroons in my neck of the woods, so I love to visit macaroon bakeries when I travel.

Look at all these yummy desserts!

This bakery looked like it belonged in a French town.  It was so cute!

We couldn't decide what flavor to get, so we got one of each.  The raspberry macaroons were our favorite.

And that concludes my Illinois Travel Series.  I will be taking a blogging break starting this Saturday because I am headed to Myrtle Beach and Charleston, SC with my hubby.  You can be sure I will blogging all about it when I return!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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