July

The fourth of July weather was pretty gross around here, lots of flooding and cancelled fireworks shows! Nate lit off some fireworks at the house and we did our traditional sparklers! Jemma and I were able to catch Bolingbrook's rescheduled fireworks display on the 5th, but Nate had to work and Jade had plans with a friend.

We took a day trip up to Baraboo, WI with Nate's mom to visit New Life Lavender Farm! We took a wagon tour of the property, tried lavender shakes and pie and tested so many lavender beauty products in the gift shop! We all came home with some goodies. I'm loving my lavender essential oil roller! :)

 

We had a great day at Ribfest with Grammy and Grampy! It was quite warm and sunny, so we made sure to find plenty of shade when possible!

We got to spend the weekend with my extended family and celebrate my Grandma turning 99 at our annual Family Reunion Weekend! We enjoyed a lot of good food and had a fun date night at Top Golf. The guys enjoyed a day at Wrigley Field for the Cubs vs Twins game while the girls enjoyed girl time in downtown Crystal Lake and a visit to Activate!

40th Birthday Trip - Sedona, AZ

 Nate and I got away to Sedona for a weekend to celebrate my birthday! We flew out of Chicago at 5 am and arrived in Arizona around 6:30 am local time! We got our rental car and began the 2 hour drive to Sedona, stopping just outside of Phoenix for breakfast and coffee!

First stop when reaching Sedona was hiking the Fay Canyon Trail! It was an easy main path with a rocky scramble up beyond the end of trail sign and again on a side trail up to the arch!

We got smoothies and acai bowls at Local Juicery and then headed over to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

We got mid afternoon coffees and checked into our hotel (we had amazing views from our porch and living room window). We grabbed pizza and salad at the cutest Italian restaurant, Vespa before heading over to Airport Mesa to watch the sunset. We had a late dinner afterward at Elote Cafe!

We were up bright and early the next morning and hiked the Devils Bridge Trail which was about 4.5 miles round trip!

We had a big breakfast at the Coffee Pot (I loved that mug so much I bought one to bring home) and then headed to uptown Sedona for the Broken Arrow Pink Jeep Tour. The views were incredible and the tour finale was a nearly vertical descent down a natural rock staircase! 

Afterward we grabbed an early dinner at Creekside American Bistro and then set out for an evening hike along the Long Canyon Trail to the Birthing Cave! We ended up meeting some people at the cave (who took this awesome picture of us) and ended up staying there almost until sunset!

We had a gorgeous view of the sun starting to set over the rocks on our walk back to the car and enjoyed the rest of the sunset while eating ice cream!  

We woke up super early the next morning to hike Cathedral Rock at sunrise! This was by far my favorite part of the trip! The hike was challenging and the views were gorgeous!

We squeezed in one more quick hike up Bell Rock before checking out of the hotel and heading back to Phoenix! We made a quick lunch stop at In-N-Out Burger on the way! 40 is off to a great start! :)