Baby, It's Cold Outside

Today we embraced the cold weather and enjoyed Snow Tubing down a hill in the Blackwell Forest Preserve. Ryann absolutely had a BLAST and we definitely got tired of the words, "slide, again?" Mark and I had fun too...nice family outing.

We LOVE our Snow Bunny



Some Snow Tubing Action Shots



Ryann, bundled up in all her cold-weather gear...like the kid from A Christmas Story

Wheaton Weekend

We are embarking on our second week in Chicagoland. This past weekend we walked around Wheaton and looked all around the college campus. Such a beautiful campus, full of such rich history. We embraced our inner nerd and looked all around the Wade Center, which houses one of C.S. Lewis' desks, one of Tolkien's desks, and the actual wardrobe that was the inspiration for the Narnia series. Very Cool. We were so excited to see it, since we absolutely love all things Narnia.



The Wardrobe

Tolkien Desk

Eating our way across Chicagoland

Our waistlines are expanding.Too many fun foods to try and way too cold to run. Oh well, c'est la vie. Thanks to our friends, the Rioses, we were given an extensive list of restaurants in this area and beyond. Below are the Chicago "musts" that we have eaten.
The video is of The Depot Diner. Mark and I saw this episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives a long time ago, and when we got here, we knew we had to go to this diner. It didn't disappoint. We shared the Open-faced Pot roast sandwich for our meal and the homemade donut holes with mocha/chocolate dipping sauce for dessert. Really unbelievable. Both were some of the BEST things we both have ever eaten.The atmosphere was so urban and cool. We are definitely coming back.


This is a "Chicago" stuffed pizza. Delicious. This is from Giodornos.People are either Giodornos people or Gino's East people. The Lamb vote is 1 to 1. Mark votes Giodornos and Erin votes Gino's East. Ryann is just happy to be eating pizza.

This is the "Chicago" style hot dog from Portillos. If you know me, you know I absolutely love hot dogs and this one didn't disappoint. We wanted to be purists, so we got it the traditional way...but I don't know about tomatoes on a hot dog?

We made it

Well, we made it! The Lamb family is complete and all residing in West Chicago, Il....for the next 3 months. Ryann and I joined Mark Thursday after escaping from the great snowstorm of Dallas. OH, how great it was to see Mark!! We had missed him so much. So far, so good. We spent the weekend getting my bearings and exploring the surrounding areas.This weekend, We ate deep dish pizza in Wheaton, went to the mall, went to a great, super friendly church (where the pastor is both a Texas A&M grad and DTS grad...whoop!!), played in the snow, enjoyed Valentines Day, and experienced what is feels like to be really cold. really really cold.

Ryann helped Daddy make pink pancakes this morning for Valentines Day. Thanks, Lulu for this mix.


Ryann and her Valentine, a stuffed green frog that she is currently obsessed with. We recently saw, Princess and the Frog, and Ryann loves to kiss this frog ALL the time.If Mark had his way, there will be no prince for her until she is 37.





Ryann doing her best "blue steel" in her new puffy coat that she picked out herself.


The first thing Ryann HAD to do right when we got to the house was play in the snow. So, she put on her very cool snowboarder pants and Dad and her got to work on a snowman.





Ryann took her first airplane ride Thursday, and she did it in style. Thanks to Mark's friend, Pilot Jack, Ryann and I got to ride in first class. This was especially nice since it was snowing cats and dogs in Dallas, which resulted in us sitting for three hours on the runway before take-off. Thank God for portable DVD players.

Ryann and Pilot Jack, who Ryann referred to as her "prince" for the duration of the flight. poor Jack