Just Me and My Dad

At 4am this past Friday, I left a very quiet house for O'Hare airport. I was en route to my first conference as a PhD!!! Woo-Hoo! I even got to introduce myself as Dr. Yes, it was awesome. I was so so so so so nervous to speak and I had called Doug at the house while I was in my hotel room practicing and I thought it was so weird that no one answered the phone. Then, a bit later I receive this message and this picture on my cell:

We love you, we decided to see the whole city while we ate snack, you are going to do great

I quickly texted Doug back this:

WHERE ARE YOU??????? Did you take our baby to the top of the Hancock or the Sears?????

Yes. Yes he did. All the way up to the top of the John Hancock tower. My husband took our child up to the top of the city. And you know what? They had a wonderful time. I was nervous. All the way in Maryland, I was nervous. But, obviously they had a blast and were totally fine. You may also notice that James' hair is still long. This at home stylist has yet to begin the hair-cutting process.

However, the conference went really well and the talk was well received which hopefully means good things for my work. And then .... I got to go out to dinner with my cousin Cara who lives in DC! It was beyond wonderful to see her and we indulged in a delicious dinner of burgers and french fries cooked in duck fat. Yes, duck fat. Delicious.

Anyway, here are their photos from their adventure and also of James singing songs with me over the phone post-talk from the conference. We sang the fire-truck song and goin' on a bear hunt.

And just two more from when I got home Saturday morning. James loved playing with his new cool puppy puppet that barks (!!) from Cara for his birthday. How sweet was that??? So sweet.

And I must say that my cool tote-bag I received from the conference was also a big hit :)