St. Patrick's Day

This year St. Patrick's Day was really special - you know why? We didn't have our coats on, our gloves on or hats. By the end of the day, it was almost 80 degrees!!! I have no idea what happened this year or what the "winter" we had means for this summer ...  Because of the weather, it was packed. PACKED! People were in shorts!!! A lot of people were also already "over-beveraged" very early in the morning.

Before we delve into the details of St. Patrick's Day - look what we were treated to the night before.

I was in the middle of the dishes when I saw the sky light up and then BOOM - huge thunder. I ran to tell Doug to get James out of the bath and then we all watched the thunderstorm for a while and as it was ending, Chicago was treated to a beautiful huge rainbow.

On the big day itself, we decided to not stay on 'our' side of the river this year ... it was just too packed. We could hardly walk. So, we crossed the river via the Columbus Street Bridge (which was a journey in itself - there was a line to get up the stairs to cross) and landed on the less crowded south bank of the Chicago River. However, we had a great time once we made it.

Here are some photos pre-river.

Once we got to the river, we hung out for a while and enjoyed the excitement of the crowd and the Shannon Rovers!!! James loved the drums and bagpipes.

But then ... James spotted the fire truck and that's where we spent the remainder of our time. Here's James with two of the nicest firemen in Chicago.

They are part of the SCUBA team - what these guys do is intense. Lake Michigan's temperatures in the winter are not so friendly and these guys go in and save people's lives. We were talking them about the unfortunate events that occurred this year and shockingly, these two men played vital roles in each of the rescues/recoveries. Despite the intensity of our discussion, these two guys were unbelievably nice and welcoming to us and especially James. James even got to go into the truck and see the SCUBA gear and where they sit.

They had us laughing when they were telling us about having to get their gear on while the truck was on its way to the location. James was in complete awe of these guys - he talked about it all weekend - even told Toni and Mary today at school :)

As we were saying our goodbyes, one of the fireman (who has a daughter) said, "So it's off to lunch and then nap big guy huh?" James smiled and said yes and I wanted to high five the guy! Thank you sir for being an awesome fireman and a parent that knows how important toddler schedules are!!!! Woo-hoo!

We hung out by our building's fountains when we got home and played with the rocks before heading upstairs - Doug captured James' mischievous little smile right here and I couldn't resist posting it.

After we all napped, I started cooking corned beef and carrots for dinner. It's my Nana's recipe and it was delicious. While Doug was cutting it, I was sneaking pieces and was sneaking pieces for James. Doug kept telling me to stop but instead of doing so, I continued and also took the time to tell James that I used to get corned beef on the sly when I was little too. I called it candy meat when I was little. I can remember being young and smelling the corned beef cooking and I could hear Nana taking the carrots out of the pot while the beef finished cooking. I would go around my Grandfather's chair and sneak into the kitchen and stand right next to Nana's leg and plead for a carrot. She would tell me to be patient and that dinner was almost ready. Soon after would be my chance. I would hear my Grandfather cutting the beef and I would go into the dinning room and stand right next to him and he would sneak me pieces. I told James Nana would say, "Joe! Are you giving Meghanne that corned beef?" And he smirked and would never say a word and I couldn't because my mouth was stuffed :)

May you alway walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.