The Bowman Family

Sooooo Rich and I just got back from a MIND BLOWING long weekend vacation to celebrate my being the big 3 - 0 ! Our last (and only other) kid-free vacation was when I was pregnant with Braxton, so to say we were excited would be a major understatement. A HUGE thanks to Amanda & Chris Doellman for tackling the task of parents of 5 kids under the age of 6 for the weekend!!!

Prepare yourself for a crap ton of pictures people! We did learn though that pictures with the kids are WAY cuter than pictures of our fat butts hahaha...

MILWAUKEE, WI

First stop... FOOD OF COURSE! The Smoke Shack! We started our trip off with CANDIED BACON & Sweet Potato Fries. Yes I said CANDIED BACON! And Rich couldn't keep his grubby fingers out of them long enough for me to take a picture... big shocker!

Next we walked to the Milwaukee Art Museum. This place is SO COOL. If you have seen Transformers 3 this is where Sam's girlfriend works with Patrick Dempsey... the car museum. It is an architectural marvel!

Inside, looking up

They were setting up for a wedding when we were there. Outside the window is Lake Michigan. SO breathtaking!

The "hallway" with a really hot guy in it : )

Looks like the wing is sticking into my noggin...

Next stop, Miller Park to watch the Brewers play the Padres!

This is the top of the museum behind rich. The "wings" can actually be moved up and down. So crazy!

CHICAGO, IL!!!

The end of the pier. This place was SO cool. Rich said it is way bigger and way cooler than Santa Monica Pier in Cali.

They had "Pirate Ship" tours. Braxton would've FLIPPED OUT!

The next morning we headed off to Chicago (an hour or so south) and checked out Navy Pier!

We had lunch at the famous SNL joint Billy Goat. Then we headed to see Cirque Shanghai at the ampitheatre on the pier. MIND BOTTLING!!! GO SEE A CIRQUE SHOW PEOPLE. AMAZING!

Just craziness! They climbed up one at a time and were handed a chair to balance on.

One of many amazing stunts. These wheels spun round and round just from the momentum of the 2 oerformers and they ran on top of them and jumped rope on them and all kinds of death-defying craziness!

This was the finale view. The metal ball in the background was just RIDICULOUS! They had FIVE motorcyclists driving around and around in it at the same time!!! Rich was like a little kid the whole show. I LOVED seeing him like that somewhere other than a ballpark haha : )

The Ferris Wheel! SO tall and SO fun!

Pier with downtown Chitown in the background

View of the carousel from the ferris wheel

Rich's fakefearface!

CHEESE!

Navy Pier was REALLY awesome. Oh ya we had churros for dessert... they were SO GOOD!

OK... TIME TO VENT... If you are planning a trip to Chicago plan on a STUPID amount of money for parking... we spent around $150 on parking... YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!! And we even walked a TON to avoid more parking fees. OK, back to fun... WRIGLEY FIELD FOR SOME COUNTRY MUSIC! Brad Paisley headlined with Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry & Chris Young!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wrigley! We had been debating on what tickets to by for DAYS and still hadn't pulled the trigger once we were THERE! Solution? Scalper ticket sales dudes looking to unload tickets since the concert already started so we got tickets in great seats for 30 to 40 less than nose bleeder seats were online! We love a good scalper bargain!

OHHHHHHHH MAN... This guy was SO entertaining. It was 6:00ish and he was already so ridiculously wasted that he was out COLD sitting up in his chair. Everyone around us was dying laughing and taking pictures. He had a backstage pass around his neck and he was so gone that he didnt even budge when a chick sitting near us STOLE IT OFF OF HIS NECK! It was all fun and games and FB pictures of the crazy drunk until he got the hickups and then the seas parted and everyone ran to seats out of his puking range. So funny and sad at the same time.

Miranda was SO STINKING GOOD!

I loved her pink guitar and Cubs Jersey!

Wrigley Field holds 40k people without field seating so we guessed there were 50 to 60 thousand people there. It was INSANE!

Brad Paisley was amazing of course! This picture has a crazy story behind it... I love Brad's duets... Whiskey Lullaby he performed with the band perry chick so i was wondering how he would pull off Remind Me (his Carrie Underwood duet) one of my FAVORITE songs as Carrie is my VERY favorite female artist!). The song started and I couldn't tell if Miranda or band perry chick were on stage because they had it all blacked out and the jumbo trons turned off at first and then she started singing and I COMPLETELY LOST IT! IT WAS FREAKING CARRIE UNDERWOOD!!! THE ENTIRE PLACE ERUPTED WITH CHEERS AND APPLAUSE!!! THIS DUDE IN FRONT OF US LOOKED LIKE HE WAS GOING TO PASS OUT OR CRY!!! (HILARIOUS) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!!!! CARRIE UNDERWOOD YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!! Well last night rich said Shelly I have some bad news... you need to sit down... and then he fell asleep for two hours on the couch... during those 2 hours i was wigging out trying to guess what bad news he could possibly have... Apparently WE GOT DUPED!!! BRAD PAISLEY SANG WITH A FREAKING HOLOGRAM OF CARRIE!!! My mind was Blown and I was PIIIIIIIIIIISSED!!! I am over it now... how crazy is that though? In the end i would rather watch Carrie's hologram than anyone else though haha

After the show. Concerts of this massive proportion amaze me!

The next day we went to a day game at US Cellular Field. Sox vs Astros! This piggy bank was taller than me!

Next stop... Downtown & The Skydeck at Willis Tower (Formerly Sears Tower)

Glass boxes extending out from the 103rd floor of the 110 floor building. Rich was less than enthused about this stop and he had to be bribed (i wont tell you what with haha) to go up with me and out into the box that is suspended 1,353 feet above the ground!

Goofball... wonder where my kids get it ??? Oh ya - from BOTH of us : )

The views were absolutely incredible! On a clear day you can see 4 states away!

The CITI building

1,353 feet below my 2 fat feet hahaha

the view to the box next to us

SKETCHY! Sitting down for some reason made my stomach turn way worse than standing up... even worse though - I JUMPED in the box and that totally freaked me out and everyone who w=saw me do it. I immediately exited the box after that hahaha

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture... LOVE LOVE LOVE this man!!!

From the ground...

After that sketchiness we walked across the street to Girodano's Famous Pizzeria. This is the leftovers of the SMALL stuffed pizza. It was freaking delicious!!! We stuffed ourselves SO full and then went for a long walk to Millenium Park.

Sweet Lion statue outside of the Art Institute. 20 ft tallish

Meet "The Bean" as it's called by locals. Cloud Gate is a sculpture in the center of Millenium Park. It was inspired by liquid mercury. It is 33'x66'x42' and it is SO COOL! This is a google picture... we finally found it at dusk.

The reflections in it are so neat! (and a little creepy)

Cool Guy Rich haha

I just LOVE the reflection of the Chicago skyline in the bean.

Just neat!

Monday, after waking up at 11:00, we went to a really nice "birthday" lunch at Gibson's Steakhouse before heading home. I think Rich liked it.

This was my "Birthday Cake" dessert. We ordered a SLICE of Chocolate Mousse Pie for $12.75 and this behemoth is what came out... oh wait no this picture is AFTER we ate our fill of the pie... this was the leftovers we brought home and STILL haven't finished eating. This is one my top 3 desserts I have EVER eaten EVER! It was pure heaven!!! Perfect ending to a birthday weekend that rocked my world. THANK YOU BABY!!!!!!!!

We had such an amazing time. We decided we are so ready to retire and just hang out with each other all day! One of our favorite things was sleeping in without having tiny fingers in our eyes or loud whispers at 7 am "MOOOOOM I WANT CEREAAAAAAAAL" It was a wonderful break with tons of memories and marital bliss! But DANG we missed our munchkins!

Bracky's baseball face posing with his souvies

Rilea and Bailey ready for going home and going to bed

All 3 kiddos (and Dylan's head). Being away for a few days made me love them that much more if that makes sense... Mom's, you understand!

Now time to plan our next kidless vacation... CRUISE ANYONE???

My Aunt Francelle and her 3 youngest kids got to come stay & play with us for a few days! It has been years since we have seen them. We had a BLAST! My kids a week later still wont stop talking about them.

Toni & McKenzie decorating the pavement

Sam, Francelle, Toni & Ammon at the top of the arch

The boys wore B out SO bad!

We took everyone to our local pool, Aquaport. Nothing beats fun in the sun!

NOOOOOOOOO! said Bailey when i said smile for a picture

The whole crew soaking up the sun

Toni taught my kids how to make people sandwiches : )

Kenz is a slide JUNKIE!

Braxton literally had to be bribed... This face says IM GONNA DIE! "FEAR FACE" He finished the slide then held his hand out BAWLING... "WHERE IS MY DOLLAR MOM?"