goodbye June vibes

this month:

daily dates galore

including our last jamming session in the Chicago Blues Fest

& last Gold Coast Art Fair

miles & miles of walking by the lake shore

watching hundreds of bikers take over Michigan Ave

right after the news anchors we watch every day waved to us from their desks! 

acting like tourists museum visiting

& taking photos in all the places we love

a serendipitous search for hidden cash on a p.m. walk thanks to @HiddenCash (twitter)

farmers market eats

with lots of blurry, fun-time timercam cooking at home

getting caught in a thunderstorm on the first day of Summer (and the Saturday after that)

night time walking by the water again & again

so. much. fun. with my "darling" little lady (can you guess who bought this outfit for her?)

gorgeous sunsets outside our door

celebrating being his wifey for three years!

with a picnic

& fun bumming at Oak St. Beach

also, we can't forget every anxious moment watching Brasil play in the World Cup!

Looking back through these memories on the last day of June make my heart so full. This is why I like to capture the moments we have together; the everyday moments. The ones you tend to forget over time. I do not want to forget them, but also I do not want to deceive myself or others who think life is "picture perfect". Our life is no where perfection. And our marriage is hard work like everyone else's. In fact, there were some tears & unhappy days in between these photos. But we celebrate life because it is a gift we have been given from Jesus. He gives us the love and strength to smile & live fully every day (although not every day feels this way). And I do not want to neglect this truth: with God as our refuge there is peace, hope, love and joy like no other. Learning this lesson this month has been life changing. I am so thankful for June.

museum visitng

& some weekend snaps

This past weekend we continued on our month long 3 year anniversary celebrations with going to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday & the Art Institute of Chicago on Sunday. Bank of America has a promotion that if you have their debit or credit card you can visit a number of Museums for free the first full weekend of every month. So, since the weather decided to feel like Fall instead of Spring, it was a perfect couple days to get cozy inside and explore art. Truth be told, the Museum of Contemporary Art was not our favorite, and I just noticed there's only one picture here (bottom right in the last picture) but we loved the Art Institute! G even got almost yelled at by a security guard for getting a little too close to a sculpture. haha! It was hilarious! Life is so fun with you, g! I loved seeing all the peonies blooming around the city, and catching new angles of the Bean to capture. Also, this past week I started by internship at Cornerstone (that's where the fancy flats & bag picture comes from) which has been a fun adventure thanks to my fellow interns who are great!  

loved this glorious light

^ this is the one that almost got g in trouble! ^

the Monet's were my favorite

After church on Sunday we also visited Elly's Pancake House for the first time, finally! This place is popular among the Moodies, but we've never ventured into this infamous breakfast stop. Oh my goodness it was amazing! The best syrup I might have ever had! & Brunch has officially become my favorite meal of the day. Yay! Thank you Bank of America for a weekend for free Museum seeing. It was fun & we can't wait to do it again soon!

oh happy day to my Moody alum!

I can easily say that this past Saturday was one of the happiest days of my life. G graduating was truly a long time coming for he & I. I guess getting married and moving to a new city two weeks later that's 13 hours away from home is a bit "crazy." But when you're in love and have full confidence that God has lead you & your new hubby to a new & exciting place for reasons you don't even fully yet know - you go & you're excited! At least we were. But little did we know how challenging and painful our next couple years would be.

No, things weren't always hard all the time. But both being full time students at Moody was demanding all in it's own. Not including figuring out newly married life together. By God's grace - we made it.

WE MADE IT!

Through all the late nights, papers, tears & fears I can see now that God was present in it all. It didn't always feel like He was there in our pain, but when I look back even to this past week & see how much we've grown together I am amazed by Him! Amazed by His love & purposes for our lives that are higher, deeper & wider than we could ever imagine. 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

In Christ we finished well. & I will forever be thankful for these past (nearly) 3 years together on this journey of doing life together as this chapter, our undergrad years, begin to come to a close. We are so thankful that our families drove (& Tia Gil flew from Brasil!) for hours to be with us these past few days. Between G's graduation and Larissa's plus Daddy's birthdays all in the same weekend there was lots to celebrate! I feel so thankful for all these blessings and never want to forget what God did & continues to do in our lives; He gives life & life to the full. Life is not perfect but Christ is & His plans for us are so no matter how hard, I will go Lord. We will go together.

Congratulations to you g! Moody Bible Institute grad, I love you.

Jesus lives!

finally we the trees are beginning to show some color! bring on the leaves, spring!

& timer-cam did gooood! ^^^

So thankful for this day. I hope your Easter celebrations were full of love in your hearts & food in your belly. Every year we miss our family & friends from home a little more on this day, and this year was no different.  Easter Sunday's in Jersey are always spent together - usually over Brazilian BBQ outdoors, soccer for the guys & girl-talk on the field with the ladies. We love those memories so much! Here with just us two we've learned to make holidays special together. 

This year we kept things simple & sweet. For me it was my favorite Easter Sunday in Chicago yet! After service at Moody Church & photos at the park to take in the new green growing everywhere, we came home & made a delicious lunch together! Salmon, shrimp, potato wedges & guacamole from scratch were all on the menu and it was pretty restaurant-worthy I'd say. (high-five, us!) Today was also the warmest day of the year so far, reaching a high of 76 which meant no coats & a long walk along the lake. Plus, scoring free Sprinkles with the whisper word "egg hunt" was the icing on the (cup)cake!

Most importantly though, remembering what Christ has done for us today was especially sweet. The reality that Christ is alive and present in my life everyday, even in those bad days (which yesterday was one of them - they happen people!) has been so true for me this past year. So celebrating today felt more real and personal than ever before. This is pure grace & I pray for a greater nearness to Jesus everyday! The living God - Jesus Christ became man, lived on earth & died a cruel death in our place, so we could be raised to new life in Him just as He was raised! 

There is no love greater love than this. & I am so thankful for it...