Midway Ice Castles Date Night

So for years now I've been hearing about these Ice Castles they do up in Midway. We didn't go the first year I heard about them, not sure why, but we didn't. I wanted to go last year, but then it was such a warm winter that they only opened it one weekend and I knew it would be super packed so we decided to skip it (we're both not big fans of crowds, plus it doesn't make it super fun to just be pulled along with everyone else). This year, however, I decided we have to go! I figured weekends would still be busy, so we might as well go some night during the week. It wasn't far away, so we could easily eat a quick dinner, head up, walk through it, and be back home in time to get ready for bed.

Frozen us

Turns out, we had MORE than enough time to do this. It doesn't take hours to really walk through, it's basically a big room with a room to the side and a few little hallways in the room off to the side. I think Larry and I had higher expectations so we were a little bummed, but not ones to ruin a fun date night we made the most of it.

Big room with a fountain in the center (lit area near the center of the pic)

 

Hallway to the other room

 

It was definitely cold, with the snow, the wind, oh and the ice! But we made sure to bundle up nicely and there was still a little bit of a crowd so we would just huddle close to others if it got too cold. The lights they lit up the ice with were pretty cool and they played some music and had a little shack with some warm food and drinks, so that was nice.



Pretty Lights

 

If you decide to go my tips are:

• Go during the week, it's not a far drive and the crowds aren't bad at all! (Plus it's cheaper)
• Bundle up, it's cold no matter what!
• Wear snow boots, I completely forgot and slid all over the place.
• If you have kids, bring them, they would love it and there were a few crawling spots and slides for them.
• Have fun, when else do you get to walk through shaped ice like this? It may not be castle shaped, but it's still pretty cool!

Harry Potter Yule Ball

So we got to go to our first ball this year, a Harry Potter themed ball to be exact, and it was awesome! We went with some girlfriends from my work (and Victor) to create a big group, prom-like thing. We even met up before the event for dinner at Tsunami, my new favorite sushi place (if you've gone, have you had their short ribs?! They are just about the best thing ever!). The best part is I finally got to wear the fancy dress Larry got me for our anniversary.

Another great part is we got to take our picture with a live owl, oh and get a cutesy couples picture. But they also had these fun decorations (I forgot about some of the props to the movies until I saw what they had there), photo ops with dressed up characters, and a sweet tribute for Alan Rickman (who passed earlier this week).

I mean could be get any cuter?

 

 

They also had some butterbeer, but the idea of that hasn't ever appealed to me so I didn't try some, but we didn't pass up the candy options that were there ;)

 

 

 

 We didn't end up staying long because it turns out my wedding shoes aren't as comfy as I remembered them being and my ankles killed me from the second we walked into the event area, plus I couldn't dance because I kept slipping on my dress anyways. It was still a really fun night and I'm glad we got to go. So much fun I'd most likely go again (if I can talk Larry into it). Excuse me now, I need to go re-watch all the movies!

Happy 2016

New Year's Eve / New Year's Day is always a good time for me. It's a time I reflect on the previous year and see what sort of things I'd like to do for the year coming up. This year we knew we'd be staying in, I made plans ahead of time to get some pizza and some root beers (well Larry got his usual drink, but since I still prefer not drinking I thought this would be fun). We got some new games for Christmas (which is good because Larry packed all our old ones up) so we had a few to try out. We also watched the ball drop and got in our pj's early. It was a nice relaxer night.

Unfortunately Larry and I both caught some stupid cold/flu sickness thing so we both have been battling that together. Yesterday and earlier today have been the worst of it for me. It started as a stupid dry throat/cough thing and turned into body aches, sneezing, stuffy nose, throwing up, and exhaustion. I've been bed ridden this whole time (so please excuse any sort of grammatical errors on this post).

My Chanandler Bong pj's are my new favorites

I did go out for lunch with Stacey yesterday and it felt like I got worse afterwards so today has been a "stay indoors, no excuses" sort of day. But lunch was still worth it!

As far as resolutions go, I'm sticking with my usual: Stay healthy, cross off items on our bucket list, exercise more, etc. I think I'm going to add to keep busy (not including Netflix binges). I want to make more memories this year since we won't be doing a vacation, most likely, since we're saving up for the house. But that doesn't mean we can't do little things here and there throughout the year.

Cheers to 2016 and all it's potential excitement! Happy New Year to everyone out there!