Mother/Daughter Weekend

Ali and I began something new for us this past weekend…we had our first Mother/Daughter Weekend away!  We spent the weekend in the Chicago area, and we had so much fun together! 

Our weekend began on Friday as we left late-morning, and drove to Schaumburg.  We checked into our hotel later that afternoon, and began our shopping adventure!  We spent the rest of the day/evening at Woodfield Mall, and ate at one of Ali’s favorite places…Panda Express.  Boy, does Ali know how to shop!  We hit her favorite stores, and some of mine.  We closed the mall down at 9pm, and drove back to our hotel, which was nearby.  We fell asleep that evening to scenes of the royal wedding which took place earlier that day. 

We had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel (made-to-order omeletes!) Saturday morning, and hopped back in the Envoy.  We drove to Oak Brook Center in Oak Brook (of course).  What a beautiful mall that was!  The center of the mall was an open space…no roof.  Tulips were in full-floom, and cherry blossoms seemed to be everywhere!  We spent lots of time at Forever 21 and American Eagle.  🙂  Thank goodness there was a Starbucks in the center of the mall…I needed a pick-me-up early-afternoon!  My non-fat latte did the trick! 🙂  We decided to head back to Schaumburg, stopped at the local Target store for some snacks for later that night, then enjoyed a wonderful relaxing dinner at Olive Garden.  Ali wanted to go back to Woodfield one more time, so we ventured back in again.  The mall seemed to be even busier than the evening before.  Ali found another pair of shoes and a couple more t-shirts.  (Shoes and tank tops were her main purchases this weekend!) 

We ended the day back at our hotel and ordered Spinach & Artichoke Dip from room service.  It was a perfect ending to a perfect day!

Sunday morning we got ourselves ready and packed up our things to check out and begin our trek home.  All the packages Ali had was quite amusing, especially when she tried to carry them all to the Envoy.  🙂  She was in heaven!  We did a search for the Aurora Outlet Mall to stop by on the way home, and our GPS took us right to it.  Ali found another pair of shoes, and I found a pair of tennis shoes to wear while working at the Mission.  I now wish I would have gotten the purse I was eyeing at Fossil too!  Oh well.  I guess I didn’t really need it.  We stopped for some lunch (at Panda Express again), and continued on our way home. 

Zach had a soccer game in Davenport at 3pm, and we pulled in the soccer complex about 2:40…just in time to surprise him and to watch him play!  Again, He played well!  We ended our trip by all of us going to dinner at the local Cracker Barrel.  (I love that place!) 

Memories of our first Mother/Daughter Weekend will stay with me forever…our laughs, Ali’s smiles, watching her have fun doing what she loves…shopping, our conversations, our special time together.  God blessed the whole weekend.  We never got lost once, and we made it there and back safely.  God bonded our hearts together, in a way that I couldn’t have even expected or asked for.  I feel it was a life-changing weekend for both of us.  I look forward to our next one…maybe one in the fall after volleyball is over?!  We both now wish we would have gone into downtown…so maybe we can do that in the fall. 

I have such a special daughter, and I love her so very much!  I truly am so thankful for the very special weekend I was able to spend with Ali alone.  She is more than my daughter, she is my friend!  🙂