Summer Bucket List

As some of you know, this summer is kind of huge for us.  We bought a house and are packing up our life in Chicago for a new life in Louisville, KY.  We're moving in a super short amount of time, which leaves me freaking out on a regular basis.

Our house is awesome. It's everything we wanted, it has many bedrooms and bathrooms, a big yard and a lot of character.  We're both incredibly excited to move, to start a new chapter of our lives and to put down some roots.  But we're both sad, incredibly overwhelmed and feeling nervous about all of the change.

Last summer was huge for us - we got married.  But that didn't really change much of anything, except for the fact that we can say 'husband' and 'wife' and we both wear rings and my last name is different.  But we didn't pick up our lives and leave behind good friends to try and make new ones somewhere else.

So my summer bucket list is kind of a strange one.  As much as I want to do anything and everything in Chicago while we're still here, I keep finding that we're not doing anything we thought we'd do.  I haven't been to Millennium Park for a free Monday night concert.  We haven't visited any of the museums we said we would.  We haven't gone to those restaurants we'd never been to, or the blues bars I have been wanting to experience.

Even though summer has just begun - I feel like it's already ending.  I have to do all of this stuff within the next two weeks or else we'll have to save it all for when we visit.

Before we move, I want to ::

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Go see a show at one of the two best venues in Chicago - The Hideout or The Empty Bottle.  It's been too long since I've gone to either of these two places and that really kind of breaks my heart.  

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Spend an evening hanging out at Kingston Mines with two very close friends.  I think this one will happen for sure (hint hint)

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When I first moved here (and even before I moved here) I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art many, many times.  It's such an incredible museum - the art is so much more my speed and the size isn't at all overwhelming.  The first time I went, I fell in love because I was able to see some of Cindy Sherman's work in the flesh.  I haven't been in years and will be a little heartbroken if I don't make it down there before I go.  I would also like to go to the Museum of Science & Industry again, but I really want to go there with my littlest niece, Ally.  She is big into that kind of stuff and I can't wait to potentially see her face light up!

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Most importantly, I really just want to spend the remainder of our time here with my friends.  I've made some incredible friends here and I'll miss them with every beat of my heart.  They're the kind of friendships that will last forever and ever, and I can't even begin to express how much that means to me.  

After our big move, the bucket list includes spending as much time as possible outdoors, going down to the lake with the in-laws, going for long walks at dusk to explore our new neighborhood and most importantly - get a puppy!  Oh and then there's the whole "getting settled into our house and buying new furniture, painting and carefully decorating the house room by room".  But I imagine that will take a long time and I've got no plans of rushing it!

Thanks to Jillian of Cornflake Dreams for the link up - be sure to swing by her lovely blog to read more bucket lists!