What a weekend!

Frank was officially sworn in as a licensed Illinois attorney on Thursday. His parents flew in from New Jersey for the occasion.

They and I spent the whole weekend making obnoxious lawyer jokes. Frank looooved it. ;)

When they first asked if they could stay with us, I wasn't sure how it would go—our place is tiny, after all. Four people in a 1BR, 1Bath apartment?!

But it couldn't have gone better. My in-laws are amazing house guests—much tidier than my little siblings, haha—and we had so much fun with them.

Here are a few highlights from the weekend!

They arrived on Wednesday night and the first thing we did was head to my parents' house for a full Cuban dinner. Frank's parents had never experienced Cuban food before, and we just had to remedy that situation. I'm happy to report they liked everything!

We all woke up bright and early Thursday morning to head into town for the swearing-in (I took the day off from work). It was at the Arie Crown Theater in the city.

^^Frank's parents thought this sign was a little tacky, but I loved it. Especially the little justice symbols!

The ceremony was a session of the Illinois Supreme Court. Three justices administered the oaths, and there were representatives from all Illinois bar associations. I noticed one of the representatives was visibly pregnant, and I thought, "Good for her!"

Several bar-association representatives gave speeches. The cool thing was that two of them had children getting sworn in that day—in fact, one of them had twins becoming lawyers!

My favorite speech was from one of the lawyer dads, who said earning a law license grants a measure of authority and respect. "Always live in a way that honors that authority," he said. "Practice humility, civility, and compassion."

Frank's mom and I kept quoting that bit about "humility, civility, and compassion" the rest of the day. We loved it!

After the ceremony, Frank and I proudly introduced his parents to our new favorite restaurant. Great food, fantastic service, and reasonable prices. We will be back!

Friday night, Frank and I decided to host a real, fancy little "dinner party" for his parents.

He made his famous pasta alla carbonara (a dish we discovered, and learned to love, on our honeymoon in Rome) and I made Caesar salad and set out fancy cheeses and bruschetta for appetizers.

Frank and his dad make fun of his mom and me for taking pictures of our food, but I still had to snap a picture of our table with the food on it ... I loved how it turned out!

(And please ignore the beautiful cardboard boxes in the background. Frank's been selling all his old law books on Amazon, so the house is a bit overrun with piles of books and mailing supplies.)

Saturday was our big "day out in the city."

We decided to have lunch on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building, and what a great decision that was! It was awesome and surprisingly affordable.

We will definitely be bringing out-of-town visitors there again in the future.

The view was spectacular, even with a little fog hanging over the city.

It was the nicest little double date. We took turns taking pictures of each other from opposite sides of the table:

And I just have to include this picture, even though Frank's not looking, because I think he looks so very Gilbert-Blythe-y in it:

Do you see it? Or is it just me?

After our fabulous lunch, we met up with the rest of my family and walked down Michigan Avenue all the way to Millenium Park.

My favorite stop was the Tribune Building. Have you ever seen it? It's really beautiful inside:

And the outside is just the coolest. The walls are embedded with bricks and stones from famous places around the world—everywhere from the beaches of Normandy to the hills of Jerusalem.

Each one is labeled so you can enjoy a bit of history. We got a picture of Frank's parents in front of a stone from their hometown of Princeton, NJ, and my little brother insisted on a photo with a brick from the church where Patrick Henry gave his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech. He's doing a report on it for class and plans to include the photo. :)

After that, he and my little sister were cold, so my dad gave them his coat. They wrapped themselves up in it and declared they were "a two-headed monster!" It was so darn cute I had to get a picture:

We finished our trek at the Bean and took the requisite montage of silly Bean photos.

My little shadow trailed us and asked to join, so we pulled her in for a few more.

After that I headed off to my dear friend Anna's bachelorette party, of which I have very little photographic evidence, and what I do have isn't bloggable. ;) Let's just say it was a great, great night.

Sunday morning we went to church and then had a fabulous brunch with Frank's parents. We did a little more strolling and window-shopping in the suburbs before finally taking them to the airport.

Then Frank and I came home, ordered Chinese take-out, and zoned out in front of our new favorite show after our action-packed weekend.