Miss Maddie turns 13 tomorrow.  13 is a big deal in our family, partly because we have never had our own teenager before, and partly because in our culture, becoming a teenager is sort of a really big deal.

To celebrate this special birthday, Maddie and I made a trip to Chicago and stayed at a nice motel right downtown. (Paid for by Rob’s frequent flyer miles-Yay!) She had a little birthday money to spend, so we hit Watertower Place and a few other shops. She loves to shop, but I do have to say she knows how to stretch her money as far as possible.  I love that about Maddie.

Throughout our time together, we also went through the Passport to Purity book and CD’s. It is a great resource for tweens just crossing over the line from tween to teen.  We talked about boys, dating, God, and girl stuff.  We had some really great conversations, all highly confidential, and I promised I would not blog, tweet, or Facebook about them.  I totally respect her privacy, but some of our funnier conversations would have been great blogging material.  🙂

As some of you know, I am a HUGE Insagram fan.  If you don’t know what that is, Instagram is an iPhone photo application that allows you to edit and upload your iPhone photos into a really brilliantly creative community of fellow amateur photographers (and some not-so amateur).  Well, I found out that Instagram Chicago was doing a photo walk only a few miles from where we were staying, and Maddie and I went.  Maddie is also a huge Instagram fan, and takes some pretty amazing photos.  It was so much fun meeting fellow Instagram friends that I have been following for awhile.  Most of the pics you see above are from our photo walk through Lincoln Park in Chicago.

We had a great time together, and  I know lots of memories were made.  It was exhausting, but a huge investment into Maddie’s teenage years.