Hi everyone! Carolyn here, back with another installment of our Saturday Series. This week’s topic is a fun one: what to do, see, eat and drink on a girls’ trip to Chicago! We get so many Coffee with Liz questions asking for Chicago recommendations, and I thought it may be helpful to round them alllllll up in one big, comprehensive post. Of course, Liz and I provided our own input, but many of these suggestions came from the best resource of all—the HAF community! Whether you’re planning a Chicago bachelorette party, a mother-daughter weekend, a birthday celebration or just a girls’ night out ..read more

Happy September! Maybe it’s that back-to-school feeling in the air, but Fall always seems like the perfect time to refocus on fitness (especially when you have more Chicago workout classes to review)! Have any of you been to Yoga Squad? I love the low-key, relaxing vibe of their studio, and every yoga class I’ve tried has been both rejuvenating and an incredible workout. (FYI, Yoga Squad is the new name of Yoga Six in Chicago, in case you’re confused.) I still hadn’t gotten around to trying one of their newer “Y6 Sculpt” classes, but I was finally able to check it out yesterday…her ..read more

Prior to this summer, I was 100% a barre newbie. You’d think that 12 years of ballet dancing in my childhood would have motivated me to seek out more barre classes, but for whatever reason, I never got around to it! I’ve been working from Portland (my hometown) this summer, though, and have religiously been going to Barre 3. It is the BEST workout and the most supportive community, and if you live close to a studio I highly recommend checking them out. I’m definitely going to miss Barre 3 when I’m back in Chicago in a couple weeks, but I plan on keeping up with their online workouts (could be ..read more

Hi, everyone! Carolyn here, back with our latest Chicago workout review. I’ve talked about spin, boot camps and running recently, but I figured it was about time we created some content for all you yogis out there. I do feel like I need to start this post off with a caveat—though I have gone through phases where I’ve practiced yoga pretty consistently (3x a week), I’m by no means a regular yoga class attendee. I know how to do most of the major poses, but I’ve never done a headstand, and I’m not sure if I ever will. I guess I’m saying all this so you know where I’m coming from in te ..read more

Shop the post: On Liz: Sezane Cardigan, 1 State Cami, Anthropologie Headband, Just Black Denim, Chanel Flats On Charlie: J.Crew Polo, Old Navy Cardigan, Old Navy Denim, Native Shoes One of my most frequently asked questions is about our decision to move to the suburbs, why we made the move and how we knew we were ready! We have officially lived in the suburbs for one year (how did that happen?) so I thought it would be a good time to break it all down. So a little background – I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and Dave grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. We lived in Lincoln Park for 10 years, h ..read more

I am always asked about fun activities to do with your kids and even asked for your opinion on my Instagram stories! I received so many great suggestions and decided to list out 10 of my favorite activities to do with your kiddos this summer (all in the surrounding Chicagoland area). We live in the west suburbs so a lot of these are focused around my personal local but I’d love to get a conversation going in the comments…if you’re in another area of Chicago and have some fun suggestions, leave a comment and I’ll make updates to this post so you can refer back to it! Before I dive into your su ..read more

Hi everyone! Carolyn here, back with the next edition of our Chicago workout review series. I’ve been looking forward to this post for a long time, because I’m talking about one of my absolute favorite workouts in Chicago. And from the sounds of it, a lot of you are big fans of Flywheel, too!   It isn’t always easy to get motivated for a fitness class (especially in the middle of Chicago winter), but Flywheel is a class that I pretty much always look forward to. There’s just something about the studio that’s so much fun, even if it is a super sweaty, challenging worko ..read more

I realize I’m writing this post right as swimsuit season is starting up, but it’s all about balance, right? Yesterday was National Donut Day, after all, and Chicago’s donut scene is more than worth the occasional indulgence. If I’m being honest, I didn’t even like donuts that much before I moved to Chicago—the typical store-bought donut doesn’t really do it for me, and I couldn’t have told you the difference between cake and yeast, a Bismark and an old-fashioned. But oh my goodness, how times have changed—Chicago opened my eyes to a whole new world of donuts. Going out for donuts ha ..read more

You know those workouts that you always avoid because you know they are going to be really hard/you probably won’t be very good at them? For me, that’s Pilates. Give me a HIIT or grueling spin class any day of the week, but as soon as I hear the phrase “tiny pulses,” I tap out. But I know Pilates is good for me, and all those muscles groups that Pilates focuses on are the ones that I really want to tone and strengthen (aka my entire core).  So, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for a class at Studio Lagree in Lincoln Park (thanks to my workout buddy Lauren for coming with!). Though ..read more

Hi everyone! Carolyn here, back with another installment of our Saturday Series. This week’s topic is a fun one: what to do, see, eat and drink on a girls’ trip to Chicago! We get so many Coffee with Liz questions asking for Chicago recommendations, and I thought it may be helpful to round them alllllll up in one big, comprehensive post. Of course, Liz and I provided our own input, but many of these suggestions came from the best resource of all—the HAF community! Whether you’re planning a Chicago bachelorette party, a mother-daughter weekend, a birthday celebration or just a girls’ night out ..read more