Photos of the Summer

I wanted to share with you some pictures from the past month of our lives. I haven't been able to post them because of the move into our new place and the lack of internet in that time. Anyway, here they are with some captions of their own.

Here are a couple pictures from the show 6th Street played down at the LaSalle Power Co. in Chitown. Oh yeah, I got my picture taken with the lead singer. (He just happens to be my best friend I grew up with...Great show Mike; we're praying for you, keep playin!)



















These next photos are from the day Megan and I left our apartment and closed on our house. We celebrated with one of our favorite meals: Potbellys!!!





















Our first project in our house was to tear out the old shower surround and 1960s pink tile.













The next project was to tame the vast weed pit that is our back yard. (I'm still working this one.)









After all that hard work I needed a relaxing swim. What better way to do that than to enjoy a dip in beautiful Lake Delavan with my brother-in-law, Kyle, wearing a 'diaper' (A device usually used on babies, but can also be used when refering to a life vest turned upside-down and put on through the legs to allow one to float comfortably and enjoy a beverage or cup of Okey-doky.) We make these look good!










Next thing you know it's my birthday. Yup, July 15th I turned the big 2-4. Alright, maybe it's not that big. But I sure did have a great birthday! My wife made her delicious lazagna and my sister, brother-in-law and nephew Jacob (the smiling one) and my mother-in-law all came over for dinner. We had a great time and I'm even going to get to celebrate it again in a couple of weeks with the rest of my family. Boy, I am lucky! Here is a shot of what my wife got me for my birthday. A Stanley Cup Blackhawks shirt and 2, count them, TWO seasons of the Cosby Show. I sure am blessed!










Last year, 2 days after my birthday I got the privledge and honor of marrying the most loving, beautiful, perfect, god-loving woman. The kind all men hope for. So, two days after my birthday we got to celebrate our 1 year anniversary!!! (I realize three exclamation points may be overdoing it, as one exclamation point should always suffice as it relays excitement, we were really excited.) We went away to Wisconsin for the weekend to celebrate and stayed at a B&B in Mazomaine, WI (about 35 west of Madison). The weekend was wonderful; complete with a trip to a bonafide Cheese Factory, the beautiful Devil's Lake State Park, a trip to the movies (Despicable Me was the feature. While it was good and funny, I would wait for the video. $10 a person is too much. But don't get me started on movie theater ticket prices), Mass, a stop at the "Midwest Largest Shoe Store" and a sweet mini-golf course where it more resembeled a playground than a golf course. These are also some pictures of the room we stayed in. It had a beautiful garden view with a large hot tub, a nice KING sized bed and really cold A/C. All of these things were enjoyable on our vacation as we have none of them at home. The best part of the story of our weekend though came when we began our drive up North. As we sat on I-90 in traffic headed west Megan's Saturn - Olivia - decided that she did not want to shift gears any longer. Yes that's right, her transmission had worn out. Boy was that not perfect timing (On our way to celebrating our first anniversary and first home, we encounter a problem which would set us back an entire car). Thank God for our parents. (No really, we did thank Him for them, a lot!) We borrwoed my dads truck for the weekend and Megan's mom bought a new car and we bought her sweet ride: a 2006 Honda CR-V. It was a set back we weren't expecting, esp. after having just bought a home. But once again, God will provide...and He did!





















































Finally, on July 25 we embarked on "A Slice of Chicago" Pizza Tour with our friends, Dan & Lisa and Kristin & Tom. (Tickets were half price on Groupon.) It was a delightful tour of 3 of the first Deep Dish Pizzaria's in the world. We got to try pizza from Uno, Pizzaria Ora and Geordano's. In between the restaurants our tour guide spliced in fun facts of Chicago, walked us past several 'historic' buildings and threw in some pizza trivia. (Did you know that the #1 pizza topping in the U.S. is pepperoni and the #1 topping in Europe is Tuna? - yuck!)









So that has been our end of June and July. We've been busy...real busy. But more than busy, we've been blessed.