Go Karting & Dinner at Que Rico

We picked up Julia from camp today in Wisconsin. She had the best time and said next year she wants to go for two weeks. On our way home we stopped by Melrose Park and Craig and Ethan went go karting while Julia and I hung out in the car. The go kart place had a special on you swoop (youswoop.com), so of course Craig bought as many as he could (8 passes). Here is a picture from our last go karting experience a couple weeks ago.

We had dinner at a good mexican place called Que Rico. After dinner we went home and hung out with the neighbors for a while and then Ethan and Craig watched Crash. Julia went to bed early because she didn't get a lot of sleep the last night of camp.

Drinks with Tine at Epic Sky

Tine and I had dinner at La Madia and then went over to Epic Sky to meet Craig for a drink. Epic Sky is on the rooftop of the restaurant. Tine lives in Chicago with her husband Dan, but she commutes to New York every week for work. Her old boss moved to NY and he gave her an offer she could not resist. It stinks that she spends most of her time in NY, but so great to see her when she's in town. Miss ya Tine!

The view from the rooftop...

White Sox Game

Craig bought tickets from groupon for his office to go to a White Sox game. The tickets were half off and included dinner at the picnic area of the park which included chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, side dishes and beer and of course the game. We all had a great time. Here are the pictures...

Dinner in China Town

We went to our favorite place in China Town with my parents and brother on Sunday. My parents have never been to Chinatown in Chicago. There's not much to see, but the food is great at the restaurant. Thanks for coming to visit Mom & Dad!

Dinner at Landmark

My parents were in town for the weekend and we had dinner at Landmark on Friday night. Craig and I love using our groupons (www.groupon.com). We have really been taking advantage of that site. My brother Bryan also joined us for dinner and Allison, Natalie, Nat's boyfriend John and her Mom Debbie met us for a drink afterwards. It was great hanging out as always. Allison doesn't get out very much because of her adorable little one Cora so it was great to see her out. And her family too!

Craig's New Office

Here are some pictures from Craig's new office...pretty cool views. He is right next to the Sears Tower (Willis).

Cubs Game with the Kids

One of Craig's friends gave us free tickets to a Cubs game today. We had great seats and we were not in the sun. The Cubs were ahead 1-0, but then had about 5 errors so the Phillies won 4-1. They might have scored again, but we left at the top of the 9th and had a late lunch at a restaurant near the field.

After the game we hung out at home and watched a GI Joe...I guess Craig and Julia were tired from the game because they passed out on the couch!

Cubs Game

June 28: Craig and I went to a Cubs Game with a friend of his. Allison was also at the game with Andrea England and two other friends from college. We met up with them during the game and afterwards for a drink. We had great seats right next to first base. It's nice that Craig knows a lot of people from his industry and they take us to cool events.

Julia gets highlights

I took Julia to get a hair cut and highlights (first time) as a reward for getting good grades in 7th grade. We did very natural looking highlights and she loved them. The picture does not do them justice...you can't even tell in the picture. I will get another picture of her so you can see them. She looked so cute!

Photography Class

Allison and I took a photography class together at Millenium Park. We spent 3 hours learning all about aperture, shutter speed, ISO and how to take the best pictures. We had so much fun and learned a lot. The first picture took many attempts because I would either take it too fast or too slow. The cars were moving fast so I had to change the shutter speed to get a clear picture of the car. We are actually going to take another all day photography class next month.

The Bean at Millenium Park

Allison & I shooting pics of ourselves in the bean reflection

I must have taken hundreds of pictures of this butterfly...there were so many flying around so it was cool to get pictures of them on the flowers. Allison got a really cool one with the wings open so check out her blog...www.ourlilonelove.blogspot.com.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We picked up the kids on Sat and had an alley party with our neighbors on Sat night. Everyone brought out their own food and drinks and all the kids played. Most of the kids are younger than Ethan and Julia, but all the little girls were following Julia around by the end of the night. She taught them how to play volleyball. Ethan has chickenpox so he stayed inside. He had the shot years ago, but still got them a couple years ago and got them again. He only gets a very mild case and it doesn't even itch so that's good. We really like our neighbors so we had so much fun at the party.

Sunday we went to the Taste of Chicago for lunch and then headed over to Rick's boat for the fireworks. The weather was a little crazy. It rained a couple of times so we decided not to take the boat out, but we hung out, grilled, listened to music and chatted. Rick is a good friend of Craig's and he was in our wedding. His grandson was there so Ethan and him had a lot of fun. I got a great picture of Ethan as he was jumping in the water - it looks like he is standing on water. Ha! The fireworks were nice, but they were only 15 minutes because Chicago cut back this year. Overall we had a wonderful 4th of July and hope you did too!