Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the cutest little cow!

More pictures to follow soon!

C-Ville

On Saturday, Ethan, my mom and dad, my sister, Ben and I (Matt is in Russia for work) hopped in the car and headed south to visit my dad's family in Carlinville. A lot of the family came over to Grandma and Grandpa's on Saturday afternoon/evening for dinner and we had a great time catching up with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and cousin's children. The weather was just gorgeous so we were able to spend some time outside and even have a little photo shoot with Ethan.

Sunday, my sister and I were able to get out for an early morning walk. We always love taking walks in Carlinville because the air is so fresh and crisp. It seems as though every time we venture out for a walk we get extremely nostalgic and relive wonderful childhood memories we have of visiting our family there. It is nice to get away from the city for a couple of days and enjoy the peaceful little town.

You can see more pictures from the weekend here (warning: there are a ton of Ethan....special thanks to my Aunt Tammy for taking some great shots of the little guy).

The Sky Is Falling

Well, not really.....just a branch, but it sure seemed that way when I went to unload my car in Lafayette on Saturday and witnessed a huge branch come tumbling down on my car. Yep, just like that Allstate commercial (the one you watch and think it will never happen to you).

As I was standing in the garage, a huge gust of wind ripped a branch off a tree that is in a neighbor's yard next to Carol and Larry's house and it landed smack dab on the roof of my car. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the branch on top of the car, but as you can see the tree and the branch were not small. Surprisingly, the car did not suffer that much damage, just a bent luggage rack and some small scratches and dents. Now it is onto the fun of dealing with the insurance companies and having the car fixed. Thank goodness I was not 30 seconds ahead of myself.....I would have had a tree protruding from my head!!!

The Damage Is Done

















If you look closely, you can see where the branched snapped off in the middle of the tree!

Airport

Currently sitting in the United Lounge at OHare waiting for my flight to Frankfurt. Then on to St. Petersburg. Just thought you might like to know.

Congrats to the Summa's on the birth of their baby boy Mac yesterday afternoon.

Ali will be in Carlinville then Lafayette over the next few days, so I am sure the next post and some pics will come next week.

Lafayette's Great Pumpkin

The next weekend Matt, Ethan, and I headed down to Lafayette to visit the Hunt's. Matt's sister was also going to be in Lafayette with Addy and since Ethan enjoyed his first pumpkin patch experience so much I thought it would be fun to share the experience with his cousin. This was their first meeting after all and what a fun way to spend some time together. While the boys were golfing on Saturday, Carol, Kelly and I drove about a half hour outside of Lafayette to Millennium Farms. While Ethan and Addy were still too young to partake in many of the farm's activities, we did get a chance to see some llamas, baby cows, baby lambs and chickens. We picked out some pumpkins and enjoyed spending the morning outside in some seasonably warm weather. It was a beautiful day, spending time with family and enjoying the kids. Click here to see more pictures from the weekend.

The Great Pumpkin

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan has his first pumpkin patch experience with some of his lady friends!! The Barron's, Betsy, and I loaded up Libby, Hailey, Brianna, and Ethan and headed to Tom's for some fall fun! While we arrived about 15 minutes before Tom's was about to close, it was still fun to walk around and enjoy the beautiful fall day. It was difficult to capture a good picture of all the kids....who wants to sit still when there is so many fun things going on around you? Regardless, it was still a fun afternoon seeing all the little ones together and hanging out with good friends. Here are some more pictures from the afternoon.

Ethan's First Game

The family loaded up the Jeep and headed one mile south to the United Center last night to take in the preseason Bulls-Timberwolves game. Thanks to Uncle USG, we were in the suite for the scintillating match-up of two terrible basketball teams. And yes I said it, the Bulls are bad again this year.

I think Ethan enjoyed himself, although the starting lineup announcements were a little too loud for him. We retreated to the hallway behind the box. We were joined by all of the managers in my group along with their kids as well as a couple of other former auditors.

I'm not a big NBA fan, so it will be interesting to see who Ethan roots for when he gets a bit older.

Check out a few other pictures HERE.

Run Run Run

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to all the runners who finished the 2008 Chicago Marathon. My mom, dad, Matt, Ethan and I headed out early on Sunday morning to watch the race. We made it just in time to catch the elite athletes at mile 4, which is always incredible to see. We stayed at mile 4 to watch Heather and my cousin, Megan, and then headed over to mile 11 to see them again. They were both looking great and ready to take on the next 15 miles, which they did without hesitation!

Watching the marathon is always so inspirational to me and gets me in the mood to run and puts the idea in my head to do the marathon the following year. While I am not sure I will follow through on signing up for the 2009 marathon, I did get out and run!! I hopped in with Heather at mile 18 and finished the last 8 miles with her.

I admire all the finishers because it was hot out there. While it was gorgeous weather for all the spectators, the weather was less than ideal for all the runners. With temperatures in the low 80's and not a cloud in the sky, it was just too hot to run 26.2 miles!!! I am so proud of both Heather and Megan (who both beat their previous best times) and all the other runners who completed the grueling race! I know a lot of people were disappointed with their times, but you finished a marathon. What a great accomplishment!!! Congratulations!

Here are some more pictures that Matt took during the race!

Wisco Golf

Last weekend I attended my buddy Kevin Harper's pre-bachelor party bachelor party up in Wisco. A very long weekend consisting of playing golf at two of the best courses in the country as well as taking in a top 25 college football match-up.

Thanks to Kevin's job at Taylor Made, he has a habit of getting us on the golf courses in Kohler, WI - Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run. Kevin met the Manager of the Golf Academy one day at Taylor Made and it has been downhill ever since. Todd Wagner at Kohler hooks us up with tee-times and discounted golf once or twice per year. Since we essentially call a couple of weeks ahead of time, we don't always get to play where and when we want, but for $75 a pop, we aren't allowed to complain.

We played Blackwolf River on Thursday and the Irish course at Whistling Straits on Friday. EA took some photos you can see here:

Golf

Special thanks to the Konneker's for letting crash at the lake for two nights. After golf on Friday, we headed down to Madison for the Ohio St - Wisco game on Saturday night. There are many details that would not be fit to put on the blog, so we will just put it this way, I was up past 4am three nights in a row which hasn't been done since college.

A fun time was had by all even if the Mexican food sucked at 3am on Saturday night.

Bear With Me

Bear with me on the albums, it has obviously been so long since I posted anything, I don't remember how to get an album up in cyberspace. I will figure it out shortly.

-Matt

Catching Up - Labor Day Week and Charlotte Trip

Here are links to photo albums from both the week at Green Lake over Labor Day and the trip to Charlotte.

Green Lake

Charlotte

Catching Up - The Michigan Trip

A quick catch-up post regarding the trip to Michigan. I have already commented on what happened, trip to the farm and Brady's baptism, but now we have photos.

Check out the full Michigan album HERE.

Sunday Night Dinner Date

A couple of weekends ago, the Dill's and the Rice's came over for fajitas. While dinner didn't turn out quite as good as expected (too many things going on and not enough attention paid to the food), the company made the evening well worth over cooked tortillas and flat jalapeno corn bread. It was great to catch up with Sarah, Nathan and Kaitlyn and Katie, Dana, and Jack and have all the little ones together.

I met Sarah and Katie through Junior League and have since introduced the boys to each other. The Rice's and Dill's have become great friends and ones we love hanging out with. We had such a great time with everyone and are looking forward to our next Sunday Night Dinner Date.

The Nickoloff Twins

Our good friends the Nickoloff's are expecting twins in December so yesterday my mom, Ethan and I headed to Naperville for a shower to honor Sarah, Chris, Baby Boy, and Baby Girl Nickoloff.
The shower was beautiful...special thanks to Heather's mom for opening up her gorgeous house for the afternoon. We were able to catch up with good friends, enjoy some delicious food, and most importantly celebrate Sarah's pregnancy and the twins pending arrival. Sarah just glows each time I see her and is such a beautiful mama to be. The twins are truly blessed to have Sarah and Chris as parents and Diane, Jim, MA, and Chris as grandparents. We can't wait to meet the little ones in December, if not before!! Congratulations!!

You can see more pictures from the beautiful afternoon here.