The Skate Park

Some more photos from yesterday (prior to the Super Bowl - go Giants!), this time at the skate park.

Waves Crashing

Took some shots of a rough Lake Michigan and posted them to my Flickr account.

Busy Weekend

We've been busy busy.  We stayed with Katie and Jay Kyte (and the kids) last Friday night and had a fun night of ice cream, hide-and-seek, card games (this was with just the adults) and then had a sleep over - Sara slept with the girls in their bedroom while Aidan and Anthony slept out in the family room.  We then had a great breakfast and played with the kids some more Saturday morning before heading back to Chicago. Thanks for a great time, Kyte family!!

Saturday night we went to a DeVotchKa concert that Sara had bought us as a Christmas present. DeVotchKa has a cool sound, kind of like a mix of Spanish and Greek wedding music (they play a tuba and accordion for some of their songs!).  Here is one of the songs that we both love, unfortunately they didn't play this at the concert - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Aso0_gnMoA (little known fact: this is the song Sara loves to listen to while on airplanes as it calms her down).  But, even without playing our favorite song, they were amazing and we had a great time. Here is a video Anthony took of them covering one of his favorite songs, "House of the Rising Sun"

So after a late Saturday night, we then had an early Sunday morning (up at 5:45am) to head down to the Aon building for a charity event that Sara's company had sponsored. There was nobody on the streets and it took us only 10 minutes to drive from our condo to Michigan Ave.  Sweet!  Sara and 6 or 7 of her fellow lyonscg coworkers climbed 80 stories for the Children's Hospital. Not everyone made it to the top but Sara did...and she beat several of her coworkers. Nice!  There were thousands of people there supporting the charity and doing the climb. Anthony did not make the climb but held another important role instead...watching over every one's stuff while they climbed the stairs.  :)  Anthony also took some time to take photos of and around the Aon building (you'll also find some additional iPhone photos of the concert there). We then came back home and both took naps...we were exhausted.

One of the shots of the Aon building:

Iron, Glass, Steel, and Concrete

I took a trip downtown to take some photos inside the Rookery building but unfortunately it's closed to visitors.  So instead I just walked around and took a few other shots.  I've uploaded them to my Flickr Account.

Christmas 2011

From Iowa to Philly, Christmas was filled with family, food, and fun.  Here is a small sample of the pictures:



To see all the pictures you can go to my Flickr account...let me know if you want any specific pictures and I can send you the original file.

Christmas Lights

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good drink!

Skyline and Millennium Park

I took some photos of the beautiful Chicago skyline a couple nights ago:




And then spent some time in Millennium Park:

Catching Up

Wow, it has been a long time since we've posted anything. To try and catch everyone up I thought I would post a summary of our last five-to-six weeks...nothing too in-depth and boring but hopefully enough to give you a good idea of what's been going on:

• We were invited to our ex-neighbor's new-house warming in late October.  The Telfords used to live in the condo below ours and now live in a house a couple streets over.  Their house is gorgeous, we had a great time, and found out their street has a fantastic "block party" with horses, fire trucks, and amazing food sometime in the summer.  We are currently trying to find a way to get invited or crash their next block party.
• I had double hernia surgery in early November, and yes it hurt as much as it sounds. The surgery went very well and Sara was a great nurse.  I was out of commission for pretty much two full days and then started feeling better and better with each passing day (with the help of the pain meds). I never knew coughing, sneezing, and laughing could hurt so much. I'm close to my usual 93% and have started to work out again, although only with light weights. Thankfully there are no pictures to share...
• Also in early November, Sara and I made a trip back to Muncie to see my sister (it was her birthday) and to attend my father's charity event for A Better Way, 100 Men That Cook.  On our way to Muncie we met up with my family to have lunch with my Grandma Doudt in Columbia City, IN. It was great to see her if only for a couple hours. As for the charity event, it was a huge success.  We are so happy for A Better Way and my father. It was also a lot of fun to hang out and share a table with our friends Brian and Holly Ross and David Haynes.
• The next weekend in November, Sara and I flew down to Clearwater, FL for the weekend to attend Dickie Hart's wedding (friend from college). The weather was perfect and the food at the rehearsal dinner and wedding reception was amazing (sushi and steak!!).  We were in heaven.  I got to see a bunch of college baseball buddies and reminisce about how great we were (of course).  And as usual we busted a groove on the dance floor at the reception...I'm convinced people we don't know will hire us just to dance at their reception.  We also got to hang out with our friends Zack and Carrie Roper for the day on Sunday and meet their young son, Tyler. It was a great trip and really nice to be in warm weather as winter is quickly coming to Chicago.

• For Thanksgiving we made a trip to Cedar Rapids, IA as Sara's brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Amy, were hosting the festivities...which not only included fantastic food but also charades. Of course our team won on Sara's great "charading" of the song Earth Song.  Later in the evening, Sara and I destroyed the sibling team of Eric and Katie in Euchure. Twice.  I guess Thanksgiving is the holiday of giving thanks for winning games. We also took a family photo but we all swore not to share it with a wide audience since we took it in the early morning.
• Somewhere in and around these other events Sara and I found time to hit up two concerts at Lincoln Hall, a fantastic small venue south of us in the Lakeview neighborhood.  The first concert was Youth Lagoon and then just this past Tuesday we went to see/hear Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  Great times!

I think that about sums everything up.