Baby shower

Today, Erin and I threw Hany a baby shower. She's due in one month and is expecting a little girl. The baby's room is going to be decorated with pink and purple butterflies. So cute!

A few pics from the day...

Everyone decorated a onesie for Baby Reiss

Fancy stuff!

Lauren had a ball with the fabric paint!

Group pic - Lauren was saying "cheese" the entire time we took pictures - SO CUTE!

Welcome Baby Reiss

She's ready for football and baseball seasons!

Trying out the burp cloths

Such a cute little shorts outfit

Onesies drying - this crazy drying contraption is from Hany's mom in Malaysia and worked out so well!

Erin wins the award for most elaborate design!

She's ready for her first Christmas!

One of Lauren's creations

Jane did this one!

This one is mine

Ravinia

On Saturday night, we went to see the band Chicago at Ravinia. The concert was sold out, but we picked up some lawn tickets from a guy at work who couldn't use them.

We took the Metra up to the park. Erin, Ross, Brett and Sandi hopped on at Ravenswood. Worked out perfectly!

The weather was gorgeous for the concert! Even a little chilly once the sun went down.

I didn't really know what to expect from the concert. I know the more popular Chicago songs, but I didn't realize it was going to be so instrumental. It was like part Jazz concert. They played so many different instruments! We got to hear a few of our favorites. They even threw in a Christmas medley... kind of strange!

It was a fun time! And I got my Ravinia fix in before the season was over! : )

Trying out a couple of new places in our 'hood

Wednesday night, we went to Paddy O'Fegans for dinner. The place opened a few weeks ago. It's an Irish pub (if you couldn't guess that from the name!) a few blocks from our place. The beer list was really good - what more can you expect from the Irish!!! The food was ok, nothing to come running back for. The service... well, that was not the greatest. Matt thought our waitress had never actually waitressed before. She was really sweet, though. First, Matt asked her what the Sam Adam's seasonal was and she said Octoberfest, so he ordered that. She brought him a Bell's Oberon. She apologized and told him she'd take half off the price or something like that. Matt was like, no big deal - I'll drink it anyway. Then, when our food order came out, she brought us both the same thing. I had ordered a burger and Matt got the fish-n-chips, but with sweet potato fries instead (which she told him was a sacrilege in Ireland). The bad thing was I even saw her write our order down and she wrote that I wanted the burger. Not sure what happened between her walk from our table to the register and why she couldn't read her own writing... but, I got my food about 10 minutes after Matt. Then, when we finally got our bill, she had charged us for 2 fish-n-chips (which was more expensive than the burger), but had given us a $2.50 credit for her "MISTAKE" as it was shown on the receipt (which was for the first beer she brought). Too funny.

Thursday night, we checked out a tapas place called Meze. It's in the Fulton Market area, sort of out of the way (Lake and Peoria) - not one of those places you would walk by and see and want to try out. When we got there, the place was empty. It's very loungey and clubby feeling. I think it actually turns into a dance club later in the night. The music was sort of techno and then some weird French stuff = very interesting. I decided to "check-in" on Foursquare and up pops a Groupon for the night - $40 for $60 worth of food and drinks. Sweet! : ) All of the food we had was really good! The drink list was not as great. Apparently, they were getting a shipment in the next day of wine/beer, so they were out of a lot of stuff. Matt's beer options were Miller Lite, Hacker Pschorr and Heineken. I hope they keep up that Groupon offer! I'd definitely like to go back!

Weekly Update

I'm going to make the effort to actually update this blog once a week! I've been totally slacking off!

A couple of pics from the last week...

Friday night, Matt and I went out for Greek food in our neighborhood to Athena. We sat out in the garden area and it was gorgeous. Perfect weather! Made me miss being in Greece. I told Matt we need to go back there sometime in the future - one of my favorite vacations ever!

Saganaki and Tzatziki - yum!

My parents were in town (my Dad was having a reunion with his brothers and sisters). My mom's train got in Friday night. On Saturday morning, we took a walk around the city. It must have been window-washing day, because they were out in full force!

I would NOT want that job!

After a VERY rainy morning, the weather cleared up and the day was gorgeous. We went to the Cubs vs. Cards game. We were definitely divided on our loyalty - I grew up a Cardinals fan and my parents still are. Now that I'm in Chicago, I cheer for Chicago. If I had grown up in Chicago, I'd probably take a side and be more of a "Cubs" or "Sox" fan.

On Saturday night, we hung out at our condo. We played Millionaire party mode. I think Brett was the big winner. We also played Gummy Bear mini-golf - what a train wreck! We were NOT good at that game, but it was very entertaining! : )

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

On Sunday, we went to the Chicago Air Show. Kind of a hassle getting there, but SO glad we went. The weather was beautiful and the show was fun!

Crowded!

View of the city

Brett and Sandi

Typical Matt - "do not take my picture"

Happy Birthday Matt!

Yesterday was Matt's birthday, so we went out to Smith and Wollensky to celebrate. We had tons of food and a few drinks and lots of fun! I didn't have my camera, so I have NO pictures of Matt on his birthday. Considering how much he hates getting his picture taken, I will call that a part of his birthday gift! : ) A couple of the pics I took with my iPhone weren't terrible.

Massive piece of chocolate cake for dessert!

Sofie got a few leftovers!

We finished off the night at our place with some euchre (no karaoke, per Matt's request!) and what I like to call "ghetto chocolate martinis". Basically, I just make a chocolate martini with vodka, chocolate syrup and whatever else we have around the house. Usually we have Bailey's, but last night I used skim milk! They weren't all that bad! : ) Of course, this morning, I was re-thinking that decision. Ugh.

Oh, I found this on my camera... forgot I had taken it. Last week, Matt and I went to the Cubs game with work and he really wanted to get a picture with this dude! Too funny!

Utah Trip

Matt and I went out to Utah to visit his family on his Dad's side last week. Utah is beautiful and I love the mountains! The altitude... not so much. Matt's brother, Scott, and his 3 kids were also visiting, so there was a house-full!

There was still snow in the mountaintops in July. I think it would be awesome to have this view even when just running errands.

Oh, yeah... where was this place when I was growing up? I would have loved a place called "The Mathnasium"!

On Friday, we hiked up the same mountain we hiked up last time, Grove Park Trail. We took Matt's nephews Gavin and Robby with us. The others didn't want to make the trek up the whole mountain, so they ditched us. It was super hot and sunny! We went through a lot of water.

That night we went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat put on by a local theater group. One of Matt's stepmom's nephews was in the show. The show was very entertaining.

Matt's Dad always makes us sweet treats from his old-fashioned soda fountain in the basement. I had a chocolate malt and and Matt had a shake... so good!

On Saturday, we drove to Park City so the kids could go on some fun rides. We walked through Main Street for a bit before going to the rides. The kids zip-lined down the mountain and climbed a rock wall. Matt and I played mini-golf.

Afterwards, we hit the outlet mall for a little shopping! : ) Then, we went to Heber to grab dinner at the Dairy Keen on the way back home.

We spent Sunday hanging out with the family and had a nice lunch with everyone. We celebrated Matt and Robby's birthdays with some yummy cake and ice cream.

There are more pics from our trip on our Shutterly site (link above right).

And no, the original site never got fixed. I had to create a new one and copy over the albums. Not cool, Shutterfly! Not cool!

Our Shutterfly site is not working... hopefully only temporarily

For the few of you that actually look at our Shutterfly site... it is not currently working. I called Shutterfly and they made some upgrade over the weekend that has caused problems with a lot of the share sites for their customers. But, they said they are working on the issue and should have everything resolved in the next few days. I hope so... I definitely don't want to have to go back and redo all that!