South Bend and Chicago - 8/26 to 8/28

We headed up to South Bend for the weekend. Of course, Chase was very excited for the trip. Unfortunately he looks like he's about to blow out of the car when we hit 70 mph, so we had to put the top up.

Jill and I had dinner Elkhart-style (Volcano Pizza!) on Friday night with my parents, Chris and Brandi, and Zack and Kayla. The Volcano is really known for their sandwiches, but the pizza is pretty awesome too.

Our nephew Zack had his second Granger Rockets football game on Saturday at Discovery Middle School. They all play both ways, so he's a budding offensive tackle and linebacker. On defense, Zack recorded a nice Tackle-for-Loss to back up the Cowboys and force the 4th down. On offense, he held the defensive tackle at bay to spring the Lions vaunted rushing attack. I'm not sure in the long run Zack will end up on the O-Line, but maybe if he keeps eating the Volcano Pizza every couple of days...:)

On Friday night Zack mentioned to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Jill that he hadn't been in a building taller than the Holiday Inn in South Bend (not counting the St. Louis Arch, which he saw a month ago). So, we decided that the kids needed a trip down the Toll Road to the Windy City. This is the view looking North from the Sears Tower. The kids were excited to see the city, and we really got lucky with some very nice weather.

Air Carnes times two.

To finish off the day in Chicago, we hit the Hard Rock Cafe. We saw some cool stuff, like a shirt from Elvis, a Madonna outfit, and some nice guitars (Hendrix, Metallica, etc.).

Making our house a home

Last week we visited our new neighbor's house. We were very inspired by their painting, so we decided to do some ourselves!

So far we have only done the dining room, but we are getting ready to do our bedroom as well as the office!

Spiff's new hangout

Spiff has a hard time getting away from Chase. But, it looks like he has found a new spot!

Silly Kitty!!

Springfield Visit Aug. 12-14

We went to visit our friend Jay and his daughter, Hailey, in Springfield, Illinois. We did a lot of fun things. But, before hitting the Illinois State Fair, we had lunch. I think this was Chuck's favorite thing. It was called a "horseshoe". It is a hamburger on a piece of Texas toast with fries and cheese sauce on top! It was good!!

My roommate from Purdue, Cara, was able to come and meet us. She had a good time riding rides with Hailey.

Well, maybe she wasn't that happy about it.

We all had a great time! Even these people........

Mrs. Curl's Ice Cream Stand

Willowbrook roomies unite! Jill and I went to Mrs. Curl's Ice Cream Stand in Greenwood with Christa and Keith, and of course Reesey and Chase. I think the dogs are starting to get spoiled...


Mmmmm, special dog ice cream. Not really, but the stand did have dog biscuits and a small free ice cream for the puppies. I ate off the spoon after the dog. My stomach hurts...

Family Visit - August 6th, 7th

This past weekend we had a visit from Joe, Randi, Rachel, Brian, Tracy and Julie. We had a good time, and Rachel got to meet Chase the Dog - with a little backup from Uncle Chuck.

One of Jill's Students

Someone sent me this picture - and it made me think of Jill's imminent return to academia. I don't know if she's excited, but I'm looking forward to another year of great stories :)

NYC- August 2, 2005

This was our last day in the city and we hadn't yet been "downtown". For breakfast we got ourselves a New York City hotdog. It wasn't very good, but it was part of the experience.

We took the subway downtown to City Hall. We walked over to Ground Zero.

We then walked down to Battery Park where the ferry left to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We went to both of these landmarks.

After our tour, we went to the South Street Seaport for lunch. It was a surprisingly great area. This picture is looking back at the financial district from Pier 17 in the East River.

After lunch we walked around before heading back to the hotel. We had to be at the airport for our 7:00 flight. We boarded on time, but then had to sit on the runway for 2 hours before it was our turn in line to take off! We still were only an hour late getting in.....where did that other hour go?

NYC- August 1, 2005

Our feet began to get tired today so we took a 3 hour cruise around Manhattan Island. It was really neat.

View looking south at Jersey City from the Hudson River. The building on the left is the tallest building in New Jersey - how exciting :)

This is the Staten Island Ferry - seen from the Circle Line boat tour. The ride from Manhattan to and from Staten Island is actually free - we would've tried it but we didn't really have enough time to check it out.

Looking south towards downtown NYC from the East River - the Manhattan Bridge is in the foreground, with the Brooklyn Bridge behind it.

After lunch we rode the subway down to NYU. It was a neat place, when you were on the right side of the park! We sat around this fountain in Washington Park.

We then went and visited Grand Central Station before heading back to our room to get ready for dinner and our 2nd Broadway show, Avenue Q. It was hilarious!

NYC- July 31, 2005- Our 1st Anniversary

We started out our day by going to Central Park. We walked (and walked and walked) all around the park. It was so pretty and quiet. A LOT of people were there since it was a Sunday.



We then celebrated our first anniversary in style! We went out to Yankee Stadium where the Yankees were playing the Angels. It was free hat day (no we didn't buy Yankee hats). The Yankees won 8-7 after 11 innings.


We left the game a little early because it was SO hot. We took the subway back downtown and went to Rockefeller Center. We the walked over to 5th Ave. where all the shopping is. We went inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral and also Trump Tower.


Chuck was in charge of finding a place for us to have dinner that night. We took a cab to Tavern on the Green in Central Park for dinner. It was AMAZING. The atmosphere and the food were both wonderful!



After dinner we went to the Empire State Building. We thought the view at night would be a great ending to our day. However, we had to wait in line for 90 minutes to go up. We got up there, took 1 picture, stayed for about 10 minutes and then left. So, to end our evening we celebrated with pizza and beer.

NYC- July 30, 2005

We left Indianapolis at 5:30 in the morning and arrived in New York at 8:30. We checked in and then headed to get discounted tickets for a Broadway show. They have a stand inTimes Square (and that was only a half a block from our hotel!). We got tickets for the 2:00 matinee performance of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with John Lithgow.

We had some time before the performance so we went and had some New York pizza, made reservations for a comedy show that night and then walked to Bryant park. We even saw The Naked Cowboy!

We went to the 2:00 performance of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The theater ended up being right across the street from our hotel. It was really good. We even got a glimpse of John Lithgow after the show.

We had some dinner and then headed to Caroline's on Broadway (it is a comedy club). Where we got to see The Weasel himself, Pauly Shore, live on stage. It was hands down the best show we had ever seen! He was hilarious. This picture isn't that good, but it is him.

After the show we headed back to Times Square, got some popcorn and then headed back to the hotel (which by the way, was more like a filing cabinet drawer. Maybe 125 square feet).