reLAKEation

we had an amazing time this past weekend.  we spent friday night in the 'burbs with our friends kim & mike eating pizza and drinking too much wine.  we also taught kim how to play euchre.  she loved it!  although, i think mike loves us more for [finally!] teaching her how to play.

on saturday morning we drove up to wisconsin to relax on pewaukee lake.  we've spent a lot of weekends there this summer and truly enjoy every minute of it.  [thank you, becca!]  we then headed up to madison on sunday afternoon to cheer on a few friends who participated in the ironman.  talk about an inspiring event to watch.  we're pretty proud folks over here.

 




































*ironman photos courtesy of kimberly cowie

going away gathering

some of favorites hosted a little going away gathering for us at belmont harbor this weekend.  talk about amazing weather and fantastic city views!  we ate, drank and were merry until the harbor closed.  no tears... yet... but another great night in chicago, which makes the thought of leaving this amazing city so much harder.  luckily, we received a lot of requests (wine induced? lets hope not!) to come visit.  friends, you're welcome anytime!  also, *special thanks* to mary & mike for organizing this fun night!

we're homeowners!

yes, you heard right!  we bought a house in dayton!  first, we apologize for being MIA (on this blog) for the last couple weeks.  we were involved in the semi-stressful roller coaster, yet fun (we loved negotiating!) of buying our first home. second, we're so excited for this new space.  as carrie says in sex and the city (the movie), "just a simple home for two" ... we couldn't agree more!  we move in three weeks from today.  crazy, huh?  we can't believe it either.  it hasn't sunk in just yet, so in the meantime we're going to enjoy these final weeks with our favorites in chicago!

house hunting

we were in dayton all weekend looking for a place to live.  between a few rental properties and A LOT of homes (to purchase), we had plenty to choose from.  it was fun, frustrating, exciting and overwhelming all rolled into one.  fortunately, we have a great realtor and amazing friends to show us around & share advice.  no news to report yet where we're going to live, but we'll keep in touch here.  when not trekking through other peoples homes, we had fun going to a dayton dragons baseball game, eating apple pancakes the size of our heads and visiting little elaine! cutest. baby. ever.

drive to dayton

we're headed to dayton today to look at apartments & houses.  yes, houses...we may buy!  cole has never been to dayton, so my fingers are tightly crossed that he loves it.  well, maybe just really likes it.  the love will come as we make our soon-to-be humble abode a home-sweet-home.  wish us luck!       

golden weekend

it was all glitz, glam & gold this weekend as the olympics kicked off (USA! USA! USA!), my mom came to the city for a "spa day" saturday, one of our favorites, becca, celebrated her golden birthday, as well as a day trip on sunday to our dearest friends, kim & mike, lake house.  we're all "go-go-go!" these days as we want to get everything in before we leave!  by sunday evening, we were pooped.  we enjoyed a wendy's frosty and some gymnastics on tv before calling it night.  hope your weekend was busy fun too!

[by the way, when i say becca (aka B$) celebrated her golden birthday, she celebrated her GOLDen birthday.  everything and everyone was dressed to the nines in gold!  it was amazing!]

coffee & tea

i met up with one of my greatest friends, jen, this afternoon for coffee & tea.  i see and chat with jen all the time during the week, but it was this little, unplanned visit that really made my day.  i was also spoiled to get to see her again only a few hours later.  dang, i'm lucky.  thanks for always being awesome, jpec.      

b is for becca, bumper & bowling

our dear friend becca is celebrating her golden birthday this upcoming weekend.  [yay for 29!]  i got the opportunity to help her pick out some party supplies last week.  the theme is gold so it was fun to hunt down all things gold in the store ... especially these amazing $$ glasses.  for those that don't know, becca goes by the nickname B$ so these were more than fitting.  we can't wait to her help celebrate!

on a more frustrating note, our pretty little new car had its first accident.  i always thought cole would make the first scratch [did i say that out loud?], but it was me who put the mark on the bumper.  it'll be fine after a little elbow grease, but still makes me mad.  grrr!

and now for more fun stuff!  over the weekend went bowling with one of our favorite couples - the cowie's!  oh man, they're great.  as for their bowling skills, eh.  i kid ... kind of.  overall, it was a great time.  [below is a pic of us on the bus en route to the bowling alley.  such dorks.]  oh, and if you're curious, yours truly had the highest score of the night!  145, baby!  b is for BOOM!

oh, we worked for the weekend

it was busy at work this past week due to an office move, team members visiting and the overall day-to-day that keeps me on my toes.  cole had a similar experience, so friday ended with us falling asleep before 10pm.  [best. sleep. ever.]  we had a jam-packed weekend once we woke up the next morning as softball games, brunch*, a bbq and a trip to the beach kept us occupied both saturday & sunday.  unfortunately, we got caught in a bad storm while at the beach.  see the storms rolling in below!

*we had brunch at revolution brewery.  i shared the egg's benedict and french toast with cole's sister.  cole had the biscuits & gravy, as did his brother-n-law.  sadly, no pics...we ate it all too quickly!

i knew i'd be bad at this

lets see, over two weeks have gone by and we haven't made any updates?! that's because we're too busy having fun with our family & friends! we spent the 4th of july camping at turkey run in indiana ... wait ... i lied. we TRIED camping. it was us and 5 of our friends and just sweat the whole time due to the extreme heat. after doing the lazy river on day 2, [and boy, do i mean lazy. the water was so low it took almost 4 hours to complete!] we made the executive decision to drive to our friends lake house instead. best. decision. even. hope to head up to that lake many more times this summer!   

there's a first for everything

this is our first blog and with it comes our first blog post.  after learning yesterday i [adina] will be relocating to dayton, ohio for work [cole is coming too!], we felt it was fitting to start a blog to journey our remaining 3 months in chicago, as well as share the memories we make in the buckeye state once we arrive.  we're both excited for the opportunities ahead of us, yet are going to miss our family & friends dearly we're "leaving" behind.  please enjoy the posts & photos as we chronicle our little adventures.