A Joyful Occasion

Andrew and I were so blessed to be able to join our friends at the courthouse for the finalization of the adoption of their adorable little boy. Between family and church family, we filled the room, to the point that there were people standing in the aisle and the doorway! It was such an awesome amount of support.

All I had with me was the camera on my phone, so I had to steal some pictures from a friend.

The happy family after he is officially their son. 

Afterward, we all headed back to church for a celebratory lunch. It all looked so cute.

It's such a reminder of God's love and his adoption of us into His family. We are so glad that we could be there to witness this adoption, and are so blessed to call them our friends. 

1 John 3:1 - "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."

New Toy

Last month it was this little guys birthday. Oliver is 7 now. 

We...okay, okay, it was me! I wanted to get him something for his birthday. Everyone should celebrate their birthday, right? The problem was, what to get him. He already has a cute little jar of treats that his Aunt Nikki made for him, which he loves, by the way. He knows the sound of that lid coming off. 

So, on our usual Thursday grocery run, we stopped to look at the cat toys. They had all the usual suspects: cat nip, balls, things on sticks. He has all those, and, lets be honest, doesn't really play with them that much. 

Then Andrew spotted it. The perfect gift for Oliver. The laser pointer. 

This is now the norm. Bedtime comes around and Oliver knows that the laser pointer will be coming out. Andrew plays with him until he just can't move and then we all sleep. 

We had been having problems with Oliver running from one end of the house to the other, almost every night at top speed. Since the laser pointer, we do not have that problem. He collapses and is quiet all night. 

Whoever invented the laser pointer....

I thank you.

Cats and the bathroom

Really, what is it with cats? I am not allowed to go to the bathroom alone. Oliver runs ahead of me so I don't shut him out and then sits there on the rug, waiting for me. I just don't get it. The bathroom isn't usually a wonderful, magical place to be, right? And cats don't generally do things just to be near to you, at least Oliver doesn't. So what is it with the bathroom? Can anyone tell me, because I am honestly curious.

Critters

About once a week I have to work the early shift. That means getting up at 2:30am to get to work by 3:30. Being up that early isn't fun, but I am usually done with work by noon and have the rest of my day (to nap, normally!).

Every so often, though, I do get to see things that people that work normal hours don't. 

One morning, I went to leave the house and met an opossum on our front deck. We chatted a little bit, agreed to leave each other alone, and went our separate ways. 

We seem to have a number of bunnies that live around my work. 

Isn't he cute? His fur looks so soft!

The other morning, very early in the morning, I found this little guy hanging outside the window by my laundry room.

He was so small and content to just sit there and wait for his next meal to come around. 

You never know what you might see when you are up and about when most of the city is still asleep!

To the park!

Andrew and I had planned to have a little date night picnic at the park. The weather Friday was perfect, so we gathered everything up and headed out. 

The park we went to is right on the river and is one that we frequented before we moved to our current apartment. We would walk from Andrew's apartment to the park and then the 2-3 miles through the park. It is a great place to hang out. 

While Andrew was getting the brats going on the grill I was basking in the peaceful setting of the river. Isn't it great?

And, this is what you resort to when you realize that you have everything you need except the hot dog buns. Oops!

There are a lot of ducks by the river. These two were just hanging out on the log, although I frightened the one when I stepped on some sticks!

After putting away all the dinner fixings, we started walking. We very quickly came upon lots of geese. It's hard to see, but there are quite a number of them in this picture.

There were even a bunch of babies.

The mama's are protective, but I was able to get that close without them making a fuss. They were so cute!

We walked over a bridge at one point and saw a little duck family.

It was a great walk, with ice cream to finish off the night. I think we will be heading back again soon. Why don't you all come join us? 

Chicago!!

Andrew had a conference he was attending last week in Chicago, so I got to tag along. We stayed at the Westin Chicago River North. It is a very nice hotel right on the river. We were on the 3rd floor. We even had a little view of the river.

Here is a pic of our room. Ignore the clutter on the bed!

We both loved this shower head, but aren't the tiles a little crazy?

We got there Monday afternoon. After getting settled in, we headed out to get dinner. There was only one option.

We ordered online so that when we got there it would be ready for us to take back to our room. We did make a pit stop along the way, though.

We got a red velvet cake cheesecake. Sorry, we ate it before I thought to take a picture. It was really good!

Tuesday night we headed to The Billy Goat Tavern for dinner. It was part of an SNL skit with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. I tried to find the skit on youtube, but it wasn't to be found. 

We were leaving Wednesday, so while he was listening to a talk, I checked us out and headed to the back patio to watch the boats on the river before lunch. We ate lunch out there and got to see this.

It took them a while to get through. Every bridge had to be raised and lowered one at a time and there are a lot of those bridges to go through! We enjoyed watching them, though. 

We had a nice little stay. We plan on going back this summer so we can do some vacation things during the day. You know, walk through Millennium Park, visit the Field Museum. But, for now we are back home and glad to be. We love to visit Chicago, it's become our yearly vacation spot, but we are always glad to leave the chaos behind!