Chicken Point Cabin

I've had this bookmarked in my favorites folder for a few weeks now. Isn't it amazing? Will be taking a little break next week. See you soon! (Designed by Olson Kundig Architects, photos by Benjamin Benschneider, via Black*Eiffel)

Gold Star

On the last day of school, the boys signed up for the library's summer reading program. Our babysitter has been fantastic about reading with them every day. After each row, they get to bring their charts into the library and claim a prize. My favorite is the clip on tails they got. Yesterday, they finished their reading charts! I'm so proud of them -- especially H, since this chart represents 12 hours of reading. C's chart was a bit different. He got a sticker for each book read to him -- H was the one doing most of the reading to him. For some reason, C was being difficult and didn't want to go to the library. But H got to go pick up his final prize (it's on his head). Great job boys!

Brandi Strickland

Mixed media art by Brandi Strickland. (via Black*Eiffel)

Making Amends

H was sent to his room after farting in the dog's face. Yeah, welcome to my world. Anyhow, next thing you know, this note came sliding under his door. At least he tries.

Angel

I'm telling you, our boys cannot leave the dog alone! C was using Storm's ears as his blankie tonight -- rubbing it between his fingers, and sucking his thumb. Poor guy.

Missing: Tooth #3

Summer Nights

Our friends, Jennifer & Samir, planned this BBQ at least six weeks ago. Crazy storms and flooding in the area were not going to them from hosting, and us from attending. It was quite hot, and I honestly, think it was raining all around us. But where we were sitting, we didn't get more than a drop (we did make it home just in time before it started pouring though). The theme was Meat n' Music. The food was absolutely delicious. And they arranged for Dick Prall to perform, which was just awesome. We had never heard him before, and he was really great. We left around 11:00, and as we walked home, each of us just kind of looked at each other and said, "now that, was a really great night."

Louie's Grill

I've never been to this place before, but the boys have, of course. It was raining all morning, and we haven't been out for breakfast in months (I have no idea why...), so decided to go out to Louie's Grill. My favorite thing was C's short stack pancakes, and I typically don't really like pancakes. They were loaded with butter and really good. H had to be very careful with what he ate. Check out the snaggle tooth!

Finally! Our about-to-be third-grader is losing his front teeth. It's about time. Those things just are just not meant to be in a kid's mouth that long.

Flooding

This is the scene at the end of our street. Major flooding has shut down the highway and the "L" train. Glad to have nowhere to go this weekend!

The Publican with Friends

Our friends Andrea and Chris were in town from San Francisco this week. Brian and Andrea were both were in the fashion department at SAIC together, and we were lucky enough to get to spend an evening with them. We left our kids behind, and went to The Publican for dinner. Always delicious. And it was just awesome getting to spend time with these two amazing people. I miss them already.

Trespassing

I'm just going to put this out there -- I'm not a big fan our new neighbor. I spotted this raccoon on the roof of the house next door, right outside my window, this morning. And it's been there all ... day ... long. I can't find our neighbors, and haven't gotten a call back from Animal Control. I actually think raccoons have the potential to be really cute. But not when they are trying to make their way into our neighbor's attic.

Villa Vals Holiday Retreat

Awhile back, I saw this holiday retreat located near the baths in Vals, Switzerland. The project was designed by SeARCH bv in collaboration with Christian Müller Architects. I love how it just disappears into the ground. And the views aren't too shabby either. By the way, doesn't a little getaway to The Alps sound amazing? (via Hither & Thither, photos via SeARCH)

AIC and Grant Park

Lemonade Stand

Growing up, we had lemonade stands at least once a summer. The funny thing is, we didn't live in an area with a lot of people. Still, we'd sit at the bottom of our subdivision for hours at a time, waiting and waiting for someone to stop by. It was an absolute blast. I'm not sure why, but we've never done one with the boys yet. Our summer babysitter (who is adorable and awesome -- why, oh why, does she have to go back to school?) mentioned having a stand with the boys, and they could not wait. In fact, their lemonade stand went in business the day after she talked about it. It was a perfect summer Friday, and from the sound of it, they had quite a few customers. They even had a fire truck stop by. Talk about two happy kids! (Thanks to Chris for buying some lemonade and taking these great pictures!)

Racine Half Ironman

Brian and I got up bright and early again this weekend for the Racine Half Ironman -- Brian's first Half Ironman ever!
(Bike staging and transition area) This is the first year this event was run by the Ironman organization. Brian and I each did Sprint distances at last year's event, but that was not an option this year, so he decided to just go for it and do the big one. I decided to watch from the side line. I admit -- I was a bit nervous for him. He's been training a little, but nothing like he's done in the past. And a half ironman is quite the event.

(Preparing for the swim) The swim is 1.2 miles in frigid Lake Michigan.

And a very sandy beach finish to even get to the transition area (this is timed as part of the swim). You can see Brian (in the red, way in the back) making his way to his bike.

The bike is a 56 mile course. This was the first athlete to come in. As you can see, he took quite a tumble as he approached the dismount area. I thought all was ok, but unfortunately, I just checked the times, and it looked like he didn't even get to do the run. How sad!

The final leg of the race consists of a 13.1 mile run. By this point in the day, it was blazing hot. Here Craig Alexander, winner of the Racine Half Ironman. He finished with a time of 03:48:56 -- pretty amazing. But then, again, he's kind of on a role -- he's won the Ironman World Championships for two years in a row.

Here comes Brian, who, I'm very happy and proud to report, finished with a time of 6:12:36. I know this was not an easy race for him, and I cannot even fathom the idea of doing this type of event myself. Great job Brian!

Weekend in Racine

We came up to Racine, Wisconsin for the weekend for the Racine Half Ironman. (It was also Salmon-A-Rama this weekend.) The boys were so excited. They got to spend the night at their cousin's and swim all day and night. We hardly saw them at all! They had such a blast.

Farewell Fête

Today, we celebrated the final day of one of our department mates. Tim -- the guy in the middle -- is leaving us after 5.5 years to work with a PR company. Good for him. Bad for us. We don't have much turn-around in our little marketing department, so this is a bit new to us. But we are of course very happy for him, so celebrated by having lunch at State & Lake and drinks on The Roof. Good luck Tim! It's going to be strange not having you as my cubicle neighbor. (I'm pretty sure you won't miss my loud phone conversations though.)

Deer

Last week as we were leaving to come home, four baby deer were frolicking in my parent's front yard. If you look closely, you can see three of them here. And yes, this is their front yard. (You wonder why we try to get up to Wisconsin as much as we can -- it's gorgeous!) The day before, Brian and I were riding our bikes to the lake, and along the way, a baby deer was standing right in the middle the road. Good stuff.

Tourist in My Own City

For the past three days, I've walked around during lunch snapping photos. I had so much fun last week, I thought I'd explore a little bit more. I've lived and worked in Chicago for 16 years. And honestly, I get bored having the same (hectic) routine sometimes. I imagine living all over the world. In the mountains. Near the ocean. Europe. Canada. Australia. Somewhere with less extreme climate conditions. Stopping to take some time and look at things in a different way really help remind me though, what a beautiful city this is.