Birthday and anniversary weekend

It was a holiday weekend for us. Jack and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary and I had another birthday. 

It started off Friday night with dinner with Chuck and Teri, our annual anniversary and usually one or two birthday(s) celebration. I think we have been doing it pretty much every year since 1986. Somewhere I have pictures from almost all of those years. It'd be great if I could find them and organize them sequentially. I did not get a picture this year, though Teri did ask someone to take our picture. It wasn't the best shot because we were sitting in (as Chuck called them) kindergarten chairs. Anyway, this year Chuck and Teri treated us to dinner at a restaurant named Travelle, in the Langham Hotel. It was a super fun night. We always have interesting conversations, with more topics than time to cover them. I really treasure these times together. 

Jack and I spent the rest of the weekend at the Union League Club. We were planning on staying just Friday night, but on Saturday morning, I suggested we stay another night. Yes I did. I am such a homebody and so frugal that it rarely happens that I throw caution to the wind like that and suggest we extend our stay. Good for me! I was pretty proud of myself. We ended up having dinner at Twin Anchors, a restaurant for which we had heard many rave reviews. Afterward, we took a walk through Old Town, then ubered it over to the Gold Coast, where we enjoyed a lovely bottle of champagne at the Ritz lobby bar. We had had a drink there on our first date back in 1982. It was the perfect opportunity to people watch and relax and contemplate all of our many blessings. 

selfie in the elevator at the Ritz

selfie in the Main Dining Room at the Club, 33 years to the day!

Summer Wednesday

I love my summer schedule and having some flexibility and open time during the day. I sometimes spin my wheels trying to figure out what I am going to do with my unstructured time and end up doing nothing of any importance.
Not today!
For today, I made plans to meet Jenny for breakfast. Since Susie died, we haven't really been in the mood to go out for a sister lunch. We all loved those times together. They were so special and always included a picture of the three of us. Suz wanted to see the sister picture up on Facebook within hours of our lunch date. Makes me smile to think about that. Jenny and I talk pretty much everyday, often while I am on my way to work and only for 10 minutes or so, but we get into some deep conversations during those short calls. Yesterday I texted Jen to see if she wanted to grab breakfast or lunch and we decided to meet at Egg Harbor at Yorktown. It was a great way to start the day and we left wondering why the heck we don't do things together more often. We did not take a picture, though.  Fail.
After breakfast, I went into work for a little while. I am assigned to three evals tomorrow and I wanted to preview the files. That was productive, but I was done by 11am with unstructured day ahead of me. I decided to call Sally and offer to watch Ellie while she got some stuff done. Sally said yes and I headed over to her house after lunch.
Ellie is growing so fast!! It is amazing to witness. She is crawling all over, pulling to stand, babbling, laughing, demonstrating object permanence and joint attention. Wow. Just wow.
Because Ellie is so mobile now, I decided to put her in her crib while I was in the bathroom. I came out and there was Otto, laying in the nursery doorway. I think he was protecting her! So sweet.

While I was writing this post, we had a storm pass through, followed by some brilliant lighting. Sally called to see if we had a rainbow. Jack and I went outside and there it was, the most glorious rainbow!

No one loved a rainbow more than Suz. Gives me great comfort to think she was watching over us and watching us enjoy this sign of God's covenant.

A different sort of Fourth of July

Our family is known for our love of traditions. We have lots of them. One of our favorite traditions is the Fourth of July parade in our town. Jack and I had not missed one in 29 years. I love that we have traditions, but I also love that we are flexible and know what our priorities should be. We missed it this year for a great reason. We wanted to spend time with Jack's dad.
I met Jack down in Florida on Sunday, July 3rd. We were able to see fireworks this year as Jack's brother Paul invited us to watch them from his condo. It was a great display and the local radio station played patriotic music that was synced with the fireworks. Paul provided snacks and some drinks and it was a lovely way to celebrate our country's birth.

fireworks reflected in the lake

Jack and our host, Paul

Our week with Bucky was fun, meaningful and productive. There is something so special about spending ordinary moments with family. We had fun planning out meals. As soon as we finished breakfast, my question was always,"What are we going to have for lunch?!".  Of course! Jack's dad's condo has a fabulous view of a lake and is also just two blocks from a darling downtown area that has lots of shopping and great restaurants. So fun. Each night we enjoyed the sunset and the beautiful cloud formations and great conversation.

the view from our table everyday

love the lighting

cheers to another great breakfast!

I wouldn't trade our time together last week for anything- not even a parade.