Best Sunday Evening Walking

Now, you hopefully already know that we cooked Italian food for dinner on Sunday.  After our Italian dinner, it was time for a Sunday Family Walk.

By now you know Ellie, right?

And here we go, into the Oak Park dusklight.

Passing familiar sights, like our neighbor's doggy water fountain (for doggies).

Neighborhood houses.

Earlier on Sunday there had been an amazingly dark and scary storm.  Here Dad presents his theory that this piece of tree came from somewhere in the sky.

Made it to one of Oak Park's main parks, here's our memorial to Oak Parkers who fought in the Great War.

Including one Hemingway E M

Niece Rachel.

Nephew Blake.

Low-energy playground time.

Mom and Dad.

Nephew Walker and Sister Kristen.

And, finally, Brother-in-law Cory.

Indeed.

A message for kids, I suppose.  Actually, a message for everyone.

Day of the Tentacle house?

A favorite Frank Lloyd Wright house.

And Frank Lloyd Wright's house.

Can you guess who grew up here?  Hint: He was mentioned earlier and he wasn't Frank Lloyd Wright.

Okay, one more clue: Read this plaque.

Houses were bulldozed and rebuilt and hammered together over giant pits to build this home.

Looped back, just a block from home now.  Let's call it a post!

Best Nephews and Nieces and Nieces and Nephews, pt. 1

Do you know what this picture means?  It means flying into O'Hare from New York.  Chicago's North Shore.  You can see the Baha'i Temple there in the middle on the right.  This is the first of several "I Went Home for the 4th of July to be With My Family" posts.  Do you know those blogs where people post tons and tons of pictures of their adorable nieces and nephews?  This is about to be one of those kinds of blogs (again) for a few days.

But I'll start you off easy with my brother Owen, also in town for the holiday.

But there's Rachel!

And Blake and my dad.

And Ellie!

And Rachel!  Again!

And there's Mom with Dad.

If you've ever read a post about me going home to Chicago before then you probably can tell we were all meeting up at Las Fuentes, my family's go to favorite restaurant (I don't even have to qualify that with "Mexican" anymore).

Rachel was killin down at her end of the table.

And wait . . . what's this?  Another baby?  Who does this baby belong to?  Ahem, sorry.  "To whom does this baby belong?"

Why it's young Sam of the Mulcock clan.

They'd come all the way down from Evanston to wish my mom a Happy Birthday . . . that's right, this wasn't just any old dinner get together at Las Fuentes.  It was a birthday dinner get together!

Just showing off, not about to give himself a haircut.

And now, what have we here?  What are my nieces so captivated with?

Oh nothing but Jeff's famous dance moves.  He can even dance holding a baby, nothing stops him.  In fact, you might argue the baby enhances his moves.

Like pop, like son.  Max shows off his sick moves and endless dance enthusiasm.

Our table, post chowing.

Las Fuentes sombrero, I'd never even seen you before.  This is truly a restaurant of innumerable wonders!

Insert Here: Being at home, celebrating Mom's birthday, opening presents and stuff.

The next morning I came downstairs to find my nephew Rocko eating grapes.

But more developed palates were headed downtown to the Bongo Room for breakfast.  Here Dad provides for the family by paying the parking.

Then skips off with Ellie.

We were early enough to get to wait outside of the restaurant before it opened.

Planes flying low, back and forth, over and over.

Owen's buddy Jeramy came up to visit from Indianapolis for the weekend, too. (visit his blog for an advance look at a lot of the stuff I'll be blogging this week)

The doors open!

Waiting can be frustrating.

And waiting can be fun!

Or waiting can just be patient and well-behaved.

The Bongo Room does not offer crayons, but they do have creamers for stacking.

Look!  My sister Emily.  She was there too, of course.  And Cory, but I haven't had any pictures of him yet.  Don't worry!  He's coming!

At last, Ellie and her Chocolate Tower French Toast.

It's tough news to hear you'll be sharing with your sister.

Also on the table?  These raspberry Oreo pancakes.

And my BLT Eggs Benedict (and a bunch of other stuff, not photographed, too).  The Bongo Room always puts on such an impressive breakfast show.  I hear they make a wonderful lunchtime sandwich, but I'm afraid tradition might keep me from ever learning about that myself.

Walking back to the car past the Jewel Osco, I just want to congratulate Diana and Geraldine myself.

And, for now, why don't we end this post with a . . . 

HILARIOUS, right?!

Best I Haven't Been Able to Post Much

I guess my mind has just been somewhere else all week. I think I'm still reeling from the news. But imagine my situation! I was on a plane about to depart LGA for ORD when someone announced that Tom and Katie were getting divorced ... and then that was it, two hours of information silence. I arrive in Chicago to a flurry of texts and voicemails, the world had been turned on its head while I was in the air. Kind of reminded me of how I was on a plane when Bin Laden was shot. Except the pilot of this flight didn't keep us updated on the breaking news. I couldn't help but think of how happy and normal they seemed when we met last fall. (this video, I took it. I am the cameraman.)

Sometimes I wish I could just go back to simpler times. I guess we all do that, every now and then.