Chris and I have been playing this golf tournament every year for the past seven years.  We have come close to winning a couple times, but never did it.  That all changed with our all-star team this year.  It was myself, Bryan Scheffers, Chris Flinn, and Zach Flinn.  We shot a 59, it was a four man scramble.  It felt good to shoot like Phil or Tiger (from last year).  Enjoy the photos.  Zach and Bryan were hitting puts like crazy and this really put us over the edge.  Chris and I hit the long ball well a couple times.  It was really an equal effort this year.

Now that the weather is getting nice again.  It is time for some weekend parties with the neighbors.  Here a couple photos from our first 2.  We celebrated Bryan’s birthday at the first one and then played some Settler’s of Catan with the Knights and Cities expansion.  It was super fun.  Enjoy the photos.

We went to a restaurant in Oak Park called Poor Phil’s. It is normally delicious with a great beer selection and some really good specials. There current special is a Maine lobster for $9.99. Not only was it cheap, it was delicious as well. I hope this one lasts for awhile. We went with Michelle and Michael to celebrate a successful tie between Nadia and Nitro. Enjoy the fun video and for you locals, check it out.
▶
YouTube - Lobster Dinner

There is a slight change happening at the pacers. Some of the posts are only going to be visible to friends and family. In order to view them you will have to log in. The login area will be on the top left corner. I went ahead and created users for everyone who is subscribed to the blog right now. You will get emailed a password and can login and change it at that point. Once you login there will be a link that says profile in the login area. If you click that you will be taken to a screen where you can change your password. Don’t forget to click update settings at the bottom.

For those of you who read this but do not have accounts you will be able to see some stuff, but I am going to be blocking out lots of the posts for people who are not logged in. It is easy to register so please do it and log in. The page will look the same, but certain posts visibility will change depending on your login status, so check to make sure you are logged in.

You will have to be logged in to see most of the posts from now on.

We did the Wendella boats architecture and Lake Michigan cruise last weekend when Ryan and Amber and their new baby Ruby were in town.  The best thing about it was that we all got on for free and the tickets were normally $23 each.  The building shown is the Trump tower.  It is really a nice addition to the skyline.  Video too.

▶
YouTube - Architecture Cruise

Hannah’s favorite neighbor turned one this past weekend.  All the babies in attendance are below.  Enjoy.

Aaron’s alma mater, Occidental College, had an alumni volunteer event at the Shedd Aquarium on Sunday and Hannah and I got to join the fun.  The plan was that Aaron and the other alumni were going to plant some flowers outside, while Hannah and I enjoyed the aquarium.  (Volunteers had to be over 11.)  But…the weather had been bad that morning so the lady from the aquarium decided not to show, even though all the Oxy people braved the weather. Funny, 3 of the 4 alums that showed up were chemistry majors.  Therefore, the Oxy Alumni got to party with Hannah and me in the aquarium, FOR FREE. The Oxy people got to recruit Hannah for the class of 2030.  We had a great time.  The best part of the Shedd was closed due to construction, so they had the dolphin trainers train some “shelter” dogs.  Hannah was so excited to see doggies at the aquarium.  Hannah was  happy that her daddy was able to join us because I had been telling her that it was going to just be mommy and Hannah.  If you are ever in Chicago make sure you visit the Shedd Aquarium.  Enjoy the photos and click them for the rest of the gallery.

Hannah looking at the rays.

Cynthia '84, Tom '82, Ashlee, Aaron '03, Hannah 2031, and Hailey '04

Three happy families!

This weekend, Ashlee and I had the chance to visit Grand Rapids, Michigan for Amber Cox’s baby shower. We carpooled the three hour drive with the Scheffers, during which we had deep conversations about the future of the American in between bites of Dairy Queen blizzards and yelps from Hannah.  Hannah was in her car seat sleeping most of the way with her hands up behind her head.  She did wake up for about the last 10 minutes while we were finding our way around GR, and she was not happy.  Bryan and Michelle were cuddled up very tight in the back seat of the truck since Hannah’s car seat takes up a lot of space. We had a late night Friday catching up. Saturday morning started out with a very gooey pile of oatmeal. The ratios got off when we didn’t thoroughly read the directions and tried to compensate.

Bryan prepping his breakfast.

After breakfast the men got ready to go for a bike ride and tour of the city. The ladies went shopping and then to the baby shower. I will have to let Ashlee, Michelle, or Amber fill you in on the details of this. I got to see most of the city in which I was quite impressed. Ryan lead us to a 20 mile paved trail for our bike ride. Things started off great, we had a little tail wind and were feeling fresh. However, at the 20 mile point (when we had to turn around) things started going bad fast. Bryan was still feeling pretty good and took most of the wind while Ryan and I drafted as much as we could. At the 30 mile mark we all collapsed and had to bring the intensity way back. About 2 mile before the end I had to stop and work a cramp out of my hamstring and Ryan staved off a calf cramp with some serious moaning. Eventually we finished and had a pretty decent ride considering it was the first hard one of the year. After that we drove straight for Yesterdog, a restaurant that despite its location in a super liberal part of town actually had some pretty delicious hot dogs. We were so hungry that we risked running out of gas in order to eat before we filled up.

We were starving after our bike ride!

We eventually made it home without running out of gas. After about 2 hours of pure laziness, the girls got home and we started making dinner which I must say turned out delicious. Check out the video for some added hilarity.  Hannah kept us entertained as well and handed out the kisses a little to freely if you ask me.  I am going to have to work on that with her before she gets much older.

Hannah and the guys.

Time to eat some delicious BBQ.