We took Hannah and Mara to their first Cubs game.  It was a lot of fun and they both did really well.  We also went to the Chicago Art Institute which is incredible.  I only wish we had more time the day we went to see it all.

I just discovered three outdoor racquetball, handball courts just off of Ogden Avenue in LaGrange.  They are in pretty good shape and used quite a bit for handball.  I am looking for some people interested in playing racquetball.  Let me know if you want to play.  Contact me here.  Or if you have any information on when racquetball players come down to the court, let me know as well.  –Aaron

Bryan and I took a little pheasant hunting trip down to Morris, Il at Erienna Hunt Club.  It was lightly snow.  Cinder and Nadia both came.  Bryan is planning on bringing his little dog, Bailey on the next trip.  Enjoy the photos.  The apparently posed shot of Bryan aiming up in the air is when one of the pheasants flew up into the tree.  They are easy to hit when they aren’t moving.  Brian is shown holding is first bird ever in the first photo.  He looks so proud.  We came home with 6 and let a few fly away.

Here are a few photos and a short video of the 2009 Chicago Marathon. My time was 4:22. A good race all in all. It started out about 30 degrees and warmed up to the high 40′s toward the time I finished. My dad, Bryan Scheffers, and Craig Barton ran it too. My mom, Ashlee, and Hannah were all dedicated spectators.

Yesterday, Andrew, my Dad, and I went to play one of the most fun golf courses I have ever been on.  Chamber’s Bay is an incredibly challenging links type golf course along the Puget Sound.  It was a beautiful day except for three holes where we had to endure a terrential downpour that culminated in Andrew throwing his driver about 60 yards, but still managed to hit a decent shot.  Notice Andrew is in shorts and a T-shirt.  I won’t give out our scores here but… we lost about a dozen balls between the 3 of us, some of them only feet off the fairway in some really deep rough.  We had to play some balls out of “pot bunkers” which are these really deep holes that can be hundreds of yards from the green and there is nothing you can do but hit a little wedge out.  We all highly recommend the course but make sure you go when they have a discount price.  Enjoy the photos and more are linked.

Dad at the beach (we were all in the same situation at some point in the round).

View from the fifth hole.

Nick, my cousin, hit the pheasant preserve for his first trip with his new gun.  We took Cinder and Nadia and let them do their thing.  Nick dropped three birds with one shot a piece, pretty impressive since he only made it to the trap range once with his new gun.  After a pretty succesful day, 4 birds and only two fly aways, one of which definitely got hit and was going down, but managed to do so out of our reach.  After a day in the field, we hit the lodge up for some beers.  While we were standing around waiting for the birds to be cleaned we ran into the hunters in the field next to us.  They asked, “Who was shooting the cannon?”  To which I replied, “This guy,” while pointing at Nick.  Quite funny at the time.  We were both shooting the same shells but something about his gun just makes it loud.  Enjoy the photos and our video.

Nick with Nadia and his first pheasant.

Yesterday evening we flew back to Washington. We must have been quite a sight. It was myself, Ashlee, Hannah, the two dogs, their crates, our bags, and most obvious of all a big silver case. As I stepped to the counter with my posey, I boldly stated, “I have gun.” Then we really got some attention and we were promptly checked in and through security and attracted even more attention. Hannah was even feeling a little feisty and decided she want to fly like a big girl.

Nadia, Cinder, and I spent spent Saturday afternoon hunting pheasant. It was all three of our first time out and it was a lot of fun. I went to a hunt club that is open to public. They released four birds for me into a one acre field planted with what I think is called grain sorghum. It was very thick cover (it thins out by the middle of November), but Nadia and Cinder still managed to find and flush all the birds. We faced a few difficulties; my lack of shooting skill coupled with fact that my dogs are going to flush the pheasant whether I am ready or not, and Nadia couldn’t see over the plants to find the birds, but if I could spot the general area she would go fetch it up for me. We came home with 2 out 4 birds. One got away and another flew over some trees into a neighboring field and went down, but it would have been unsafe to retrieve because there were hunters there too. We had an awesome day though. Invitations are open to all for duck or pheasant.