April 2014 - a bachelorette party in our city

After a quiet few months to begin 2014, we did quite a bit in April!  Katie started a new job on April 15th.  After commuting out to suburbs for 9 months, a good opportunity came along for her as a financial reporting manager at CDW, which is located downtown.  Her previous role was a small company and her position had many mixed responsibilities including approving invoices, reviewing journal entries, closing the books and to a lesser extent financial reporting, so she was excited to find an opportunity at a big company doing only financial reporting.  For those of you that havn't heard of CDW, they sell computers, printers and everything IT related to large and small companies, the government and schools and hospitals.  Katie's dad likes to tell people that she now works for Charles Barkley, because he is their spokesperson and does all the commercials.

The weekend right before starting my new job, I had a fun weekend planned for my friend Shannon's bachelorette party.  Charlie and Brady drove down to Cincinnati to stay with Grandma Leslie.
Several of the Labrynth girls came into town for it, including Ashley, LisaB, Sarah, and LisaW and all stayed with me in our apartment on Damen Ave.  Rachel and Kate who live in Chicago came out for all festivities as well.  Friday evening, we kept it fairly quiet and just went for pizza and drinks at a place called Homeslice in Lincoln Park.

Saturday, we had a very busy day planned.  In the morning we all met for a big breakfast at Eggsperience, next we had nail appointments at a small day spa called Spa Emilia in the Gold Coast, and then at 1:30 we had reservations at The Drake for "Afternoon Tea".  Since Shannon had recently moved back from London , it seemed like a very fitting thing to do and she had always wanted to go to the Afternoon Tea at The Drake.  The tea is held in the Palm Court of The Drake Hotel and has been a long tradition in Chicago, set in a gorgeous dining room we all sipped on teas and had mini finger sandwiches and scones.

Afterwords, we walked along Michigan Avenue for a bit and then headed back to my apartment for naps and to get ready for the evening.

We had dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant downtown in the River North district called DaVanti Enoteca.  There were 8 of us girls, and Dominick (Shannon's husband/fiance) came to dinner.  Since most of us hadn't met Dominick yet, I planned a "newly wed" game with questions for him and Shannon and each time they answered a question wrong, they had to take a drink.  It was a lot of fun getting to know their relationship more from this game with questions like where was their first date, what was Shannon wearing on their first date, what are their favorite foods, etc.

After dinner, Dominick went home, but the night was still young for the us girls.  We bar hopped along in the River North disrict and eventually ended up at Howl at the Moon , a dueling Piano bar, which is one of my favorites.  Katie even got the piano players to play the Darlin' Song at the very end of the night.

It was such a fun weekend to celebrate my friend's wedding!

November 2013

We are practically a whole year behind on this blog, but we are going to try to get caught up since we have done all these fun things with Brady and our family - and it will be nice to document it.  We'll try to do most of these posts by month.  This one is for November.

On the weekend of November 9th, we went back to Columbus for a wedding with some KPMG Columbus friends.  One of Charlie's old bosses, Mike, was getting married and it was a blast because our entire old KPMG crew was there.   Katie's parents came up to Chicago to stay with Brady and Griffey.  I wish we had some pictures from this night, but unfortunately we couldn't only find this one.

The next weekend - November 16th - Charlie's parents came up and got us all tickets to the Northwestern vs. Michigan football game.  We got a babysitter for Brady and the 4 of us took the "El" up to Evanston for the game.

All I remember is the weather turned very cold and rainy and it was a close but ugly game.  Charlie had to help with the recap - but basically, we basically neither team got close to scoring a touchdown and Michigan kicked a field goal as time expired to tie the game 9-9.  That meant overtime.  Katie (and even Michigan graduate Leslie!) were really just hoping that the game didn't go into overtime so that we could get out of the rain.  But overtime turned out to be very exciting, and Michigan ended up winning 27-19 in triple overtime!  It was an interesting experience - there were as many Michigan fans there as Northwestern fans, which is about what Charlie remembered from the time he went to an Ohio State game in Evanston.

On the way back, there were a lot of people getting on the El and somehow we lost Tom.   He got stuck behind a group of people and didn't make it on the same train as us.   Luckily, he found his way back home, but we were worried about him for a while.

Visit from Sarah and John - Nov 2nd

We are going way back in time to last fall for this blog post to catch up and document a very fun weekend.  Last November 2nd weekend, our good friends Sarah and John came to stay with us.  Katie and Sarah were roommates for many years before we both got married.  They came in on Friday while we were both at work and walked around Chicago till we got home from work.  One of Sarah's friends from Vet school worked at the Shedd Aquarium so she got us all tickets for Saturday.  This was our first time to the Aquarium and we had a great time.  Brady had just learned walk a few weeks ago so he was loving exploring the Aquarium from a new vantage point.  He loved the penguins and sting-rays and the dolphin show.

(we were still doing some knee walking though at this point :)

Afterwords, we went back to the apartment to take naps and watch the Ohio State game.   Saturday evening, we got a babysitter so that we could have an adults night out in Roscoe Village.  We had a big group for dinner at Piazza Bella , which is a great italian place just a few blocks from our place.  Our other college girlfriends, Kate and Rachel came and one of Sarah's sorority sisters came too.  After dinner we went to the Village Tap bar across the street where one of Kate's friends was having a birthday party.  Great bar with a really good beer list, including a Creme Brulee beer.  We didn't stay out as late as we used to since we had to get back for the babysitter, but we had a great time catching up on old times.

Learning to walk and Halloween

There seems to always be a theme to our blog, we are always trying to get caught up.

Brady is quite a pro at walking and running now so it seems so strange to think back to the fall of last year when we never thought he was going to get over the "knee walking".  For the longest time, he figured out that he could get places pretty quickly and didn't have to deal with the potential of falling by just walking on his knees.  It was pretty funny.  Thankfully though he gradually started showing interest in standing and took some steps while holding onto things in October (14 months old) and then on Wednesday night October 23rd after work, he decided to take the plunge and walk across the room without holding on to anything.  It was amazing.  We were both so excited for him and we could tell that he was so proud of himself.

First came the "knee walking".....

Then we took our first real steps.....

The following weekend was the weekend right before Halloween, so we had a baby halloween party at our place.  We had several of our friends over that have kids all near Brady's age and showed off their costumes.  It was adorable to watch, but the kids were not too pleased with our idea to line them all up on the couch.

Griffey even had a date for the party (Kirby, which is Kris and Tina and baby Tessa's dog) but was really embarrassed by his costume... 

And then the next day, Roscoe Village had their annual Kids Halloween Parade, where they basically block off the streets and everyone marches down the street a few block in their costumes and the local businesses hand out candy.  The parade was only a block away from our place, so we dressed Griffey up in his police dog shirt and all walked over.  Griffey seemed to like the attention and Brady enjoyed practicing his new walking skills.

Bears game with Jason and Brian

The weekend after Labor Day my (Charlie) friend Brian came into Chicago.  Brian and Jason are my two best friends from high school, and we try once a year to get together in one of our cities.  It doesn't work out every year, but this year me and Jason are now both living in Chicago - so only Brian has to travel to make it happen these days.  And the Bengals were playing at Soldier Field this year, so it seemed perfect.

Brian came into town the weekend of September 7-8.  I was in the midst of marathon training at this point, so I couldn't do anything Friday night, and Saturday I ran 18 miles (which is the 2nd longest training run I'd do).  Saturday was Wrigley Field for a Cubs game, which was interesting trying to walk around after running so much that morning.  We met at Lucky's Sandwich Company on Clark Street for lunch right before heading to the Wrigley Field Bleachers.

The Bleachers are always fun - seats are first come, first served.  We played the famous "dollar game" where you pass around an empty beer cup and put in a dollar when the player makes an out, take a dollar if your guy gets a hit, and take the whole pot if your player hits a homer.  We also ran into a bunch of my college friends who happened to be sitting right behind us in the bleachers - a bunch of guys a year younger were out for a bachelor party.  We hit up the bar scene around Wrigley after the game (Deuce's and Kirkwood's were the specific bars we went to), but went home at a somewhat decent hour to be ready for Sunday.

We went to my friend Jay's tailgate before the game.  Katie didn't go to the game (tickets were pretty expensive), but did get a baby sitter so she could come down to the tailgate.

Jay and his wife Kali were the couple who got married at the Bears game last year, so we felt like we were kind of hanging out at their altar!  Brady is about the same age as their son Bobby.  Someday they will probably duke it out over a Bengals Bears game!  We were conscious of the fact that we were the visiting fans and didn't talk too much trash about the game.  But I thought the Bengals had a really good shot to win.  It was a great game, but the Bengals turned to the Bungles with too many turnovers.  They were winning most of the game, but lost it in the 4th quarter, 24-21.

Still, it was fun to hang out with Jason and Brian - kind of like old times back in Cincy!

Labor Day with Aunt Abby & Grandma Leslie

For Labor Day weekend, we were very excited that Doctor Aunt Abby got the entire weekend off from her surgery residency. Her and Grandma Leslie decided to come visit us.  We spent most of the weekend just hanging out around the apartment and getting some more things organized.  Abby went to town and put together 2 shelves for storage for Brady's toys, 1 shelf for Charlie's baseball card closet and a new desk chair.  And Grandma Leslie kept Brady very entertained while we got several things done around the house.  Brady even chipped in where he could!

Saturday evening we all went to dinner at one of the walkable restaurants in Roscoe Village called John's Place.  Charlie's friend from high school, Jason and his girlfriend Sandy came up for dinner and of course Brady was at the head of the table keeping everyone very entertained.  Abby and Leslie put Brady to bed, and we went for a drink with Jason and Sandy to Northdown Taproom - a bar and cafe with a huge craft beer selection.

And then on Sunday, Charlie wanted to take Abby and Leslie to his favorite joint for wings called Toon's. You may remember reading on this blog that is where we went on our first date using a babysitter in Chicago for their Annual Wings Fest last spring.  The restaurant was unusually packed for a Sunday afternoon.  The food was good as always and we were having a great time till the very end when we had a credit card snafu.  Somehow the credit card got misplaced after we'd given it to the waiter.  Leslie ended up having to call to cancel a lost card, but we got a comped meal.  Oh well!

Abby and Leslie drove back to Akron on Monday.  We had such a good time hanging out with them and are so grateful for all the help!

A week in Chicago with the Caricos

2 weeks after Brady's 1st Birthday party, Charlie had to go to Orlando for a training for work and we had to be officially out of the Wrigley House by August 15th so Bob and Sue decided to come help us. We hired 2 Men and a Truck to move all the big stuff which actually happened back on Monday July 29th but there was lots of little stuff that the movers left behind.  Life was very hectic for a few weeks, one of us would pick Brady up from daycare after work and then one of us would go over to the Wrigley house and load up the car with the clothes and stuff that was left behind.  However, each time we have moved we always say...we just have way too much stuff.  So when Bob and Sue got up here on Sunday August 11th, we had just 4 days to get the remaining stuff out of the house.  I'm sure they were thinking "oh how bad could it be, the movers already took most of the stuff"...but little did they know how much stuff we really had.  Bob and Sue did such a great job getting all the stuff out and cleaning the place up alittle bit and then even helping organize the new place.  We are so thankful to have such nice parents.

Brady quickly found the stairs in the new place and tried to climb them.

On Friday, Katie got to take a day off of work to unpack and get organized but before she could do anything around the house, she needed some Brady time, so her and Grandma Carico went to the zoo in morning.  On Friday mornings in the summer, the Lincoln Park Zoo has a "Story-time" where they have a guy with a guitar play funny kids songs and Brady just loves the music.  After story-time, they dropped Brady off at daycare and got a lot of organizing/unpacking done back at the house.

Even though it was very hectic and stressful, we are very happy in the new place.  We have much more space (3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms) and we can walk to several baby friendly restaurants.

Abby & Leslie visit Chicago - June 7th-9th

My sister Abby graduated from Medical School at Wright State earlier this Spring.  We're all very proud of the new Doctor in the Mowry family!

Abby has moved up to Akron where she's starting her residency.  Now, after spending 4 years post-graduate paying quite a bit of money, she gets to finally start earning a paycheck (though I understand it's fairly minimal until the residency is over).  Abby and my Mom came up to Chicago to visit while she had some time in between graduating and moving to Akron.

On Thursday, we went to Navy Pier downtown to Harry Caray's Tavern for dinner.  The restaurant used to be up near where we now live in Wrigleyville, but moved down to Navy Pier a few years ago.  There's a little sports museum inside the restaurant that has a bunch of things from Chicago sports history, including two famous baseballs from Cubs history:

• the "last out ball" from the 1945 World Series - which was the start of the famous "Billy Goat Curse" and the last time the Cubs made the World Series.  The ball is suspended in a ghostbuster-like case to keep the negative energy away.
• the remains of the "Bartman Ball" from the 2003 NLCS, which the restaurant purchased and exploded a few years ago.

I took Friday off and we all went to the Cubs game during the day.  It was a bit cold, and we'd gotten seats under cover in case of rain.  But Brady seemed fine and enjoyed the game.  Including the part where he took a nap in the middle of the game!

On Saturday I had my usual run with the Team in Training group, and Abby came with me to do part of the run.  We were up to 6 miles, which was a bit more than Abby wanted to do, so she ran the first couple of miles with me and then after I turned around I caught back up and we finished the last mile or so together.

After the tiring run, we went with Mom, Katie and Brady to one of our favorite restaurants - Southport Grocery.  Southport Grocery is just about the best place I've ever had for brunch - and we all left full and happy.

Abby & Mom watched Brady during the day while Katie and I went out with some friends to some bars nearby - and, more importantly, they put up some gates in the house to keep Brady safe!  Now that he's crawling around, our house was not the ideal setup.  Given his druthers, he'd crawl all over the place and probably try to eat Griffey's dog food or throw his water bottle across the room.  But Abby & Mom helped set up gates and make the TV set up more baby friendly!

It was great to see Mom and Abby while Abby had some free time - Brady and Griffey always enjoys all the attention!

*************

Baseball park info:

Park: Wrigley Field (3rd time for Brady)

Friday, June 7, 2013

Score: Pirates 2, Cubs 0

Winning Pitcher: Francisco Liriano

Brady's Home team record: 1-3

Visit from Katie's parents - May 2013

For the weeks of May 13 and May 20, we had quite a lot of activity going on in the Mowry household. Charlie had back to back week-long trips for work, so Katie's mom decided to come visit and help out with Brady and Griffey for those 2 weeks.  And it was perfect timing to have the extra help because Katie came down with a terrible stomach virus that lasted 4 days.   So Grandma Carico did what she does best and took care of Brady to help prevent the virus from spreading to him.  And good thing because he never caught the virus.  Katie had all these plans of projects that she wanted to get done with the help of her mom, but unfortunately the virus kinda put things on hold.  The weekend in between Charlie's two trips, we got to have 2 nights out while Grandma Carico babysat.  On friday night, we went to our first dinner and a movie since before Brady was born.  We ended up eating at this crappy little restaurant called El's Kitchen across the street from the theater....definitely would not recommend it.  However, we put our bad restaurant experience behind us and walked across the street to the theater to see Iron Man 3.  We both gave it two thumbs up.  On Saturday evening, one of Katie's friend's from college who now lives in London was in town visiting with her boyfriend, so we met them and bunch of her friends at a street festival in Lakeview.  Chicagoans love their street festivals and there are many to choose from.  The one we went to was called May Fest and had a band called Two White Crew....which played some great cover songs from our high school days and it was really fun to see Shannon.

Katie's mom actually shared a ride up to Chicago with one of their family friends who also has a daughter that lives in Chicago so Bob, Katie's dad, drove up by himself during the 2nd week to hang out with Brady and take a very tired and worn out Grandma Carico home.

When Grandpa Bob got here, we all went out to D'Agostino's for pizza over on Southport Ave.

It was so nice having Grandma Carico stay with us for 2 weeks and help take care of Brady while Katie was sick.  We just hope that we didn't wear her out too much.

Another Baby party at the Mowry household - this time with dogs too!

On the second Sunday in December, we had another big baby party at the Mowry household in Lakeview!  This time it was with Charlie's friends.  Charlie's friend Craig, who moved from Chicago to North Carolina a couple of year ago, was back in town for the week.  Craig and his wife Allison just had a baby - daughter Harper - in late September.  Our friends Kris and Tina also came over with their baby Tessa, who was born in June.

That put Brady smack dab in the middle age wise.  It was neat to see one baby who had been as small as Brady had been a few months earlier, and another baby who could do more "advanced moves" like sitting up and rolling over!  Brady thought Tessa was so cool that he put the moves on and grabbed her hand!  Slow down there big guy, you guys aren't even half a year old...

The other thing that was really cool was that this "baby party" involved not only 3 babies - but 3 dogs, too!  Both couples had dogs that they brought with them - so we had quite the group running around our house!  Griffey enjoyed playing with Marley (Craig's "big dog") and Kirby (Kris's dog - about Griffey's size).  It meant he wasn't passed over for all the attention, for sure!  If you recognize the name Kirby, you might be thinking of the Minnesota Twins center fielder.  Kris is a Twins fan, so we actually had two dogs in the house named after Hall of Fame center fielders.  Maybe the only household in America to have that as a true statement?  Charlie sure hoped so!

The day involved watching a Bears loss (much to Craig's disappointment) to the Vikings (to Kris's excitement) and then we saw the Bengals lose to the Cowboys (to Charlie's chagrin).  But Katie cooked a great meal for the occasion - Italian Pork and potato casserole that everyone agreed was excellent!  And the others brought snacks and drinks, so we had a great time meeting new additions to our friends' growing families.  It's amazing how many new babies their are - Brady will have many friends to hang out with as he goes through those first few years!