Behold! The white deer!

Here is a (somewhat blurry) picture of the white deer we have here at Argonne National Laboratory. It's blurry because I took it with my camera phone and the zoom doesn't exactly work great.

The young deer are a light brown like our friend on the left here, but the adults are almost a pure white. It's kinda weird when you see them in person. And they say nuclear energy is unsafe...

Visits

Here is a quick recap of recent visits we have had from family and friends.

As mentioned before, our first weekend in the house we had some family out to visit. Here is one of the pictures. I hope Tammi doesn't mind us putting her on here, but we wanted to show the pool actually being used.

Prior to Beth Ann's wedding in St. Joe last month, Scott came to stay for one night on his way to Michigan. It was a quick stop, but it was great to see him and we were glad we had a chance to show him our new house and downtown Wheaton. We tried to give him the hard sell because three years will go fast and he and Jonnett have to live somewhere....

A few weekends ago, Wayne and Shawna (and Keeper and Page) came to visit for the weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend but we don't have any pictures to show. We did however go to the new restaurant in Wheaton called The Bank. They did a really nice job remodeling the inside, but the food was hit or miss. We are planning on going back soon to try again (the service was so-so) because they had only been open a week or so.

Last weekend, Phil and Tammi came to visit for Phil's birthday. He didn't know what we were doing but the surprise was that we got tickets to go see Wicked at the Oriental Theater. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the show. After the show (it was the early show) we went to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's. Naturally we had plenty to eat and drink during dinner so we went on what became a fairly lengthy walk downtown ending up at the Hancock building. So we figured the only option was to go to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor for more cocktails. The view was spectacular that night and was a perfect way to end the day.

The "Johnny"

One of Those Weeks ...

Wedding #2

This past weekend, we attended a wedding in St. Joe Michigan. The bride was the little sister of our BFF Scott (another TD devotee). The ceremony took place in a pavillion right on the beach next to the St. Joe river. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. BethAnn was rediculously beautiful as always and they seemed really happy which isn't always easy when you have wedding headaches going on. For those of you who don't know, BethAnn is like a little sister to us. She used to tag along with us in High School when we would all go out after football games, etc. (even though she couldn't pronouce Damian's name). So needless to say she is like family to us and were honored to be invited and very pleased to see the newly married couple doing so well.

As usual, here are some picutures.

Bride and Groom ditching the wedding

Lake Michigan

St. Joeseph Lighthouse

Damian, Ashley, Jonnett, and Scott before things got wild

Scott and Marilyn cutting a rug

BethAnn and Marilyn

Jonnett and Scott with BethAnn and their new brother-in-law Kyle

Wedding #1

The last few months have been hectic if we haven't shared that by now. We were fortunate enough to have friends and family in town for a visit Labor Day weekend which was the first in the house. We will post about this soon. Hoping to find some pictures first if any exist.

The following two weekends involved Michigan trips. Damian went to Kalamazoo the first Saturday to attend Brian Leppard's (college roomate and avid Team Dockery reader) batchelor party. It involved us going to watch WMU host Indiana. Unfortunately the game didn't go the way we wanted, but it was a good time nevertheless.

A couple of pics of the new engineering building on the new engineering campus at WMU.

Damian then drove back late that night/ early the next morning to attend the final round of the BMW Championship with Phil. That wound up being an exciting day of golf and they were able to get a spot right next to the 18th green to watch everyone finish as well as the championship presentation.




The following Friday, Ashley and Damian (and Maggie) went to Grand Rapids for Brian and Bridget's wedding. It was great wedding on a nice golf course in GR. It was great to see everyone again and see that everyone was doing so well.

Random paddleboat in Saugatuck

The next day we drove back to Illinois, but decided to take the long way down the lake shore. We stopped in Saugatuck and St. Joe and even had time to have lunch at Redamax in New Buffalo. Not a bad weekend if you ask me.

Grant Park

A couple weeks ago, we went downtown to enjoy the nice weather. We wound up spending a good portion of that time wandering around Grant Park. A couple of the cooler features are the "bean" sculpture which is always popular, and two giant waterfalls that you can wade into. The latter seemed especially popluar with small kids.

The Bean

We are the ones in the (almost) center. This is taken upward from underneath.

Waterfall Business

That is Ashley hoping she isn't about to be sprayed by the varying water pattern.

Cat

Well, Salem seems to be making himself at home. I think he was immediatley more comfortable here than he was at any other place we have dragged him.

It's a tough life...