Ebony & Ivory

Live together in perfect harmony. You know that song from the 80's, right? Well, I've got my own version.

This is my bestie, Nadia. We are inseparable, and last weekend we had an awesome sleepover. Here's what went down:

First, she came over after school and we had to change out of our school uniforms so we went up and came down IN THE SAME OUTFIT!

Hiiiiiiiii-YA!

We played all night til almost 9:00 when we went to bed and the next morning when we woke up we headed to the best park in the city - Montgomery Park.

Hold it right there a second, Finley. That's a preeeeeeeetty big statement when you say something like "best park in the city." 

Oh, no, seriously, Mr. Narration Interrupter, it is. On top of the view straight up the Chicago River into the city you've got this puppy in your sights at all times. Go ahead, see for yourself.

Okay, back to my story. Whenever we hang, Mae is always in the mix too; she and Nadia are good friends as well. She doesn't have a name to go with it like we do - someone called her something about a third wheel but we didn't really get what that meant - but we keep her around, she's good fun.

On the swings, in sync as usual (not the boy band).

We had a rolling downhill race that was quite fun... as you can see Mae took a left turn towards Toon Town.

Then a ride home on the bus to complete the sleepover, dropping Nadia along the way at home.

And I know it's not Thursday but here's a throwback from our Pre-K days. We go way back to when my cheeks were nice and plump.

I don't know if we'll be best friends forever, but being best friends for now suits us just fine.

Happy Friday, Happy Kid

Tourist Alert

Strange title, right? No idea what this post is gonna be about. Maybe we have long lost relatives visiting from the Dalmation Coast off of Croatia. Maybe Dad found himself on a bus full of people from Hong Kong setting a record for number of pictures taken in one 5-minute span. Nope, none of the above.

We actually became tourists in our own town, and it turned into quite the Sunday afternoon.

We went over to Buckingham but we parked a few blocks away so on the walk over we decided to stop at The Bean in Millennium Park.

Pax got a glance...

We took a family pic, and then one a little closer...

I high-fived myself a couple times...

Dad and I rocked a sidewalk shot and then I took the old selfie.

As we passed by the Art Museum we made a couple wishes in the wishing well. I could tell you what I wished for, but it's classified, so then I'd have to kill you, which would not be cool.

And then after a couple block we came upon Old Glory, Buckingham Fountain holds a special place in our hearts as we used to bike ride up to it almost every night during the nice weather when we lived in the South Loop, pre-Pax. We'd stop for ice cream, run around it, whatever, didn't matter, it was just a destination and it's one of the most special places we hold close in this great city.

After that it was party time back in the Millennium Park Face Fountains. Water was cold but nobody cared.

And that was that. A few hours post-Pax-nap, pre-dinner, where we took in the sights and sounds of the Lakefront. And whether you live in this blessed town or not, it's worth a visit.

Septic Tank Sunday

So we were invited over to my friend Jake and Gavin's today. We call it Jake and Gavin's but there is also Liam. He is their little brother and he is three.

So today we were all playing in their basement - me, Jake, Gavin, Mae, Liam and Pax - when all of a sudden Pax and Liam had wandered off.

A little bit later Mae went up to ask Dad and Mom where Pax was and they got a little nervous and went looking around the house.

Dad heard some chatter upstairs so he went up and turned the corner into the bathroom to find Pax and Liam playing with some bath toys... no harm done, right?

Wrong. 

Now I know what you're thinking at this point... "Um, Dad, how about maybe stopping this whole escapade?" In Dad's defense, a couple things here: 1. Look at the sheer joy on his face in that last photo. Tough to put a stop to that level of fun. 2. After you've seen this kid eat already-been-chewed gum, gnaw on a slobbery dirty tennis ball that had come from a dog's mouth at the park and stuff dirty used cigarette butts in his mouth, some clean toilet water is worthy of a quick snapshot or 5 before calling off the dogs.

End of Summer Fun

So the Summer is wrapping up and we've been having a ton of fun. Here are a couple snapshots:

Went out to Soph's house and went to her neighborhood festival, then had an awesome sleepover.

All this while Sid and Pax hung out with mom and dad at the Renegade Art Fair. This is the scene of the crime where Pax picked up a wad of already-been-chewed gum and proceeded to chomp on it for a bit. Yah, he's gross.

Been making a habit of waking Pax up by jumping into his bed and playing animals with him. Preeeeeeety sure it's one of the best parts of his day.

All three of us take swimming lessons on Sunday mornings and then the ritual is to head up to Dinkel's Donuts on Lincoln Ave., snag some donuts and sit on the sidewalk and eat them.

And then apparently Pax decided he didn't want to wear pants, so there's that.

Hilton Head 2014

So we must look like world travelers to the readers of this blog. Alas, this trip was taken way back at the beginning of August, my editor is just now getting around to posting it (shameful, Dad).

Trip started out with Mom and Dad staying at home with Pax and Mae and I getting in the car with Nana and Papa and Eli and Isaiah and heading out on the journey to Hilton Head. See, it takes us about 4-5 days to get there. We like to take our sweet little time stopping along the way at hotels with my other cousins - Hannah, Luke and Sophie - and doing stuff like this:

Here's the crew that drives the Caravan - Uncle Kenny, Aunt Suzy, Aunt Tasha, Papa and Nana.

So that was us in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and somewhere in Kentucky. When you're rocking down a water slide like that exactly where you are in Kentucky is completely irrelevant.

Meanwhile, Mom and Dad took a plane down with Pax. No pics from that whole mess, though, as Mom and Dad might as well have flown with a tornado in their seat. However, when they got to Charleston, SC, they stumbled upon an outstanding farmer's market...

where Pax proceeded to eat 7,000 blueberries and looked like an axe murderer post-hatchet job.

And then, upon arrival, the hurricane that had just passed up the coast left some clouds the first couple days, but PLENTY of huge waves, which I took on full steam ahead, first with Dad and then with the cousins.

It was a pretty beach-heavy vacation...

Pax got a soccer lesson from Eli (without pants on it appears).

Rained out one day - which resulted in Game Day at Uncle Brian's condo.

Mae surfed and sandcastled and Eli and I made a chocolate handshake

There was also plenty of pool action. Here's me taking a break to eat some pizza...

And Mae taking a break for some snoozing. Almost every day at the pool around 1:30 or 2:00 Mae would just tell Mom she wanted to take a nap, so we'd find some shade, grab some towels and out she'd go. Didn't matter if there was loud music, loud people, fun stuff going on. The kid just knows when she needs a snooze.

On Wednesday nights they have S'mores night down by the fire pits. As you can imagine, we took care of business at S'mores night.

So there were some ducks on the grounds of where we stayed and she had just had 9 ducklings, so we followed them around much of the time...

And mom also took us fishing.

I know you don't see too many shots of Pax. The reason for this is simple - he does not sit/stand/stay still, idle, in one spot for more than 0.4 seconds, which makes it tough to take a picture. However, Dad got this one of him at Whole Foods, where he and Dad went every morning for breakfast and coffee (and to get him out of the condo so people could actually get some sleep in the morning).

All in all, just a wonderful trip.

Oh, and I saved this one for last. This is Pax, laying in the sand... eating it. He did this for most of the trip, either specifically this or he would just sit and scoop up sand in his hands and eat it. Must've eaten 4-5 pounds of it by the time he left. Passersby would just look at mom or dad with a disturbed look on their faces and mom and dad would just laugh (Dad even managed to tell one older gentleman that it was fine, Pax just loved sandwiches - solid, Dad, solid).

the. end.