Goodbye Cory & Chris


The truck was just a little bit gigantic!


Cory, Chris & Aunty Laura strategizing.


Doug played a lot of box Tetris inside the truck. Danny did a lot of heavy lifting.


Brad, Danny, Doug, Chris, Uncle BB, Kevin, Aunty Gail, Eddy, Bonnie


Tommy and Kenji had a ball running up and down the ramp. Look at mean Uncle Danny, though. He made them stop.


Meanwhile their brother Eddy chilled out with their grandma in the middle of the chaos.


Steve, Kevin, Doug, Chris, Danny, Uncle BB, Jeremy


Full truck. Time to make some tough decisions about what goes, what stays! Doug, Kevin, Chris, Steve


Eddy was born in January, Tyler in August. So much bigger than even a month ago!


Cory & Me. Some family members wouldn’t talk to me with that shirt on, but the game was that night!

On Sunday Cory and Chris had a Load The Truck/Moving party. Chris got a job in Vail, CO and actually left more than a month ago to work there. In the meantime, Cory packed up all their things. Chris came back this weekend to get her and all their stuff. They rented a truck and are driving out to Vail with their dog, Zoe.

I arrived to the party about an hour late and thought I would have missed a big chunk of the loading, but the truck wasn’t even there yet! And there were only about 8 people and 3 of them were pregnant (Caroline, Toni, Chris’s sister)! There was so much stuff, I thought we would be there all night. Slowly people showed up, all hoping they’d missed the bulk, but they did not! Aunty Laura said that is how the family works, but reminded me that Cory is a part of the family too and she knows that about everyone! haha. It turned out that everyone did their fair share of heavy lifting… well, except the pregnant girls, babies, and older aunties.

Dallas was on a flight to South Carolina for work, so I was there on my own and was willing to do whatever I needed to. Cory helped us when we moved to Roscoe Village and she and Chris have helped us with other things on numerous occasions, so we owed them that. Luckily it went pretty fast once we got going. I don’t think everything made it into the truck, though. I was sort of hoping the bike roof rack wouldn’t make it or this cool trunk they have wouldn’t and I’d be forced to take it for…. safe keeping.. but alas, those things fit in. They’ll be towing a car on the back of the truck, so hopefully they can fit some things in there too.

After the moving was done, we all had dinner. Aunty Laura made a whole spread of her famous flank steak, chili, salad, mac n cheese, cone sushi, char sui, and all sorts of things. Naoko made an Italian cream cake and like always, it was delicious!

Good luck, Chris and Cory! You guys will be missed!

View From Our Condo

Keystone Colorado
Keystone, CO

Keystone Colorado
Keystone, CO

While in Keystone, we stayed in the building called Expedition Station in the River Run area. Our condo was pretty nice and about 5 times bigger than we actually needed. All we used were the bathrooms and the bedroom, really.

I was rooming with Jess and it was nice that there were 2 bathrooms so we could get ready at the same time. One bathroom had a full tub and shower and one had a stand up shower, but with two shower heads. There was also one bedroom, a full kitchen, a small dining room, and a small living room with a fireplace. In the dining room there was a large armoire that we couldn’t open and that we found out later was a murphy bead! Oh well, the one bed in the bedroom was huge so we both just slept there.

Off the living room there was a nice little deck. It was too cold to sit out there, but these photos were taken from that deck.

Oh, Oxygen, How I Missed Thee

Gondolas at Keystone Colorado
Keystone, CO

Kristin & Jessica on the Keystone Gondola
Kristin & Jessica on the Gondola, Keystone, CO

Keystone Colorado
Keystone, CO

Keystone Colorado
Keystone, CO

Sunset at Keystone, Colorado
Keystone, CO

The past couple days I’ve been out at the Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado. I’m not a skier at all, but I’ve never been to a ski resort or to a ski mountain, so when the opportunity presented itself, I took it. I was going to snow tube, but I was afraid of messing up my stitches, so I mostly just hung around Summit House on the top of the mountain and hung out with the skiers I knew when they came in for a break or something to eat. The views from the gondola ride up the mountain itself was worth it.

Here’s the thing that I’ve never experienced and didn’t really think about. Elevation. And more importantly, how it affects your ability to do things like breath and make your heart beat. I know I’m not in the best shape that I could be, but doing things like walking up a couple flights of stairs, running across a parking lot, or just laughing really hard for a few minutes really left me winded. I wasn’t the only one, though, so that made me feel better.

After a day of skiing and snowboarding, we had a party to go to. Then the next day it was breakfast, a shuttle to the airport, a few hours waiting there, and our flight back to Chicago. Whirlwind trip. Lots of travel in two days, but a fun time overall. I did wish we’d have arranged to stay longer once we were there, but I have to admit it was nice to get off the mountain, back down to Denver, and do things like BREATH.