This summer, in the midst of being on furlough from work (yay library budget cuts…), planning on visiting Chris and Laura in Wisconsin, and gearing up for Andy’s thyroid cancer treatments, we decided to throw in a few days playing in Chicago and seeing our friends Jill and Kevin.

We started our trip with a visit to Superdawg, a fantastic retro drive-in. The food was great, but the giant hotdogs with red glowing eyes were disturbing.

Supercheesies and Superfries delivered to Jill and Kevin’s car!

Andy and Kevin eating Superdawgs!

We stayed with Jill and Kevin in their cute house in Barrington. They gave us the grand suburb tour, which sounds sarcastic, but I mean it in all sincerity! We saw the mansions and gentleman farms of Barrington Hills, glimpsed the private beaches along Lake Michigan, and spotted the Frank Lloyd Wright homes that spring up unexpectedly in neighborhoods. Andy and I spent a very hot day walking endlessly around downtown Chicago, seeing Navy Pier, Michigan Ave, Millenium Park, Grant Park, and of course, the Chicago Public Library (no trip would be complete without it!).

Centennial Fountain and Buckingham Memorial Fountain:

Andy was so excited to have Chicago deep dish pizza at Gino’s East!

Jill took us to the Baha’i Temple, which is incredibly beautiful (there are only 7 temples in the world, and the only one more beautiful than the Chicago one is the one in New Delhi!).

While in Milwaukee, we apparently took almost no pictures. I think maybe we were having too much fun to remember to take pictures? Here is one of the few actual pictures and one of the only ones that isn’t blurry (blurry also indicates a good time, as we are either moving too fast– such as doing the Chicken Dance with Laura at Organ Piper Pizza– or have had a few good Milwaukee brews). Andy and I were competing over Pin Ball games.

So the blog posts have been severely lacking the past few months for several reasons, including our desktop computer committing hara-kiri, Andy’s thyroidectomy surgery, Andy’s recovery and low-iodine diet, and Andy’s recent radiation treatment. The past 2 months have been difficult, wonderful, scary, and relaxing all at the same time. We believe we are through the worst of it and can begin to refocus on work, our house, the holidays, and Andy being cancer-free. Well, and Goobers! Poor Gooby has figured out that something was wrong and he has reacted to the additional stress in the house. But now that Andy can be around him again (the radiation isolation was hardest on Goobers!) and we are back to normal work routines, Goobers has returned to his energetic, attention-demanding self, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

So, the past few and upcoming posts are catch ups from this summer and fall. Hope you enjoy!

Andy’s 30th Birthday! No party, as Andy was headed into surgery in 2 days and it just didn’t seem like a good time to be throwing a birthday party. I have promised him a big ol’ party once he has hit the cancer-free mark (in a year or so). Since it was an important birthday and I knew he would be stuck in bed recovering for quite some time, I could think of no better gift than a new PlayStation 3!

Andy’s mom was able to see our new yard and see some Seattle sights before the big surgery day.

Andy came home from the hospital on our 3rd Wedding Anniversary (Kinda depressing, isn’t it, that so many of the cancer treatments were around all these milestones? We were waiting on test results on my birthday this past summer and he had radiation the day after our engagement anniversary, too! I told him when our dating anniversary rolls around this spring, we better have GOOD news!). There was no fancy dinner out this year, but Andy gave me the best gift ever– recovering from surgery and coming home! My sister sent us a gorgeous bouquet for our anniversary (having a florist for a sister is mighty handy, let me tell you) and my whole family (Abbie and Rascal included, of course!) sent Andy a huge basket full of sore throat soothing food and other fun post-surgery items.

Andy’s parents were such a huge help! Andy’s mom stayed with Andy at the hospital over night (2 nights instead of the expected 1) so I could take care of the neglected Goobers, update people on Andy, and take care of the house stuff. Andy’s dad came once Andy was home and entertained him while I tried to get everything back in order. We were finally able to enjoy the final nice days of summer in our gorgeous yard!

My co-workers decided after I was done caring for Andy post-surgery, managing stuff at home, making 30 low-iodine meals, and getting through Andy’s post-radiation isolation and recovery, I could really use a stiff drink. We had quite a night out at Benihana’s!

In the midst of Andy’s countless doctor appointments and hospital visits, we did manage to do a few fun things! We cheered on the dachshunds at an Oktoberfest “Running of the Wieners” dachshund races and found our way through a corn maze. Between Andy’s corn-fed childhood in Illinois and my 4-H expertise, we did a great job answering the farm-related questions to direct us the correct way in the maze. We enjoyed making fun of the city people who kept getting lost….. ah, nothing like self-righteousness to bring a couple closer together.

Pictures from October:

One very happy patient eating Pizza Hut:

You may recall reading the story of Flat Stanley as a kid, the one about Stanley, flattened by a bulletin board, who is able to mail himself places and have adventures. I have received 2 Flat Stanlies in the mail in the past year as a part of school projects (living in Seattle when a lot of your friends and family live in the Midwest will cause this, as will being a Children’s Librarian!). I had a half day of work recently and spent the afternoon taking pictures of Stanley around Seattle landmarks before mailing him back to cousin Lauren in St. Louis. Here is what we did:

Came to work with me in Chinatown:

Saw the Space Needle:

Took a Monorail ride to downtown:

Visited Pike Place Market:

We stopped for a cup of coffee:

Bought some fish from the famous Fish Throwers at the Market:

And we ended our big day with a relaxing trip to the Pacific Ocean:

In case you haven’t heard yet, we are home safe and sound from the hospital, minus one thyroid! Andy is doing much better now that he is home and well on his way to recovery! Let the hovering and spoiling of the patient begin!!!!

Since we use wordpress as our blog host, I go through their homepage to login, and currently their homepage says “Freshly Pressed”, which makes me smile every single time. It reminds me of vacation mornings, with freshly pressed orange juice and french press coffee. I like thinking about vacations as everyone is frantic over back to school, sucky economy, and swine flu. Sigh. Vacation.

Here are our photos and videos from zip lining while in Whistler, B.C. We had a total blast!

Getting geared up.

Working it.

The 6 year old girl in our group who went upside down almost the entire time. She was very brave and made all of us adults feel a little ashamed for being so nervous! (they are doing a practice run)

Looking down over the zip line course.

We felt like we were in the Ewok Village up in the trees!

The glacial river we zipped over.

About to go for the first time. I love how gigantic my eyes are! It makes me crack up every time.

The surrounding scenery.

The professional shots that we paid too much for. But seriously, how often are you going to get pictures like this?

Years of ballet lessons for this moment.

I was so proud of Andy! He zipped upside down most of the way!

We also took some videos. Click here to see Treasure zip lining away from Andy (note my slightly terrified look at Andy right before I go). Click here to see Andy zip lining towards Treasure (I suck and videotaped the wrong direction, so you have to tilt your head. Sorry.). The videos make take awhile to load.