Dale & Rebecca in Oak Park

We were without power for a few days due to the storms. It sucked. And we are still behind on blogging. Thumbs down!

Just before we left on vacation the Ranger family came to visit! They stayed with Rebecca & Pat. I hung out with them quite a bit and it was a lovely visit! We all went to the zoo.

I think Margaux really enjoyed having company…here is she on the carousel at the zoo.

This is Maggie enjoying the butterfly house–I must say that kids move quick. I barely got any in-focus shots of them!

And here’s little Max taking in the carousel action.

We saw lots of animals–my favorite was the pooping tiger! Hee!

We were all exhausted from the heat and excitement, none more than Maggie!

We also got to go out to dinner and took the kids to an indoor play park. Us ladies had a little gal pal bonding time, too. Great to see everybody, as always.

I got a lot to catch up on, yo. We just got back from vacation–don’t have the pictures sorted yet! But in anticipation of that, I’d like to update a few random things.

Like this one day in May–right after school ended–I felt my new career calling would be in creating elaborate garnishes (don’t ask).

So these were my first (and only) attempts at fancy apple birds. I might pull this skill out for a party in the future. Apple bird party seems like a good theme, right?

Dale’s family came for the weekend just a couple of weeks ago! However, we didn’t take a bunch of pictures. Dale’s mom and grandma were here, along with Dale’s brother Wayne and his family.

Wayne and Lisa looking cutsie.

And the whole family. On the Sunday morning before they left we took the kids to the park around the corner from our house to hit a few balls. They were really good! It was a really nice visit. We also went to Adler Planetarium.

I fixed the archive feature. You probably didn’t notice unless you’re stalking us that the archive links for previous months were not working. Now they do so stalk away!

We had our 4th anniversary last week and it was awesome! We went to Cucina Paradiso! It was fabulous! I can’t wait to take visitors there for a nice Italian feast right in my new town!

Check it out: http://www.cucinaoakpark.com/ It’s awesomely tasty!

Will be posting more pics of kitties and my weekend with some dear gal pals this week.

–Rebecca

Our pals Jen & Derrick spent a year in the Czech Republic and got a write-up in the Detroit Free Press!

You can find their famous blog here: http://jenandderrick.blogspot.com/

In fact, their blog inspired us to start this one to keep friends and family updated on life in Oak Park. Thanks, kids!

We moved to Oak Park in June because I got a fun new job out in Naperville as an editor of gift/women/humor books! We didn’t know where Dale would be working but we knew we wanted to have a real “city life” experience so we opted for the best of both worlds: Oak Park.

Oddly enough Dale landed a job at my company! It was serendipitous to say the lease. So we’re commuting together out to the suburbs. He’s doing IT work and photography. Check out his website: www.dale-murray.com. I still have my website, too: www.isadora-ink.com.

Located just minutes from downtown Chicago, we have an apartment in the heart of adorable downtown Oak Park, just steps from our favorite things: restaurants and bookstores! There’s even a movie theater and our favorite grocery stores: Whole Foods and (coming soon!) a Trader Joe’s!

We are three blocks from a train stop and can hop on and be in downtown Chicago in about 15-20 minutes.

So far we’ve sampled many local restaurants and narrowed it down to three faves: Mama Thai, Spizzico Pizzeria and Marion Street Grille (lucky for us this place is literally at the bottom of our stairs). We’ve also enjoy a great many things the city has to offer, including the art museum, the Field Museum, Taste of Chicago, the Magnificent Mile, and Millenium Park. It’s been a busy summer!

I can’t stop using exclamation marks! We’ll be posting pictures soon!

Till then check out Dale’s early morning pics of Millenium Park in downtown Chicago here:
http://www.dale-murray.com/060707/index.html