On Thursday September 29th, 2016 I took a half day, then got ready for Mary and Jeff's wedding rehearsal dinner. They would be getting married the next day and Rachel is standing up in their wedding. For once working in the burbs was a good thing as I was the only significant other to actually make it to the rehearsal dinner. I headed to the Tap House in Oswego around 5pm. Right as I pulled up, Rachel and Sarah were walking from their car so I headed in with them. The dinner was served buffet style and was delicious. I paired my food with a few craft brews and was glad to be there to celebrate Mary and Jeff, even though they weren't able to sit next to each other at dinner. Ha! Check out some of the pics from the evening below.
The next morning was Wedding Day for the kids, Friday September 30th. I woke up at Rachel's parents and worked for a little bit on my laptop. At 11am I ran some errands in the area and grabbed some potbelly for lunch. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the bride and her bridesmaids as I was designated bag man for the day. After successfully picking up the bags, I got ready at Rach's parents and looked out the bathroom window and couldn't believe my eyes. The swimming pool was gone! I was glad to be apart of the last official swim earlier in the summer. Despite only swimming in the pool 3 times a year, it will be missed.
Once ready, I headed out to the last known Kmart known to man. Just kidding I am sure there are others out there, but this one is still around, for now. They are having their final closing sale, everything must go. Still crazy that the BigK was still operating in New Lenox. After a little shopping, I headed to Oswego and checked in to the hotel around 2:30pm. Once the bags were delivered, I met up with Torie, Alex, and Tim and did some wedding pregaming. We headed downstairs and met up with more people in the lobby and waited for the shuttle, it came late. This was no ordinary shuttle though, this was a classic yellow school bus. Awesome. I road in the solo seat in the back left of the bus, just like the good ole days. Oh wait, even though I rode the bus all 4 years of high school (that's right people you heard me, ALL 4 years) I always sat near the front. What a nerd I was. The ride was a bit bumpy, especially when we hit the dirt road, which allowed us to get super high bounce in the back of the bus. Eventually, we made it to the barn wedding at Emerson Creek Pottery and Tearoom.
That first look, shocking.
I was the unofficial videographer for this event, so I have zero photos from the ceremony, but I do have a plentiful amount of videos! The ceremony was beautiful as the background was amazing, two people in love got married, and the rain held off.
When the ceremony ended, we walked over to the barn where the reception would be held. Old Fashion's were the drink of choice for the evening. Very classy. I loved the location of the wedding with an indoor and outdoor feel due to the barn. The speeches were good and funny, the food was delicious, and the first dance was incredible as Mary's sister sang I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons. The drinks were flowing and so were the bodies on the dance floor. During the dancing I frequented the candy bar, huge Ups to Mary and Jeff for including that. Mini stan's donuts as a cake hit the spot as the night wound down, and then we headed back to the hotel, where I immediately went to bed. A top notch wedding and perfect day for Mary and Jeff. Congratulations and Happy Etter After!
And then it was October. Wow October is here. I woke up in the hotel bed with a bit of a headache and got ready to head out with Rachel as we had a busy day ahead. After saying our goodbyes to the now husband and wife, we headed to my parents house for a hot second, ended up taking a 2 hour nap, then drove over to my bro and sister in laws for Nikolas's Wild Things 2nd Birthday. Hard to believe this little buddy is already 2. We met new baby Leo, who was born on September 12th and is the third human that gets to call me Uncle. During the party, the birthday boy was super funny and cute pushing his new lawnmower around, and Sophia put me to sleep with a song after playing "keep the balloon up." After the party, we picked up some Potbelly for dinner then headed to Bottom's Up for a Surprise 50th Bday party for Rach's Uncle. Fun times seeing family, and who knew this hopping bar was so close to my parent's place. After further investigation, I guess they took over the old Gino's East, which was my favorite pizza place. RIP tasty pizza.
The next day, Sunday October 2nd, Rachel and I helped Aunt Ruth move in to her new place in Lombard, goodbye Darien! The new place is dope! We had sandwiches for lunch thanks to Grandma and Auntie Wanda. While doing the heavy lifting from the garage to the house, I learned from Uncle Gary that it is very easy to take a door off. Rachel and I headed out a little after 2 to beat the Bears traffic. When we got back to our place in the city, Rach made us a delicious batch of Chili which would end up lasting me the whole week! Like I literally ate it for lunch 4 days straight. After dinner we watched Stranger Things Episode 3 and 4. Show is getting sooo good!
Monday October 3rd was a night of Portillo's chopped salads for dinner, and I put in some mad hours on final cut pro editing a players highlight video. Starting to get the hang of it, and I like it. I am 99% sure this will be my next editing program after all those editing issues for the past 6 months.
On Tuesday October 4th I worked and then got home around 9:30p. Rach made us some warm tasty panini's for dinner. I started getting an idea in my head that maybe I want to start vlogging, blogging with a video instead of text. I won't mention the soup overflow issue we had that evening ;)
The next day Wednesday October 5th, I stopped at the library after work and had a great DVD pickup including some top movies including Max Keeble's Big Move and The Revanant. For dinner Rachie made us fajitas and we talked some big plans for this website. Could be some big changes come all y'alls way! Also if you didn't catch it earlier, this blog may become a vlog... Be on the lookout for changes. Get pumped!
Josh out.