A Trip Back Home

For those of you who have moved away from home to a completely new place with brand new challenges you can appreciate how nice it is to make a trip back home soon after the move. Such an occasion arose a few weeks ago, for a Lucas-Kappel celebration. The occasion of course was to celebrate Matthew and his new wife, Sharon, who went and got hitched last fall, and with the size of our growing family you can bet there were more babies to meet! (3 to be exact!) I’ll recap the very busy and exhausting week for those of you near and far, and for those who couldn’t make it (ahem, Brandy and Will).

The trip started with a visit from Momma Max who drove up from Cincinnati to see the new place and my neighborhood, and of course a little shopping! It was so much fun to show her where I live because although she has been to Chicago numerous times, never to the neighborhoods north of downtown (where the museums, Magnificent Mile and hotels are). I fell in love with this area a few summers ago when I came to visit friends and knew I wanted to live here upon my move to the Windy City. I took her to my favorite places to eat a vegan-vegetarian restaurant, The Chicago Diner (“Meat free since 1983) and to the most wonderful breakfast place, Ann Sathers, with the best cinnamon rolls. We walked along the lake, saw Wrigley Field and made a trip out to IKEA to get more things for my apartment.

It was a quick visit though because we turned right around to join in the festivities at home. The first morning there I went to the Cincinnati Zoo with the whole crew: Mom, the Newly Weds, Taylor, Sarah, Desiree, Anthony, Clint, Marianne and their two little ones, Reeder and baby Hayes. You could say we brought the zoo to the zoo, as Don would have commented if he had been brave enough to go, ‘It’s like herding cats’. But we covered a lot of ground and made the loop.

Sarah and her little boy, Anthony, at the petting zoo.

Sharon! My new sister-in-law.

The Kappels taking a look at the polar bears.

Reeder and her Dad on the carousel.

That afternoon and the next day were filled with errands, chit-chat, a trip to the new pool and of course the breakfast at Half-Day Cafe. Friday night, Jason and I made it to the Reds game where they beat the Red Sox (go figure!) And good thing we went to that game because they lost the rest of weekend. Despite my objections and whines of being tired, Jason insisted we stay for the fireworks, quite the display of pyrotechnics.

Hayes and his Grama Max. What a stud, right?

Self-portrait at the Red's game! (I was bored waiting for the pyromusical to begin.)

As I mentioned, we have a new addition to the clan, my step-sister, Mary, had her second child, a baby girl Samantha Opal who was born on June 10. I went over to Mary and Kevin’s to meet this little one, what a sweet thing. The family is doing great. That evening we had the elopement celebration BBQ. It was at my parents’ house in Wyoming and there was some great mac’n’cheese, ice-cream, cake and Sangria that sent me back to my Spain days. (All my favorite food!) Sharon was appropriately welcomed into the family.

Baby Sam, only a few days old.

Baby Sam getting some love from Big Brother, Taylor

The Newly Weds!

The obligatory cake in the face pic!

Oh, to be two, and able to eat cake the right way.

Me and Sharon at the BBQ

A party wouldn't be complete without balloons by Fouad. Usually a crowd please among the tots, but Jason's a kid at heart or just a big goof ball.

Me and my wonderful mom, Max.

Me and Jason.
The last full day in Cincinnati was spent running around despite the effects of the prior night’s fun. Jason and I stopped by St. James to see Hayes, my nephew born in March , be baptized and welcomed to the faith by all his friends and family. Then we made it across town to pick up Brutus from his first stay at a dog spa and resort. For those of you have had the wonderful opportunity to meet my Black Lab, you will know he is appropriately named because he is quite the brute but full of love and without a care in the world, he survived and even got good marks. I was nervous the entire time he was there that I was going to get a call about his behavior. Then we made our way up to Oxford to see Jason’s family for Father’s Day. It’s always nice to go to Oxford because I will always miss Miami and it’s such a lovely little college town and of course it's always nice to see his folks and sister.

Hayes debut into faith. Good work, lil guy!

On Monday, the party was over and I headed back on Megabus to Chicago. And I have been up to the usual things, working, nannying and living in the Windy City. (To see more pictures you can visit my albums at www.kodakgallery.com. Username is my email and password is kappelsphotos.)

xoxo

Amber