Tournaments...two of a kind!

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile...but I've not really been doing much. Shawn and I have been getting settled into our apartment and we really like it! We still haven't gotten around to taking pictures of Oak Park, but we'll get to it soon! I promise :)

On May 15th Eric was in Chicago for his band field trip and we were gonna try to meet up with him at Medieval Times. Shawn has always wanted to go I haven't been in a really long time, so we drove out to Schaumburg to meet up with his school group. Medieval Times was pretty cool...but not worth the money in my opinion. The food could have been way better, but it wasn't bad. They certainly are stingy with the drinks though! Practically had to beg for a refill of my soda! The show was pretty neat though...would have liked to have seen more of the actual battling between the knights but when the did joust it was cool. Shawn definitely wanted to be a knight when he left, so he did by a little wooded sword. Now I can pretend to kill him at home! Don't think its anything we'd like to go see again anytime soon, but we had a good time!

This past weekend Al and Theresa were up for a visit because Al was trying out for the NFL at one of the regional combines. The combine was in Naperville at North Central College. We had a really great time with them for the weekend, which we always do when we're all together, but it has been such a long time since we've really gotten to hang out we were really excited to see them! It was a pretty laid back weekend, considering Al had a lot on his mind and needed to rest up for the combine. The combine went REALLY well! Al did an awesome job! He exceeded or met all of the requirements for quarterback to reach the Elite Combine in California this June and the guy who runs the combines told Al that he was really impressed with his throwing and abilities. We just found out yesterday that Al did make it to the Elite Combine...so he's off to the tryouts in June. Shawn, Theresa and I are hoping we can go out with him for moral support (plus it would just be awesome) but due to money issues I think we're gonna have to sit home and be nervous instead! He'll do great though and hopefully one of the recruiters from the NFL will like him give him a job! We're hoping Chicago or Miami will take an interest (seeing has he's a quarterback and they both need quarterback!) but really any interest would be awesome for him!
On a side note...but an important side note...Shawn got a job! He is working at a camera shop here in Oak Park. It is actually just about a block and a half away, so it only takes him about 5 minutes to walk to work! So far he really likes it and I think it'll be really great for him! Yay! I'm working this weekend but we'll be home in Muncie next weekend for Sara's graduation. Anyone wants to see us while we're home, let one of us know!

A day at the zoo!

Yesterday, Shawn and I were sitting around eating breakfast trying to figure out how to spend our day together when I got the brilliant idea: Let's go to the zoo! So then we had to decide which zoo to go to. We live pretty close to the Brookfield Zoo, and I haven't been there for a REALLY long time, so that is what we decided to to. We had a blast! It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day with no rain and few clouds. It turned out to be a great day!

There were two baby camels! One of the babies was born this past March and one just a few weeks ago in April! They were so cute playing together. This one was trying to socialize with daddy...how sweet!






There were about 5 giraffes in this enclosure. This one was moving all over and he kept doing really funny looking things, but every time I would try to get a picture he would stop! I was getting so annoyed! I had never seen a giraffe try to bend down to get something off the ground and it is hilarious! I guess there knees must not bend like ours do cause he had his legs spread so wide...It was really cute, but no picture :(









There were two big elephants that I could see. They are so huge! The other elephant didn't have any tusks, but he was off to the side eating hay or something off the ground. It was so neat to stand there and watch him eat using his trunk. An elephant's trunk is truly amazing! They are able to use their trunks to do some things that really seem to require a lot of fine motor like skills! I was basically in awe. There was a display that has a long tube that is meant to demonstrate how heavy an elephant's trunk is...I couldn't believe it! I never figured how heavy it would be!

Oh...the Monkey house! I could have spent all day in their! The Primate exhibit was divided into several areas based on the Continent. Each area had primates that are indigenous to those areas. This little monkey was looking right at us and he was only about 5 feet away from our heads! It was a really open exhibit too with birds flying right over our heads. In each area all the different types of primates were able to interact with each other, although they didn't really seem to. Each different specie seemed to only play with each other. There were some other types of animals mixed in as well. In one of the areas there was a pygmy hippo swimming while a medium sized monkey was sitting on a branch right over the water! That was really neat! The Gorilla exhibit was at the end, but it was worth it! There were a lot of gorillas! There was one that was much smaller than the others so it must have been a juvenile...but I'm not sure of the age at all. I don't know if it was a boy or a girl, but it was really playful! He was running all over the trees trying to get the other gorillas to play with him...but they weren't really interested! Most of the males were just lounging around, but they looked really comfy! It was a lot of fun to watch them all play!
Of course, Shawn wanted to make sure that we saw the aquatic animals...so we went to the dolphin show as well as the new exhibit called Stingray Bay. The dolphin show was really great, as they usually are. There were 5 dolphins in the family, the mother with 4 of her children. Dolphins are so smart! Stingray Bay was really neat too...it was basically a small pond that had two different types of stingrays you could touch as well as horseshoe crabs and two types of small sharks. The sharks were hiding near the waterfall though were you couldn't reach them, so we weren't able to touch those :( We did get to touch the stingrays though, and that was really cool! They are really soft and the smaller ones were really friendly! It was almost like some of them liked to be petted. They would come right to you and there was one that kinda stopped when I started touching it and stayed there for a minute. That was pretty cool! It would have been really freaking cool to touch a shark, but oh well. Maybe some other time! The exhibit with the penguins was pretty small, but you were able to get really close to the penguins and it was open so there was a huge, thick piece of glass between you and the penguins. That was really neat. The could swim up really close to you...obviously it was far enough a way that you couldn't touch them, but still it was cool!
We made sure to see the big cats and the bears as well, but they were mostly just laying around being lazy! Most of them were sleeping...some were sleeping where we could see them, but most were hiding out of view :( We could at least see all the big cats, but the bears were almost all hiding away! Anyway, our trip to the zoo was wonderful and we had a great day! Just one more picture of Shawn that I absolutely love!

Welcome to Oak Park

We've been here in Oak Park, Illinois for about a week now. The apartment is really nice and just the right size for us. The street we live on runs right through an area of town with all kinds of restaurants, shops, a movie theater, several coffee shops and ice cream places, and we are walking distance from three grocery stores! We also only live about 2 blocks from the cta train that we can take right into Chicago! I think we've finally got stuff settled in the apartment and have cable hooked up.

I started work this past Monday and I worked three days in a row so that I would have some time off to get settled. The hospital is nice and only 4 miles from my apartment. It is going to a slight adjustment because the hospital uses paper charting still, which is kind of strange. I've only ever worked with computer charting and this is kind of an old system. I'm getting used to it though. The management is better though and I know that I will be fine. They are short on staff so I will be able to work overtime if I want. Shawn had a few interviews this past week, but the one job that seemed to fit the best and where he thought he'd be offered a job he declined because the hours were going to suck. He has two more interviews tomorrow though so hopefully one of those will work out.

The first night we were here we went to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria with my Dad, Ana, and my stepbrother Niko. Lou's is my favorite pizza ever...so I had to make sure that Shawn experienced it pretty quickly! My cousin Tommy's First Communion was on Saturday so Shawn got to meet most of my Dad's family. Not everyone was there, but I did get to see my family so that was fun. Shawn and I went into Chicago today. We went to Millennium Park and saw Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. We also walked up and down the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue. Oddly enough, we ran into two of our friends from Ball State near Watertower Plaza. Crazy! Here are some pictures from our day.