A few months ago, Lawrence's coworker was selling a solid-wood desk for
cheap, so Lawrence picked it up and brought it home. It wasn't the most attractive piece of furniture, but I saw its potential. It's been in our place for months, and I finally had the time to re-finish it. It took about two days, and Lawrence kept trying to help and getting in the way, but ended up having a weekend out with "the boys" so I could finish it unencumbered. It turned out quite nice and I'm pretty proud of it. I hope this means I'll be more productive on my writing.
The Calverts arrived on the 13th, and they came to see our apartment before we all took a walk along the lake down to the neighborhood Giordano's for deep dish pizza. The next day was our anniversary and we just ordered delivery from a seafood restaurant in the neighborhood, we were intending to go out and have tapas, but it was raining so we were lazy and stayed in. Lawrence took the next day off from work and met up with his family. I met them after work and we all took a riverboat tour of Chicago before I took them to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Fed and watered, we strolled down to Millennium Park and sat on the lawn for a free concert.
Lawrence and i both took the next Friday and Monday off to go up near the Dells with the rest of the family. It was quite an enjoyable, quiet weekend away from the city, surrounded by woods. We had a big thunder storm the first night there. The next day we took some time to go around the area and see what there was. Lawrence I brought back some fireworks, and then we took Matthew and Tatiana to a firework stand down the road and picked up even more. We built a fire and roasted marshmallows, and I introduced them all to good ol' American s'mores. They were a win that ended with fireflies and fireworks.
We took the next couple of days to explore the town of the Dells, took yet another riverboat tour and explored the Witches Gultch and the leaping German shepherd. We saw the upside-down white house and had giant burgers. We enjoyed sun and rain and fresh air before the two of us had to return back to the city to finish out the work week until we could meet up again in Appleton to visit the Seidls as well. It was a short weekend in Appleton, but we got in a trip to the mall and a visit to the races.
All of us Calverts were back in Chicago on Sunday night and Lawrence and I back at work on Monday before having dinner downtown at a Brazilian restaurant all together and a nightcap at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was then farewell to the England Calverts.
Lawrence's birthday followed immediately after, and we had a lemon cake and another night in, since we were due to head out West within the next few days. So Farewell to June!