Golf Championship

The BMW Championship came to Lake Forest and knowing what avid golf fans my parents were, I invited them down to go with me.  I had never been to a professional golf event before and so was happy to have them with me to show me the ropes.  Their BMW keys also got us into an exclusive section of the seating/eating area with some other freebies, which was even more exciting.  Overall it was a lovely afternoon and it was nice to spend some quality time with my parents just the three of us.  Matt, meanwhile, had taken the kids to the All State Insurance family day carnival courtesy of his Uncle Mike who is retired from the company.

Uncle Mike going in the fun house with Claire

Dinner all together at The Lantern after our respective day outings

Made chocolate chip cookies with Grandma and enjoyed eating them together

Donna & Emil's pumpkins are ripening nicely!

Basement dug out!  That's the garage door opening up into the pit!

You would not believe it, but we had monsoon rains this week and our newly dug out basement was flooded!  Matt had to pump out all the water and try to secure all the mud walls to prevent them from collapsing

foundation footing forms

looking up landscaping ideas before we meet with the landscaper

watching the concrete truck pour the foundation footings

New LIT sign for the GAM!  Check it out off of 294!

Stories with Daddy are the best

Probably the last boat ride of the year

Construction Begins

With school starting and Labor Day weekend come and gone, the summer is over and construction time has begun!  Our big addition began officially last week with the pool closing and the whole electrical panel being moved out of the garage to a temporary home.  Luke is beyond excited to be able to watch all the construction up close and personal, let me tell you.  By next spring/summer we should have the project complete and will be loving our new guest room suite (come visit!!), home office, mudroom, foyer, first floor laundry room and three car garage PLUS a new circle driveway.  Our house is going to be even more awesome than we already think it is.  The best part of this big addition is that we can live in the rest of our house the whole time as if nothing is happening.  Baranko Midwest Construction is the general contractor.  I have to confess, I have a crush on my contractor:)  He's so dreamy.

Rainy day, but that didn't stop the tree removal guys.

Four trees down in the front yard - all pretty much dead already due to disease, but we needed them gone for the new configuration of the driveways too.

New temporary home of the electrical panel for the whole house!

Helping dig the hole to cap the pool pipes

Outline of the new circle drive.  It is a full circle.

Goodbye front wall, patio stones, side door and garage!

Demolishing the existing garage

Digging up the grass for our new driveway

Gravel dump for the new driveway