The Baranko Family: The GAM

Last year, due to a consistently declining antique market, Matt set out to sell his antique market. Happily, he had secured a buyer, a hotel chain. The deal was meant to close in May, so in early March Matt gave 60 days notice to his dealers that the store would be closing. Almost immediately following that notice, the pandemic hit. Since initially the risk was perceived to be seniors, Matt closed the Gurnee Antique Market really early, before the Governor required it, on March 17th. He did not want to put anybody at risk, which is wonderful. Little did we know that March 16th would be the last day that the Gurnee Antique Market would ever open its doors to the public. The quarantine dragged on, and slowly dealers moved their antiques out of the building, as it became obvious it would not open again before May. Sad that they never got to have their big closing sale and that employees/dealers/long-time shoppers didn't get to say goodbye properly or celebrate the store properly, but just another sad thing in the long line of sad things that COVID has caused. Great job to Matt for navigating all the PPE loans and other financial things to keep all the employees paid and mortgage/insurance/bills paid (despite not having any income coming in) and then keeping the hotel deal alive and intact until the property eventually was sold, as planned, in late July. It was a great 5 years of small-business running! Kudos!

Here are some pics from this week of quarantine, back in April.

Trying to get to the Growth Zone and not let the Fear Zone take over

April Fools Day shenanigans

They filled up all these balloons and put them in my pillow so when I went to bed I set my head on a bunch of lumpy balloons. Hahaha!

We made the call to open the pool a month early and just heat the heck out of it. Hey - why not? Just because there's frost on the ground, no biggie. They do it at the ski resorts, and it is a pandemic.

Kowabunga!

Matt's old swimming tether is my new workout regime since I obviously can't swim with my swim group at the local college. It feels wonderful to get back in the water.

Mixing up our daily walks with a hover board outing. There was a period of time where we hadn't returned Claire's defective hoverboard yet, but had gotten her new one in - so we had two. We've since returned it, and are now back to being a one-hover board family. We make do. lol!

Luke got these Bee Bop Balls for Christmas from Auntie Kristin and Uncle Cory and finally was able to use them. They had such a blast with them, and were quite humorous to watch.

It always feels so good when the patio furniture comes out after a long winter.

Vintage soda can puzzle completed

Scattergories game-night with some of my girlfriends

Tree climbers

Freshly baked banana bread

When the hover board runs out of battery half way through the walk, who has to carry it back? Dad does!

Love to eat outside

Must...finish..weird sake!

He was a little distracting during our Twister game

Matt closed the Gurnee Antique Market really early, before the Governor required it, on March 16th

Matt did our grocery store shops and I was in "stock up" mode and always had a super long list for him. We were almost entirely out of flour, and the stores had been out of stock for a while, so we were excited to see the store had some.