Surprise Retirement Party - Success!

This past weekend was the BIG surprise retirement party for my Dad.  We have been planning the party for months, and we were so excited that it was finally here. It was a great success!  Dad was totally surprised and everything went perfectly.

Kristin, Cory, Matt and I hosted a party for about 100 of Dad's family, coworkers and friends aboard a private dinner boat cruise.  Special thanks to Mom for all her help:)  The party was to honor my Dad's 35+ year career with Bucyrus International.  We're so proud that just last week Dad was named CFO of the Year by the Milwaukee Business Journal.  He received the Career Achievement Award.  What a well-deserved honor, and a fitting end to his impressive career with Bucyrus.

Lured to the boat cruise under the ruse of Cory's birthday dinner, he was shocked to find out the boat was filled with all of his family and friends!  The night flew by.  We had a perfect summer evening, the food was delicious, and the conversation lively.  Tim Sullivan, the former CEO of Bucyrus, gave a touching speech about Dad.

Beautiful Milwaukee skyline

Thank you Donna & Emil for watching Luke for most of the night so that I could mingle!

On Sunday Mom, Dad, Matt, Luke and I all went to Lake Geneva so that Dad could use his birthday gift.  Matt & I had given him passes to the Lake Geneva Canopy Tours for his birthday back in March, and were happy to go with him to enjoy the experience.  Mom graciously offered to watch Luke the entire 3 hour tour, thanks Mom!  The canopy tour was so fun!!  We highly recommend it.  Another gorgeous day made for a pleasant afternoon in the forests of Lake Geneva.  I included a video of Dad zip lining on "Turkey Run" where you are supposed to gobble like a turkey the entire time.  Dad's turkey sounded a little funny:)

Lukers has continued his "Da da's" consistently.  We love it when he whispers it like a secret, "da..da.."  It is just so fun to hear his voice, he's becoming such a little person!  I can't wait until he speaks full sentences.  He also likes to roar like a lion, which is so cute too.

Before we sign off, we want to wish HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cory (it actually is his 35th birthday!).  Today is his birthday, so we hope it was great.  Also, it was our sweet Spumoni's 6th birthday yesterday.  Six years ago our first baby was born, and he continues to bring joy into our lives everyday.

  Here are some cute shots from the week.

Spaghetti dinner

Talking!

Luke has started talking! On Saturday he said "Da Da".  Matt is very proud that his first word was "Da":)   The jury is out whether or not he is connecting the actual words to Matt, but we'll take it!  We are so thrilled by this development milestone.  After a couple days of steady "Da da da da da's" he added some "ya ya's" to the mix too.  I'm crossing my fingers that "Ma Ma's" makes a debut soon.

He has also started to dance, which is a-dor-able.  When we play music he stomps his little feet and dances around in a circle and shakes his head from side to side.  Seriously, it may be the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I'm trying to get it on video to show everyone.  Cross your fingers.

Finally, he got a haircut, the second of his life.  I know just last week I was talking about how we liked it long, but it was looking pretty scraggily so we thought we'd give him a tiny trim.  Matt and I trimmed it last night spontaneously and immediately mourned the loss of his long hair, but after a day we've gotten used to it and now we think it is cute.  Here's a before and after.

Before

After

Last Saturday we went to Nicki and Andy Bullock's house for a fun dinner party.  We had a nice time with our friends, thanks!

This past Sunday we were very excited to introduce Luke to Uncle Jay, Uncle Mike, Kevin and Julie.  Aunt Penny and Uncle Jay hosted a fun barbeque at their house in Schaumburg, and Uncle Mike, Cousin Kevin and his girlfriend Julie came over too.  Kristin, Cory, PJ and Dad came down to join in on the fun visit (Mom was on a Girls' Weekend).  

Snuggling with Grandpa

PJ driving a car over Kevin:)

Here are a couple other cute shots from the week:

Throwing my toys down the stairs.

At my first gymnastics class - I love the ball pit the best!

Gerber Baby

As all parents believe, but we know to be true, we have the cutest baby in the world.  In the last week we have been told by numerous unbiased opinions that he could be a Gerber baby.  We agree!  

His hair is getting really long, but we don't want to cut it!  It is so soft and curls up around his ears a little when it is humid.  We like it:)  I was just looking through a few old pictures and Luke's hair was SO dark, it is amazing how light it has gotten.  Take a look at the difference!

@ 2 months old

@ 11 months old

Lukers is a busy boy.  He has a full agenda every day.  He needs to walk around the house a minimum of 200 times a day, open and close every cabinet and door, play with every toy he owns, throw all of his balls through the baby gate and down the basement stairs and chase/crawl on Spumoni whenever he tolerates it.  He also has to squeeze in his hour long dining sessions.  He insists on feeding himself with his little pincher fingers, which takes FOREVER and is very messy for all involved.  When you try to feed him though, he sticks his tongue out to spit out the food.  What a stinkers:)

He can put balls in his toy now, so he watches them spin around.

Peek a Boo!

I won this Bears pillow from work (in a highly competitive geocaching team building event) and Luke LOVES it!  He literally throws his body down on it and snuggles his face into it.  It is too cute.

Rub a dub dub, just got out of the tub.

We had a nice week.  On Saturday we walked into town to go to the Lake Forest Farmer's Market.  Spumoni was a big hit at the Farmer's Market.  He got more attention than Luke for once!    

Sunday we took a trip down to Fort Sheridan, a small former military base turned really cute town.  There is a beach down there that is picturesque.  At the time that we went it seemed to be on the verge of a storm, although it never ended up storming.  The high winds caused huge waves in Lake Michigan that were SO cool!  See for yourself.

We've even had a nice couple days since the weekend.  Donna and Emil came up to visit with Luke on Tuesday night, so we all went to dinner.  They brought their new conversion van, which is awesome!  They are ready to go road tripping with that for sure.  On Wednesday, today, we went down to Highwood (another nearby suburb) to check out their annual "Garlic Festival".  It was a beautiful summer night and the party was hoppin' at the Garlic Festival.  It felt like we were back in the city!  We didn't eat any garlic, but we got a few other fun treats.

I'll sign off with a big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" to Uncle Ben on Tuesday.  Hope you enjoyed your special day and we can't wait to see you over Labor Day in just a couple weeks.  

Big Guy - Little Guy

Aren't these shirts so cute?  Donna and Emil gave them to Matt & Luke for Father's Day and we love them!

Luke is just non-stop into everything, on the go, all the time.  He literally never stops!  So exhausting, but so cute.  He is not interested in any of his toys, of course.  He only wants to get into drawers, cupboards, plants and electronic equipment.  He motors around from room to room like nobody's business.  He discovered the joy of unrolling toilet paper rolls and his all encompassing new hobby is opening and shutting every door in the house dozens of times in a row.  Each time he opens a door and peeks around at you he squeals with delight.  How can you not melt seeing that smile and pure happiness?

This past week we went to the last Lake Forest Thursday night concert of the summer, which was a steel drum band.  It was a gorgeous night and the music was awesome.  We brought a picnic dinner and had such a nice night.

On Saturday we had the pleasure of attending our cousin Lisa (Kurz) Thatcher's baby shower in IN.  Kristin, PJ, Luke and I headed down to join in on the festivities.  Lisa and her husband Mike are having a baby girl in October, and they are naming her Nicole Marie.  It was great to see all of our Kurz side family again.

Aunt Barbara contained Lukers for a while to give me a break!

Tracy and Luke

 On Sunday, we spent a nice pool day with Kristin and PJ.  Poor Cory was doing yardwork all weekend so couldn't join us for the fun.  The day started with some playtime in the living room, including PJ's cool fort!  After some pool time we had a short visit at the beach before a huge storm rolled in suddenly.  Yes, we lost power again!  What is going on?  It came back on after 3 hours, but still, why do we lose power during every single storm?  Again the generator was powered up to keep the sump pump running - that thing is really handy!

Camp Richardson

Last weekend we spent at the fabulous Camp Richardson in Fremont, IN.  Katie & Joe generously hosted us, along with several other friends, at Joe's parents' lake house.  We had perfect weather and SO much fun!  Thanks very much Katie & Joe!  And an official blog congratulations to you both on your baby on the way!  Can't wait to meet the little guy/gal in January:)

We boated, played volleyball, beanbags, Catch Phrase, Game of Things, had camp fires, went swimming - you name it!  Quintessential lakehouse fun:)  Matt even caught two fish (gar) while spearfishing at night with the guys.  Unfortunately we did have one injury.  Matt broke his big toe while playing an intense game of volleyball on Saturday.  He didn't even stop playing though, what a pain tolerance!  It took some urging, but he finally agreed to go to the doctor on Monday, where it was confirmed broken. Four weeks of the flat shoe and buddy taping for him!  Luke wore PJ's hand me down pink life vest, so he was lookin' good on the boat!  Since he's so mobile, he didn't really enjoy the boat that much where he was forced to be held.  But he loved playing in the lake and on the beach.  There were three other kids to play with too, which was fun for him.

I'm not sure about this thing...

Sam & Katie, two gorgeous pregnant ladies!

The broken toe, it got much more swollen and purple before getting better.

Lounging on Sunday morning

Little Stinker alright!

The whole gang - minus Luke who was napping:)