This past weekend, Danielle and I have the chance to spend some quality time with the crazy, wedding "stick dunking" flower girl known as Avery Nelson. Her parents, Dan & Susan, had the chance to get-away to Lake Geneva for some R & R, so on their way to Wisconsin, they detoured to Lake In The Hills and "forgot" one of their two girls at our house. We got a full 24 hour doze of Jello, sugar buzzing, and Chuck E. Cheese. I will let the pics stand on their own merit:










Saturday started with The Nelsons stopping by...leaving the instructions, and once on the road, Avery running straight for the fridge and uttering the words "Alright guys...gimme something to eat!" Totally classic!! I guess she doesn't eat with her parents...just kidding.

We spent the afternoon running around the yard, and attempting to get Avery to take a nap and stopping by McDonald's in Crystal Lake...yes the one with a playland. After a lesson in sharing, we came back home to attempt a nap. We didn't have much success with her nap, so by that time, it was time for another meal, so it was back to Crystal Lake for a fun filled evening at what Avery called "The Fat Mouse"...Chuck E. Cheese!

Two hours and 40 tokens later, we had to extract Avery out of the fun to go back home and get ready for B-E-D. One thing I noticed right away is that D & I started spelling things five minutes into Avery being with us. Weird!

We all went to sleep on time or early, in case of the adults, and enjoyed light sleep all night, as I expected Avery to come walking in at any moment.

Overall, we had a blast with Avery and were pleased that Dan & Susan trusted us with their child. We are pretty confident that any issues arising from her time with us will not be permanent.

I don't know how you spell romantic, but the way we do in the Zapchenk family is to CARVE PUMPKINS. Paper may be the gift of choice for #1...but we do things differently here. Tonight, after spending the weekend revisiting Indian Lake Resort, our wedding site, we spent a quiet evening listening to Bobby Boris Pickett and "Monster Mash" while carving our first set of pumpkins. You are now entering...

L: Danielle's R: Eric's

Don't forget to check out the NEW Funny Video of the week...look on the right side of your monitor.

Like Spring cleaning...just really late! I found this movie that Danielle made over two years ago while we were dating to record our fun filled day at The Autobahn Country Club in Joliet. The ACC is a place where guys with a lot of money race their own cars each weekend, and pay $30K in annual membership. That's why guys like me, and my brother-in-law, Domenic, only could go once a year by being invited as part of another car club we were not a part of. Really, there's to many details to think about...just watch the video and you can re-live driving your own car at speeds of 110 MPH. My car is the metallic looking Trans Am, while Domenic is driving the white Dodge Viper. This video also captures the tender moment that was Domenic proposing to my sis, Michele at 100 MPH, and all the family fun we had a part of this day.

This past weekend, we finally had time for ourselves. No real work issues to deal with, and time to simply sit back and enjoy the 48 hours that we know as Saturday & Sunday.


Saturday started with a home-made breakfast, and time to relax. Once we enjoyed some down time, we felt it was time to tackle one of our summer projects that needed to be completed...a re-working of the garage. Achieving more space required moving a refrigerator to the basement, and claiming more wall space. As you can see, after two days, we got it done.



Saturday night, we got together with Dan & Susan from work...to see a play at the Mercury Theater in Chicago called "Screw Tape Letters." The evening ended with late night appetizers (and burgers) at RAM in Schaumburg.

Sunday, we finished up on the garage, and decorated for Halloween. Please don't be scared!



As a reward for a weekend well spent, Danielle crafted another batch of homemade CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES...DEEEEELICIOUS!


Hope you have a great week!