2019 Mini-Vaca3(but really 1), Chicago, Pt 3 - Harold Washington Library & Willis Tower

At the Harold Washington Library, they have a very cool exhibit called the Above and Beyond Exhibit which displays over 58,000 dog tags of Vets who lost their lives in Vietnam!  It was so cool and a bit overwhelming...

So cool the way the light reacted differently as you moved around the display!

After that, it was off to the Willis Tower for some long distance views!

I could really stay up here all day long if not for all the friggin' people!

I like the idea of stepping out onto something like this.  It certainly makes you feel "alive"!

Me and the boys!!  They were both a little gun-shy about this adventure, Caleb moreso than Rob.  Note his forced smile and the holding of my hand!

Love this!!

Me and the bride!!  I'm fat as crap!!!!   This very viewing platform was shut down about 3 weeks after our visit from some cracking in the floor.  I'm somewhat confident that my excessive girth was not a likely cause...   maybe.

A look at some of our fellow 'vator' riders on the way back down.

Buckingham Fountain, which is not operable during the season of our visit.

A Winter Throwback!

Little Robby and a skinnier Daddy outside in the fresh snow!  December of 2008.  I still have those boots, that coat and my favorite yellow shirt also makes a cameo!

Alas... Winter!

Taken from my desk at work.  I tried to get a shot a bit earlier when it was snowing even harder, but it was blurry and I was left with this shot.

Taken right around 1pm as I was leaving to go retrieve my bride up at the hospital.

Looking the opposite direction at the same time as the last pic.  What's funny is that you can't even tell it's snowing here but it was still coming down pretty good at this point.

If You Want Cute, You Got It!

Taller Than...

Rob and my sister Doris.  Rob is growing like crazy, driving like he's not crazy (thank God!!!) and becoming a fine young man who makes his papa proud!

Happiness Is A Warm Puppy

The old saying says, "happiness is a warm puppy!".  Well, there's two warm puppies who are very happy gathering around the space heater.

Christmas Morning at the Schmitz House; 2019 edition

Silver bells... Silver bells... It's Christmas Time, in the city.

Hard to believe that it's already time for Christmas and as I type this up, it's truly 01/01/2020!!!!

I've said it before on this blog, but I'm going to say it again.  When I was young, my Dad, being around my age now, would say, "The time just keeps going faster the older you get!".  

I thought he was screwy in the head for saying such things but now that they've come to pass in my own experience, I say the same things to my boys!  My dad has been gone for just shy of 22 years now.

This Christmas was the first for my wife without her dad as he passed in September.  We miss him and his own goofy/screwy ways but it's a great comfort that he is not suffering.

We also lost my oldest brother this year.  I thought about his family all thru the week of Christmas as it being their first without a husband and father.

We know not when our times comes and so I'm trying harder this year to not take it for granted. Health is not a guarantee and we should not treat it as such.

Anyways...

Let's skip ahead to the wonderful morning that we had!

This was truly from the weekend before Christmas as it is perishable and what a shame it would be if this did, indeed, perish!!  The Wild Boar sausage with the horseradish cheese (along with drunken mustard that's not in the picture) was my favorite!  They were all good but going back to that health thing, this stuff needs to be a treat, not a habit.

Caleb reading the 1st half of the birth of Jesus from the 2nd Chapter of Luke (NIV).

Rob reading the 2nd half of it with STEVE!

This is not much of a gift but if you know me and my thinking that restaurant prices are fairly ridiculous, you would understand.  We have a new Brazilian Steakhouse in town.  For the full dining experience, it's $43 a plate!!!  Yikes and WAY out of my league!  Mom really wants to try it (so do I, just not THAT bad!) and we both like taking the boys to stuff like this for worldly experiences.  So my gift, since I failed 3 times to secure a gift card was a promise on a sheet of paper saying, "This piece of paper states that Dad will take the family to BAH Brazilian Steakhouse at some point during the month of January 2020.  He will enjoy the food and the experience and the time with family without mentioning the price of dinner.  If he fails, there will be a organized public flogging on Feb. 8th at noon".  Caleb thought this was pretty funny...

The new Seattle Seahawks phone case that didn't fit properly...  *sigh*

When Rob opened the box and saw a book,  our little former reader was not impressed.  however, when he turned it over and saw what the book was, he was genuinely excited.  The book is Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy and apparently has a video game based off of it, that he plays with buddies.

Mama with new flannel sheets.  They're nice!!

Caleb with his new Seattle Seahawks sweatshirt. 

Myself with a new workbench that collapses quickly and has built in 28" clamps!

Not Christmassy, but just Rob with a cute hound.

Can't wait to try some of the recipes in this!  It's a Mediterranean cookbook called The Forest Feast. 

Speaks for itself, I think.

Robby has some buds that like to box.  He got his own set of gloves and some punching mitts for another person to wear.  I'm sincerely surprised at how much times both boys have spent with these and Rob teaching Caleb some techniques.  I also like this picture where Steve is all chill in Rob's lap and Juno has her ears pinned back and the paws up like she's ready to go!

This guy...  Now with a Seattle Seahawks blanket.  The doggies love the newest blanket addition.

Rob opened this one and said, "What?  What the heck... is this?".   In this case, it a shovel with an adjustable length handle to store in your vehicle in the event that you're stuck and need to dig out.  My comment back to him was, "that's the dummest gift you'll get until the first time you need it, then it will be the best!".  

Caleb was excited for the sheer size of this gift and he was NOT disappointed.  The boy likes to rock back and forth whether he's in a rocking chair or not, thus occasionally damaging a non-rocking chair.  She we do a fair share of camping and sitting around campfires,  Mama found a rocking camping chair.  He was, and is, delighted!

After this,  I had to hand out most of the rest of the gifts because he was enjoying his new chair.

He's not sure what he's looking at here, but he's looking over at Rob who is opening the exact same thing out of his stocking.  They both got some hot cocoa mix and a peppermint stirring spoon that melts some as you stir your chocolate.

Rob with his haul, boxing gloves, mitts, hot cocoa, new shirt and sweatshirt, his book that's missing from the photo and probably a few other things now that he's not big on staged pics...  teens...

Dad and his haul!  The workbench,  after market seat and steering wheel warmers for my truck.  2 books: on on beer and the other on smoking meat (which I'm taking as a hint that Mama really wants me to go buy a smoker!), and a Christmas cookie scented candle.  I got more as well, but hard to get it in the pic.

The woman who makes the whole thing go, got the shortest end of the stick (as usual, since I suck at getting gifts for people and my boys are picking up my "abilities").  Several candles,  a back scratching mechanism, her "Live a great story" sticker, flannel sheets, and the cookbook.  Steve's in the bottom corner of the picture so we'll throw him in too since Mama is his favorite human.