My graduation weekend was filled with other celebrations as well.
First, we celebrated my brother's 19th birthday. Too bad he didn't get any presents.
Then we celebrated my parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary. Dad got a new watch and mom got a new ring.
The weekend ended on Mother's Day, so here's mom with her new dessert platter.
This is my friend Monica's nephew Lyndon James.
He's in the tux because his uncle Ben just got married.
He's so cute! I can't wait to meet him in person!
My mom, Aunt Carmen, and Grandma Ella all came to visit for a weekend in the Spring.
My mom and Carmen LOVE wine, so it only makes sense that we stopped at Bin 36 for lunch and a flight each.
Here I am with my flight, the Italian Reds (I think). They were good. I could easily spend way too much money at this place.
This is Ben and me, looking north towards my neighborhood
out of the John Handcock building.
My grandfather was born in Chicago so we did a little historical sight seeing.
All the buildings that he lived in were torn down by now, but we did find the cemetary where his father is buried.
Unfortunately, the ground ate his grave marker, so we had to guess where he was buried.
Of course we had to go to Dunlays at least once while everyone was in town.
My grandma loves dessert, and at 91 she's allowed to eat as much of it as she wants.
She and my brother split the cookie dessert, but I think she would have been happy to eat it all herself.
Here's the family at my cousin Steve's wedding.
He and Erin were married in August in Rochester, Minnesota.
My parents and Ben's friend Jason drove down to Chicago for Thanksgiving this year. This is us at Fiesta Mexicana eating some yummy Mexican food.
Here's a cute picture of my mom and dad over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Here's dad at the Weiner Circle. We stopped by somewhat late night after we watched the Gopher Hockey game at the Burwood Tap.
This is my little cousin Dan. He is a freshman at the Univeristy of North Dakota and is in the commercial aviation and air traffic control program or something like that. In other words, he's going to be a kick-ass pilot one day. This is him after his first solo flight. How cool is that? He's been in school about a month and he's already flying solo!
This is my mom's best friend Julie and her two other good friends Terri and Diana. Julie married Bruce in August, the catch is, it was a surprise wedding, she knew she was getting married, she just didn't know when. The only negative is that her name is now Julie Postel instead of Julie Roberts.
My mom was the maitron (??) of honor and I'm guessing that the guy in the picture is Bruce's brother standing up as the best man.
And my dad walked Julie down the aisle.
As long as my dad has a motor and some good tunes, he's a happy guy. Here he is driving the boat to Zorbas listening to Jimmy Buffett.
Here's the family at Zorbas restaurant. Every summer we take the boat to Zorbas and order the biggest nachos I've ever seen. This summer it was abnormally cold the week that I was at the lake, and even though this was the nicest day, I'm still wearing a hoodie in the middle of August.
Here's another cute picture of the family dog. He was keeping me company while I packed this summer.
Here is the newest edition to the Telschow family, Boo. She was a cat who needed a home, so my mom took her in. As you can see, Boo likes to look at the world upside-down.
Here's the family at Ben's graduation from Prior Lake High School. He had quite the showing, 16 family and friends showed up to cheer him on as he walked across the stage and accepted his diploma. In September he'll be moving here to Chicago to attend Columbia College where he will study graphic design.
Here's the Benster with his good friends Kevin, Roy, and Jason. They're a little more low key that I was on my graduation night, they opted for Perkins and movies at our house instead of the Senior Lock-in at the school. They had a good time, and I think they're relieved to be finished with high school.
This is the family dog, Oscar. He's the sweetest black lab you'll ever meet.
My little brother is all grown up. He just turned 18, he graduates high school at the beginnin of June, and he'll be moving to Chicago in the fall to attend Columbia College. It's pretty exciting!
My dad finally got his corvette. Mom says that he was so excited when he got it that he decided to drive the whole way home from Edina with the top down (this was back in March when it was still below freezing in MN). Dad says he just couldn't figure out how to get the top up. Either way, it had to have been a cold ride.
The family came in town for Easter, and the first restaurant stop we had to make was Portillos. Dave loves his chicago-dog.
Ben complained the whole time he was here about how bored he was. Little did he know that we were surprising him with a trip to Midieval Times for his 18th birthday. He suffered through a trip to Ikea and as we pulled into the parking lot he finally put a smile on his face.
Here is the family at Medieval Times. It's set up like a big arena and there's jousting and horse tricks and all kinds of medieval stuff going on. And you have to eat all of your food with your hands. Ben got a kick out of it.
We decided to spend Easter at Navy Pier. Big mistake...it was FREEZING! But it was still fun to go down and walk around and get an better idea of what's there and what it's like. We'll have to go back when it's warmer.
Here we are under the Navy Pier sign, being tourists. It was fun.
We were going to play mini-golf, but the indoor course was crawling with little rugrats. It's inside this big greenhouse-type thing, so here's Ben and mom, hanging out.
Me with Dad and Ben in the mini-golf jungle. Fun stuff.
Navy Pier has a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, so we ate lunch there, and then dad and I sat on Forrest's bench with his box of chocolates.
Here's mom and me back in February when she came in town to visit. We're at this little Mexican restaurant called Tarasca's. They have great enchiladas.
Dad came in town for a night on buisness so we hung out and got him not one, but two chicago-dogs, one from Demon Dogs, the other from the Weiner Circle. This is us the next morning outside the Lincoln Park Best Buy.
My first trip back to Kansas since moving to Chicago was for the NASCAR race at the Kansas Speedway. It's a lot of fun. We watch from atop our friend Tim's motorhome in the infield of the racetrack. Once I experienced this, I had a whole new appreciation for racing.
My mom is the best. She came to visit me in Chicago for a weekend. We spent the whole weekend making my apartment look great. We also went to great restaurants and she made me great homecooked meals.
I also went to the IRL race at the Kansas Speedway with my parents over the 4th of July weekend. We had hot passes which allowed us to go onto the track for the introduction of the drivers and the singing of the national anthem. We then got to hang out in the pits with the drivers and for the beginning of the race. Then we went at watched part of the race from on top of the Team Menard trailer, which was really nice.
One of my favorite nights this summer was spent at Treasure Island where my dad, Ben, and I threw a surprise party for my mom's birthday. It was great to see the family and all of my mom's friends, and we all had a good time playing blackjack and winning at the nickel slots.
This was a proud moment for me, my little brother, Ben, finally decided to try a beer. Too bad he didn't like it. I guess it's probably a good thing that he's nothing like me when I was in high school.
These are my cousins on my dad's side of the family. Out of the eight, I am the oldest and somehow the shortest.
My rockstar parents decided to brave the Hawk with me for the Final Four game. My mom and I arrived at about 11:00am and then my dad met us about 6 hours later, just in time for the game. I think it's great that they got to experience Kansas Basketball at my favorite college bar.
Here's the family in town for mom's weekend, which happened to be the weekend of the Final Four. It was a lot of fun.
