For the second year in a row, Cindy and I have made our way downtown for the 3rd annual Chicago Blackhawks Convention.  It’s such a nice way to fill that painfully long gap between the Stanley Cup Finals and the preseason.  Sure, there’s the NHL Awards, and free agency, and salary cap issue; but there’s nothing like a good convention with all the true lifelong Hawks fans to take your mind off the fact that we might not have our Stanley Cup goaltender anymore by the time you read this.

So much has happened between last year’s convention, both for the team and for us, personally. I could ramble on and on about each, but I’ll spare you. Suffice it to say that we’ve been looking forward to this weekend since Game 6 ended in OT, and it’s great to be here.

Baby Update

Of course, if you cared so much about the Blackhawks, you’d be standing in these long lines with us, so let’s skip to the good stuff. :P

I know the blog has been lacking the baby-to-be news that seems to be the most interesting to everyone, so I’m trying to get to posting more often (at least once a week). Especially now that we’re pass the half way point and things are going to start moving a long very fast from this point on. It’s going to be baby’s first Xmas before we know it.

If you’re not following along with us on Facebook, then it will be news to you that last week we found out our little one is going to be (or technically, already is) a boy. Well, that takes care of a few of our 20 questions. While not the little princess we were shooting for, my fatherly intuition is kicking into overdrive now and the prospect of having a little Nelly is starting to get to me more than I had imagined. Visions and goals for the future are coming fast and furious; the latest being thoughts of having a home up in northern Wisconsin with a backyard that, starting in about five years, will be flooded each winter. That’s a longer story, but I’ll get into it someday.

Being here at the convention this weekend – baby bump’s first hockey memories – has really put things into perspective as to how much fuller our lives are about to become.  And when I say fuller, I don’t mean busier, I mean complete. I’m not going to get all sappy, but just know that I could. :)

Hello August

It’s hard to believe that summer’s almost gone, but it is.

We have a few fun things coming up in August before things with mommy and baby get really intense. In a few weeks, we’ll be having dinner with tigers, and the weekend after that, we’re hoping to be heading back to Door County (finally) for the first time since January. Also the first time to Door County during a month that didn’t fall between September and April.

Of course, August was supposed to be the month we had hoped to spend entirely on Maui, as well as attending the ’10 Maui Photo Festival with all the great folks we met at last year’s event.  Obviously we have chosen to take a much different path with our lives since this time last year, but you’re not going to hear a single complaint from either of us.  A few years down the line, when we finally return to the island we love with keiki in tow, you might hear “holy cow, I can’t believe we’ve waited this long to come back” out of either one of us, but it won’t be a complaint, that’s for sure.

– Kris