The In-Law Suite

Despite an initial mix-up with directions, Robbie’s family arrived in Cleveland late Friday night for a much anticipated visit. We had prepped the “in-law suite” earlier in the week with a new can of Chock Full-O-Nuts (1/2 caff) coffee for Robbie’s dad. We tried to make it sound luxurious but in reality it is a pretty small room in our pretty small (aka cozy) house. Either way, it was nice to finally have his parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew out to see our new home!

We woke up bright and early the next morning despite staying up late talking after they rolled in. One of the first places we wanted to take them was the Westside Market. We all loaded in the van and took off for the day.

Grandpa T. and Max at the Westside Market

Shelly with Champagne Grapes - look how cute they are...and yummy!

Robbie and I at the market

Westside Market produce side

Gorgeous old ceilings inside the 2nd building

Cannolis = delicious!

After the market we headed back home to grill out for lunch and Robbie got to show off his new grill (another one of his favorite acquisitions since arriving in Cleveland). We napped and waited for the heat to die down so we could head out to Lakewood park in the late afternoon. Lakewood park has a great view of the Cleveland skyline so we took a family photo!

I think Max is pointing at his cousin :)

Robbie was also excited to take our nephew, Max, to the park although I’m not sure if he spent more time playing by himself or entertaining Max. Pretty sure he will use our daughter as an excuse to act like a 2 year old himself!

Robbie and Grandpa T. swinging Max

Lake Eerie in the background

Sometimes I find it hard to believe this man is a doctor...

We had fun taking Max for walks up and down our street and watching him “garden” in our backyard weed patch :) He has added a few words to his vocabulary (which previously consisted of the word “ball”). Pretty much everything now, good or bad, elicits an “uh-oh” from Max which is hilarious. On our walks Max would give an enthusiastic “Ohhhh” whenever he saw a dog or something interesting. He loves going for walks and made us laugh several times when he would go get his shoes, bring them to grandma or grandpa and plop down on the floor in front of them waiting for someone to put his shoes on and take him outside. Conveniently this happened near bedtime on Saturday night…Max left our house with only a few bumps and bruises from taking a nose dive into our sidewalk and is getting much faster each time we see him!

Max working hard in the garden

We ordered our first good Cleveland pizza Saturday night and watched a terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger movie on local T.V. It was seriously really, really bad but like a car accident, hard to look away… In the morning we went to The Root café – a little organic/vegetarian coffee shop in Lakewood and then it was time for the family to head back to Chicago. It’s amazing how fast their visit went – we had so much more we wanted to show them and are already making a “to do” list for the next visit!