Chicago Shook’s First Half of 2023

Here we are trying to post within the year we were assigned!  It's not the right month, but hey, progress!

It's been a busy 2023 so far.  We don't really do it any other way, and with our recent addition, we've stepped it up a notch even further.  That said, we're starting this retrospective in January, when I took Theo up to Wisconsin for his first taste of skiing.  He took to it more quickly than I expected!  Although I think we'll have to work on stops and turns.  In the Midwest, "french fries and go" is a viable strategy!

We then had Katie's birthday party the next weekend.  With about 20 folks attending and the kids at a grandparents sleepover, it was a welcome change of pace.

In mid-February, we trekked down to Cincinnati to celebrate the first birthday of cousin Bennett (son of Katie's brother John).  It was the first stop in a solid stretch of frequent cousin visits.

At the end of February, Andrew met Mom and Dad in Minnesota for selections with the new house on the lake.  We visited the property and got to see the foundation in place before heading to a day of marathon meetings to decide everything from windows to hinges to countertops.

Throughout this time, Katie was completing her first whirlwind tour with her new responsibilities at work.  She has moved from Catastrophe Modeler (risk assessment in the actuarial department) to take a role as a Associate VP of Client Relations in the business development department.  There are times of the year where this requires her to accompany their client organizations to various hubs of reinsurance to meet with brokers and they just so happen to be international destinations.  Katie was in London and Bermuda in March and returned to Bermuda in April.

In between these trips, all of the continental US based Shook children's families, plus Mom and Dad, met up in Chicago during the shared Spring Break for Hannah, Dad, and Samuel.  Katie's parents were gracious enough to share their house as well to help us all congregate close together (despite a slight fiasco with the boiler at the Van Cleave's).

In April, we experienced our first year of many many to come of being governed by the school calendar and Theo's Spring Break presented the opportunity to travel to warmer climates.  We visited Katie's aunt, uncle, and cousin in College Station TX (where her aunt teaches at Texas A&M) and then traveled to Galveston for a few days where we again connected with cousin Spencer and Hannah and James.  

Upon return, we embarked upon what is developing into "Birthday Row" which kicks off with Natalie's birthday in late April.  Her instructions for the cake were:

    1. Sprinkles

    2. ...

So we got a cake that was entirely covered in sprinkles and it was surprisingly tasty!

The next weekend, Theo and Andrew took an impromptu trip back to Kansas to see Samuel's concerto concert at Southwestern.

May brought about a more local focus as Katie entered the final weeks of her pregnancy.  We took trips to the Lincoln Park Zoo and other Chicago attractions on the weekends.

Theo completed the spring session of his AYSO season.

And of course, Theo turned six at the end of May.  We asked where he would like to host his birthday party and there is only one place that is apparently acceptable with the cool kids: the trampoline park!  So we hosted about 15 kids + siblings from his Kindergarten class plus a few other friends.

Theo completed his Kindergarten year, the first week of June.  There was a talent show and Field Day among the run of activities to celebrate the end of the year.  Theo will let you know that he is already a first grader even though school doesn't start for another month.  

There was one more birthday thrown in there for Andrew before focused turned to the most important birthday of 2023:

Lincoln Albert Shook was born on Thursday June 29th at 6:24pm.  He weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 21inches long.  Siblings met him for the first time in the hospital on the Friday and he came home on Saturday.  After a rough first week, he has been eating and (most importantly) sleeping regularly and we're very interested to see his weight gain at his one-month appointment next week!  He is fitting right in at home and we look forward to the rest of 2023 as a family of 5!

We wish you a happy and healthy rest of 2023 and hope to see you soon!