Allerton Park

Hello...

Here are some pictures of when J and I went to Allerton gardens with Dad and Mom(Haas). Allerton gardens was originally home to a very wealthy Chicago millionare and art collector. He had beautiful gardens and manicured lawns, sculptures etc. Later he donated it to the state and it is now owned by the University of Illinois, and it is now a park where people can host conferences, weddings, picknicks and go for walks.

This first lovely picture is of Dad and Mom and there is also one of Jason and I later.

There was even an area with bright red flowers, where you could watch the humingbirds feed on the flowers.
(sorry I don't have a picture of that :()

It was a fun weekend, though we did get eaten by a few mosquitos when we went for a walk through the woods. We finished off the weekend with some yummy Indian Food, always a good way to end a weekend.

Yea for the blessing of grandparents and parents...

Hello Everybody!

Jason has been doing most of the updating, though I have been present and adding inputs on the side too. I wanted to add some more info about this past summer.

We had the privilege of having Granny(my Ma's mom) and Oupa and Ouma(my Pa's parents) come through this summer and spend the US summer holidays with us.(I think it's a pretty good deal, winter in ZA is summer here-the best of both worlds)


We were even so fortunate to have Pa, Oupa and Ouma come up to visit us in Illinois. Here are some pictures of us with Ouma, Oupa, Pa and me.(Jason is taking the picture) and another of the ol' folks walking the gardens. Pa, Ouma, Oupa and Jason did an amazing job weeding the garden! It was great I was so thankful!!

We also had a wonderful time braaing(grilling out) and enjoying the marvelous weather. Jason made the most yummiest of steaks and boerewors and it was just divine!! Thanks Dad for bringing the steaks...we had fun talking about the future and remembering lots of fond old memories too! Truly a spectacular time together.

Granny and Ma came through earlier for a weekend and we also had a blessed time together(our little apartment is too small to house everyone at one time). Here is a picture of the three generation of ladies.

A little later Granny joined Ma and Bev and myself for a girly day of shopping at Gurnee Mills to celebrate my 24th birthday!! Mom and I tired out Bev and Gran, but luckily they had many coffee stops, where they got to have coffee and snacks(lots of cheescake!!!) while we continued to shop and they rested. I had a wonderful time and we literally shopped till we all dropped and then shopped some more the next day!

Here are some pictures of us celebrating my birthday (celebrating with ice cream of course) and also a picture of the amazingly stunning jacket that Granny bought me (I am so spoiled and I absolutely love it!)

Needless to say we all enjoyed the time that we had together. Everyone is now safely back in South Africa, though please be praying for Granny's back, it has been painful lately, and she has been having treatments to strengthen it. Besides that everyone is glad to be back at 'home' and seeing all the loved ones that have not seen for a while.

We're back (not "The boys are back in town")

So, it's been 2.5 months since we've written. We've done a lot of different things in the mean time. Sorry, if you've been trying to keep track of us or watching this site. Here's the skinny...

Back in July, we traveled to Wisconsin for Tim and Melissa Whitehead's wedding. It was much fun and even got in a dance. Man we're rusty. :) The picture to the right is of us at mom & dad's in Middleton, just before we left. Doesn't she look hot! It was a very happy night, and we enjoyed reconnecting with friends we hadn't seen for quite a while.

In early August, we traveled to North Carolina for some vacation. Our first stop was Fort Bragg to see Craig before he shipped off. We sampled all the finest Fort Bragg and Fayetteville had to offer, including the base's obstacle course, which you will note a picture of us on it to the left, the southern comforts of Waffle House and of course (if you know the area) pawn/military surplus stores. I got some awesome new camo pants, thanks to Craig. I'll do my best not to shrink these ones. I'm really enjoying the load-bearing belt too. I'm ready for anything now. It's holding up to the Haas-belt-rigor tests so far, that is, it's still intact. Notice again to the right a picture of us at the infamous Waffle House, and there's another of Craig and Maria at the same establishment. Notice how I can't stop chewing for the camera, I'm so excited to be at a Waffle House. They need to migrate to Illinois and then Wisconsin. After a short visit, we had to move on to the Outer Banks and joined some friends for camping, fishing, swimming, surfing, relaxing, grilling and whatever other "-ing" words you normally attach with fun and outdoors. It was sad to say good-bye, but we'll hopefully see him again in December while he's on leave.

We had great weather except for one night when our tent wanted to blow away, and we got a bit water logged. Chantal turns out to be a natural at surfing, no surprise. She got up on her first time out. We went with friends of ours Dylan and Angie and their new addition Raquel, as well as Angie's two sisters and their husbands. (Kristen & Derek, Carrie & Evan) Raquel was a very good baby. The fishing was a bit disappointing, but we did catch a variety of fish including Spanish mackerel, bluefish, spadefish, a small black-tip shark, a grunter (although they call it a croaker) and something else we can't remember what it was called, thought it was small too. When we were fishing on the pier, we saw a shark about 5 feet long, probably a black-tip, sea turtles most days we were out there and jelly fish. We visited some light houses and the "lost town" of Roanoke. The light house actually was moved a couple years ago. It was pretty impressive to see how they did it, moving it on railroad line without any disassembly.

On our last night on the Outer Banks, we drove down to the south end and took a ferry to Ocracoke. We went to a place called The Jolly Roger for dinner.{sorry, Jason's head is partially hidden by my(Chantal) big head. :( } It was nice, located right on the water and had a live band. The food was good. Chantal got to eat more shrimp and was in shrimp heaven. Here's a picture of us all after dinner. While waiting for the ferry on the return trip, the guys watched National Treasure in Derek's truck. Cool.Here's a bunch of pictures from the trip... (Surfin' U.S.A.)







Here's one of us on the beach wearing our surfing shirts.

On the way out, we stopped for dinner in a suburb of Charleston, WV. We went to a place, which seemed like a local chain called "Tudor's Biscuit World." It was decent, unique to be sure. It's no rival to the Waffle House, though.

School has begun for both of us again. I've been making trips every once in a while to run tests for research. Chantal is working again at the art gallery and still working at the Humane Society. Things are very busy all over again. Oh yeah, how could I forget, we probably picked somewhere around 120 lbs. of tomatoes from our garden over the last month and a half, mostly in August. Our poblano peppers are still going strong too. It's been a fruitful season. We've canned a bunch of them and eaten tomatoes until we really don't want any more to do with them.

We've both been sick with colds this past week or two. I sprained my ankle last weekend, but it's almost all better. We're already looking forward to Thanksgiving and taking a break.

Keep Craig in your prayers.