SQUOOSHED: X-man

No blog, I haven't forgotten about you! While Michael Phelps was swimming his way to his 18th gold medal, we've been busy in South Korea swimming around in Korean vocabulary and conjugations. (Or maybe drowning is more like it?)

And after returning to the U.S. last week, we had just enough time for a little family reunion and Patrick's high school reunion before moving all our stuff out of Patrick's parent's house and into our new Evanston abode.

It's good to finally be here!!! Except on Saturday we leave for a week-long trip to Uruguay with some of Patrick's incoming Kellogg classmates. But then I think we're really here for good :)

I'd show you a picture of our apartment, but it's kind of a disaster zone right now. So for the time being, while we get our lives here in order, let me take you back to a couple months ago...

Or maybe more like 16 years, seeing as how a trip to Wichita would not be complete without the following blast from the past:

As a child, I always enjoyed the company of my cousin Ashley whenever she would visit from Wichita, but I tend to think that our friendship didn't truly blossom until our shared obsession with the Backstreet Boys (or any boy band in general) was introduced.

You may recall from this post that Ashley and her husband Garrett just recently had a baby. And so naturally our Midwestern journey took us to Wichita so we could meet Xavier (aka X-man) for the first time.

Since his room is a jungle theme, we brought him this snake. We weren't sure how he would react (with it being a snake after all) but he immediately embraced it.

Can you guess which bottle was his?

For dinner, Ashley, Garrett, and my Aunt Diana were kind enough to treat us to dinner at Stroud's Restaurant and Bar.

This restaurant has won many awards, including the James Beard Award for Excellence.

They are known for their fried chicken, so Patrick and I decided to split their family style chicken dinner. We weren't disappointed!

Comfort food at its finest :)

X-man was sleeping for a majority of the meal - but don't worry, I saved him some fried chicken for later.

Back home, while X-man took a bath and went to bed, we were thoroughly entertained by their three dogs - Maggie, Sampson, and Sara. Maggie did the most socializing with us.

She even showed us her begging trick (on several occasions). Patrick and I were both very impressed (several times).

The next day we were able to sneak in some more QT with little X-man (and some Sonic) before heading out. Check out those beautiful eyes of his... which are probably gazing longingly at his mama somewhere behind the camera.