Alsie

Elsie (Ben's sister) came up with the idea to refer to Ben and I as "renben" because this nickname simplifies things for when she is talking about both of us because it takes out the "and" from ren and ben.  I mean, the girl is a genius ;)  So, Ben has, in turn, decided to call Elsie and Alex "Alsie."

So, Alsie came to visit last weekend.  We had a lovely time together.  They recently got engaged and have set the date for their wedding as May 28th.  We are SO excited for them and had a wonderful time with our newly engaged family :)  They are both applying to law school at the University of Chicago (among others), so Ben and I made it our mission to persuade them into coming to Chicago!! (Ok ok, we'll let God take care of it.  But we're praying for them to come here if it's HIS will.  And we're praying for our will to align with his will.  Note: different from praying for his will to align with our will.  I've done that. Bad plan.)

Here are some pictures from our visit.  They are a few highlights, but most of all we just love spending time with one of our favorite couples and we loved celebrating their new engagement.

Enjoying dinner at Medici's - a local restaurant

Fun first night dinner (although we give the restaurant a B or lower...)

Taking turns with pictures in front of the pretty pumpkin garden.

Neither of us has had a sister before! :) woohoo!

Last picture with the same background, I promise :)

Grilling out near the lake

Using our amazing grill tools (wedding gift) for the first time on the worlds' smallest grill.  Not sure what that tool is for?

Intense game of super scrabble

I guess it's not going so well for Alex...

Elsie was probably winning super scrabble.. she's a pro

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We love the Italian Beef at Ben's new favorite restaurant - Portillo's

Bowling lane in hyde park where you keep your own score.  Proud to say that team BenRen won ;)

Proud that everyone's burgers AND buns fit on the tiny grill!!

Ben, Alex, and Elsie also went to visit some of the sites at the University of Chicago.  They loved the campus - hopefully they'll love it so much they'll come back for 3 ish years to study. 

Thanks for visiting, Alex and Elsie!  We loved having you :)

-Ren & Ben