Welcome

I am pleased to welcome you to the 2016 edition of our Valentine site.  We hope that you will enjoy seeing our photos, reading the photo captions, and catching up on the many developments in our lives.

This was our first full year in our new house on Jenna Road.  Brooke and Kevin spent many days exploring our new neighborhood. They particularly enjoyed their hikes in The Grove, a lovely nature preserve located just across busy Milwaukee Avenue. Many of the nature photos that make up this year’s valentine were taken there.

As you navigate through the photos, you may detect that Brooke and Kevin are slowly melting away as the year progresses.  In late August, Brooke joined Kevin in an aggressive diet program mandated by Kevin’s cardiologist. Together, they have discovered the joy of low-carb cooking and the satisfaction of feeling thinner.

Quite a few of the photos in the valentine were taken during tours of homes and other structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Brooke and Kevin participated in Wright tours in the nearby Illinois towns of Oak Park, Riverside, and Glencoe.  Longer trips to tour Wright sites included Rockford (with Caitlin) and Madison, Wisconsin.

Many of the photos included this year are from celebrations of the Chicago Trainor family. We started a new tradition this year of marking celebrations with family outings.  These included trips to a Broadway show, a comedy show, the Shedd Aquarium, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Morton Arboretum. Typical participants included Brooke, Kevin, Erin, Caitlin, John, and Denny.  Of course these new-style celebrations were supplemented with the usual holiday dinner celebrations that included Brooke’s parents, Louise and Bob.

This very happy year has been tempered with the sadness of having to say farewell to some of our pets who have been close members of our family for a very long time. These included Louise’s loyal companion Holly, Caitlin’s cat Mira, and Erin’s cat Nutmeg. The valentine includes their photos as well as photos of dear departed pet friends from our extended family of friends.  They will all be missed.

No Trainor valentine is complete without photos of the teddy bear family.  This year’s teddy highlight is a photo of Middle and Buster sharing a beer with Kevin during a long flight delay at the Phoenix airport.  Those three spent 8 weeks in Phoenix last summer while Kevin was teaching a Java programming boot camp. With daily temperatures ranging between 105 F and 117 F, cooling down at the end of a long workday was a must.

We Want to Hear From You

As always, we want to hear from you.  So, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts using the comment box below.  Also, you may reach us by email.  Our current email addresses and our postal address are listed on the Contact page.

Visit the Photo Gallery

Please remember to visit our 2016 Photo Gallery.

All the Best,

Boo