Alex's birthday was Thursday. He picked Red Robin for his birthday dinner, so we went to the mall (he also had some birthday money) and did some shopping and got dinner. He got to hang out with some friends this week as well, but generally it was a pretty chill birthday, I think. 

Saturday Beth and I went to Elmhurst IL (Chicagoland) for the funeral for Laura's best friend Monica. Laura's BFF since before high school, Monica passed recently of breast cancer that spread. We went mostly for moral support for Laura, but I wanted to see her brother Mark as well. We drove to Chicago early in the morning, as usual when we leave plenty of time for traffic, there isn't any to speak of and we get there very early. Anyway, the funeral was nice but short. There was a couple hours of visiting (she was cremated) before the service, then a pastor spoke (but didn't want to offend anyone, so it was spiritually very light), Mark spoke, and Laura spoke. The service lasted about 20 minutes or so, then everyone went to a Mexican restaurant adjacent to the funeral home before heading out. We were home by around 8pm.