For
the last few years, July 4th weekend has been a family reunion on my
mom’s side. Everyone comes to her house
to swim and enjoy each other’s company.
This year was by far the best because Sarah was able to get in the water
and keep up for the most part with the older kids. This allowed for Deb and me to have a better
time without having to constantly be entertaining our kids. This is also the weekend when I picked up the
nickname “Uncle Uber.” Yeah, you can
figure it out. I helped take the girls
back to our house one night and Deb suggested I take an Uber ride back over to
my mom’s. It turned out that idea was
all I needed to turn it up a few notches to the point where I guess I was
having a dance-off with Laura (which neither of us remember). Needless to say that “Uncle Uber” had to take
it easy the next day! As always it was
great to see all of the family members that could make it and we enjoyed a fantastic
firework show.
At the
end of July, my mom retired! Earlier in the
month, my sisters and our spouses threw her a retirement party at a restaurant
nearby. I think any time you are doing
shots with your aunts and uncles, it is definitely a good time. Mom had a great time and it was a well-deserved
party. That night, Laura and her family
stayed at our house for the first time (they usually stay at Mom’s since it is
so close). The babysitters said the kids
had a great time playing together and I know our girls still ask about when
Claire, Grace and Jake are going to sleep at our house again! Also that weekend, my mom hosted a reunion on
my dad’s side at her house. It was great
to see so many of my cousins and aunts and uncles I don’t see that often. I think everyone hopes that becomes an annual
tradition each summer.
Later
in the month, we took off on a Thursday to visit the Rago’s at Lake
Geneva. Between our arrival and Sunday,
we only moved the car once to go to the grocery store to get more beer! They have a 4 year old daughter and a 1 year
old son. All of the girls played well
together in the pool along with the toys they found inside. The highlight of this trip was on Saturday,
when all 4 kids went down for a 2 hour nap, the parents may have drank the
cooler empty. Along with that, we may
have had to cancel our dinner plans since no one was able to drive. When that happens, you just order pizza and just
keep on drinking. We also celebrated Deb’s
birthday on this trip. The Ragos were
able to order a cake which everyone enjoyed and she got several cards and gifts. Her big gift was a Coach purse which she saw
when visiting her sister in June when they both decided that was what they wanted!
Sarah’s Things of the Month
Sarah’s tantrums are still occurring, but they are
happening a little less often and she is starting to drift away from the “Daddy”
phase that has been going on since March.
I’m still happy she loves to have me around, but having her ask for “Mommy”
is a nice break!
Allison’s Things of the Month
I was lucky enough to go along on one of Allison’s
field trips this month. Her class was going
to a farm near to where I work, so I was able to leave work for a few hours and
she was pretty excited. Now, it was 95
degrees and they were walking around in the sun without water, so those kids
started losing it pretty quickly. I’m
fortunate enough to have a locker room where I work so I was able to clean-up
when I got back to work.
A few more items from this
month
- There was a parade for at daycare to celebrate July 4th. It was lots of fun as the kids marched around.
- We celebrated Mom’s birthday by going out to dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack with Matt, Beth, Pat, Paul, Mark, Kenny and Mom.
- I went to Minneapolis to assist our executives do an acquisition. It was quite a learning experience and I may need to back a few more times.
- Deb went to girl’s night at Matt the Millers in Carmel.
- I went a work function at Sun King Brewery. I hadn’t been there before, so it was really great to see the brewing process along with trying some beers you can’t buy.
- Deb took a day off and took the girls to the Children's Museum. The girls were extra excited because they got to ride the carousel twice!
