August 2015
This
month marked the 25th year in a row (yeah, my family LOVES
traditions) that we have enjoyed a weekend up near St. Joseph, MI. These weekends have always been a highlight
of the summer and it is great to see another generation getting excited about
this trip. As the girls get older, the
trip becomes much more enjoyable as they are able to play with their cousins
and we are able to do more fun things with them. We arrived on Thursday and after we unpacked
the car, we went to town for a walk on the beach. After our carousel ride, we found a great
place for dinner and enjoyed some ice cream.
After that, we rented a 2 person bike with a bench for kids and drove it
around town for a half hour. It was quite
the work-out for Deb and I, but the girls loved it and enjoyed waving at everyone. Another benefit this year was Deb was able to
get the “Kids Suite” room which for about $25 more a night, allowed us an extra
room to put the girls. This allowed for whoever
put the kids to bed to have a place to sit and also allowed for people to come
up and sit with them if they had put the girls to bed. We spend the first day at a quiet beach in
St. Joseph called “Lion Beach” and we enjoyed the playground and the
water. We spent the next 2 days at our
normal beach and Allison climbed the dune all by herself, both days. Sarah enjoyed being carried up the Dune,
which wasn’t fun for Beth, Deb or myself.
The
next weekend we decided to go the state fair and enjoy all of the festivities
that goes along with that. We arrived
relatively early and walked around a little bit. We then found ourselves checking out all of
the animals which the girls enjoyed.
After that, we took the tractor around the state fair, which was a nice
way to cool off an also get around to different parts of the fair. The girls had fun in the family area and
enjoyed pretending to be farmers. We
also were able to go on a few rides this year.
Allison and I went on the Ferris wheel, the girls and I went down a big
slide, everyone went on a Dumbo ride and then Allison rode a ride all by
herself! I thought for sure she was
crying, but she enjoyed it. We ended the
trip with lunch and ice cream and then everyone went home for a nap!
The
following weekend, I took off on Friday with Jeremy and Ben W. to visit Brad in
Chicago. We enjoyed some great burgers
on Friday night and of course, some beers.
On Saturday, we went for a run by the lake and then hit up a Cubs
game. We ran into a few more guys at the
game and it was really good to hang out with Daran. We proceeded to stay out all day and made our
way back to Brad’s part of town by the evening.
The bar next to his place was a good place to hang out outside and hang
out with everyone. We definitely stayed
out too long and probably should have crashed earlier. I’m glad we were able to make this trip
happen since Brad is moving to San Francisco in a few months. I’m sure we will see him soon, but it was fun
to hang out for an entire weekend. While
I was gone, Deb’s parents came to visit and enjoyed a weekend with Deb and the
girls. They went to the pool and had fun
seeing how much the girls enjoyed it. They
took the girls around to pick up some things along with started working on
their Halloween costumes.
Sarah’s Things of the Month
Sarah apparently is the most well behaved kid ever at the
dentist. I wasn’t there, but she just
sat there and opened her mouth real easily for the dentist. I find that a little hilarious considering
how difficult she can be for us!
Allison’s Things of the Month
Allison got some new glasses this month. They are “progressive” bifocal lenses and she
is adapting pretty well to them.
Hopefully, they help her see better and it will help improve her
vision. Allison also went to Henry’s
birthday party (neighborhood buddy).
A few more items from this
month:
- We attended another Smokefest party at Brandon and Diane’s house. It was another buffet of smoked foods that left you wishing you had a bigger stomach!
- I made another trip to Minnesota early in the month. It could be a routine thing over the next few months.
- We had some random visits by Beth, Matt and Chelsea this month to visit with the girls.
- We took the girls over to my Mom’s for a few hours on a Saturday morning to catch up on yard-work.
- Deb went to breakfast with Julie Gebhart and they enjoyed catching up.
- I joined a fantasy football league at work. It was good to do the draft with those guys outside of the work environment and have some beers.
