End of Summer Fun

Summer was way too short here. In fact, this summer was really weird and colder than usual. I thought we would be living at the beach, but we actually only went a handful of times. Everyone told me that I would love it here once summer hit, but it never fully came. Luckily, we were able to find other fun activities to do. We had fun exploring all the death trap playgrounds in our area. They are definitely not regulating things in these small towns and we have plenty of huge metal slides that will either burn your skin or flat out kill you. Of course my kids love them, but I made the mistake of going down once with Conrad and I realized how dangerous it was and he got a taste of how fun it was, so we had to leave. 

We also really enjoyed the library's summer reading program. They had some sweet prizes and at the end you got a free ride on the carousal and a free ice cream cone from Kilwan's. Those cones, while delicious, are expensive at $4.50 a pop, which to me is a bit absurd. They also had a drawing at the end and Netta actually won 2 tickets to the Grand Rapids Zoo. We are learning that a perk to living in a small town is that you can actually win when there are contests. I had to include both these pictures of the kids enjoying their ice cream just to show how comically hard it is to get a picture of all of them smiling and looking at the camera. 

We also won some free photography through the guy who took EZ's baseball pictures. I was really excited because we loved his picture, but then we found out his prices for family pictures and we learned that the $200 we won actually didn't get us much. The real kicker was that you have to buy all the prints through him, which are really expensive and if you want a digital copy it will cost you a minimum of $500! All I wanted was one family picture for Christmas cards and sadly it was a struggle to get even one we liked. The kids were being kind of cranky, but then he also did not know how to work well with little kids. We miss our photographer Jessica from Texas :( Anyway, on the bright side he did have a little pond and some ducks in his backyard that we got to play with.

When we found out there was a county fair, we had to hit that up. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy the whole time. The kids didn't mind, but I never would have thought I would be wearing boots and a jacket in August. Of course the crazy unhealthy food was a huge hit as was the free circus. It was definitely free for the reason, but the kids don't know any different ;) The also had a ton of animals to see and a bunch of cows that were about to give birth and if you were lucky you would get to see it. Our entertainment options are definitely way different than in Austin. HaHa

Sharon's Graduation

Our second trip to my parents this summer was for my niece Sharon's graduation. We started out the festivities with some leftover fireworks. We had to make up for the extreme lack of fireworks we had on the 4th. King had a blast even if he doesn't look so sure of it here.

Netta and Lucy had matching jammies that were once actually Grace's and Netta's. I love that we have Lucy to hand down Netta's clothes to. Rachel has been so generous with giving Netta clothes and it feels good to get to pass ours along as well.

Grandpa Steve won grandpa of the year by driving all the kids around the neighborhood on his motorcycle. King was the only hold out. In fact Conrad even took a turn and he would have ridden it over and over again, if the cop who lives in my dad's neighborhood hadn't come home ;) 

We took what it now becoming our traditional trip to the Drive-In for Ellie's birthday. Unfortunately, the only kids movie showing was Planes 2. The kids were fine with it, but me not so much.

Sharon's graduation was earlier in June, but we came for the party of course! My sister did a great job putting together an Asian themed party with great food and the biggest table of weird Asian candy I have ever seen. Luckily there was really amazing candy in the mix and it was a blast, although the thought of my niece graduation high school makes me feel really old. 

Another perk to coming for the party was that my Grandpa Bob and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy also come to town for it. I have been really spoiled by them coming to visit when I come. Hopefully, now that we are closer to NY we can make the drive sometime to see them in Rochester. I have such found memories of my grandparents house that it would be so sad if my kids never got to see it.

Of course my kids loved all their cousin time and we learned that Uncle Jared is a master fort builder, The kids lived in this thing and took some great pictures in it as well.

Netta especially loved all of her girl cousin time. Here she is getting her finger nails and toe nails painted by Carol and Ellie. She is so spoiled. 

Mom Gets Away

It's no secret that this move has not been easy for me, but luckily in July my awesome friend Lara flew up from Austin to meet me in Chicago for a girls weekend and it was amazing!!! We got to live it up in style at the Hilton Garden Inn on the Magnificent Mile thanks to her husband's sweet hotel points. Gotta have some perks to a husband who has to travel a lot. We also got the hook up from one of her friends who got us tickets to see the Cubs play and hats to boot. 

Of course we did all the touristy stuff like the Aquarium, the Field Museum, the John Hancock Tower and the Bean. I almost felt guilty doing all this stuff I know my kids would love without them, but not guilty enough to actually want them there ;)

One thing we didn't know when we planned our trip was that the weekend we picked was Taste of Chicago, a huge food festival. This was a gift from God after how much I have struggled with the lack of restaurants in St. Joe. We ate there 2 of the days and we would have eaten there all 3, but it got rained out one of them.

It was also the weekend of the World Cup and since Lara's mom is German it was a really big deal for her. We didn't know where we wanted to watch it since we didn't want to go to a loud bar, but we just happened to stumble upon an practically empty bar in a fancy hotel that let us hang out and happened to have sweet appetizers for free if you just bought one drink. We really got our money's worth out of our Diet Cokes. 

It was so awesome to spent time with a great friend eating great food. I am proud to say I only cried a little when I got in the car after dropping her off at the airport.

Uncle Casey Plays in Milwaukee

We were lucky enough that the AVP came to Milwaukee this year, which meant we finally got to see Uncle Casey and his partner Jake Gibb play some amazing volleyball. They happened to be playing over 4th of July weekend, which made for a perfect family trip. I can honestly say that before this all I knew about Milwaukee came from Wayne's World, so I was surprised to learn that it right on the water and has some fun beaches. I won't say great beaches because our are better ;) 

We had a great time at the beach playing in the sand. The water was way to cold to actually get in. Conrad ate a lot of stand and we got to bury EZ and Netta. EZ got really made at Johnny for making him look like a muscle man once he was buried and not a character from Minecraft. We, however, thought it was hilarious.

The hotel had a pool so we opted to do our swimming in it's much more pleasant water. 

Afterwards Conrad and King were super styling in their towels.

That night we tried to drive and find a place to watch fireworks, but parking was crazy and by the time we found a place King and Conrad were both asleep in the car so we abandoned that endeavor. Luckily, the kids could see some fireworks from our hotel window.

Casey and Jake played great and were undefeated day 1 and then again on day 2. This picture was right after they finished playing a close game the second day. Conrad was so excited by the action that he decided to have a major blow out that resulted in us having to throw away his swim suit. Unfortunately, I had packed 2 swim suits for everyone except him, so I had to go to Old Navy to get a new one. But let's be honest, I was more than happy to do that.

That night was got to have dinner with Casey. King became his new best friend and wanted to hog all his attention.

The 3rd day they lost in the semi finals, which was a bummer, but we still had such a blast. In fact, EZ liked it so much he now wants to learn to play. Milwaukee surprised us with it's awesome children's museum and frozen custard and of course we love getting to see family!

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

At the end of June we took our first of 3 summer trips to see Grandma and Grandpa. This time we went so we could overlap with Katie and Brad coming to visit from Texas. We got there a few days before them so we could have a slightly quieter house, before it got super crowded. Part of the reason it is so crowded is that my sister Meghan and her family just moved back to Pennsylvania and are living with my parents till they can get settled in a place of their own. It might make things a little crazy, but it also makes them awesome since it means we have friends to play with during the day. There were a couple times where I ended up having to watch all 7 kids for a couple of hours and I will admit I needed  Pepsi Max to make it through, but the kids had a blast. King is absolutely obsessed with his new cousin Sammy. He wants to hold him all the time and if he isn't holding him he wants to be sitting guard next to him. King can be our little stinker sometimes, but he is so sweet when it comes to babies and I kind of feel guilty, cause that ship has sailed at the Brown house.

My parents yard is awesome, so the kids spend a lot of time out there in the kiddie pool and playing with the house.

Netta really wanted me to get this picture of her after my dad sprayed her with the mister on the house and she had little bubbles in her hair. The girl is always ready to strike a pose.

Meghan's boy Timmy is a beast and when he wants to hug you he will hug up and then take you down. For some reason he really liked hugging EZ and he kept pinning him to the couch.

 When he wasn't hugging EZ, Timmy and Conrad were watching movies in the back room. They each had their own little folding chair and they would just sit back there so nicely. In fact it was the best way to keep them from fighting over other toys.

Of course we had to go to Kennywood at some point this summer and this trip worked out the best because they had buy 1 get 1 free days. My dad was able to take some time off from work to head there early with me so my older kids could ride a lot and then Meghan and her family, my mom, and Katie and her family joined us later. We all started in Kiddieland, but poor EZ is too big for a bunch of rides in there now.

Luckily, my friend Erin from high school lives right by Kennywood and she was able to join us as well. It was so cute to watch Conrad and her son Lux ride the rides together.

Because she was there with me it gave my dad a chance to take EZ by himself to ride the biggest rides. Then they came back and got Netta to ride the big, but not biggest rides. I love that EZ is over his fear of rides and Netta has never had any. These pics of the kids on the whip are always the best.

I love getting to catch up with Erin and I also love the fact that we both still look like we are 12.

My dad snapped this picture of the kids with the Kennywood mascot. King was not enthused as usual even though he was actually having fun. I am so grateful we are able to drive to my parents house now and we will be keeping the Kennywood tradition alive!

Our trip almost got extended when there was a huge storm in Michigan that knocked the power out for 2 1/2 days. I was glad I was at my parents and poor John just had to sweat it out. Luckily, the power came back on the day we had planned to head home. We were luckily that the storm didn't really damage our home, but we did find some sweet hug branches impaled in the ground. Not sure this is what I had envisioned our Michigan summer being like.