PLEASE pass it on ...

well ...

the people at portillo's must have somehow gotten the message from ed debevecs

apparently all it takes to keep my 3 yr old happy at a meal is a little paper hat.

who knew?

rainy ... 60 ... SO?!?!?!

as i mentioned ...
the weather for our week at the beach wasn't 'ideal'.
BUT ...
we didn't let it stop us.

NOW ...
we didn't sit down at the beach all day ;)
BUT ...
the kids still spent a great deal of time down there.

with the beach being only a few (crooked and uneven) steps away from the house -
they would play in the sand,
get enticed in by the waves,
swim for 20 minutes ...



and then head up to warm up ...
THEN ...
an hour later they'd be begging to go back down to the beach.

crazy kids.

and the funny thing is ...

i'm not sure if it's that they REALLY wanted to go down to the beach ...

or if they caught on that each time they went down to the beach,
they got to follow it up with a soak in the hot tub
(they sure are smarter than they look ... te he he)

'

note to self: hot tub on deck overlooking lake michigan is a HUGE hit
with kids and adults

hidden talents ;)

another day that it was a bit rainy we decided to drive a bit away from the lake ...
and the weather was perfect.
(well .. ok not PERFECT perfect.
60's in august is not even close to perfect ...
but better than rain ...
and perfect for go carting and mini golfing!)

drew was tall enough to drive his own go-cart and he was PUMPED!

i expected him to go from wall to wall bumping and crashing -
but he did REALLY well!



in fact ...
i told stacey to hang back and let drew win the first time -
well drew ended up winning every race -
and is now certain that he is the best go-carter out there ;)
i didn't have the heart to tell him that the only reason he kept winning is because I wasn't racing :)

we followed up go-carting with a round of mini golf.
ben got to golf alone with ellie (his cousin) and they LOVED that ...
drew did REALLY well (in fact he probably beat me) ...
and alex ...
well ...
i'm not sure who taught him the rules of golf (had to be either stacey or my dad)
but he'd hit it about 7 times then just pick it up and drop it in the hole with his hands :)



i'm pretty sure stacey won overall -
but for the record,
i won 'most creative shot' ...

we were on a hole where you hit it into the first hole and it spits it out to a 2nd green.
well ... i just skipped that first hole all together -
hit the ball right down the stairs of the walkway -
AND IT WENT RIGHT INTO THE HOLE!!!

beat that, mr. barnett.
(oh wait ... that's right ... you couldn't)

alternative fun

we spent the 2nd half of our vacation in michigan -

along with stacey's brother's family we stayed at a house right on the beach of lake michigan.

it was a beautiful location ...

with an AMAZING view ...

HOWEVER,

it rained pretty much the whole time we were there ;)

it didn't stop the boys from playing in the water

(and it actually created AMAZING waves for them to jump in)

see next post ...te he he

BUT ...

it did force us to find a few other things to fill our time ...

SO ...

one day we drove over to kalamazoo and visited AIR*ZOO

AIR*ZOO is basically an interactive museum with

* a TON of cool planes

* bits and pieces relating to space travel

and

* a few rides thrown in here and there

the boys thought it was very cool

drew was the only one to REALLY do rides -

but that didn't stop ben and alex from having fun as well.

just to name a few things they did -

they sat in a fighter jet cockpit ...

they pretended they were astronauts ...

they stood under a rocket engine ...

AND ...

they got to watch a little craziness;)
i wanted drew to try the space ball
BUT that meant that i had to try it too ;)

spinning myself crazy wasn't EXACTLY how i thought i'd be spending my afternoon ....
BUT it was a fun break from the swimming when it's 60 degrees out that we had started the day with :)

the things we do for our kids ;)

--------------------------------

seeing as though we were already in kalamazoo,

it ONLY made sense that we drive the little bit extra to see the lees

we don't get to see them enough -

SO why not meet up for a nice, calm, quiet dinner with 7 kids ;)

HA!

thanks for the fun night out guys!

working our way through the city

before heading to michigan,
we decided to stop in chicago for a bit.

we got to spend time with bekah and ryan ...

AND ...

it gave us a chance to have a little "chicago fun"

we decided to not use the car -
but to use trains, trolleys, and our feet ;)



while working our way from one place to the next we stopped at ...

the infamous giant bean ;)



the childrens museum -

where we built a skyscraper ...
(that did reach the clouds - but probably didn't last longer than 10 minutes ;) te he he)

got nice and wet ...

watched stacey make a clay creation ...
(and then add a finishing touch to make it more appealing to the boys ;)

AND ...

had a little fun with the picture machine ...

(for the record ... drew wanted to take pictures by himself)

once we finished there we did a little eating, a little shopping, and a little more eating ...

REALLY ...

by the time it was over ...
i'm not sure how much better a day can get ** -
starbucks (twice)
hanging out together downtown
spicy pickle
playing at the museum
uncle julios
shopping at land of nod
living the urban life compliments of stacey's brother's house in lincoln park
and
PERFECT SUMMER weather

if only every day could be like this!

** for the record ...
there is ONE thing that could make it better -
- portillos chocolate cake -
but we're saving that for saturday.
mmmmm....

when it's ok to not say please

i spend countless hours reminding my kids ...
'say please ... say thank you ... be polite ...'

THEN ...
i take them somewhere where they are supposed to throw that all out the window.

and they had a BLAST.

go figure.



ed debevic's is known for their 'lack of service'
for their waitstaff who are rude
and on purpose ...

drew and ben ate it up.
they LOVED that the waiter walked up and said
'hey you big bunch of dummies'

they sat for the entire meal because they were so busy trying to come up with witty remarks!
it was PERFECT!

drew thought it was hilarious that when he asked for a straw the guy called him a big baby ...

ben liked the part where he told bekah and i that he was sorry but he wasn't on the menu ...

and alex ...

well ...

he just liked the hat.

SO much fun.

a whole lot

stacey has a whole lot of days off
SO ...
we have a whole lot of fun planned ...
and
we started it all up at my dad's cabin this weekend

the boys got in a whole lot of fishing ...
and there was a whole lot of excitement when BOTH boys caught their first fishes ever.
(unfortunately the boys were out alone with grandpa when ben caught his ... so no pic)



we spent a whole lot of time on the boat ...

the boys spent a whole lot of time in the water
(i'll do a lot for my kids ...
but go in the water when it is barely 70 degrees out is not one of them)

alex went tubing for the first time!
he was SO brave and liked it until he and drew knocked heads.
oops.

and ...
we all got to spend a whole lot of time with grandpa jim
(my dad)
which is always super special

thanks for a whole lot of fun, dad!
the boys love all of the 'non-city' things that you do with them ;)
and so do we ;)

lucky

tonight stacey and i went to the jason mraz concert



although the opening acts were ...
um ...
interesting ...
and we think we would have enjoyed them more had we been high on something ...

jason mraz's part of the concert was really good ...



AND long :)

he came out for his encore on the opposite end of the arena
and did a few more songs there ...



THEN ... he moved back up to the main stage ...
and went for longer!

not complaining.
it was fun ...
we got a full night out ...
and he has amazing talent ...
just sayin i probably should have eaten dinner before the show ;)

a sweet kick start

there is NOTHING like starting your day with a cinnamon roll from isles bun company.

SO ...

with only a few weeks left before school, kelly and i decided to fill the kids with a nice, healthy, sweet start to their day ...

can you truly tell me something that is better than a cinnamon roll shop that lets you frost your own roll using their giant tub of frosting?!

then we followed it up with some biking/walking/feeding the ducks/whining at lake of the isles

not sure that EVERYONE that was out biking and running today appreciated us ;)

BUT ... the kids had fun ...

and we got in a nice walk

so ... tough.

alex's new moves

i didn't know it until yesterday ...

but i believe we may have the winner to 'so you think you can dance' 2022, living under our roof.

(let me warn you .. this is the unedited version - so pretend you don't hear ALL the words)

tis so sweet ...

while stacey spent the day out at hazeltine
for the PGA championship ...

the boys and i decided to meet up with some friends
for some SWEET fun of our own ;)

we started out at the childrens museum

where we had the entire place to ourselves

(well ... ok not REALLY ... but it sure felt like it!)

it amazes me how my kids have been there SO many times ...

yet each time we go they play for hours without complaint.

recently, i was starting to think drew had begun to outgrow the museum.

yet, today he was the one that REALLY wanted to go,

and once we got there -

he was probably the one that got the most involved in each of the exhibits.

his favorite??

when he found out that he got to build an arch

NOW ...

to FULLY understand why this was a highlight i need to take you back.

to know drew is to know he is ALWAYS thinking outside of the box

he is ALWAYS thinking up something grand

something unheard of

and

something completely over my head ;)

SO ...

we were in the car the other day

and drew starts telling stacey and i that he thinks it would be

SO cool if they could just build a bridge all the way around the earth.

the pressure of the concrete pieces against each other would just hold the whole thing up.

now ...

i have no idea what purpose this bridge would serve.

i have no idea how or why someone would ever build such a thing.

BUT ...

that is logic.

and drew is not logical.

SO ...

my story continues...

we're back to today.

we are at the new exhibit at the museum.

(which is very cool i might add)

drew sees in one corner that you are challanged

to use their blocks to build a freestanding arch/bridge that you can walk across.

he was in heaven!

nice job, drew!

the rest of the time we just moved our crew from room to room -

and enjoyed the fact that

a. we were one group of maybe 4 at the museum this afternoon.

b. our afternoon was flying by

and

c. our kids were having a blast and TOTALLY wearing themselves out

when the time came to leave we decided to surprise the kids by stopping at candyland.

(TOTALLY for the kids ... not at all for me ;)

and if you believe that ... you don't know me AT ALL...and need to read this

i told them (within reason) they could choose anything they wanted.

you can imagine that was NOT a quick decision ...

BUT ...

in the end they were all quite happy.

drew chose gummy army men.

ben chose a caramel popcorn ball.

and alex chose a lollipop.

which he licked ...

and he licked ...

and he licked.

until we gave up on waiting,

said goodbye to downtown

and drove home.

(where the 1/2 eaten lollipop is sitting on the counter ...

just waiting ...

because i'm fairly certain that when alex wakes up -

that will be the first thing he finds)

another PERFECT summer fun day ;)

as soon as i took chewy out this morning,
i knew it was going to be another PERFECT day.

i also knew that we needed to do something fun to cool off.

thankfully, a friend was looking for some people to join her at the splash pad.

SO ...
we had another day of ...

friends,
fun,
water,
sun,
and
lounge chairs

(these are the only pictures i could sneak ...
we were at the Y afterall ;) so, i'm lucky i got these. te he he)

after leaving the Y ...
i couldn't think of a better follow up than drinks from sonic.
mmmm....
cherry limeade
(and chocolate cokes for the kids.
yuck.
i think it sounds SO nasty -
BUT ...
to each their own, i guess)

another fun day.

another day of my kids getting another perfectly ;)



HA!