Happy Seventh Birthday, Mackenzie

Today was Mackenzie's seventh birthday.  We drove home last night and spent the morning getting ready for the party.  Mackenzie wanted to have a carnival party this year, which worked out well for us.

 

 

We contemplated moving the birthday party after the tough week we had this week, but Mackenzie was super excited to have her birthday party on her actual birthday for the first time this year.  Plus, I don't think my dad would have wanted us to move her party.  So we decided to keep the party as planned.  We had about a dozen kids and I think that they really enjoyed the games and prizes and that they had a lot of fun. Mackenzie declared it her best birthday ever!  Isaac has decided that he wants a carnival party for his next birthday as well, so hopefully we can use all of our carnival stuff again.

I am now procrastinating on heading in to watch the Notre Dame game.  I didn't expect it to be so hard to watch the first game after my dad's passing, but it is proving to be very difficult for me.  I think it is time though.  Go Irish!

I love you, Dad

My father passed away this morning after battling cancer for almost 6 years. 

My dad was an excellent dad.  He was a lot of fun and really enjoyed life and tried to remind me throughout my life that it was meant to be enjoyed.

I remember being quite little and climbing into my father's pickup truck.  I remember riding in the middle seat and there was an 8 track tape player under the dash in the middle and I remember asking him to play the "squirrel" song.  I have no idea what the name of the song was or who sang it.  In my memory it is about a squirrel getting into church and running up someone's leg.  I have no idea if that was really the jist of the song or not, but I remember wanting to hear that song every time I got in Dad's truck and I remember him abliging me, most of the time.

Dad also took us ice fishing.  We would drive his pickup truck onto the lake (I remember Houghton Lake the most).  He would set up the ice shanty, which we had to go into when our feet got wet or cold to warm up.  I did not care for the ice shanty.  We would get to play on the ice, ice skate, and investigate the island.  Dad got to put tip-ups up for each of us, even if we were paying no attention to them.  At the end of day my feet would be frozen, but I wouldn't tell him because I didn't want to be sent into the shanty.  So I remember getting into the pickup truck, in the middle again, where the heater was on the floor and my feet would burn and hurt so badly while they warmed back up, but it was worth it to be out on the ice all day.

Dad was able to buy my kids their first pair of ice skates and ice fish with them as well. 

 

As I got older, Mom and Dad spent a lot of time playing euchre with my friends and I, particularly Tara and Dani.  Dad was always willing to hang out with us at the house and play and joke and pass out candy (which makes him sound a little creepy, but he wasn't).  Each Memorial Day I invited my girlfriends up to the cabin and Dad would borrow Uncle Lloyd's large tent and we slept in the tent in the backyard of the cabin and hang out for the long weekend.  Dad would drag us around behind the boat all day long, we would try to balance on a large tractor tire tube and usually I would end up sunburnt.

Dad is not going to get the chance to teach Mackenzie and Isaac euchre, but he had a great time teaching them patty-cake, showing them how to fish and he did get to take Mackenzie for a few rides on the tube last year.  He loved swimming with his grandkids (and encouraging them to splash Mom and Grandma).  The one complaint that I will remember from him during his fight with cancer was that this summer he couldn't swim with the grandkids, but I will never forget how excited Isaac was each time he caught a fish and how he would run up to the cabin to tell Grandpa. 

When I was at Notre Dame, Dad would often comment that if he had gone to college there that he never would have left and I totally believe it.  Dad loved to learn.  He was always reading a book, usually either something about history or a western, and was always willing to learn something new.  I can remember watching him study for a pipefitters certification of some kind and realizing that I may actually use geometry in the future.  As I mentioned earlier, he loved to have a good time.  He also grew to love Notre Dame football.  He got to see their undefeated season last year (we won't talk about the final game), which was perfect.

Dad got to see all of his children get married.  He walked with Tina and I down the aisle in two very different but perfect wedding entrances and I believe that he enjoyed our receptions as much as we did.  He knew at Michael's wedding that he had cancer and he went for surgery to remove it soon after the wedding.  He did not allow that to dampen his spirits though.

This summer has been a tough one for all of us, but mostly for Dad.  I am grateful for the time I got with him and the time that my children got to spend with him.  I hope that he is happy, pain-free and peaceful and spending eternity at the never-ending college of his dreams.

I love you, Dad.

Summer Fun

Our exciting summer is continuing at break-neck speed.  We have had time to enjoy the cabin, play in the sandbox and the pool, meet new friends and Brian and I have even had time to go wine tasting. 

Brian and I celebrated our anniversary two weekends ago at Sawmill Creek in Huron, Ohio.  They offered a wine tour and we visited 2 wineries with 4 other couples.  One of the other couples actually lives in Perrysburg, very close to us.  That evening we went to the Huron Playhouse to see "I Love You, Your Perfect, Now Change".  A number of students from ONU are working there this summer and Brian is actually there tonight with his mom to see "Gypsy".  He is also going to pick up our new patio furniture that we ordered when we were out there.  We had researched American made patio furniture and we were having a hard time deciding between wood and polywood.  So we visited Rudder's in Port Clinton.  It is a fantastic place and the main business is a cafe that has fantastic scones and iced tea (that was all that I tried, I am sure there are other great items as well) as well as a cute grocery area.  They also have a gift shop and sell Polywood patio furniture, which is all made in Indiana from recycled milk jugs.  We ordered rocking chairs and a table for our front porch.  Hopefully after tomorrow I will be able to post a picture of our awesome new furniture.

While Brian and I were enjoying Erie County and the beauty of the area (and the wine), the kids were hanging out with Grandma Linda and Grandpa  Butch.  Grandma was kind enough to share some pictures with us:

These two of Isaac make me laugh.  Isaac gets scared of animals.  He has this reaction with dogs as well.  He is okay with trying to pet them, until they look at him and then he freaks out.  They went to Grand Rapids, OH where there is a mule drawn canal boat that they went for a ride on.

I really like this picture of Mackenzie and Grandma hanging out on the bridge.

 Here is a picture of Grandpa swinging with the kids.  Mackenzie has become quite a good swinger lately.

 

On Sunday, after we bought our patio furniture, we stopped at a farm stand and bought peaches.  When we got home I canned peach jam and did laundry while Brian went and met his family at Shannon and Doug's house where the cousins went swimming together.  Aunt Shannon shared this great picture of the cousins at the pool:

 

Last weekend Mackenzie got to spend Thursday and Friday with Grandma Kathy and Grandma Mike.  Lexie joined her on Friday and then Brian, Isaac and I drove up Friday night and we all got to spend the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's.  We stayed in Midland the whole weekend and the kids loved playing at the house and in the yard.  We had to leave early Sunday to get Isaac home for a playdate and a birthday party at the park.  Mackenzie spends most of her free time at home with Payton and Aubry who live in our neighborhood.  It is great that they have neighbors to play with here now.  However, I am learning to be the mean mom that makes them pick up when they are done because I am really tired of toys being all over the floor and I am way too lazy to pick them all up myself.  So our house may not be the fun house to play at for long.  

So we are all really enjoying summer.  Next weekend we are headed back to the cabin for Lexie's 12th birthday party!  Isaac is going to get to stay alone with Grandma and Grandpa after the party, which he is really excited about.

 

Crazy June - Warning: Long Post with Vacation Pictures

So our crazy June is just about over.  Brian enjoyed going back to the Goodman and helping to finish up The Jungle Book and I enjoyed the OHUG conference, especially since my friend Janet from Alberto was there.  It was really great to catch up. 

I also got to see the Grassy Knoll and ride a mechanical bull, for a very short time.

In the middle of all that, Mackenzie had her first ballet recital.  She did very well and now thinks that she wants to continue ballet.

We spent the last week of June on vacation.  Butch and Linda drove the kids and I over to Chicago last Saturday.  Saturday night we went over to the George's for dinner and to catch up.  Abigail has gotten so big and the kids really had a great time playing together.  We stayed out way past bedtime, but it was totally worth it to see the kids playing together again!  The George's are heading through our neck of the woods in August on their way to the East Coast.  It will be a lot of fun to show them  our new home.

 

On Sunday we met up with a lot of old friends in Millenium Park and then went to Greektown for lunch.  Mackenzie was so excited to see Sophie.  I had emailed her parents earlier in the week to see if they may be available during the weekend, but I hadn't mentioned anything to Mackenzie about it.  On Friday she asked me if we could see Sophie when we were in Chicago.  I asked her why she asked to see Sophie and she said, "Because when I think of Chicago, I think of Sophie."  She didn't even have to think about it.  Fortunately they were available on Sunday morning, along with our Pastor from Chicago and my friend Jie and her daughter Anwen. 

 

Mackenzie and Sophie

Pastor Joann

 

Mackenzie and Anwen

 

Sunday afternoon we saw The Jungle Book at the Goodman.  It was very good and since then Isaac has been singing "Bear Accessories".  It is pretty hilarious and he has even taught his new song to Mackenzie. 

 

After the show we headed down to Indianapolis.  Once again we were up way past bedtime.  Isaac figured out how to order a $4 Dinosaur Train video after we got into the hotel room with the game controller, so we did a movie night and then crashed.  Monday morning we headed to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  It was fantastic.  It was truly a full day.  Isaac was super excited because at the end of the day he got to see a real transformer.  (They had a Bumble Bee show at the end of the day.)  

Mackenzie had a great time as well, I honestly think the sand table was her favorite part of the whole museum, despite the fact that she now has a sand box at home.  Though she truly enjoyed all of the museum. Here is a great shot of her in the Dow Science Center area of the museum:

 

She pushed her baby stroller through the entire museum.  She also decided while we were there that she liked taking pictures.  She took this lovely shot of the rest of us in front of the train:

  Both kids posed with Spiderman as well:

We were there pretty much from the time they opened to the time they closed.  Before the Bumblebee show at the end of the day the kids got about 20 minutes to go back to their favorite thing, but other than that it took us the whole day to get through the museum.

 

On Tuesday we did a "Mom" stop at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  I really wanted to walk through their outdoor exhibit, which we did.  The kids complained a bit at the beginning, but they really liked it once we got to the sculptures.  They especially liked the bones.  I didn't get any really good shots there.  Most of the art work was really large and it is hard to tell in the pictures that they are playing on bones.  By the time we finished up outside it was lunch time and we were all very sweaty.  We decided not to go into the museum building.  Instead we got lunch and headed to our hotel in Louisville. 

 

We had decided to try out the Horseshoe Casino north of Louisville for the night.  When we checked in there was a very angry woman at the front desk in her bathing suit, with two kids in their bathing suits.  She was upset because the pool had been shut down.  It was explained to us that they had to shock the pool and it should be opened up the next morning.  It was definitely inconvenient, since we planned to swim that afternoon.  To be honest though I am guessing that they had to shock it becuase something disgusting happened in it, so I am glad they were doing it.  So instead we went to downtown Louisville, where they had a splash park.  The kids had fun getting very wet (it was really hot), but they enjoyed the playground area more.  There was a pyramid shaped area attached to one of the jungle gyms that they really liked climbing to the top of. 

 

The Horseshoe Casino hotel was quite nice and the next morning we really enjoyed the huge pool.  Mackenzie made a friend and they played nicely together.  Isaac enjoyed jumping in the pool and sitting in the hot tub.  We headed back into Louisville after swimming to go to the Kentucky Science Museum.  Once again, the kids really had a great time.  They especially liked the area where they could pull a bubble around themselves:

I thought that the dish of mirrors at the entrance was really cool: 

After lunch at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse we tried to go to the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Museum, another "Mom" stop, but unfortunately they were changing exhibits around and it was closed.  We did go into the store and Isaac found some pottery that he really liked.  He wanted to use it in the bath : )  I decided to buy a bud vase from the collection for my souvenir.  Maybe one day Isaac will appreciate it enough to take it with him to his own home.

 

After that we headed to Mammoth Park. 

 

We rented a cabin at the park and were pleasantly surprised when we got there.  We actually rented 2 cabins that were connected.  The bathroom was inbetween the two and we could leave the doors open to make it one big cabin.  The kids thought it was awesome that they got their own cabin with a sink, refrigerator and coffee pot.  They had a ball playing house in their cabin and washed their faces in the sick, pretended to make coffee, etc.  It was really quite humorous and gave Brian and I some time to lay down and relax.  When I rented the cabin I thought that there would be a double bed in each room.  They actually each had a double bed and a twin bed.  Mackenzie exclaimed, "We all get our own bed!"  In the end she slept in their double bed and Isaac in the twin.  She didn't understand why I didn't want to sleep in the twin bed in the adult room rather than sharing the double bed.  That night there were some really strong thunderstorms in the middle of the night.  Luckily they didn't wake the kids, but Brian and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. 

 

We had tickets for the 9 am cave tour on Thursday.  As they had highlighted everywhere in the park, they are on Central Time, so that was 8 am our time.  This was great for us as our kids have the most energy in the morning.  We weren't sure about the kids doing a 2 hour cave tour and in the beginning it looked like we shouldn't have booked the long tour.  Once we got going though the kids really enjoyed it. 

 

We had decided that morning that although we had only planned on staying at Mammoth Park for Wednesday night, the kids loved the cabin so much we would stay another.  When we finished the 2 hour tour, Mackenzie informed me that we had lied to her, since we told them they would see stalactites and stalagmites.  So when we got back in the visitors center we asked about that.  The stalactites and stalagmites were part of another tour and, luckily, a shorter one.  So we booked that tour for later in the afternoon and headed to lunch.  Later the kids got to see the stalactites and stalagmites (since I now know how to spell those words, I am going to use them as many times as I can):

Isaac was exhausted by this point, having missed a nap that day and having been up late so much.  So afterward we got dinner and headed to the cabin for bedtime.  In the morning we checked out and headed to Cincinnati.

 

We went to a famous grocery store there called Jungle Jim's to get food for a picnic and then headed to Loveland Castle.  This was a stop that I had picked especially for Isaac, since he had a castle themed birthday and I figured Mackenzie would enjoy it as well.  We had a really nice time there:

Once again it was really hot and we were quite sweaty by the time we left and headed to the final hotel.  This was the "fancy" hotel of our trip, I figured for our last night we would live it up a bit, so fancy hotel, a little swimming and Skyline Chili for Dad : )  On our way back from Skyline we saw a horse drawn carriage and decided to take a ride and check out the neighborhood.  This was the only time the rain got in our way.  After we had been riding for about 10 minutes it started raining quite hard.  The driver put up the cover for us, but it wasn't quite the same.  Other than that we were really lucky and all of the rain came at times that were actually convenient for us. 

 

On our final day of vacation we went to the Newport Aquarium.  I think the kids were quite worn out, but we gave each of them a camera and they enjoyed taking pictures of the fish, penguins, crocodiles, birds and frogs at the aquarium.

 Isaac tried toucing a shark.  Mackenzie posed for the picture, but didn't really want to touch a shark.

 

 The scale is definitely off!



The kids really liked that the scuba divers in the tank would do fist bumps with them, Isaac even got exploding fist bumps! 

After lunch we headed home and Isaac slept for basically the whole trip.  It is really nice to be home.  Mackenzie was exhausted, but Isaac seems to have gotten used to the late nights and is still upstairs playing.  Hopefully he, and I, will be snoozing soon.