Here We Go Again

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were switching out baby seats for high back boosters for Kari. Now Bryce is upgrading to the high back and Kari is graduating to the backless.

Wow, there's suddenly a lot more room in the back seat of my car!

Happy Friday

I was inspired to make this shirt because Bri is going to take Bryce over to her sorority house this afternoon after school.

Kari's Family Tree

Kari made this during Reading Group Time today.

I've encountered numerous spelling variations of my maiden name over the years, but this one takes the cake.

Camping With The Presbyterians

We wrapped up Year 4 of Camping With The Presbyterians last weekend and called it a success!  This has turned into a really fun weekend for the kids and I to spend some quality time with Gran and Beep Beep at Turkey Run State Park.

The elder Kecklers arrived mid afternoon on Friday to set up the campsite, which had been carefully chosen right next to the playground and far enough away from the bath house to not get extra traffic and noise.  Ben and Cheryl upgraded to a pop-up camper this summer, so camping had an even greater appeal this year for the kids and me.  We arrived close to dinner time, which Cheryl had prepared an old favorite casserole recipe of Kevin's and heated it up on the campfire grates.  It was a simple yet delicious chicken and macaroni dish.  The kids gobbled it up too!  We anticipated a decent rainstorm coming in Friday night, although nothing compared to two years ago when the storm got so bad that we ended up staying a night in the lodge.  Regardless, this one was windy enough and noisy enough to rattle the kids; fortunately we were off the ground and safely stowed in the camper for the evening.

Dinner before the big storm rolled in

The rest of the weekend was perfect camping weather and allowed us to relax by the fire, visit with church friends, play on the playground and take a short hike.  Bryce's favorite part of the weekend, for sure, was riding his bike through all the mud puddles.  I brought four changes of clothes for him (2/day) and wouldn't you know he went through all four before the end of the weekend and we still had to "recycle" an outfit.  Here's why:

Ben would take Bryce over to the water spigot and literally hose off the mud, and clearly Bryce was not a huge fan of this process.

We took a short hike on Trail #7 before getting ready for dinner.  Saturday dinner is a potluck meal over at the tennis shelter.  The camping group as well as some additional church folks will drive in just for the meal.  Cheryl served one of my favorite dishes- Amish pickle salad.  Everyone really enjoyed it. simply because it's so unique.  Gran headed back to Indy for church the next morning.  Biscuits, gravy and a casual church service rounded out the weekend on Sunday morning.

We did a bit more exploring of the campsites again this year and are already eyeing site #36 for future camping.  Exceptionally shady and a bit more private, but I really think Gran and Beep Beep like its proximity to the bathrooms :)  Looking forward to camping again soon!

Take them off, take them off NOW!

It's the second time in the past few days when Bryce has come through the garage yelling for Holly or me to take his wheels off. The days of training wheels are officially behind us after some envy of his buddy Evan and his lack of training wheels.

So tonight Holly took them off Bryce's little bike. Of course, it's the hottest and most humid it's been all summer so we were REALLY looking forward to running up and down the street with him to make sure he didn't fall over.

Well, little did we know he'd get it with the very first try!



After Holly scooted down the street next to him, she quickly realized he got the hang of this much faster than anticipated.





So, we're officially finished with training wheels. Next up: pull ups!

Indiana State Fair

We had a great time at the Indiana State Fair yesterday.  I think Kari and Bryce had been in a previous year with Gran and Beep Beep, but this was a first for Kevin and me, and first time together as a family.  We hit the Dairy Bar for grilled cheeses and milkshakes and then the Midway:

Here we are on The Crazy Mouse roller coaster.  This was a perfect gateway coaster in preparation for heading to one of the major roller coaster parks next summer.  We rode this twice- it was that good- and not your typical county fair midway ride!  We also found my all-time favorite ride, the Tilt-a-Whirl, bringing me back to my childhood Kiddie Kingdom days.  I taught not only the kids, but Kevin too, the strategy in leaning to maximize the spin on this ride.  I think the ride operator purposely sped up the ride at the very end after observing our leaning strategy.  I was actually a bit nauseous after getting off the ride, and that's never happened before!

This NASCAR inspired ride, at first glance, looked pretty tame.  Upon closer observation, the real thrill is in the corners; where the cars whip the riders around at a pretty good pace.  Notice Kari's hair in the video!

Bryce was, of course, super interested in riding the tractor-train.  It's fair-style public transportation that circles around the perimeter of the grounds and you jump on/jump off as needed.  This allowed us to peruse the vast number of exhibits, where we disembarked at Pioneer Village and the farm equipment displays.  Bryce seems to be gravitating towards the big red Case IH brand of tractors; sorry John Deere fans!

 This was the biggest tractor we had ever seen- complete with those army tank style track wheels.  Nicely priced at 500k, too!

Bryce is already talking about when we can go back to the fair!

A Great Night

For roasting marshmallows in the fire pit.

2014 First Day of Second Grade

We kicked off second grade today and Kari couldn't have been more excited to go.  She was particularly excited for her teacher, wildly popular Mrs. Schwecke, and to see her friends, many of whom she had seen only briefly over the summer.

We'll take a picture of Kari against the garage door on the last day of school for a point of reference.  

 The gang's all here!  Bryce can't wait to finally be in the picture next year.

After school.  Kari took great pride and responsibility in making sure Kindergartner Aeva safely made it on the bus, got to her classroom and got off the bus.

Aviator Birthday Party and Ice Cream Social

Bryce's birthday celebration continued all the way into last week, culminating with the family birthday party.  This year's theme: airplanes, but not to be overshadowed by the food menu!  We went in a totally different direction and it was a smash hit.  We offered a make your own grilled cheese bar.

Runway, complete with airplanes and "05" runway marker.

The grilled cheese bar featured a variety of breads, cheese, meats and veggies.  We should give credit to the Food Network magazine for this idea.  They featured an open-faced grilled cheese sandwich with lump crab meat and asparagus.  From there, the idea took off.

Our master griddler creating all the custom sandwiches.

We also had 7 layer salad, deviled eggs, watermelon and corn on the cob.  Perfect summertime food!

It was cool enough to comfortably eat outside.

Bryce and his love for chocolate is clearly represented here.  He requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  I couldn't be more proud.

We continued the sugar fest with our annual back to school ice cream social.  We provide the ice cream and neighbors bring the toppings.  It was sugary good fun for everyone and a great way to visit with the neighbors before getting back into the school routine.

8th grade all the way down to two new kindergartners are represented.  Next year, Bryce will finally be able to officially join the crew at the bus stop.

Silly faces!

Birthday #5

We just wrapped up an incredibly hectic week, so it was nice to sleep in a little (7:37 little feet padded into our room) and spend some time together.  It was short lived as there were two birthday parties on the docket and neither of them were for Bryce!  We spent the early afternoon at Columbian Park for a neighbor birthday party and then Kari and I left to head across town for an afternoon bowling party.

We reconvened as a family just in time for dinner.  Bryce had the choice of choosing his favorite meal for Daddy to prepare or eat out.  Not surprisingly, he chose to eat out; surprisingly, he chose MCL Cafeteria.  We definitely brought down the mean age, but the food was good and everyone cleaned their plates.

We started off the morning with personalized blueberry pancakes and finished the evening at Dairy Queen.

Family birthday party with grandparents happens next weekend.  Bryce is excited to see everyone!!

A new vacation...

Well for the first time in several years we ventured North instead of South for our Summer vacay. Instead of our standard trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama we headed up 131 through Michigan to Traverse City for a week in a beach condo instead of a southern beach house.

Holly and the kids drove up on Saturday and I flew in to the Cherry Capital airport Sunday evening from Duke, just in time for dinner.  It turned out to be a really wonderful trip. The weather (and water) was decidedly colder than Alabama, but the humidity vanished, too. TC (as it will be referred to from here forward) had a bay not a gulf (salt water), much smaller beach, less people, less attractions and less heat. However, it did have that charming small town shopping, restaurants, breweries, mini golf, etc., that are easy to attach to.

 Dinner on the balcony

Our accommodations were terrific. It was a vacation by rental owner - a 2-bedroom, 2.5 bath new condo on the third floor overlooking the bay. The unit had high end furnishings and plenty of room for our good friends the Clawsons to even come up at the end of the week and spend a couple of days with us.

The outdoor pool and hot tub were utilized early and often by the kids. Locals said the bay water might have topped out at 55 degrees!! It was literally freezing cold to the adult's feet, while the kids didn't have a problem getting in. The last full day in TC we rented a pontoon for two hours and drove around the bay. This was a ton of fun, particularly when Matt and the kids all jumped in the ice bath. The expressions on their faces the first time they jumped in were priceless. We still aren't sure why they all took multiple plunges!

We took a day trip over to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Holly had been there years ago and remembered the climb not being too taxing and would be a healthy challenge for the kids.  Clearly time has clouded her judgement and memory because she forgot that the dune climb was a solid 2-mile hike from start to end.  We made it about a mile in before turning around.

Not far from Sleeping Bear is a cute little fishing town called Leland.  It was top on Holly's to-see list so that Bryce could get a picture in front of a town sign.  It didn't turn out quite like she thought, but lunch at The Cove and their famous Chubby Mary (a bloody mary garnished with a smoked chub fish!) was a highlight of the outing.

Perhaps the highlight of the week for Holly was the 4th of July fireworks display. We were told by the condo owner to simply sit on the private beach we had access to and watch them from around the bay. Not only did this allow us to avoid the rat race of getting a spot in TC, it let us watch multiple personal shows near our condo.

We took a quick trip up the Traverse Bay peninsula, which was dotted with little wineries and huge homes.  At the very tip of the peninsula is the now-defunct Grand Traverse Lighthouse.  Bryce and I paid the cursory tourist fee to climb to the tip top and get a quick glance around.  Kari and Daddy were happy to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground.

Another great aspect of TC is the local restaurants and breweries. They were all very kid friendly and while the brews for the adults were delicious, the root beer for Kari was equally tasty! Food was very good, as the scales indicated when we arrived back home.

 The Filling Station is a former train station turned brewery with a very appropriate Boilermaker theme.  We felt right at home!

So, the standard two-day 13-hour trip to Alabama was replaced by a 6-7 hour jaunt to our neighboring state to the North. We'll definitely consider another trip to TC in the future.