Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Today we just got back from our annual "Christmas in July" family reunion.  This year it was held at Rick & Marilyn's log cabin outside of Mount Ayr, IA.  To name everyone that attended... there was our family of 4 (Elizabeth, Brian, Nolan, Maxwell), Amy & Brandon Shostak plus their kids Emma and Logan, grandpa Eben, great-grandma Natalie, Chris & Marcia Langner, David Langner, Chris & Susan Irwin, Kent & Andrea (as well as Andrea's sister, who's name I didn't catch), Rick & Marilyn, Gary & LaVonne, and Aaron Salton. 

We headed down to the log cabin on Friday after work.  Even though it was a rather hot day, we camped in the backyard.  We had a pizza party for supper on Friday, and then spent most of the evening visiting with family.  By the time we brought the kids to the tent to sleep, it was about 10:30 (way past their bed time).  Still, Maxwell had lots of energy, and he would't stop talking for about an hour.  Eventually I had enough, so I told Maxwell to be quiet or the werewolves would hear him and come eat us.  That did the trick, and we were able to get some peace and quiet after that.

First thing after getting up on Saturday, Maxwell was still concerned that the werewolves might be around.  Haha... he really was quite worried about them, but we needed some sleep, so I didn't feel too bad.  On Saturday Amy & Elizabeth helped the kids tie-dye t-shirts.  We brought deli meat and cheese for people to make sandwiches for lunch on Saturday.  In the afternoon, Brandon and I paddled Rick's canoe around his farm pond, and we took Nolan and Logan for canoe rides.  Around supper time a thunderstorm rolled through and really dumped rain for a while, so we all hung out in the garage.  After that cleared, we made a camp fire and roasted marshmallows to make smores.  I played a few games of cribbage with David, Chris, and Rick.  Nolan ended up passing out in the living room, so I slept in the living room with him while Maxwell and Elizabeth went to the tent.  Around midnight another thunderstorm rolled in, so Elizabeth brought Maxwell inside just to be safe. 

Overall, this was our 25th Christmas in July... the first year was 1994. 

Sunday, July 14th, 2019

Happy 6th birthday to Nolan!!

This weekend was a fun-filled birthday weekend for Nolan.  Yesterday we held his birthday party at Surefire Fitness.  We had the place reserved from 10:00 until 11:30.  They had set up all kinds of obstacles, kind of like a kid's version of America Ninja Warrior.  There were PVC pipes low to the ground that the kids had to crawl under, a big net that they had to climb, an actual rock climbing wall, a big rope that they had to crawl across upside down, an obstacle called "the earthquake" that had tennis balls balancing on the top of narrow PVC pipes sticking up (so if you shook it too much the balls would fall off)... you get the idea.  To start with there was just a free play time where all the kids could practice each obstacle as they pleased.  Then all of the kids took turns running through the whole course, and at the end there was a button they hit that would sound a siren and have smoke shoot out from above.  All in all, it was a lot of fun for the kids, and it got them worn out which was nice.

There were probably close to a dozen kids that attended.  Nolan and Maxwell of course.  Also Maddie and Drew, Sebastian (Bash) and Lara, Nico (from Nolan's school), Luka and Mia, and some others from school that I was not as familiar with.  We had Pizza Hut deliver some pizzas for the kids, along with ice cream treats, chips, juice boxes, and fruit.  Grandma Becky, Grandpa Eben, and Great-grandma Natalie all came to the party as well. 

Nolan enjoying some pizza at his birthday party.

This morning Nolan opened some presents.  He was lucky enough to get to remote controlled cars!  Luka's family gave him a Toy Story RC car, and we had bought him a blue Mustang RC car.  Nolan ended up wanting both of them... we were worried that we may need to return one of them.  Then later this morning we took the whole family to Perfect Games.  Tonight for supper Nolan wanted ice cream at Orange Leaf... followed by supper at Burger King (so that he could play in the play area).  We did have the ice cream first, as per the birthday boy's wishes. 

Nolan and his birthday ice cream at Orange Leaf.