The Card

Have you seen that Tyler is "famous?" Yep, his photo made the Caveman Card this year and it's a great pic too! If you don't have one and want one...let me know!! $10 each. Even has the schedule on it! Gearing up for our second and last camping trip...yes, they have been few this year but are looking forward to next year when the sports will not overtake our summer. Trenton headed to Naperville again this weekend to check out houses and figure out his living arrangements for the school year and hang out with his friends again while the rest of us head the other direction for some R & R. See you on the flip side :)

Pam

Wishing this young lady had a WoNDerFuLl birthday today!!! She is the sweetest, most caring person you will EVER meet. I hope you enjoyed your day and it was as beautiful as you are :) Love you lots!!!

Elkhart County 4h Fair and Lady A!

Tyler and Abby was out to the fairgrounds by 8 am waiting in line for Lady Antebellum tickets because of the popularity and expected huge numbers of people. Ben and I decided we would just take Gabi and let her ride the rides while listening outside but those plans quickly changed when the news said they had plenty of tickets (6,000 to give out) but should probably get them during the day. Our plan was to meet Ben and Trenton at the fairgrounds on their break to get tickets and then head to the fair around 4 pm so we could do some rides, eat fair food and then get the concert in. It worked!!! Had a good time - a bit crowded but Gabi got her money's worth. The only thing we didn't get to do was look at all the animals which we really enjoy doing. Headed into the concert about 7 pm and got a seat on the upper sides of the grandstand...still not too bad of seats. Eden's Edge opened up for Lady A - not a bad group, but Lady Antebellum - AWESOME!!! Sounded great and had an awesome time with all my favorite people :)

Paradise Lake

Tyler has been wanting us to take him to the lake and pull him tubing and skiing since he was unable to go with us over the fourth and today seemed like a nice opportunity. We tried Juno and Simonton Lake but they were too crowded. Ben decided to go to Paradise Lake and it was perfect!!! Only a handful of boats if that and the water temp was over 80 degrees!!! We invited Abby along for the fun...great time for us all! Definitely a lake we will visit again...hopefully this year yet!

Passing the time

Busy week this past week including a two day conference in Indy for work (thus the halt at blogging). I was determined to find some other things for Gabi to do for this upcoming week while we took a bit of a break from swimming since she came down with swimmer's ear. This also enables me to get alot of work done in the office so we can have extra time when it counts. So I picked up a 500 piece puzzle for Gabi to work on...may be more of a challenge for her, but she is always up for a challenge! I decided to not go overboard on trying to keep things clean and organized for a bit and allow her to pull back the table cloth at the dining room table and use it while she works. It gives her a place to go and a thing to do when she says she has "nothing" to do. It will work!! :) Also picked up a few cool books for her today and all on clearance to boot! All About Me ($4), Giant Book of Cool Stuff ($6) and even a Bead and Friendship Bracelet: Book and Kit ($6) for hands on experience...we are ALWAYS up for good books at GREAT prices!! I am especially loving the All About Me because it is all stuff she can fill out on her own - her life facts, her life opinions, her likes and dislikes. Love it! Good ideas! So, hopefully this week and the few more weeks she has left she will have plenty to do besides television and video games. Swimming can be the icing on the cake as always. Tyler took Abby for dinner and the sunset in New Buffalo tonight for their "2nd anniversary" - can't believe time has gone by so quickly and Trenton made another trip to Naperville with Taylor Trim and friends for Trim's birthday last night.

Flindt Landing 2010

Ben's biggest catch from the week...34 inch northern pike

Ben's biggest walleye was 22 inches.

He had a good time (left Saturday at midnight and got in last evening around 7 pm). It was rainy every now and then but they got their limit. Ben said he really enjoyed the train ride and would even like to do a train trip someday somewhere. Went with Uncle Jay, Aunt Annie and his dad this time. Enjoy pics below...and he even thought of me and my love of taking wildlife pics and my love of seagulls...he thought of me :) So glad he is home....

HOT HOT HOT

Not doing much of anything in this heat...staying indoors in the ac working on the contract in my office while Gabi is reading "Lightning Thief" and watching some "Hannah Montana Forever" or we are enjoying the pool at my parents' house as often as possible. Today was the latter...Looking forward to seeing Ben tomorrow when he gets back from his week long vacation in Flindt Landing again this year. Glad the week is over. Happy Friday!

CRAZY BUSY WEEKEND

We started the weekend off on Saturday with the 3rd Annual Golf Outing for Mishawaka Wrestling Club. I found out the president of the club and my right hand was not going to be in town the day of just a few days prior so I have been terrified this past week of making sure everything goes smoothly without her. I can say that it went ... maybe even say, went well. Had a few glitches here and there but we did it, thanks to my wonderful husband!! Needless to say, I was stressed out and it showed.



















Ben left for Canada with his aunt, uncle and dad that evening (10 pm ish) for the week so I was on my own today. Tyler and the team had a tournament scheduled in Tiffin, Ohio. SOOO glad that Abby decided to ride along (Trenton headed to Naperville with his buddy Trim again) and Gabi even wanted to go!!! Tyler did well. You can really tell that he is more confident now that he has been lifting. I think the fright of him hurting his shoulder again has taken a back seat and I was glad!! He went 2-2 today. The first win to an all start team from Illinois (won 6-2) and a pin against one our cavemen in the second round (filling in for another team). The last two matches...more difficult to say the least. A state runner up from Ohio was next and Tyler literally was woken up about 5 minutes before his match to prepare. He was cashed out and I could tell he was a bit sluggish. He ended up losing 0-3 and started to prepare for the roughest match of the day...against a 2x undefeated state champ from North Carolina. This guy was VERY aggressive... I was scared Tyler was going to get hurt and I could see a little bit of anxiety in his eyes for the first time that day. He read my mind when it was saying, "don't get hurt...it's not worth it." Tyler got pinned by him and found out later that the runner up from Ohio actually only lost to the state champ 0-1. I was impressed. I knew Tyler could have done better but I also knew it wasn't worth trying too hard to where it may cause injury. He was glad the match was over. Mishawaka went 4-2 and placed 3rd overall. Not bad in a mix of all star teams again. A CRAZY busy weekend for me and I feel like I didn't have a weekend at all, but looking forward to a quick week to have my honey back next weekend!

July 4

I want to start by saying I just can't believe Mom Reinoehl has been gone. I miss her so much and wish she could have been here with us physically to see my children grow. She loved her grandchildren more than words could express. We started the day by visiting her gravesite, only to meet up with David there. After sharing a couple of memories and leaving some pretty white flowers, we headed onto the lake. We talked to Chad/Amber a couple of weeks ago about getting the family together at the lake like old days. It just so happened Chad/Amber were camping at Jellystone this weekend so they suggested we meet up at Lake James and Snow Lake with Uncle Rusty and Uncle Kenny and other family that wanted to come. We planned it so everyone would bring a boat so there would be plenty of room. The only sad part of the day was that it was only Ben, Gabi and me. Tyler had made plans to go with Abby and her family to Silver Beach for the night and Trenton made plans with friends to camp all weekend. Ben was determined to make it fun for us (he knew I was kind of sad about not having everyone together). We left about 10 am and was on the lake by 11:30 am or so. We checked out the lake and picked up Chad/Amber and girls from Pokagon Beach. As we found them, we also found a HUGE PARTAY of at least 60 boats (maybe even 100) in one sandbar area just hanging out, chilling, catching some rays. We decided to hang out a bit there and enjoy the aura. Gabi decided she wanted to tube so Ben pulled her around a bit and then Ben decided he wanted to go. I told him he had plenty of people to pull him so we went back and had Uncle Rusty pull him and Chad around a few times. We took a spin around the lakes afterwards, and took Chad/Amber and family back to the beach to head back to the campground for dinner. We then made our way over to Snow Lake where it was alot less busy. It was fun to watch my mom, Uncle Kenny and Ben all get up skiing. Brought back memories. Then it was off to the campground for hot dogs and fixins. A good time for all. Everyone left full, sunkissed (or sunburned lol), and happy. Talking about doing it again next year! Happy birthday, America!! God bless the USA!

A Couple of Birthdays

Wishing my nephew, Travis a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY (June 3oth) and Mackenzy a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!!!! So proud of Travis and his many accomplishments in the Special Olympics. I LOVE getting pics on my phone of him and his awards. He always looks so proud!!!

And Mackenzy...well, she is just growing up waaaaay to fast (much like my Gabi) and what a beautiful smile she has! I miss you two with all my heart and love you both so very much! I hope you both had GREAT birthdays!!! If you haven't, check out their blog, here.

Top Thrill

For weeks, possibly over a month, Gabi has been ready for this trip! We told her she could bring a friend to Cedar Point when we went over the Moratorium Week (school). Of course, she chose Emma to go and these two have not stopped discussing it since we mentioned the idea. We decided to go all out and stay at The Breakers so we could have a little time on the beach the first day and be able to go into the park an hour before the rest of the public the next day. Ended up being a great idea!

We left around noon on Tuesday to arrive at the hotel and check things out, play on the beach a bit, swim in the pool, let Trenton try out Ripcord, grab a bite at TGIF (watch Tyler fight off a very protective mother red winged blackbird) and relax in the hot tub while discussing the plan of attack at Cedar Point on Wednesday.

Cedar Point day...up at 7 am, eat some breakfast, head to the park...oh and did I mention the jogging to the Maverick (our first ride of the day) and got right on! Next up, Millenium Force, where Trenton and Tyler got a front row seat! They LOVED IT! By this time, it was about time to let the rest of the public in so we headed to Top Thrill. This one I chickened out at the last time we came (a couple of years ago) but was determined to try it out this year with my brave girls! It was GREAT! So fast though...almost forget the whole thrill of it when it's done. I have to say, Millenium is still my fave there. Being about 11:30 am or so, we were all getting a bit hungry so we headed to the car on some munchies I brought to tide us over and get refueled. The kids went on a few more rides including Wicked Twister, Maxair and the Disastor Transport. We all headed toward Raptor and Mantis and The girls decided to go on Iron Dragon, Gemini, The Corkscrew and lastly, Magnum (all by themselves) while the boys waited for a front row seat on Top Thrill to be the last ride of the day. We watched them as they enjoyed that one. A great way to end the day - right around 6:30 pmish. The girls got their pics at Millenium Force and the boys got one on Top Thrill. Awesome time with the kids, but a quick way of realizing this old body is not like she used to be...