Road Trip to Florida

We just wrapped up a great Florida visit!  Since it's summertime and we can be more leisurely, we decided to drive down.  We drove as far as Lexington, and stopped over for a quick visit with the Burkholders.  We loved making s'mores with them!

The next day, we drove the rest of the way down to The Villages to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Reder.  We had a great time as always, playing in the pool, sightseeing around town, doing puzzles, crafts, and sports.  We also took a day trip to Florida's Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.  It's on the campus of the University of Florida and had really amazing exhibits and interactive science areas for the kids.  They had a special summer exhibit on frogs that was especially fun to see.  We also got to be with Grandma on her birthday, hooray!  We loved celebrating and joining her for cake!

Tyler always loves seeing the sailfish that Grandpa caught.

The old photos of the catch from 1968, when Grandpa Reder was 19 and had blonde hair!

   

After a few days of visiting, we headed out for a day at Disney's Magic Kingdom.  Tyler had never been!  In the past he's always stayed back with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was so fun for all of us to see him enjoy it for the first time!  We all had a really great day.

Kicking off August

We started off this month by taking Cassidy to YMCA Camp Eberhart in MI for a fun week of summer camp with 2 of her great friends!  This will be her 2nd year as a camper at Eberhart.  The week started off smoothly, we dropped her off and she had a few days of pure summer fun...however on Thursday we were notified that a high number of campers had come down with a terrible norovirus and we needed to head back early to pick her up!  Luckily, she was not sick, but they decided to close the campgrounds early to do a thorough cleaning.  So, while she did enjoy the few days she had, it didn't end quite as nicely as it began.  But now she's back home, and we are enjoying having her around again!

Erik and I celebrated our 14th anniversary on August 9th!  The years just add up quickly!  I found it fitting that his sweet card read, "Can't believe it's been 13 years!"  Ha ha - that's because it hasn't, it's been 14!  We got a good laugh.  We had a great dinner out to celebrate.

And the picture below sums up summer!  We had a backyard BBQ with 4 other families who we enjoy so much.  These are all the kids in attendance.  We had a substantial chunk of the sidewalk covered in chalk.  Ahhh, relaxed summer fun!

More July Fun

Summertime is rolling on!  Tyler's making some big transitions right now.  This past week, he gave up his beloved pacifier (aka nini).  He only had nini at bedtime, but it was still a very tough goodbye.  He would have kept nini around forever if we let him, but it's time to move forward!  The pacifier fairy came that night and took all the pacis to give to newborn babies that needed them, and in their place, she left Tyler a special Thomas the Train toy.  We had a few rough nights of falling asleep without nini, but now he is doing OK.  The first morning after letting go of nini, Tyler also lost his first tooth!  It was wiggly and ready, and with a little help from Mom, it popped right out.  Growing into such a big boy right before our very eyes!

We also took a family trip to Great America for the first time.  Erik and I had gone plenty of times growing up, but we'd never taken our crew.  It was a hit!  Everyone really enjoyed the rides (and all the refreshments - it was a super hot day).  Erik and Gavin teamed up to tackle the big coasters - The Demon and The Eagle!

Gavin's baseball season came to an end, and we enjoyed having the team and their families over for a season wrap-up party.  We ate hot dogs and showed "The Sandlot" in the backyard, and the kids had a great time playing together.  Party favors were Big League Chew and Cracker Jack.  Some things never change! Those 2 snack have been part of baseball for years and the kids still love them!

We took a trip into the city, with 2 different destinations - Erik and Cassidy headed to the theatre to take in Hamilton (her 10th birthday gift!), and the boys and I spent an afternoon at the Chicago Sports Museum at Water Tower Place.  We started with lunch at Harry Caray's, and then had so much fun seeing all the memorabilia and trying out the interactive sports games.  We all love getting downtown to enjoy Chicago from time to time.