Weekend in Indy

We recently spent a weekend in Indianapolis, meeting up with extended family and enjoying the city. It was a beautiful weekend outside and Indy is such a lovely town. We spent the first day at the Indianapolis Zoo!  That was loads of fun.  It’s an impressive zoo and we’d never been before.  We had a great group dinner out that evening as well.  The next day, we explored downtown Indianapolis.  We found some paddle boats and decided to give it a try.  They are very fun!  And they give your leg muscles a real workout.  Erik’s phone managed to fall into the water as he was climbing into the paddle boat, which made for some good entertainment as we watched him try to fish it out with a “grabber” stick the staff had on hand (apparently he’s not the first to do this, haha.  They said it happens multiple times a day).  It took some group problem solving and teamwork but we got it out!  And, it still worked! Phew.

Penguins!

Penguin photobomb!

Cousins, and also some cousins’ cousins!

This orangutan was amazing to watch!

The Brown and Burkholder crew

Beautiful Indy!

Go Bears!

Our household is ready for another Bears season!  Erik, Gavin and Tyler are avid fans; Cassidy and I are along for the ride, haha.  We took the kids to a preseason game at the end of August and they had a great time.  We joined the always-festive tailgate of some family friends and the Bears brought home a nice preseason win.

Back to School! The 2018-2019 School Year Begins

Cassidy, Gavin and Tyler headed back to school to begin 6th grade, 4th grade and Kindergarten!  We are excited to see what this new year brings.  Good luck, loves!

4th Grade!

Kindergarten!

6th Grade!

Wrapping up Summer ~ Pearl Jam at Wrigley

Well, we've made the most of summertime, and now we look towards the start of a new school year.  Erik, I, and the kids have all enjoyed some fun times with friends over these past couple weeks.  A real highlight for Erik and I was attending an epic concert at Wrigley Field - Pearl Jam!  One of our favorite bands for 20+ years now.  Our longtime friends Matt and Kate joined us, and it was a great way to cap off summertime!

Summer Travels to South Florida

We had a lovely trip to South Florida to start off the month of August.  We spent a lot of time in the ocean -  it's so nice and warm this time of year!  We had to weed through a good bit of seaweed at times - there's a big influx happening at the moment - but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  The kids also spent hours in the pool!  We were so happy to meet up with my Mom and Dad for the week, so we could spend time catching up with them, too. 

We planned a few day trips.  To start off, the boys went out on the water for a day of fishing.  They brought in a big load, and we had delicious fish tacos for dinner! 

We also drove down to the Keys to visit the Theater of the Sea, a family-owned outdoor marine aquarium.  They allow visitors of a certain age to swim with their dolphins, and this has been one of Cassidy's dreams for quite some time.  It was very special to watch her swim side by side with these sweet ocean mammals - she was so brave, jumped right in, and loved every second of it!  Gavin got to shake "hands" with a sea lion, and Tyler got a kiss from a dolphin.  Lots of fun!

We enjoyed evenings out at some of our favorite dinner spots and spent our days looking for fun animal life - we spotted little crabs and newborn baby sea turtles, always a highlight of summertime in Pompano Beach.

Boating with Friends

We loved spending a day on the water with some friends of ours who keep a boat docked over at the sailing beach.  I didn't snap many photos - too busy enjoying the day, I guess!  The fun continued into the evening, when we decided to pull out the slip-n-slide and make s'mores around a backyard campfire.  We love summer.