Staycation

I've been hearing that term everywhere lately. It seems staycations are all the rage these days. People must be looking at the economy & their pocketbooks & deciding that there are plenty of fun things to do a bit closer to home.

Last year we were exploring North Carolina at this time. This year we decided to explore our own backyard.

We spent a couple of days working on our honey-do lists and a couple of days camping. We already live in the country and like to hike and barbecue and have campfires. And yet, this camping trip was so wonderful & relaxing even though we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. It's just nice to be able to relax & have fun without noticing the weeds that need to be pulled & the lawn that must be mowed. It was well worth the $100 we spent on camping.

Shhh, don't you know we're trying to relax here?!

Missing Tooth

Missing in more ways than one. Apparently it got thrown in to the school garbage at lunch time. I guess it was on her lunch tray. I really don't understand this as she pulled it out while waiting for the bus that morning. I gather that it was quite traumatic as both the school principal and the custodian offered to look through the garbage for her at the end of the day. Hmmm.....maybe her not exactly quiet crying had something to do with that promise. It's been over 2 weeks and the tooth fairy seems to have been forgotten this time....

5K

We made a quick trip up to Duluth during the Grandma's Marathon weekend. I took videos of all our runners, but no photos. Here are a couple of our group at the 5k the night before the big race.

Micah ran his first 5k in 30 minutes! He said he could have easily run twice that distance. I suggested he do another 5k & try to beat his time. He said one more 5k & then he's moving on and up.

Family Days

Craig's dad has been having a lot of bad days with his diabetes. We've been seeing family a lot the past while when visiting him.

The Connelly men on one of gramps' good days.

Auntie Jenny flew in and spent many days with her dad. The day after school was out we hopped in the car & drove & she hopped into her car & drove. About two hours later we met up & spent the day together.

Early Start

The poor kids had school until June 9th this year! We rebelled and pulled them out a couple of days their last week. First we went to Milwaukee and then we spent two nights in a condo on Lake Michigan.

My childhood buddy Jackie let us barge into her beautiful apartment for the weekend. She fixed us nice meals & even had toys for the kids to play with. Micah chastised me for waiting until he was 9 to go visit Jackie!

Our resort had a water park. I bet the kids liked that the best, but I loved the fact that we were right on the beach. It was 102 degrees back home at that time, but sunny & refreshingly cool on the beach.

Ahhh, vacation. What's not to love?

First And Last

Chad Rich Patrick: 16
Kaia Rose: 2

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back

Ah, this brought back some memories.

In this fast moving world it's nice to know that not everything has changed. It was reassuring to see my daughter enjoying the same simple rhyme that I used to enjoy on my bus rides home. Thirty years ago, but lets not talk about that.

How lucky she is to have so many girl cousins. It's even better that they are now only a 4 hour drive away.

This photo makes my heart sing.