Our Beach ‘Vacation’

Okay, seriously, not a vacation.  And, not a real beach.  Just old Doctor’s Park a few miles from our house.  Last year, because of the awesome dumping of the raw sewage into Lake Michigan by our totally organized and well-governed city, our only trip there ended in disgust.  The beach literally smelled like hogs and no amount of money would convince me that e-coli wasn’t on every grain of sand there.  I cringed when I thought of the boys even taking their shoes off.

But, this year has been better.  No dumping.  Hopefully, the lake is big enough to clean itself, and while I still cringe a little at the memory, I had to let it go.  They wanted to play. Even Daddy.

Don’t get too close!

Oops… shoes got soaked

And, oh, the funny things a small boy can find so amusing.  This ‘P’ shaped rock was a rare find.  Let’s just say we’re practicing spelling and leave it at that.

Yes, Luke.  We’re proud of your handiwork, too.  Real proud.

Andrew and Daddy contemplating the wonder of nature together.

Packer’s Family Day

Being here in Wisconsin, we never really got into the Packers as much as we should have.  They are the Super Bowl Champions, after all.  That is pretty darn awesome.

Scott got tickets to take the boys to the Packer’s Family Night scrimmage.

The boys had a blast getting tattoos.

They also passed out ‘noisemaker’ fans (you slap them on your side… they really are loud)   Dad bought the classic foam finger, too.  Awesome.

Something about this picture makes Pat look like he’s giving you the finger.

Don’t mess with Luke.

Joe spots the cotton-candy vendor.

Finally, they got to watch just a few minutes of the game before some bad weather rolled in.  The boys joined mommy and Andrew already asleep in the hotel rom.

Earlier that day, we had gone to Bay Beach, one of our favorite destinations.  Since we have thousands of pictures of our boys spinning round and round on various rides, I purposely left the camera in the car.  No need for more!

The next morning (after a surprisingly restful night in a hotel room) we took the boys to the newly approved Marian Apparition site – the only one in the US, Our Lady of Good Help.  Mary only appeared there two or three times to encourage a local nun in her efforts to catechize the locals, but, hey, Mary was there!

They had a pretty little rosary walk and a Way of the Cross walk, too.  You can totally tell that this place is unprepared for the throngs of visitors that will eventually come their way.  The small gravel parking lot may be able to accommodate a few busses, but the church is super small (and HOT!)  It was beautiful and peaceful, none the less, and we were glad to be able to visit, being so close and all.  The next closest apparition site is Guadalupe, Mexico.

Good-bye Old Friend

Good and faithful to the end, we were sorry to have to get rid of you.  With Scott’s company car, we just didn’t have room for you in our driveway (although there will always be room for you in our hearts)

Hopefully, your new owners will love you enough to fix your door handle

Or at least get you a new hub cap.

No new babies were brought home from the hospital in you, but you served Scott well through the uber-cold winters up here in Wisconsin.  You never missed a start (except when the boys had turned on your dome light and your battery died) and you only had one major repair… one that wouldn’t have even been necessary in a warmer climate.

You will be missed and the neighbors think we won the lottery.

Homeschool Tryouts

We’ve decided to do a homeschool Vacation Bible School to get us prepared for actually homeschooling this year!

 

Our first lesson was on Bishops.  They made their own Miters!  Precious.