Huntington Weekend

Every summer, we get together with a group of friends from college. We all went to Huntington College (now Huntington University), so we fondly refer to this annual event as the HC Vacation. Here are some highlights from the weekend.


Luke and Lauren were the grill assistants, helping Stu & Chad grill up all the burgers, hot dogs, and loads of sweet corn.


Molly & Ben enjoying their corn.


Star, Cole & Reed having dinner.


Doris & Me


Molly & Calli

Day at the Beach

On Friday, we drove all the way to southern Ohio to spend a long weekend at Cowan Lake State Park, with some good friends from college. The trip down took longer than expected, and we arrived just after dark. We had some trouble finding the campground, and were finally helped, and escorted into camp, by a helpful and friendly Ohio State Trooper :)

Saturday, we went to the beach with everyone . . .


Calli, watering the sand.

Mari, during part of the 30 seconds she actually kept her hat on :)


Calli LOVED swimming with her floaties on!!


Ruth, Star, Cole & Arn


Calli cuddles with Dadda after a fun day.

Krispy Kremes!!

So we found ourselves in Rosemont tonight, and decided to stop for donuts at Krispy Kreme. And since the "Hot Now" light was on, we got to see them making the donuts, not to mention we each got a free sample - hot off the line.

Some nice cold milk to wash it down - what more could you ask for??

Calli wanted chocolate - but the original are my favorite by far!!

The girls were a little wired - but happy on the way home!

Shopping Can Be Fun

Photos taken with my cell phone during shopping trip to Jewel today!

Chopsticks

Last night we ordered Thai food with Dillon and his family. So when Calli found these chopsticks still on the table at breakfast, she decided to use them to eat her sausage. Why not?

Maybe she is trying to be like Tia KT who used to eat lunch every day with chopsticks!

B.T.W. To make training chopsticks like these - fold a piece of paper up stick it between the chopsticks, and then fasten them with a hair rubber band.

Playgroup at the Park - Take 2

We go to playgroup most Wednesday mornings. Here are the girls with some friends:


Mari & Adam



Calli, Chloe, Mari & Adam



Calli & Adam

Sprinkler!!

Today was our last day of escuela. In celebration - we went to Starbucks for a Dulce de Leche for me, and chocolate milk for the girls. Then we stopped by the school playground, and finally - played a little in the sprinkler. They loved it!

Monday

Not a whole lot going on today: we colored, we went to the gym/kids klub, we all took naps (Yay!), we played with Lucas. A good day :)

Eleven Years!!

For our 11 year anniversary, I *surprised* Rich, and took him on a romantic weekend to Lake Geneva. Much thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for staying with the girls!!
(Not a complete surprise because of work meetings, canceled flights, etc. . .)

One of the highlights was the "Walk and Gawk". Apparently, property owners around the lake are legally bound to maintain a path around the lake, and to allow people to walk through their property. It is a great walk - not to mention a great way to see some amazing homes, or should I say estates!




Us ~ on our walk . . .

We also discovered electronic darts. Who would have thought they were so much fun! We started off - just trying to figure out the scoring and objective. (We were playing some game where you started with 301 pts and tried to be the first to get to Zero - exactly.) We ended up deciding to put them in our basement - should we ever have a basement. We played 3 matches - each match being best of three games. I won!!! but not by much.


An amazing sunset!

Big Bed

There is something fun and luxurious about a big bed. I know I feel that way whenever we sleep in a King-sized bed. Here are the girls, living it up in our bed.

Knock-knock

Calli told her first knock-knock joke this week. The exchange went something like this:

Calli: "I'll say 'Knock-knock' and then you say 'Who's there?', okay Mamma?"
Me: "Okay"
Calli: "Knock-knock"
Me: "Who's there?"
Calli: "Mariella"
Me: "Mariella who?"
Calli: "Mariella - Baby" lots of laughing

I guess she learned it from the kids at school.


Another great quote from today:
Me: "Calli are you trying to drive me crazy?"
Calli: "Not yet Mamma"

Mac Attack!

So Tia KT is a Mac girl - but I still love her. Look at those cool pics she took with her laptop and Mac photo program. FYI - another way to get Calli to smile is when she can see herself. But Mari doesn't think the whole thing is too thrilling.

Whatever it takes

If you've followed this blog very long - you know that it can be hard to get good pictures of Calli smiling. She doesn't like to look at the camera - or hold still - or smile for her picture. So how did this great picture come about?? See below . . .


Thanks for the silly face, Grandpa!

Another good picture (well, good of Calli at least), see below . . .


Thanks Tia KT!

Swimming

Another perk of a "vacation hotel" is the pool. Calli and Dadda spent at least an hour there this morning.
With the assistance of her floaties, Calli quickly started "swimming" on her own. Look at the distance between her and Rich in this picture as compared to the first one.


Tia KT chose to stick to the "warm pool". LOL!

Vacation Hotel

In honor of Fathers' Day (and the outlet malls) we planned a family excursion to Michigan City, IN this weekend. We planned to shop, stay in a rental home, visit the beach, spend the night, and have a leisurely morning with the girls' Grandparents and Tia KT.

Unfortunately, the house, in addition to being too small for our 7 person group, had a very strong odor and we had to make other arrangements. Oh, how Calli cried. She was SO looking forward to the "vacation house". So Rich had to explain how the vacation house was too small, but we would look for a "vacation hotel" instead.

Some fun things to do in hotels:

Play peek-a-boo in the cupboards!




Play with Daddy on the King-sized bed!