Live from Tormville!

Christmas in the 'Ville

Yesterday was one of those choppy hard to get anything done days. Greg was working and the kids needed shuttling to and fro. 
I managed a bit of laundry, but that's about it.  And I did get to the parade. This was Denny's second year participating. It was a little warmer than last year, and I dressed smarter - but even with my wool socks on, my toes quickly grew numb. 

This was the first year that the event had a shuttle service, and that worked excellent. We parked over at the fairgrounds near the balloon refueling area and waited for the bus to bring us to the parade route. The only glitch was that the buses didn't realize that there were two parking areas at the fairgrounds, so the ballooning bunch eventually had to wave a bus down once we noticed that the buses kept passing us. After the parade, the fairgrounds and refueling is just a short ride away from the end of the parade. It sure beat last year when we had to double-back to get to our cars and were fighting traffic and weather. 

The theme this year was red, white and blue. Had I been thinking I would have stood on the other side of the trailer. The flag looks like it is on fire in nearly all my photos.  The lines over the street tho?  Those are on fire. That shouldn't have happened. The trailer in front of us clearly didn't have someone in charge of letting the pilot know when there were lines overhead.  Being behind them had us watching carefully to make sure none of the lines came loose when we were under them. It was a bit nerve wracking. 

Ah - the crowds. 

It really is fun to see everyone from this vantage point. I saw more than a few familiar faces and a few that I know will be reminding me tomorrow morning that they saw me at the parade. 

I came home afterwards and working on thawing my toes. 

--------------------

Another week - the 14th week of school if we are counting (we totally are) 

• Brian's first swim meet
• Robotics x2. or 3. 
• karate
• swim x 6
• PT x 2
• Wendy is still employed. 
• Class pictures should be uploaded to yearbook this week, enabling me to make more progress
• I should probably start thinking about Christmas
• Seriously
• Starting with some lists.......

Enjoy the day. 

be good

 

 

Sunday afternoon hike

We had yet another beautiful fall afternoon yesterday. 

It was too good to pass up. 
I was feeling a bit under the weather, but fresh air is a good dose of the right stuff. 

Greg was home again this weekend. We're enjoying this unusual string of weekends with him now. He's making Mark laugh here. The travels will be starting up again soon. Last evening he had to be in Toledo by seven, but made it home by two am. 

In the morning I had woken up with random bouts of goose bumps. Even while taking an extremely hot shower, I was feeling chills - but then they'd pass. I told Greg that I had no idea if I was going to make it to church or not as he left with the boys for Sunday school. 

I did not. I crawled back in bed. 
I took another nap on the couch after lunch. 

The chills feeling had passed by that point, but I just felt tired. It was more pronounced on our walk. I was getting winded where I don't normally get winded. Not sure what that bug was, but I think I'm feeling better this morning. 

I've taken this picture before. The grass on this stretch of the walk is perfect for practicing the grass whistle. 

It was fun to check out the new tree house. It's beautiful with the bits of color, the bridge and ramps and butterfly houses. Well done. 

The boys still prefer the water though. Who'd have thunk? 

Now onto the next week. 
It's another full and busy one. 

Happy Monday! 

And then there were melons....

On Friday morning we lazily checked out of our digs in Boyne, and made it home in plenty of time to unpack, go through the mail, start some laundry and get ready for our evening 5K. 

This summer blew as far as taking care of myself. I never do well when I don't have routine, and there has been no routine to speak of at all this year. Instead of losing ten pounds, I gained ten pounds. I'm looking forward to school starting simply because I need some routine. I operate better in all ways. That being said - it was far from my PR (personal record), but I did better than everybody who didn't run. 

We both have a goal of getting better times in October for the next 5K event. 

On Saturday - Greg headed down to the Woodward Dream Cruise, and Wendy and I took turns with our volunteer shifts.  She had the 8am shift and had fun all over town making signs, helping with kids games and kites and worked past her four hour shift to the point that I had to call her to get home so I could get up to my shift. 

I worked the car show portion of the event for a few hours. It was the first year that we've been able to volunteer and we had fun. We'll definitely do it again. 

After walking back home - the weather was looking iffy enough that we decided taking the boys up to the event would be a Sunday thing rather than a Saturday evening thing. Our little subdivision gets a little locked in with all the road blocks and traffic detours that driving anywhere over the weekend is a pain in the butt unless you're heading straight to the expressway.  I stock up with what I need on Thursday and park the van all weekend. I've done it for years. 

The bonus of waiting until Sunday to go to the festival is that Greg could join us. His last day off work and he's been on long days and seven days a week again ever since. He'll be working right through the holiday weekend as well.  What a year. 

When asked what our favorite part of the festival was this year, I answered the Ultimate Air Dogs. The announcer/host of this event was so patient with all the kids surrounding the pool and did a great job explaining and announcing all the dogs who jumped. The record jumper comes close to 30 feet. Lots of fun to watch. 

We had also done the two story MiTrain hour long excurion train ride - but I didn't get any real good pictures of that. That ride came complete with a certificate of record stating that we were part of the first revenue service for these train cars in the entire state of Michigan. Kind of cool. 

We made the mistake of walking down the street with all the food carts. We kept doing doubletakes when folks were walking by with this huge bowl of butterfly chips.  It was $8 and plenty for all four of us to share. With our bowl in hand, we kept getting questions and doubletakes as well.  They were delicious. 

This just makes me laugh. 

melon ice cream - check
melon purchased - check

melon jones soda - check
photo boards - check
train - check
festival food - check
people watching - check

It was a great year and an enjoyable end to dad's days off. 

from today:

He kept giggling, "it tickles!!  it tickles!!" as the birds ate off of his seed stick

Yesterday, the boys and I had a chat. I told them they had a choice. We could either go to the Fowlerville Fair - BUT NO RIDES (two days of rides at Balloonfest last month filled this mom's ride quota for the summer) or we could go to the Potter Park Zoo (in Lansing) and knock an item off of a couple of the kid's summer wish lists (Wendy and one of the boys - they couldn't remember which one) while providing company for the neighbor who was taking the grandkids she's watching this week.  

They chose the zoo. They just couldn't fathom going to the fair and not going on rides as much as Wendy and I tried telling them how much OTHER stuff there would be to see and do.  "Not even one single ride??" 

The zoo it was. 

And a beautiful day for it, and fun was had. 

Pile in kids, we're going for a ride.

 

Friday was a 'snow' (ice) day, topped with the husband going out of town and an ominous Sat/Sun forecast = a mom who had to get out of the house for a bit. Anywhere. 

Brian was still running a fever, so our options were limited. 

 

 

I decided we'd head to Rochester to check out their Big, Bright Light Show. I've never been to Rochester before - I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured we'd drive through - oooh and aaaaah - and then head back home. 

 

 

But it was so cool, and so easy to find parking that we decided to get out and walk the main street for a better look. 

We didn't last long. We all felt cold quick (33 and drizzling) and soon it really started coming down so we dashed back to the van. We're going to go back next year on a beautiful wintry night when we're all healthy and we can stroll about and check out some of the stores and eats. 

 

The only store we wandered into was the Moon River Soap Company. Allan's excema is bad this year, so I found some soap for him that I'm hoping will ease it a bit. 

 

Worth the drive. Even in the pouring rain. 

And we didn't even hit any crazy tourists. 

Tall Ship Celebration in Bay City: A Photo Heavy Report

Yesterday morning I shook the kids out of bed with a psssst....hey, wake up, let's go see some pirate ships!  (Tall Ship Celebration)  We left home at 10 am and got to the free parking lot at 11:30. It was an easy drive and for a festival that I've been talking about trying to get to for years, I then wondered how I didn't happen to go sooner. 

I had studied the online brochure, faq's and facebook page up, down, left and right the night before in order to hopefully make the best choices. We had decided to meet up with our friends (Greta and Hannah) on the west side of the river - at Veteran's Memorial Park - because it clearly stated that the Arts and Crafts ran from Thursday through Sunday. However, they did not. The Arts and Crafts run from Friday to Sunday, so we were a little disappointed about that - my kids had their money in their baggies and had been looking forward to spending it on pirate inspired art. Alas. 

Waiting for the ships to come in was a little bit like waiting for fireworks, but we were blessed with beautiful weather. The humidity had finally broke Wednesday evening. I kept exclaiming, wow - what a beautiful day.

We passed the waiting time by sipping lemonade, blowing bubbles (our friend Hannah), games of Simon says and I spy....

...and watching Shorty do some juggling tricks. I missed the shots of him letting the boys run through his legs. 

Mark, when sharing with dad after we got home:  And we met this really tall guy, and his mom did name him SHORTY when he was a baby! 

click on any of the photos for a better view

Finally we saw the tall ships coming on the horizon. 

 

The other side of the river looked a lot busier than our side. They had a band playing from over there, and because the water was more shallow on our side, all the tallest ships parked on that side. We felt our side was a good choice for us - we had a good view and it was quieter. 

When the first ship came in, there were cannons fired which had one of my kids screaming. I put down my camera and looked at Wendy while saying, seriously???  She scoffed. That wasn't me...that was BRIAN. 

Brian just shrugged. I wasn't expecting it, he explained. 

It was definitely an obvious way of separating the newbies in the crowd (us) from the veterans. We knew to expect it each time after that first one. Each ship got four welcoming cannon blasts from the shore, and some of the ships fired as well. 

The wind had really picked up to the point that my little boys were shivering, and I'm guessing it also had something to do with why all the ships weren't able to come in full sail. 

The size of the ships was wondrous. 

There was a little bit of excitement when that front ship started pulling in to our side - there was yelling, and yelling, for them to come in shallow, for had they continued on the path in this picture, it would have been a bit of a disaster. apparently. judging by the guy that was yelling next to my good ear. 

The program had given a 1:00 estimate for when the ships would start arriving, and we saw the first ship at 1:39. There was a long delay between the first three ships and the next bunch, partially because of an accident on the tow bridge that required a tow truck. It was 2:49 when the next batch came through and still another wait before the last of them. We watched the second batch, then we took the public transport back over to the other side. 

Our friend had gone home by this point - it was her first time too, so it was fun to learn a bit more about the festival with a partner. 

My kids were just as excited about the buses as they were about the ships. 

Now on the other side, a different view and perspective. It was definitely more crowded and active, and I spent a little more time counting my kid's heads. One, two, three...one, two, three....one, two, three...

What I liked about the east side was being able to get so close to the tall ships. This was fun to watch - they did a count and then pulled and rolled that sail. 

Back on the free transportation once again and back to the GM Powertrain Plant (free parking) to our vehicle and back home. The kids were starving and done. I was thinking I'd love to go back again with just my husband on a weekend date. The shops around town looked very inviting as well. 

But - for this day, it was time to get home. 

There was ballooning, afterall. We got home from the festival at 6:15 - I quick emptied the van, changed into ballooning pants and boots, gave my husband a fast review of the festival and booked back out the door. 

We had lots of help last night. 

And it was good. 

 

 

witnessed

I took the kids up to the balloonfest this afternoon, and while there we witnessed a tree telling a dog to not even think about peeing on him. 

The dog ran behind his owner and hid. 

true story. 

Media Night at Howell City Park

me, laura, sonja
photo taken by Al Ward of the Livingston Daily 

It was a beautiful night last night for media night (balloonfest is the last weekend in june). We've not had many good flying days this year, so to have a good night for media night was awesome. Always a good time hanging out with fellow ballooning friends. 

I met Matt through ballooning - a fellow Finlander who likes to talk about saunas. He asked me if I'm happy, and I told him that he should know by now that a Finn's happy face, sad face, excited face - are all the same face. 

They know who to schmooze. 

oh hey, even my kid showed up. 

George was driving in circles, so I was just shooting out the back window. 

It was good. 

We have hopes of flying tonight as well, and fingers crossed for a beautiful weather weekend for balloonfest. After a month of scattered thunderstorms, I say we deserve it. 

The Hamburg Family Fun Fest

click any of the photos for a close up

Wednesday evening I got an email from the local newspaper letting me know that I was one of the two lucky winners of four wristbands for the Hamburg Family Fun Fest. A quick glance at the schedule shared that yesterday (Friday) morning would be the only day it would work out with all of our conflicting schedules. 

So we went. The weather was perfect, and the timing was right. We got there at 1 - an hour before the rides opened, allowing us time to check out the animals, get the lay of the park, and find a ticket booth at the back corner to claim our wrist bands and avoid the long line in the front. 

We stayed until 4:30, and there were no lines the whole time we were there. It was starting to get a bit busier as we were leaving. The kids did the bumper cars multiple times.  Except for Mark - he rode passenger to Wendy the first time and was a bit more jostled about then he would have liked. 

The slide was another one they did many many times. They slept well last night. 

The kids wanted to do the ferris wheel, and there as no way I could let them go without me - so I bought tickets for that.  Trickery. They sell tickets in lots of four - but it takes five to ride the ferris wheel. I have NO problem riding in a hot air balloon, but my stomach does a little flip on the wheel, especially with four kids wanting to gawk over the side. 

We almost missed the alligator show. I had planned our afternoon so carefully and it ended up that I had accidentally looked at Saturday's schedule instead of Friday's. I might have even thought it was Saturday for a bit. Who knows - but we caught the show five minutes in - in time to see him wrestle this guy out of the water. 

Had a little happy moment when looking through photos and saw that pure luck had all four kids in this photo. I have a hard time seeing the screen on my camera in bright daylight with transition lenses, so I never really know what I'm capturing or what I got until I get back home. 

Wendy is front middle - between two strangers. Again, pure luck - but I did take about 30 pictures of this hoping to help that luck along. 

Happy Saturday! 

Today we have....

• husband going to the library to put in some work hours in quiet
• Allan has an interview first thing this morning (his landscaping job just hasn't had enough hours yet this summer with the crummy weather) 
• soccer game
• a graduation party
• ballooning

Time to get busy.....

be good

Autofest * 2012

My husband took the day off yesterday. He's on a mission this year to utilize all of his vacation days - he's thrown them away many years in a row.

Him taking the day off, and no longer having littles at home, enabled us to be the first of our friends up to Autofest this year. I had hedged all Thursday and Friday morning long about going - the rain in the forecast scared me. I can NOT get sick this year, and walking in the rain without quick access to a hot shower/sauna will get me every single time. 

With the forecasts looking like they were clearing up - I went. 

And bought an umbrella at the very first shop because it was raining, and kicking myself because umbrellas are the one thing I pick up as many as possible of at garage sales so we have a bunch of quarter umbrellas at home. (We walk to school - we need umbrellas. many of them.) 

Anyway. 

We went. I bought an umbrella. It cleared up and we walked the whole length before the block party began. Greg made it to Willi's. It's a goal of his. 

Although, now that he's been to Germany, he was a little bit critical of their saurkraut. I'm just taking his word for it. 

Braut down the hatch - we sat down for a bit and people/car watched. Just because Greg takes the day off doesn't actually mean he's disconnected. He was taking work calls and trying to explain how to get things up and running - it involved talk of receptors and buttons and I really don't know but I was getting the giggles because he was trying to communicate while all these super loud muscle cars were driving down the strip shaking our whole bench. 

At about four o' clock we headed back down the strip and met up with our friends. 

We have lots of friends. 

At 5:00 they shut down the street and the cars park all along both sides. And the bands start playing. 

I was being questioned from behind as to what I was photographing, so I flipped my camera backwards and shot again. 

Oh hey! We know them! 

Besides people and food - there were also cars there. Lots of 'em. 

I would love to drive this one about town. I'd trade in my van in a heartbeat. 

Besides people and food and cars, there was also music. There are many bands set up along both sides of the strip. Sometimes their music collides (they are too close to one another) but for the most part it works out. I really missed the Blues Brothers Tribute Band this year - they weren't in their usual spot, and if they were there at all, we didn't see them - so I had to pick a new favorite. I pick these guys. Not sure what their name is, but they were very entertaining. 

In a don't try this at home way. 

A short while after this - the sky opened up so quick and hard that it closed the show down two hours early. Everyone was running to their vehicles while the fireworks were blasting. 

I got soaked from the knees down - but took a long hot shower when we got home. 

Oh - and I got a new purse as well, so my night was a success. 

It was another 15,000 steps day. 

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As for today...

• Lovin' these cooler temperatures - high of 68 today. 
• donning my purple
• Brian starts soccer in just over an hour...time to get busy.....