An outdoor wedding in Michigan on October 1? It was a daring move but it was the most amazingly gorgeous day to watch my cousin’s daughter (I googled and that makes her a first cousin once removed or I can call her a niece) Jessica marry…a marine!!
All photos and captions are from Gramma Jean!
We all traveled to Normal for our neice Gabby’s Eagle Scout promotion! But first, dropping Olive at the sitter’s!
And then lunch, because we were at a Mexican restaurant!
Left, sophomore year. Right, about age 3-4?
Going through the pysanky my mom calls the “rejects” and picking some heirlooms. They are gorgeous. Next visit will be the “good” eggs.
These were some of the “better” ones:
Gramma bought each kid their own pysanky kit and gave them each their second lesson tonight! They each wanted to do an egg for Ukraine!
Katie still loves Candyland. Makes me crazy but gramma still plays along!
I’m not sure what’s wrong with me — I didn’t think of taking a pic of us until literally just this minute.
And I totally didn’t get any with the grandparents and the kids, either
Almost the whole gang—Filipeks couldn’t make it.
All of the googly eyes make this delicious appetizer tablescape perfect.
Holy shit balls! I think this might be a first for me—two triple word scores for 193 points! Sorry Mom!
Gramma and Grandpa were headed to Gabby’s graduation party on Moccasin Lake in the U.P. (near Munising) so it was a perfect time to make the transfer. They got to spend the day with their cousins and had a great time!
Owen’s first raft ride behind a Jet Ski!
Waiting patiently.
First time in a hotel with them. We were tired enough, we all slept!They stopped at the deer farm in the U.P. near Brevort.
The kids had such a great time Gramma and Grandpa took them back again!
So Owen is still sometimes afraid of…weather. He doesn’t like wind or storms. So Gramma and Grandpa had a funeral to go to (that the kids didn’t need to go to) so I said it was fine to let them stay home alone. But Owen was VERY concerned because it was supposed to be stormy.
7/24 – Owen is watching the weather like a hawk. They both are afraid of thunderstorms and lightening. He especially is watching Tuesday for the funeral and is afraid of being alone if it storms. It is predicted to storm of course. I won’t leave them here alone if it is going to storm. We’ll watch the weather closely and if it storms we’ll make sure he is safe and not leave him alone. We’ll figure it out. Best case scenario is that the weather changes by then and it won’t storm! I told him that too, it’ll probably change by Tuesday. He seemed relieved and took it all in. He told me about the incident at Mike’s when he couldn’t reach you and it started raining and he was scared.
7/27 – The weather forecast changed so we did not get a single drop of rain. Kids did well. Katie wasn’t hungry so I guess she didn’t eat. I got her to admit she has one candy. But before we went, Owen was a champ. He said he’d be okay with it even if it rained or stormed. He said I have to learn to deal with it (or similar words). I asked if his counselor taught him some coping mechanisms and he said yes, and it helps/helped. I texted him once we got to the luncheon and they were fine. I know he played on his phone but he promised to share and he did. They did go outside for a short while and they watched TV. So, I think it was a huge stepping stone for him. Yay Owen!
Katie got a birthday check from Gramma but she wanted to spend it in person…
From Gramma Jean: We went to Dollar Tree tonight before dinner and she wanted a basket to shop! Got two pair of flip flops and some other stuff, spent $12. I told her I would give her the balance so she had to get pencil and paper and figure out how much that would be. I said she could take the rest to granny’s and she said, not to be mean but shopping there is worse than here! (Choices of stores & options) I’ll give her the balance in an envelope. She’s funny. I pretty much let her choose what she was going to buy. She carefully thought about each one. Cute.
From Gramma Jean: Owen and Katie wanted to go see the start of the race so the three of us went to DQ and then parked at my old office and walked down to Joe’s to watch them. It was fun and they enjoyed it.
It’s time for a road trip to take the kids to Michigan for Grandparent Camp! Usually we go all the way to Grayling but we decided to try something different this year and meet halfway!
I’m not sure what Katie is pissy about other than that’s her normal look these days. (I told you!)
One of the few times she’s sweet.
Our meeting point was Bilbo’s, one of our favorite restaurants from East Lansing that we hadn’t been to in 20 years (since we got married and left Michigan). We were excited that Kalamazoo was the halfway point!
Making the actual transfer! We’re free! Good luck and Godspeed!
Seriously though, the kids absolutely love this time with the grandparents and couldn’t be more excited… especially after Covid put the kibosh on camp last summer. Here’s to making memories!!
I thought the kids would have fun with these cards. I was right. They had a blast playing War with Gramma!
Gramma wanted to go see this so we made it a family affair.
It was definitely interesting, but I wanted more eggs! Also? Mom talked to the curator and will be donating some of her eggs!
I love a good puzzle—pretty easy to put together but still challenging. Gramma Jean and Katie and I worked on this for two days.
Tom and I had both taken Tylenol PM so we were both zonked in the morning when the kids came in together at 7:15 with a loud MERRY CHRISTMAS and hopped in bed with us! We always leave their phones outside their doors so they can let us sleep longer but apparently 30 minutes was all they could handle!
I must be slacking on my old age because I didn’t take any pictures! But they started with their stockings and were thrilled to find a ton of Lego Minifigure packs so they started building those right away! Before we knew it, this is what the room looked like (and I think this is after one mid-opening cleaning).
Santa brought the kids a few things they asked for so they were thrilled—Owen got a game for his computer (he was super sneaky and actually installed it on the computer!) and some video game cash and Katie got some dolls she asked for.
Katie was proud of her wrapping job. And she knows me…it was a stemless wineglass that said BEST MOM EVER.
Then we video chatted with both sets of grandparents AND had a zoom call with the Schwalmlettes. (We might have been a little unprepared since we were thinking it was noon our time. But it was noon Eastern. I am never going to get used to being CST.)
