Thursday, August 27, 2009

Pic-a-nic basket

We had no pic-a-nic basket but rather a few coolers. To my knowledge, no pictures were taken. However, this evening, we had a date with The Dukes at our local park, Central Park. And boy, did we have fun.

The delightful two-some explored the playground and played on all the features. Madelyn sat on the ground while we ate and played with our empty sandwich container. She's getting so grabby lately and wants to hold on to anything within arm's reach. Gran (The Dukes' Grammy) and Grandad helped her swing on the bucket swing, and, later, she enjoyed her very first picnic meal -- carrots and a bottle.

Henry and Ian are the cutest two-and-a-half year olds around. Their exploration and amazement of all the different toys was so fun to be a part of and watch. We were lucky, too, that Ian took the wheels off our BOB and inspected them for us before left. He gave us a clean report. And, he taught Madelyn how to give a high five as we said good-bye for the walk home.

It's too bad they live in Lawrence and we only get to see them every so often. We like our friends from the east and look forward to seeing them again.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Happy birthday, Dad!




Our weekend travels were uneventful. Madelyn did well on the airplane and, both times, made friends with everyone sitting in the rows around us. We're lucky she's such a sweet, happy girl. And, I think next year she'll be more than happy to help blow out candles and indulge in a little birthday cake herself.

It's Miller Time!

One of the stops on Griff's 30th birthday trip? The Miller (Coors) brewery tour in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although we didn't partake in the brewhaus part of the tour -- advertised as 56 steps and 105 degrees...who wouldn't want to partake?! -- we still enjoyed our trip and complimentary post-tour samples.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Birthday week

After a dark week on the blog last week -- Madelyn was under the weather -- we are back. She's feeling much better and the little bit of what's left of her rash is fading quickly.

This week is Dad's Birthday Week. It's sort of like Shark Week, only different. At any rate, we are stoked for the big celebration on Friday and Madelyn's first out-of-state trip.

We're going to Chicago to do some fun Summer time activities. And, as a bonus, we get to stay and visit with Honey and Poppie. Thursday afternoon, we fly out. I've been grilling our neighbor on travel tips and am as prepared as can be. Honey and Poppie are more than prepared and very excited for our arrival.

Tomorrow's our Friday...let the vacation begin!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Ah-1, ah-2, ah-3!


Introducing the newest bleacher bum! The hand-me-down jersey fits and she's all set to root, root, root for the Cubbies this weekend. We have tickets to Sunday afternoon's game so Madelyn may get to officially attend her first baseball game.

If Harry Caray were still alive, he'd make sure this little Cub fan got on TV.