Bruckelaufe Race (That's German for Bridge)

Jeff trained all summer long for a marathon,

but his time AND love for golf got in the way.

He knew he wasn't ready for a full marathon,

so he signed up for a 1/2 marathon in Frankenmuth.

When Riley said she wanted to come home for Conference Weekend,

he mentioned the race to her and she wanted to do it too.

Riley convinced Hannah to do it, Hannah convinced me to do it,

and I convinced Alec.  Go Day-Team!!

Here we are waiting for the 5K to start.

Jeff had just left to start his.

At the starting line - it was raining and Riley had her "game face" on.  Ha!

We were all laughing because all of a sudden the gun shot went off to start,

every one gasped, and then they all started running like chickens flying the coop!!

It was so hilarious.

We finished!  Alec beat us all and showed us to the refreshment table.

What would a race in Frankenmuth be without bavarian pretzels?

We were hoping for chicken legs, but these were pretty awesome, too!

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies were big beer jugs.  Hilarious!

What was even more funny was that we were actually listening for our names

as placing in our individual age groups.

No one went home with a beer jug trophy, but we all ran a great race.

Sweet Hannah, Sweet 16!

Happy Sweet 16 to our Hannah Bean!

All she wanted was an iphone but I made her work for it!

On the morning of her birthday,

she woke up to this....

and this!

She had to follow the crepe paper maze to find 16 bags

filled with things she loves the most...

(nail polish, candy, make-up, etc)

(getting the bags ready the night before while she was away at a stake dance)

The #16 bag was last and had the iphone inside!

Her birthday fell on a Sunday

so we, of course, stayed home and had steak for dinner with

cake & ice cream.

And was she kissed on her 16th birthday?  Of course she was!

But she did the kissing.

What happened to August?

It's almost the middle of September and we've 

been M.I.A.!!

August started with a FANTASTIC Day family reunion
@ Crystal Lake...

and ended with getting Riley out-the-door and into her college dorm.

She moved in on Saturday, August 24th.

We farmed the boys out for the day, took the dogs to the kennel,

and headed to East Lansing (only an hour away, mind you!).

The car was pack to the brim
and her bike was hooked onto the back!

When we arrived at her apartments, we ran into a kid from the Clarkston Ward
(Scott & Leslie's ward) and who went to Lakeland w/Riley.
He helped us schlep all of her stuff up to the 3rd floor -
we were so grateful!

He also had the brilliant idea to "loft" Riley's bed so there would
be room for a desk in her room.  Genius!
He stuck around to help Jeff lift the bed and move all of the furniture around.
It turned out so COZY and a perfect place to study.
And, yes, Jeff added a wood railing to the top so she doesn't slip off!!

(I scrubbed her sink, bathtub and toilet.  Gross!)

She has a suite-mate who is also a freshman at MSU (Mormon, too).
Her name is Cassie and they are really getting along well!
She is totally laid back, which is a perfect fit for Riley.

They have another roommate who is moving out in November
to get married.  We met her on move-in day - a bit "different" but was friendly.

After we moved Riley in,
we took the girls out for Sushi at the "Hannah Plaza" next door!
The Hannnah Building and Hannah Blvd. are just down from her apartments, too.  :)

After dinner, we went grocery shopping, helped her organize her kitchen,
and then said our goodbyes.

The only tears shed were earlier that morning when she got a blessing
from Jeff.  She is excited to begin college life and is in a really good place
to do that!

So far, she is loving all of her classes - lots of music & psychology classes -
and has made lots of new friends,
bumping into high school friends, too.

She DID NOT want me to take this picture!!
As true spartans would say,

GO GREEN!!  GO WHITE!!

a few discoveries

Discovery #1:  Joey likes opera.

Funny story -

Hannah and I were singing to Joey in our opera voices

 to get him to hold still (and act like a normal human being).

  And it worked!

Hannah thought it would be fun to see what he would do if we turned

on the opera station on Pandora.

We did just that, put the laptop on the floor, 

and within about 3 minutes he was fast asleep.

It was like a magical spell!

Discovery #2:  Making a T-Shirt quilt is harder than it looks.

I have been wanting to do this for Riley since graduation

and I really wanted to have it done for her graduation party.

That didn't happen so I've been working on it this week

in hopes that it will adorn her dorm room in 3 weeks...

I've got the top done and will add the batting and back

once we get back from Crystal Lake next week.

The most time consuming step was adding interfacing to 

each quilt block to make them sturdier...

these t-shirts were well-worn & well-loved!

Hence, they were pretty thin and flimsy.

This has been a fun project and I really love how it's turning out!

Discovery #3:  I love Milford.
(I already knew that, but it's an ongoing love affair)

A few Friday nights ago, I took the boys and met up with my parents
and Scott & Leslie for a street fair on Main Street in Milford.
It was a perfect, summer night -
complete with warm breezes and a band playing under a tent.

There were blow-up play bouncers lined up and down the street
for the kids to enjoy.
My boys, of course, wanted to play on the water slide ones
but we didn't expect to need our swim suits.

No worries!  They took off their shirts and had fun in their clothes -
Alyssa, too!
She is constantly amazing us as she keeps up with the boys!

scouts & cubs

At 6:00 am this morning, our driveway was full of loud & fired-up

boys from our ward heading out for scout camp this week

at D bar A.

All of these boys are great kids and I think there were about 10

of them in all - but it was hard to count with all of the movement going on!!

Jeff will be there most of the week, too.

Alec is BEYOND excited!!

Ian and I will be going bowling later today with 

our cub scout den.

Instead of meeting weekly at the church in the summer,

we do about 2-3 "field trips" each month.
We've gone on a bike ride, swimming at a local outdoor pool, and

July 1st we took them on a 3-mile hike on a trail at Kensington Park.

These pictures were the closest I could get to a "group shot" -

they never hold still!!

Burt Lake for the 4th!

What got me through my MONTHS of planning

Girls Camp was the fact that only 4 days after it was over

we would be Up North on Burt Lake with the whole family

to celebrate the 4th of July.

We look forward to this trip up to Bill & Cyndie's lake house

every year & this year I knew that I would totally be able to relax and enjoy

our time there!  I was a free woman!! LOL

Here is a picture of my care-free self...hee hee.

The week was spent boating on both Burt Lake & Indian River.

We spent many hours on their back porch chatting & playing candy crush.

The kids zipped around the lake on jet skis

and spent HOURS jumping off the dock onto the tube.

It was just what our family needed!

The kids made up a game called "Three Cheers for Scottie Boy!"

It basically consisted of them jumping onto Scott, who was sitting on the tube,

and trying to flip him off.

Such fun!! 

Since Riley is 18,

her job was to take the boys out on jet ski rides.

She didn't mind one bit!

Bill & Cyndie were such gracious hosts!

They made us feel so welcome & happy to have us all there.

Some of my favorite pics from the week:

Proof that we did our share of relaxing:

What would a summer vacation be without a trip

to the local Dairy Queen?

On the night of the 4th, we watched Alec & Jeff's fireworks display.

I had bought a LAME pack of fireworks from Target, 

but we had fun laughing at how SMALL they were!

We also lit floating lanterns off the boat dock

and all hopped into the boats to see

the fireworks display right out on the lake!

Cyndie's dogs got plenty of lovin' from Adam & Ian all week.

There were 3 dogs to choose from and the boys

made sure they all got equal attention!

On our last day, we had lunch in Harbor Springs

and sat on the city dock watching the boats & yachts go in and out 

of Little Traverse Bay.

What a fun week with our family!

We couldn't have asked for nicer weather OR

better company.  :)