June 2016

Hello readers!  This is a quick mid-June entry so I could lay down some brags and show off some fun pictures.  Pretty early in July Forrest and I are going to be headed up North, so I don't know how much I will be able to blog then.  But when we get back we should have some awesome father/son pictures for everyone.

This is my "I am so blessed" picture.  Love that lady, and love those kiddos!

Some more of Letty Bean, who has been particularly photogenic this month.  Maybe in anticipation of her 6 month celebration?!

This kid, she knows how to take a picture.  Special "Thank You" to Forrest for letting us borrow one of his many coveted numbers.

In other fun, Mandi and I got to have a day to ourselves, in which we went to Monticello for an 80th Birthday Party for my Grandma Rosemary.  I didn't get a picture with her, which I feel pretty dumb about.  Hopefully next year.  We went to Champaign after for an early dinner and to just sort of wander around sans kids.  While in downtown Champaign I saw someone I recognized... flabbergasted I had to ask for a selfie.

The LEGENDARY Lovie Smith, former head coach of the NFC Championship Chicago Bears, and along with Tony Dungee the first African-American Head Coaches to make it to the Super Bowl.  Lovie, I wish you were still with the bears.  Thanks for a selfie.  I think he was cool with it because we are both in the bald brotherhood.

Afterward we went to a wedding reception for my friends Maren and Mustache Jimmy.  It was a great party, and a classy affair all around.  One of the best Saturdays I have had in a while :D

Northwoods - June 2016

What a wonderful time to be alive :)  This month the family packed up and headed North to our very own lake house for the first time.  It was tons of fun to have a place where we could stretch out and be ourselves.  We have always appreciated the second-to-none hospitality of Grandma and Grandpa Grogg -and we continued to enjoy it during this trip as we took advantage of pancake breakfasts and her beach- but being able to live as we would at home is very nice.  It also made sure that Grandma enjoyed some peace and quiet in the evenings :)

Without further ado, pictures!

So of course for those of you who don't know... its a bit of a haul.  I want to give my boy a shout out here.  He was a road warrior!  He did so well on the trip, and behaved the whole time.  Charlotte however... had a rough time.  She's good for about 30 minutes.  Unfortunately we had about 7 hours more than that before stops.  Still, we made it.

We arrived in the wee hours of the morning.  Both kiddos slept in the car.  Mommy and Daddy not so much.  The next morning they were bright eyed and ready to face the day.  Thankfully this wonderful view helped to perk me right up!

We wasted no time getting to the beach.   This is over at Bond Lake, where Grandma Grogg has her place.  She treated us to all we could eat pancakes (or in Forrest's case, chocolate-chip pancakes) and bacon.  After the refuel, we were good to go.  The weather was perfect.  Forrest had a blast playing in the lake, and going so, SO deep.

After a day in the sun we all enjoyed relaxing up at the cabin.  There might have been a few cupcakes eaten.  And by a few, I mean around a dozen.

Day 2 started off with an amazing sunrise over our lake.  We quickly headed back to Grandma's to help her with some travel preparations... and eat more pancakes.

On day 2 even Bean got in on the lake fun.  It was a scorcher!  Thankfully we had the lake to cool off.

There were some highlights not pictured here including an awesome trip to Hayward - it is amazing how much different that town is when you're not fighting the mid-July-rainy-day crowd.  There was also some rainy day relaxing in our own cabin too.  No complaints though, it can't be sunny and 75 with a slight breeze every day.

Thats it for this trip.  The next will be a Father/Son adventure that I am very excited about.  More updates to come.