A Quick 'Other Fun' Post

This handful of pictures represent the total of 'outstanding' photos for the month, so I thought I would start August with a clean slate and get down a few final thoughts from July.

On Wednesday, whilst Emily was at band camp, Alice and William were earning some community service hours by working at the Love Clothing Center.  Once we dropped them off, we took the recycling, and other deliveries, to Sarah's house.  My mom had just returned in the wee hours of the morning, so I wasn't sure whether or not she would want to come, but she tagged along while we did our chores.

The first stop was Meijer, to return the cans and bottles.  Juliet helped me, while Grace went inside to help my mom and grab a few things from our list too.

Juliet was quite excited when we got $"6.7"0 in refunds.  

We had to go into the main store to cash them out, and Juliet got a cute little construction hat, since the building is under construction.  Grace had one too, but they only wore them a short while.

Our next stop was Panda Express, where they each redeemed one of their summer reading prizes! My mom and I shared some crab rangoons.

Grace ordered Beef and Broccoli with noodles.  She understood the assignment when I said, "hey eat some noodles for a picture!"

Juliet ordered teriyaki chicken with noodles, and did not understand the assignment, so took a bite of chicken, instead of the long stringy noodles. lol.

Alice and William messaged me at the very end of lunch that they were done early for the day, so we packed back up and went to collect them.  After collecting Alice and William, we swung by the library so that William could enjoy lunch at the Meet-up and Eat-up, and Alice could collect her coupon pack.

When we went to drop off Avia, Sarah offered everyone some fried chicken, and Scrappy was at attention!

Our day was a little shorter than planned, but we went back to Panda Express so that Alice could redeem her prize, then to the post office, and then dropped off the Ingham County Fair coupon with Kennedy since they plan to go.

Today had a few loose ends.  After dropping Emily at band camp, I took der Uebungswagen in to get a new wheel on the right front.  It had been losing air at an unsafe rate, and needed to be done.  I had made an appointment, and they were able to get me in before my time, since I was running early!

It was cold in the lobby, so I opted to walk around the backside and catch some Pokémon.  As I approached my final corner, I noticed the outdoor dining on the Speedway, and thought a cold coffee sounded awfully tasty!

While messaging Christin I noticed that the sun umbrella also had holes!  It made for a cool picture.

So, I enjoyed my breakfast al fresco, and before I even finished the drink, they called to let me know that my car was ready!

Now I can calmly say: Welcome August!

later days

Band Camp

I'm starting this post before camp is officially over, so there may be some disconnect mid-post, please ignore.

The first picture was actually from pre-band camp, last week.  She's been looking forward to marching season since last year ended!

This year on Sunday night, I had to talk her into a picture with the sign, but I was happy to get one!

And last year's for fun!

I also had to chase her down to capture one with her baton.  I was waiting for instructions from the color guard instructor about uniforms, so I didn't have anything better to do.

Monday morning, Emily was ready to march!

Today was twin day at band camp, and Emily was twinning with River, but wanted to bring 'her twins' to practice too!  With the additional children in tow, I forgot a morning picture of Emily today.

The parking lot looked really pretty when the band went on break, and the instruments were all carefully marking positions on the practice field.

Twin picture!

And what the twins did for most of the time while I was 'working.'

One more picture during lunch, since three of us were leaving after I helped clean up the tables!

Maybe because next year Emily will be driving, so I can feel that the end is near, Band camp felt really, really long.

On Thursday, the seniors 'decorate' for their senior prank, this year's theme was Halloween.  It's the longest day of band camp, at 14 hours, since they do senior celebration and band awards after the official camp is complete.

Emily was awarded "Little Miss Sunshine in My Pocket" by the drum majors, and a separate "Little Miss Sunshine" award from her section leader!  Both well deserved, in my opinion!

Today was a half day, with a performance for the parents at noon. 

Avia joined us in the stands, and walked the kids* over to the Kona Ice truck, where they ran into our favorite twirler!!!

It was her first ever performance as feature twirler, and she did an amazing job!  She smiled and exuded confidence throughout!  I took almost 300 pictures and just couldn't dwindle it down anymore, so there are still so many!  These were my absolute favorites!

All sweaty, but happy, with her boyfriend Malichai!

In true Emily form, she woke up excited and happy each morning, despite long days and late nights!  This afternoon she's at a friend's pool party which will have a sleepover for the girls at the end.

It's kind of sad to think that she is now halfway through her high school band camps! = (

later days

*Alice didn't want a snow cone, and so just stayed with me in the stands, but she was there, cheering Emily on!

UP Trip: Houghton Lake

Houghton Lake is not a State Park on my list, and therefore does not get the state park treatment, but it was our final stop on the UP Trip.

My mom found an amusement/fun park, and we definitely had fun!

First up were go-carts!  Poor Grace was still too short for the figure eight track, but it seemed like everything was meant to be on the 'smaller' track, because there were three adult cars and five kid's cars!

They didn't announce winners, which was fine, I think I lapped everyone except for Billy and my mom.

Next up were the bumper boats!  Since we were pretty much the only party there that early, we didn't have to wait in line or anything!

The boats had squirters so that you could squirt people, there were also waterfalls we could bump each other under.  It was really fun, and we all got quite wet.

Our next event was putt-putt.  Of course we had to split into two groups, but they had two courses, so we weren't waiting on eight people at each hole!  Billy won in our group (Billy, Avia, William, me) and Emily won in her group (Alice, Emily, Grace, Juliet.)  I have no pictures, because we were too busy having fun!  We were all nice and dry by the end of 18 holes!

There is a haunted house at this park, but we didn't tour it.  We did take some pictures with the outdoor props however.

The last thing we did was spend some time in the arcade.

Apparently, they couldn't get enough foosball!

Our final stope at Houghton Lake was for lunch.  We found a lovely local place, which had a sand beach and yard games!  The smoke dampened the view, but we managed to make the best of it.

Exceptionally low visibility.

My mom was the DD for the final couple of hours, so that Billy and I could each have a couple of fancy drinks at the restaurant.  They were quite pretty!

I, for the second day in a row, did not get my food in time, despite ordering a sandwich and had to watch everyone else eat. = ( Alice was also missing her entree, but did get her side! Once I did get my food, it was good.  I think everyone enjoyed what they got once it came.

William taking a picture of the twins.

The picture he took:

Overall, it was a really great trip.  If I could have changed anything, it would have been more time at each of the fun parks!  I enjoyed different aspects of each of our lodgings, and would stay in each one again. 

All told, Alice earned 3 and Emily earned 10 of their 50 driver's training hours!  The adults logged even more. ; )

Hopefully we can make our way back to the UP to knock off some of those missing parks, and visit some of the other highly recommended attractions too!

later days