We're finally back - lots to catch up on.....

Wow...It has been over six weeks since we last posted. It hasn't been because there was nothing to post, but rather that we were too busy to write anything.....If you attempt to read the entire post, you may want to do it in a couple of sessions.....

And now a quick update on what we have been doing since the beginning of June:

June 4th - Caitlin graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School - Home of the River Rats!! The ceremony was long since they had more than 500 graduates. Caitlin went to the all night party afterward and had a great time.
June 7th - Caitlin had her graduation party in Sandusky at Chett & Matt's Pizza - Always a regular stop when we are in Sandusky. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and friends while eating lots of Hot Wing & Cheddar Pizza.

Week of June 9th - We had a new driveway poured this week. The old driveway was full of cracks and really needed to be replaced when we moved in, but we tried to put it off for a while. The city of Ann Arbor had gone around town marking sidewalks that needed to be replaced and they said that two of the ones by the driveway needed to be done. Since we had to do that, I got a whole bunch of estimates and found a very reasonable one. This company was from a small town south of Ann Arbor and has been in business for three generations but was still a small family business. I checked out their references and saw some of their work and they got the job. We now have a new approach, four pieces of sidewalk, a small sidewalk path to the front porch and new front step. This made a huge difference in the look of our property, especially since we replaced the garage door several weeks ago too. They admitted that they gave me a better price because we are the first house in our development and they wanted the chance to get more business in our neighborhood. It worked out for both of us....I got a real good price (and a nice job) and they were able to get several other jobs in the neighborhood. They were there for a couple weeks on all the other work they got.

Weekend of June 14th - Brad & Therese met Jillian, Britt and Austin in Toledo and piled in the van to drive to Mason, OH for the wedding of one of Jillian's best friends from college. (Caitlin stayed home with Buddy) We loved spending some quality time with Austin while Jillian and Britt went to the rehearsal dinner, etc. It was a fun trip and served as a warm up for the upcoming trip to North Carolina.
June 21st - Therese's cousin Tim and his family (from Texas) and her sister Jackie and her kids (from Virginia) were visiting Sandusky so her brother John hosted a small family reunion for those who could make it. We all had a fun time catching up and playing games.




June 26th - My cousin Kevin and his wife Robin along with their children Theo and Loren came to visit us while they were "up North". (Kevin and Robin are both Doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham). They spent some time with Kevin's family in Sandusky and did the Cedar Point thing. Then they drove up to Ann Arbor to spend a little time with us before Theo checked out the University of Michigan's Engineering School the next day. We cooked some ribs and chicken and had a lot of fun telling old stories and playing Wii Fit. They have a Wii game but have not played the Wii Fit before. They were pretty good at the games and we had a lot of laughs.

June 27 - July 7th - The family road trip to visit the Schreiners in North Carolina!! We had been planning this trip for months and figured it would take about 14 hours so we decided to leave on Friday evening when Austin was ready to sleep. We drove to Sandusky from Ann Arbor on Friday afternoon, put Buddy in the kennel, picked up a car top carrier from a relative of Britt's family (a whole other story). After getting everything securely attached, we packed the van up and headed south. I just got a new Dodge Grand Caravan Stow and Go a few months ago and it worked out perfectly for the trip. We were able to pack everything we needed (especially golf clubs) without being too cramped. The carrier worked out great and we never had a problem (thank goodness, because I wouldn't want Mark to find out about it if the carrier fell off or something crazy like that - I would never hear the end of it....).

I drove the entire way and Therese road shotgun while she felt the knockout effects of the motion sickness patch she used. Caitlin and Austin sat in the two middle seats while Jillian and Britt had a little extra room in the back three seats. When we got to Jacki and John's house, we parked, unloaded the van and never moved it again until we left for home. It felt good to have a week off of driving. Most places we went to required us to take two vehicles so we took John's big Ram truck and Jacki's new Toyota that she just got a few weeks ago.

One small problem when we unpacked - we found that a bottle of corn syrup had broken in the bottom of the Stow and Go sections and created quite a mess. Thanks to John's shop vac and lots of soap and water we got it cleaned up as good as new. (note to self - next time buy the Scotcheroo ingredients after you get to your destination.)


The week was probably one of the best vacations we ever had. We spent time playing Euchre, Phase Ten, watching John and Britt play GTA, golfing, playing cornhole, playing darts, playing Caitlin's new Nintendo DS, watching movies, cooking and eating a lot of food! Jacki made some great breakfast food - it was like being at a very nice bed and breakfast with an awesome rate! We went to play miniature golf at a pretty fun place and went to a very nice aquarium for one afternoon. Austin really liked banging on the glass of the huge tank and sharks swam by and he even touched a stingray in one of the tanks.

Jacki had set things up for us to get a family picture taken at the beach on Tuesday of that week. It was a beautiful evening and we got some fantastic pictures of the entire family as well as various group shots of families, girls, guys, etc. We ended up buying the rights to all the pictures so we could make use of Therese and Jacki's Photoshop skills to get copies of any pictures we wanted. My favorite is the entire family walking along the water and jumping in the air. Some of those shots turned out great.

While we were there, Jillian and Britt told us the big news - They are expecting again! After we returned, it was confirmed and the due date is 2/27/09. We all look forward to the new addition to the family!

While in North Carolina we went to visit Joe and Collette Samstag. Brad graduated with both of them and Joe is actually Britt's great uncle. Brad, John, Britt and Joe went golfing in the afternoon and later the others came to meet us and take a tour of Hatteras Yachts where Joe works. We were able to walk through several huge yachts to see how the other half (maybe .00001%) lives. One of the yachts was 110 feet long, but you can pick it up for less than $10 Million....They were incredible.

We then went to Joe and Collette's for a nice cookout and evening together. Joe pulled out a picture of the old "Vulture 50/50 club" from high school that he still has in a frame (if you don't know, ask me about it sometime.) I'm glad we had the chance to get together while we were there.
Austin decided to start walking the day we got back to Jillian and Britt's, so Jacki and John didn't get to witness that. He did learn to say "Jacki" while we were there, though :)



July 8th - We took Caitlin to meet her group to begin their trip to Australia. The trip was two weeks long with one of the weeks being World Youth Day that brought about 200,000 young people from throughout the world to see the Pope and take part in various activities. The first week was "Days in the Diocese" and Caitlin stayed with a family and took part in many activities and sightseeing. We only communicated by e-mail a couple times and have not talked with her since they left. We will be picking her up late Monday night (early Tuesday morning). We look forward to seeing all the pictures and hearing the stories of the trip.

While Caitlin was in Australia, she got the notice of who her Hope College roommate would be. Her roommate is from California and we e-mailed the info to Caitlin. The next day, we noticed that they were already friends on Facebook. Wow, this internet thing may catch on after all...haha


Week of July 14th - The Annual Ann Arbor Arts Fairs were held this week. There are actually four different fairs, and two of them are among the largest art fairs in the country-drawing exhibitors and attendees from all over the U.S. and several foreign countries. They say that about 500,000 people attended in the four days of the festival. Therese again had some of her artwork displayed and for sale at the BioArtography booth. She also worked the booth for several hours on Friday.
Therese and I went to the fair 3 of the 4 days and did not come close to seeing everything. On Friday night, Therese and I went to the fairs with our friends John and Lee Anne after a cookout at their home. It was a lot of fun and Therese bought a hand-painted scarf.



If you have read this far in one sitting I would be pretty amazed. Thanks for checking it out and have a great summer!