Blast From the Past

 We had some plans fall through for last weekend which made it easy for us to make new plans last minute. Our friend, Brad, who is a good frined of mine and especially of Jason's, has been texting us periodically the past few monhs, trying to figure out a good time to get together. The last time he visited was about 4 years ago, but it was for only one night as he had come out to meet a girl in the area. (Spoiler alert: it didn't work out.) His brother used to live here, which made occasional visits easier, but it's been over 10 years since Ryan lived here. So, now, Brad wanted to visit just us, with no other meet-ups. With our busy schedules, and his as an economist in DC, it was tricky to find a time, but when he texted us and we said the weekend was totally free, minus Sunday, he booked a flight on Thursday to come Friday afternoon.

We took a couple hours to catch up on Friday and he got to know our kids again when they came in and out of the living room. Austin excitedly joined us in teaching Brad, Euchre, the Michigan/Ohio strategic partner card game. We had a quick and easy dinner before going to Downtown Plymouth for the Friday night Music in the Park and ice cream at Dairy King. Victoria, Kade and I even convinced Brad to dance with us below the stage with the more mature crowd there (no one was younger than 55). Jason stayed back with Erik, but then joined us at the end. We discovered that night that Brad, being single, stays up til about midnight, to which Jason and I had to take a deep breath. We managed to talk to close to 11 or so before deciding we had to get to bed. 

Selfie taken from just below the stage.

You can see one of the more mature ladies who was dancing behind Kade. 

The next morning, we had to take Erik to where he was to run (Austin went with the top three to run a "special" route designed by Coach. They had an adventure with some biting bugs!) So Brad, Jason, and I went on a walk/hike where Erik ran at, the same place I usually meet my running friends. 

Coach snapped this of the dynamic trio, without the bugs. 

We had a leisurely morning eating breakfast and chatting with our kids who didn't want to go sightseeing with us. So we left around 1 to Detroit, just us three middle-aged buddies. We toured the Ford Piquette Plant, where Jason had only been to once, awhile ago, and I had never been. It was nice and small, so we didn't need all day. It's where the Model T was created in 1908.

I don't remember which car is which, but here's a collection of some. (Don't know why these pics look blurry, they're not that way on my phone. )

The guys liked this one, particularly. 

This old dump truck was my favorite, by far! It even has a nice place to store the shoverls under the bed. And it's blue!

Snow removal vehicle

Brad wanted to check out the Shinola watch showroom, which was started in Detroit about 13 years ago. Then we stopped in this intriguing candy shop called Bon Bon Bon. The candy was so cute and full of so many flavors, which were very tasty. I just discovered they are handmade, started in Detroit in 2014, and use fresh ingredients. Brad treated us each to one. I would have just left after checking it out becuase it looked so fancy and I'm used to having all my kids and not wanting to get roped into something super expensive. Brad insisted. He got the pbj, Jason got the bumpy cake, and I got the strawberry balsamic. It turned out only being 3.50 a piece for a little delicious slice of heaven!

They each came in one of these tiny boxes, perfectly fitted to the chocolate. 

It's not just Bon Bon, but Bon Bon Bon!

Jason's bumpy cake.

I looked it up online and here's what the s'mores looks like inside.

We went to the Riverwalk after that and enjoyed observing all the cultures Detroit has to offer. Then Victoria met us downtown at Slow's, when she was done with mer missionary work, for some very excellent bbq. Like the best baked beans I have ever had! And Victoria and I ordered a tender chicken sandwhich that's rated #3 in America. 

Overlooking Canada, south of Dertroit. 

Detroit city line

The others opted not to come to dinner, either, though I think Austin regretted it later. 

Brad convinced us to go back to Downtown Plmouth for dessert where he and Victoria got a cider mill donut at a cookie shop (they won't be here in the fall to experience it) and Jason and I split a brownie. More talking til way too late and some rounds of the card game 3s, before we couldn't keep our eyes open. Our kids were having the time of their lives without me telling them to get to bed!

3's!

We took Brad to the airport Sunday morning before our busy Sabbath ensued, but after Jason's very early high council meeting. I think, a few days later, I'm finally cathing up on my sleep! It was a blast from the past for sure!

A Day in the Life of a Michigander

 I listen to a daily news podcast that includes about 10 minutes of the top storeis in our nation/world. Since it's only 10 minutes, it's just the biggest stories that the host, from LA, feels are noteworthy to share. It's called The Newsworthy.

Last week she shared over the course of a few days the cyclosporiasis outbreak that has been spreading in mostly Michigan (there have been around 3,000 cases here) but in other states as well. I've seen many shares about people spending the day in their bathtub because of the explosions from both ends of their bodies😦. It isn't spread through humans, just through contaminted food. At first they said packaged lettuce/salads, other lettuce, cilantro, and raspberries. Now they've narrowed it down to Taylors Farms lettuce used by Taco Bell (kind of ironic). 

The host also shared about the fires from Canada and how the air quality is greatly affected by them in places such as Michigan. It was reported that the air quality in Detroit was the worst in the world, the other day. I don't remember what the numbers acutally signify, but she said Detroit's air quality number was 700 something, but normal is like 300 something. Locally, all things outdoor were closed Thursday-Saturday, including practices, concerts, outdoor ice cream shops, pools... Planet Fitness even offered free admission to everyone over the weekend so we don't miss our work-outs. We took full advantage! The funny thing is, is that I'm from LA and we had many summers filled with smoke from fires right in our own hills/mountains. I do remember the same smell and hazy sky, with the eerie red-tinted sun. I don't remember getting a headache, which I had the past 3 days when I returned home from errands, nor anything being canceled. I don't know if we're just smarter now or more sensitive, or things are worse, or what!

The sun at 8am on Friday.

The last thing, she mentioned in her Friday podcast, that Erik listened to with me on the way back from getting his cast off, was something about Trump saying the Michigan election was interferred by China. What?? I don't know any details about that and didn't delve into anything, but thought it was funny that my state has all this stuff going on. Anyone want to come visit us here right now?? 

He got a lot of siganatures!

A little thinner, a weird tanline, and a crazy smell!

Happy Summer!

250th

 We changed things up this year, and I invited our family to go to the Kish's lakehouse over the weekend of the 4th. Well, I didn't invite us to stay with them, just that we could be there and ride their boat with them! Victoria goes most years, when she's in Michigan, with them anyway, and with her serving her mission here now, I figured we should all go together. I think it's technically the way service missionaries do vacations, with their families. I also told Karyn we'd stay in our camper at the campsite on the same lake, so they didn't have to actually host us the whole time. We planned our menu together, and pretty much ate all our meals together. We just didn't have to infiltrate their house the entire night. 

Here's a worn sign of our campsite from the lakeside. Despite the sign, it was a nice campsite. 

I actually liked the showers with the open top. 

When we arrived on Friday, it was mostly fun on the lake with the kids hanging out with Sammie and Susie and their neighbors who also brought friends and cousins. They played a game in which the kids pushed each other off the floating dock, over and over. Erik had a new arm cover for his cast that was bigger since his other one was too small. This one was a little too big, though, and his cast was a little damp. Besides playing Ukre, the Michigan card game, and prepping food with Karyn, I spent the evening blowing the hair dryer into Erik's cast. It seemed to have worked since it was dry the next day, and I haven't smelled any foul odors coming from it, so I guess that's good. 

This was taken from inside the sunroom while we were playing cards. You can slightly see Erik's big cast on his left arm. 

We rode the golf cart to say hi to Karyn's aunt and uncle.

We got to be goofy adults for a bit. 

The kids literally played til the sun went down.

Kade wasn't able to come up til Saturday, and he brought Erik's smaller water cover. Erik wore both the next day and decided that he shouldn't play so rough in the water, nor wakeboard. He rode the boat with us a ton and watched his siblings wakeboard, all of whom are getting really good at it. He got to ride on the tube, too, so that was good. On the morning of the 4th, the adults, including Victoria and Susie, went to breakfast.

They have really good biscuits and gravy, according to everyone. I got an omelette, which was also excellent and something I actually like. 

Victoria

Austin prepping for a trick.

Kade, chilling. 

Karyn and I in the water. 

Erik playing frisbee extremely well with one hand. You can see his big blue water cover pretty well in this pic. 

Kade

There was a parade of boats on the evening of the 4th. It was so fun! I loved having a parade in the evening. The one where we live is early for a summer morning, and my kids never want to go then. The fireworks show was not great, but it was fine. We saw a few the night before, and the big fireworks show here in Canton on the 9th.

Hamilton-inspired theme. They were dressed like the characters and had the music blaring. 

Hot dog theme and so hilarious! They even had an actual wiener dog aboard!

Victoria and Susie were greeting everyone from our dock. 

There were many other boats- some playing music, some just waving, but all had some kind of patriotic representation on their boat. 

The few fireworks on the third. 

I didn't take any on the 4th because they were on the other side and harder to see. 

Happy 4th!

On Sunday, we went to the branch for church. It was so coincidental that we saw our old bishop and his wife from Andrews Air Force Base, 23 years ago, in the branch. Bishop Lee came over to hug Jason and me right in the middle of the announcements! After sacrament meeting, on my way to talk to them, an old friend from the Plymouth Ward came to say hi. She also attends that branch- another coincidence! And to top it all off, there's a kid who just came back from BYU cross country camp and is going into his senior year as a runner, so Austin talked to him, and then a man came up and told us he knows a family in our ward now because he was their bishop in a different state recently. Such a small world!

When we returned from sacrament meeting, we sat down to have lunch with the Kishs, and Karyn got a call that her mom had a stroke. Her mom was two doors down at her brother's lakehouse. Karyn and Joe left right away and ended up following the ambulance to the hospital for them to reduce the clot with medication and then to another for them to perform surgery on her. The surgery took a total of 20 minutes to complete. So the rest of Sunday was worrying and waiting, and us supporting Sammie and Susie. Everything turned out much better than it could have, and Susan is in rehab, doing better than she was before her stroke. That Sunday evening, the kids ended up swimming across the lake for fun and had fun playing games before we left Monday morning. The miracle of Susan's stroke was that she normally lives by herself, and she happened to be surrounded by family, just two doors down from her daughter, where she was found and helped immediately. She'll be getting out of rehab soon and then doing outpatient PT while she stays at Karyn's house in Canton.

Later on, when we knew things were under control, Jason and I went on the paddleboat.

The kids, pre-swim across the lake with Victoria and Susie in the boat for assistance. 

Post-swim. Victoria and Susie swam back, and someone else rode the support boat.

The gang after the swim. Erik was in the support boat both ways, and Austin swam both ways. 

July 9th Canton fireworks. 

It started to rain, but that didn't slow us down!

A lot of other people left, but we got creative. 

Someone else who didn't leave got this pic of us and texted it to Victoria. She was so sweet!

Meanwhile, when we returned on Monday, we completed our 4th of July weekend with a viewing of Young Washington, upon Jason's request. We thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for the sequel we hear is in the works. 

Happy 250th, America!