Grand Rapids Comic Con

 In the spring Ledger and I attended the Kalamazoo Comic Con and had a blast! Keep in mind, Ledge has absolutely no interest at all in comic books, he is only there to wear a costume, see others, and be seen. Just like his love for Halloween, he loves a good dress-up! After that con, I told him that there was a much bigger convention in the fall in Grand Rapids. He said that he was definitely interested in going to it and I could see the gears in his head already turning as he was plotting and planning on what character he wanted to dress up as for that one! As we got closer and closer the date, he settled on what he wanted to go as: Chris, one of the characters from Deltarune. It was a pretty straight forward costume, brown pants, a green shirt with one stripe, hair covering his face, and a red heart. Easy enough. So we began gathering up all the parts we needed and found a great shirt that was exactly what he wanted!

The day of the convention we drove up to Grand Rapids, just the two of us, found a parking spot and walked to the convention center. Already, before we even made it there, Ledger was getting so excited seeing all the different people dressed up in the streets on their way to the con. Initially he was a little bit concerned that there wouldn't be many people who would recognize his costume or other costumes that he would know. That was quickly alleviated as soon as we stepped into the comic con! There were dozens and dozens of people dressed up as characters from some of his favorite games and shows, everywhere we turned he would grab my arm and say 'Dad- check out that one!' and explain to me who they were dressed up as. Most of our day was filled with people stopping Ledge to take a picture, or Ledge stopping others to get their picture! He kept getting people smiling at him and complimenting him on his look- he was in heaven!

As we made our way up and down the many aisles of nerdy stuff, it became very clear to me that this is no longer the comic book conventions of my youth. Back in my day, the rows were filled with comic books and toys based on those characters. It used to be made up of about 80% comic book stuff, 19% nerdy tv shows and cartoons, and maybe 1% anime. Well, dear reader, that is no longer the case. Now it is about 60% anime, 35% video game stuff, and maybe 5% comic book stuff. What a change! I wore my ol' standard Captain America hoodie, but I was in a very small minority of comic book characters. Other than Spider-Man (who's popularity will probably never wain), I think I counted 3 other people in that whole sea of nerdom who were dressed like superhero characters: one Deadpool, one Batman, and one Wolverine. That was it. But there were about 15 Hollow Knights from Elden Ring... I guess even nerdy things can become outdated. Kids these days aren't as thrilled with X-Men and Spawn like we were. I think that's probably a good thing. Let my interests age with me and let the younger generation create their own interests. I don't always get the things he loves, but that's ok because he doesn't always get the things I love either.

Check out the rest of our fun at the convention here: prep, the venue, and costumes!

Science Night

With Diana working at the elementary school, she sometimes gets roped in to helping out with some of the different activities. Well, this is one she actually volunteered for! Science Night at school has been something we have participated in since Ledger was in first grade. It's always been a fun event that he loved. The school goes all out- they have different STEM type activities in a bunch of the different classrooms, things like popsicle stick bridges and making their own slime.

This was always a highlight for Ledger, he loved to dig in and make stuff, especially if it was messy! The best part, the thing we would spend the week before Science Night building, was the good ol' egg drop. The principle would get up on the scissor lift in the gym and drop the students' creations from 25 feet and see if the egg survived. They still do it and all the kids totally love it!

This year Diana got to help out at one of the activity tables, helping the kids build shapes and towers out of straws and connectors. Ledge and I stopped by for part of the time and got to see her doing her thing with all the different kids, each of them so excited to see Miss Diana and introduce her to their parents! It was a lot of work for her, but to see the sparkle in the kids' eyes made it all worth it for her!

A Slender Halloween

Ledger's favorite holiday has always been Halloween. He loves to go out trick-r-treating, but has been a bit annoyed with some of his costumes in the past. He loves the costumes that are blow-up suits, but the last couple have either had too short of legs, which means he has to shuffle and take baby steps all night, or the fan stops working and the whole thing just flops over and looks sad. This year he picked the character he wanted to be nice and early so we could find just the right costume. He wanted to dress up as Slender Man. We looked around for a while to find a good one, and eventually we settled on one that was actually pretty creepy! When we first got it and he tried it on, Diana was not ok with it! She was supper freaked out by how tall it was! Ledger, of course, used this to his advantage and would try to creep his mother out all night while wearing it!

On Halloween evening we got him dressed up in the really unsettling costume and started our quest for free candy! Diana stayed back at the house passing out candy and fawning over the cute costumes that the little ones wore. Granted, she knows almost all the kids who stopped by thanks to her teaching job! All the kids would yell 'Miss Diana!' and run over to see her and get some candy. 

Ledger and I? We had plans to get some candy and creep out some kids! What makes the costume so strange is that there is a fake head that Ledger strapped to the top of his head, and then these shoulder pads that ride up to the top of his head. The shirt and tie that fall down over Ledger's face is see through from the inside, so all together it looks perfect- you can't see Ledge at all! With Ledge being five foot ten inches tall, and then another 8 inches above that with the fake head, this Slender Man costume was a towering six and a half feet tall!

As we walked down the sidewalk he would get a lot of strange looks, partly because of just how odd and tall he looked, but also because he was totally playing the part- he didn't talk and would intentionally walk too close to other people around. He would stop in the middle of the sidewalk and point at kids across the street until they noticed him. Usually they would get a little chill, give a spooked out face, and keep walking away faster. Ledge was absolutely loving it! It through off a bunch of kids, and because he was so tall in it, a bunch of the parents would cringe as well! All of this was delighting Ledger to no end!

Finally it was getting dark and the chinstrap and shoulder pads were getting rather uncomfortable, so we made our way back home. It looked like Diana's candy supply didn't last too long- she was snuggled up inside by the time we got back. All in all, another successful Halloween celebrated!

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Leaf Pile

The most annoying part of Autumn is raking up the leaves. I never did it growing up. We didn't have any trees in our back yard and any leaves in the front yard would blow away onto someone else's lawn so it wasn't our problem. Well, we have tons of trees in our yard, so we have to do the work to clean it up.

I had had enough of doing it myself, and I happen to have a large 13 year old boy who lives with me, so guess who's helping this year?

I had gotten a second rake earlier, so there was no excuse! Ledger and I both trapesed out to the front yard and got to work making a pile. Fortunately, our town comes around and sucks up any leaf piles by the road, so all we had to do was pile it up out there. It took a lot of work and effort, but we made a huge pile! It didn't take long for the neighbor's kids to decide that all our effort would be the perfect pile to jump in. Ledger honestly felt the same and he joined them jumping in the leaf piles and having a ton of fun!

It just took a little work to get the leaves back into the pile after they had exhausted themselves real good. Ledger said he had a surprisingly good time helping out. Great, because the trees still have about half their leaves left- we are definitely going to have to come out and do it once or twice again before winter!

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Boys' Night Out

Diana had made plans to go see Lissa in Detroit for the weekend, so Ledger and I were on our own. I spent some time during the week looking up different stuff that he and I could do to try and make this 'boy's night' a little special. It took some research, but I found just the thing!

I had been building up all week that he and I were going to do something special for the night while Mom was gone. He likes surprises, but sometimes it gets to be too much for him and he just desperately wants to know! Tough luck, buddy, I ain't tellin!

Finally Friday came around. We said goodbye to Diana, and we hopped in the car. I still wouldn't tell him what we were up to. We stopped and got a little food on our way to Grand Rapids. He was really curious now, kind of getting annoyed that I wouldn't tell him. I finally explained 'Look bud, we are going to go do something that I don't think you even know exists. Like, I could tell you what it is, but you wouldn't understand it anyway. How about we just go and experience it together.' He wasn't quite sure how to take that, but was willing to go with it and just let it happen. We made our way to the west side of downtown and pulled into a place called The Comedy Project. He had a really confused look on his face. I told him 'Have you ever heard of Improv comedy?' He had not. I explained that we are going to see an improv show where the comedians on stage will create a whole show based on the suggestions we yell out. This was really strange to him, but to his credit, he was up for it! We walked in and immediately Ledger was hooked- the whole design of the place was weird and fun robots! We found our seats and ordered sodas and mozz sticks (his favorite). The place filled up before the lights went down to start the show. The show itself was basically a long live episode of the old show 'Who's Line Is It Anyway?' (which he had never seen). It was very funny and full of energy. Ledger absolutely loved it! On the way home we stopped for a late dinner and he kept recounting all the funniest bits.

We had an absolutely grand time- boy's night was a rousing success!

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The Hangout House

Ledger hangs out with his friends all the time, almost every single day after school. The thing is though, its only online. He hardly ever sees any of them in person, even on the weekends, which I guess is pretty normal for his generation.

Well, I am not a big fan of that! I have many fond memories of seeing my friends all the time after school, riding my bike over to their houses or playing behind the school across from my house. In middle school I would probably hang out in person with friends three to four nights a week, and that wasn't even including Saturdays when we would spend basically the whole day at each other's houses or out getting in to trouble! Growing up I would always go over to other friends' houses. Partly this was due to having an annoying older brother and sister, but also because my mom would get annoyed if we made a mess. I didn't want that same thing for Ledge, so we decided to do something about it: we decided that our house is going to be the hangout house! Unfortunately, none of Ledger's friends live just down the street, so that means if he wants to have them over I have to coordinate with their parents and pick them up or drop them off afterwards. No problem, I say. With the school year just starting, we figured Ledge should invite a few friends over on Friday, so I texted with their parents and got it all worked out. The four of them walked to our house after school and spend the rest of the day hanging out and having a blast! Mostly it consisted of them playing games together on their phones and tablets, but to hear them chatting and bursting out in laughter makes it all worth while!

Diana and I usually end up hiding in the guest room and watch tv, listening from time to time to make sure no one lost a limb. For dinner I went and picked up a few pizzas and the boys chowed down! Finally, around 9pm, the boys and I piled into the car and we brought them each home. On the way back to our house Ledger kept talking about all the funny stuff they did and how much fun it was. This will definitely be something we do regularly this year!

Handprint: 8th Grade

It's that time again, time for the annual tradition of making a handprint on the ol' board. Each year we have Ledger put his hand in a bunch of paint and put down his latest hand size onto the board at the start of each school year. We have been doing it since his preschool year and continue the tradition now that he's going into 8th grade. He used to turn it into an opportunity to get paint all over his body and go crazy with the chosen color each year. Now a days, he gets annoyed that we want to pull him away from his friends and tablet to do the old tradition.

He can complain all he wants, but we are still going to do it! This year he chose pink as his handprint color. He dipped his hand in the plate of paint and made his latest print. It's really fun to see how much bigger his hand is now than it was back when he was 4- year little boy- it keeps getting bigger and bigger, just like him!

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The County Fair

One of the things my town is known for is the county fair. Well, we can't miss that then, right? Ledger was really interested in the fair when he was little, going on all the kid's rides and games. But he lost interest for a few years there, but now he's back and really wants to go! We invited a couple friends for him to check out the county fair with.

They walked home with Ledger after school on Friday and I brought them over to the fair soon after. We got them a bracelet for unlimited rides and I gave each of them a bit of cash to waste however they chose.

These boys are at the age where the last thing they want is a parent watching over them, so I gave them a meeting time a few hours away and let them go out on their own to have a blast. I went back to the car and cranked the air conditioning, played a few games on my phone and listened to podcasts. Finally, around 9pm, we met up. I had double checked with the other boy's parents to see if it was ok, and it was, I told them they had another hour to mess around and have fun- they were shocked and thrilled to have some more time on their own! We met up again and they had spent all the money I had given them buying dumb stuff and having an amazing time. Finally, at 10pm we gathered back in the car and we brought the other boys home. This is what memories are made of, right?

Goodbye, Uncle Rich

After a long battle with cancer and emphysema, my uncle Rich passed away. He was my dad's older brother. I didn't really know him very well. A good 10 years older than my dad, he joined the military and was out of the house before my dad formed much of a bond. Staying in the military and continuing to move around most of his life meant that I didn't get to know him much either. We would come back to Michigan and visit from time to time, which was always great to see him and his family, but it wasn't very regular or much of a chance to get to know him. About 8-10 years ago he and his wife Vicki finally came back to Michigan to live, so Papa had the chance to reconnect and really get to know his older brother. They got together once a week and went to the shooting range or golf course, building the relationship they never had earlier in life. It was really good to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and all the rest together again as we celebrated Rich's life together. He will be missed.

8th Grade: 1st Day

Summer has come to an end and our boy has to go back to school. Things are a little different though, this time he's the top dog! He hasn't been on top since he was a 5th grader ruling the roost in elementary school. Now he's the big guy on campus again as a big ol' eighth grader! This year we kinda gave up on trying to slowly ease him back into an early wake up and early to bed. It never works anyway, so we just figured he'll have a bleary-eyed first day and his schedule will adjust pretty quickly from here!

With me working 3rd shift, I get home from work just in time to get him up and ready in the morning. When I got home it was a bit of a struggle to rouse him out of bed, but eventually he emerged from his room and started getting ready. We are back to the daily waffle breakfast. Always dedicated to a bit, he wore the same shirt again for his first day of school. The Snoopy shirt asking 'Is It Christmas Yet?'. He wore it the last day of school last year too! On the way to school we talked a little bit about the gravity of the situation and he shared that he wasn't nervous at all this year, but felt pretty good about it all. He was mostly pumped to see his friends every day again. Oh, and how tired he was...

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Basement Flood

Every once in a while, I have a late meeting at work. It's outside of my usual shift, so I have to check in from home. I usually do so from my kitchen table, but for some reason I went down to the basement, so it didn't bother anyone else. As I was getting ready to patch into the meeting, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye- it was water pouring down the wall! It had been raining all night, but I didn't expect it to be a problem. Well, it was! Water was pouring in from the basement window into my movie sanctuary! I quickly ran to get towels to clean it up, but it just kept pouring down! I moved all my stuff away from the window so it wouldn't be ruined, but eventually I realized I needed to go outside and find out why this was happening. I went out there, sopping wet, and found out the window was blocked by dried leaves! I cleared them out, but the damage was already done.

I set up a fan and blower, moving everything out of the way, but by then it was already wet and ruined, all I had left was recovery. I did my best and saved what I could. hopefully it doesn't destroy too much. We'll see!

School Open House

Each year the school has an open house for all the students a few days before the new school year is going to start. A chance to meet any new teachers and figure out their new schedule. I took Ledger this year and we mapped out what his 8th grade was going to look like for him. We met all the new teachers, including a foreign language- French! We found his locker for this year and tried the combination, which was quite a bit easier than it was back in 6th grade, and met up with a few friends he hadn't seen since last school year. He was happy with all the changes and all the new teachers. I guess we are ready for the new year!

Chicago: Millenium Park

After a little nap back at the hotel, we were ready to check out the nightlife at Millenium Park! It took a little bit of convincing to get Diana back out into the world, but Ledge was up for more exploring and fun on our evening in Chicago.

We had told Ledge about the bean, but I don't think he really understood what it was until he saw it for himself- he was impressed! We made our way through the art in park and eventually found the shiny cloud, taking our picture next to it and loving all of it! After taking it all in, we walked over to the amphitheater and realized there was a free concert going on that night. We found a spot on the grass and laid down, relaxing, enjoying the beautiful symphony while they played. As they ended their set, we chatted about the day and all the amazing things we experienced, so pleased with our great day! What fun!

As we were heading home, the realization that we kinda forgot to eat dinner set in, so we stopped at the late-night Chinese place and got ourselves something to take back to the hotel. Honestly, it was an amazing day and we had a blast!
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Chicago: Art Museum

Diana had been to the Art Institute of Chicago quite a bit as a child. I guess that comes with having an artist as a father. I had never gone as a child, but went a couple times with friends, and went every year when I was teaching in Indiana. We both deeply love it and were so excited to go back for the first time in many years. We weren't so sure how Ledger would feel about the place, this being the first time he had ever been to an art museum. Turns out, he absolutely adored the place! Granted, one of the features we were most excited about when we got there was the fact that it had air conditioning! But we soon shifted gears and really engaged with the art and artifacts on display. 

We made our way through some of the exhibits, finding the big rooms full of little doll furniture. Diana was in heaven! She dismissed us away and said that she was going to take her time and we should continue on without her. Ledger and I made our way through the museum and saw all the greatest hits, works by Hopper, Picasso, Seurat, and all the rest. Ledger was impressed and loved checking it all out and taking it in. He was really inspired by some of the pieces and impressed with others. One area that he was baffled by was the modern art wing. You and me both, kid! It was really funny, as we were walking through the modern area he said, 'why can't any of the women in the artwork put on any clothes?!?' fair question, son! Eventually we met back up with Diana, after she spend an hour or two with the little furniture, and checked out the parts we hadn't seen yet. What we expected to take an hour or two ended up taking the whole day! She and I both were delighted at how much Ledger loved the art museum and the whole experience! Exhausted, hot, and with achy feet, we made our way back to the hotel for a little late afternoon nap.

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Chicago, Baby!

We wanted to have one last hurrah before summer was over. Diana and I realized that Ledger had never been to Chicago, so we figured we would rectify that situation! I took an extra day off of work, we booked a hotel just off the Miracle Mile, and off we went to the Windy City!

We packed up and got started pretty early, stopping in South Bend to drop off the dog with Diana's dad. We pushed on to Illinois and on to our hotel. We dragged our luggage from the parking garage in the extreme summer heat, but once we got to the room, it was all worth it- the hotel was fantastic! We splurged a little bit and got a nicer room that we can usually afford, which delighted Diana!

Once we were settled in, our hunger took over and we made the trek to Gino's East for some authentic Chicago style pizza. Ledger had never had that style pizza before, so we knew he needed to try the real thing (more pics). After filling our bellies, we were ready for the main attraction: the Art Institute of Chicago! Later that night we walked around Millenium Park so we could get the full Chicago experience. Finally exhausted, we grabbed a late-night bite to eat and took it back to the hotel where we chowed down and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, we packed up and had planned to go check out the Museum of Science and Industry, but apparently there was a Bears game, which made it literally impossible to find anywhere to park within 5 miles! Instead, we called it a day and headed home, satisfied with our fantastic Chicago experience!

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South Bend Swim

Ah, now this is the life! We made our way back down to South Bend for an extended weekend. Mom and David are always excited to have us visit, so it didn't take too much to convince them! The weather was so perfect that we spent a lot of time out on the lake. To really shock everyone, I even jumped in and swam! Barbara and James stopped by for one of the days and joined us out on the boat.

The funniest part of the weekend: We took poor old Wiggins out on the boat with us, and when I jumped in, I took him with me! He was not at all prepared for that! Turns out, this dog does NOT like to swim! He was holding on to me for dear life while we were in the water! Thankfully, I put him back on the boat after a couple minutes. After we swam for a while and got back on the boat, he would not go anywhere near me for the rest of the boat ride... Poor fella!

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Work Picnic

Every year my work has a huge picnic. They invite all 5000 employees and rent out the fairgrounds and do it up! There are a bunch of rides, games, concessions, and prizes. Employees and families are invited, so I rounded up mine, and we headed over.

Most of the games and rides are for the littler kids, so Ledge wasn't really interested, but there was one thing that caught his eye- the jumper! (I don't have any idea what it's actually called, but its a bunch of bungie cords you strap to your waste and bounce super high). We waited in line for that one and he got to give it a try. It's a bit harder than he expected, but had fun with what he could do. We filled up on hot dogs, brats, and hamburgers, wandered around for a bit, and got frozen slushies. I saw a few of the people I work with and got to introduce them to my lovely wife and son, and then we succumbed to the intense summer heat and got back in our air-conditioned car! It was a really fun event and we had a great time!

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Bill, Ted, and Ledger

 It finally worked. I had been working for years to try and convince Parker, the guy who programs movies at the local theater, that he needs to show a 'Bill & Ted' movie. The last Friday of every month the local theater, the Regent, shows an older movie. Usually an old favorite or cult classic. Every time I saw Parker I would tell him that he needs to program a Bill & Ted movie. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is my favorite movie ever and I've always wanted to see it on the big screen. Well, all that pestering finally paid off! He wasn't able to do the first one, but he was able to book a screening of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey! Good enough for me- I'll take it!

Now it was time to enact my plan: to introduce my son to Bill & Ted! There are a handful of movies that I love so much that I want Ledger to appreciate them as well. For that reason, we haven't watched them yet, I want to wait until he is old enough to appreciate them for himself. That's why I hadn't shown him the movies yet. But with him being 13 years old now, this was the perfect opportunity to watch them together.

I prepped him a little bit and let him know how much I love these movies, and how much they mean to me. We then watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Friday evening and an hour later, all three of us went to the theater to see Bogus Journey. And you know what? It worked! He absolutely loved the first one and loved the second one even more! It has been a dream come true! I must have done something right with raising our boy, because he thoroughly enjoyed both movies, laughing at the dumb jokes, giving me looks at the awesome parts, and just genuinely enjoying them completely! For several days after watching the movies, he is constantly quoting them to me, which is the greatest thing on earth! I am a very happy and proud father. Excellent! Wyld Stallyns rule!

Tilt

Years ago, we had a really awesome birthday party for Ledger at an arcade. Since then, the arcade teamed up with a local bar and became Tilt, a bar with a pinball arcade in the back! Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, we foolishly had never been there since they opened a year or so ago.

My parents asked if we wanted to go out for dinner with them. Usually we meet up at Pizza Hut, but I asked if they would be interested in checking out Tilt. They said 'sure', so we met up with them there and had a great time! Papa told us a couple stories of how he used to love playing pinball games when he was young, so we placed our order and wandered back to check out the arcade part of the place. We checked out the different games, there was a Doctor Who pinball, a Star Trek pinball, and about 10 more! We each played a game or two, watching each other's progress and having a great time. By then our food was at the table, so we sat down and enjoyed the delicious food and chatted. 

It was really great to check out this new restaurant in town, and we were very impressed with the good food and fun games! We will definitely be going back many times!

4th of July

We spent the 4th with Diana's family in South Bend. Everyone was there including Alanna and Tavish! They came for an extended visit from the east coast. Alanna's boyfriend Brad came along as well, he was pumped to visit- he's never been to a lake or gone fishing, so he was really excited to go out on the dock and cast a line. Most mornings he was out there living it up.

With such beautiful weather, we were able to spend a lot of time outside, hoping on the boat and going swimming in the middle of the lake a couple times as well.

With the house being so full, it meant the boys had to sleep in the living room, which lead to them staying up way too late and being so silly! It also meant that they didn't exactly get enough sleep- delirious fun!

David made sure we were well fed, including a meal of delicious burgers and veggies on the grill. Lots of time spent talking, laughing, and playing games at the table. All in all, we had a blast!

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