One More Birthday

 One more set of grandparents to celebrate his birthday with! Soon after his birthday we got a call that Diana's mom and David wanted to come down and see their newly 10 years old grandson. Well, they don't have to ask us twice! They came down on that Saturday and we got to spend a nice afternoon with them, Ledger showed off his latest animations and drawings, Diana and I got to chat with them for a bit and catch up. One of the gifts they brought with them was a new chair for Ledger's desk! He had been using a dinner table chair, but now he's got a fancy new office chair with wheels- he was so excited to have such a big kid chair!

After spending the afternoon hanging out, they asked him where he wanted to go for his breakfast dinner, and wouldn't you know it? He wanted to go to Culvers again! Alright, buddy, I guess your plan to get more cheese curds worked!

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Mema Papa Birthday

A few days later, on Ledger's actual birthday, Mema and Papa took us out to celebrate. Ledger got to pick whatever restaurant he wanted to go to and he picked Culvers (he really loves those cheese curds!). Mema and Papa were happy to oblige, and they got to give him more presents and celebrate with him.

After Party

After the party was over Josh, Amber, Skyler, Barbara, and James all came back to the house with us. Ledger was still flying high from the party so he was excited to have Skyler come over to play a little bit longer. All six of us adults were pretty exhausted, so we were able to take a load off and regroup. Ledger kept excitedly coming over and asking 'Remember when...' as he reminded us of all the fun stuff that just happened. As the afternoon wore on, our guests headed back home. We were thankful that they came to the party, not just to celebrate with us, but as extra much needed adults in the sea of kids!

Arcade Fire!

 What a fun time! We've been trying to plan a fun birthday party for Ledger ever since his got cancelled two years ago. When the Pandemic hit, it was right before his birthday so he had to settle for a birthday with just his parents. Kinda disappointing for an 8 year old... Then the next year wasn't much better because we still weren't through the worst of it. So, we knew we had a couple bad years to make up for- and boy did we! Diana and I did a little looking around and found out that we could rent out the Allegan Arcade for really cheap. So we called months in advance to reserve it for the Saturday afternoon closest to his birthday. We talked with him about it and he got really excited about the idea! The part that he was most excited about was the fact that he got to invite his entire grade- both classes! We only had 4 or 5 RSVPs leading up to the party, but we were blown away by the actual turnout at the party- there were over 25 kids there! And much to Ledger's delight, they all brought birthday gifts for him!

We got there around 11:30am and quickly put up the decorations and balloons, making the place look as special as possible. The kids arrived around noon and soon after the 10 pizza's we ordered arrived as well. All the games had been changed to unlimited play, so the kids were able to just have a blast playing the different video and pinball games. It was complete chaos, but the fun chaos where everyone is clearly having the time of their lives! We had Diana, myself, Barbara, James, Josh, and Amber as the adults trying to keep some sort of control, as well as a few parents who decided to stick around and enjoy the fun as well. The pizza and juice disappeared quickly- we even went back and got 5 more pizzas! Ledger's favorite teacher, Mrs. Eckwielen, even made a surprise visit to wish Ledge a happy birthday! After about an hour, we gathered everyone together for singing and cake. The kids, at the top of their lungs of course, sang 'Happy Birthday' to Ledger and he blew out the candles on a small cake. We handed out cupcakes for everyone to enjoy while Ledge opened up the amazingly large amount of gifts from his classmates. He was absolutely in his glory, soaking it all up! Then it was back to playing games and being silly. At one point a bunch of kids decided they wanted to play under the pinball games and went into what was dubbed 'Narnia'... Finally, the parents started to show up to pick everyone up after they had blasted through their sugar rushes! We gave out all the helium balloons to kids as they left as a parting gift.

It didn't take long to clean up the place once everyone was gone. They had another party coming in so we had to get out of there right away after 2pm. We had to take a couple trips to the car just to carry all gifts Ledge got! The whole thing was an outrageous success that Ledger will remember forever!

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Birthday Pre Party

Today is Ledger's birthday party. He is turning the big double digits: 10 years old! We have big plans for this party, so big in fact, that auntie Barbara and uncle James even came up to attend. Ledger was getting pretty excited all morning, especially when they arrived. The whole morning was eager anticipation with Ledge constantly asking 'Do we get to go yet? Do we get to go yet?' Not yet buddy, but soon! After a lazy breakfast, we gathered up all the party supplies and made our way to the party venue: the Allegan Arcade!

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Josh and Amber

Now that I'm at my new job, I never get to see Josh anymore. We decided to fix that and invited his family over to hang out for the day. Ledger and Skyler got to run around the house having fun while us adults had the chance to chat and have real conversations. Josh's family loves table top gaming, so they brought over a game for us to try. I forget what one they brought, but it was some version of Munchkin. All six of us gathered around and gave it a try. Diana, Ledger, and were at a disadvantage in that we had no idea how to play, so thankfully they were gentle with us and showed started off slowly, explaining the whole time. It was a lot of fun and Ledger did really well!

Heading Home

Our time in Florida has come to an end. We had so much fun visiting with family and getting to see the sights. Those these things are supposed to be relaxing, they never are, are they? Now we have to go home and finally get some rest! Fortunately our trip home was much less eventful. Even though one of our planes was 3 hours late, we played it cool and rolled with it. We finally got home after midnight, but we didn't really care. We were home, safe, happy, and filled with warm memories from the great time we had together!
(a bunch of leftover pics from the trip that didn't fit anywhere else: 1, 2, 3)

Wonderworks Museum

The ladies had an important family even to attend, so I took the boys somewhere special: Wonderworks children's museum! Just a few miles down the coast is this strange and fun amusement park style kids museum. It's pretty famous for it's strange exterior- it looks like the whole building was uprooted and put back upside down! Right away the boys knew they were going to love it. We got in and checked out all the cool displays and activities. They had huge bubble makers, VR rides, gyroscopes, and even a 2 story tall ropes course! We quickly wasted a whole afternoon in there checking out all the fun stuff. Finally, exhausted, we made it back to the hotel having been fully entertained!

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Dave and Busters

Since the movie watching thing didn't really work out, we decided to go out and have a little bit more fun! Alanna suggested we take the boys over to Dave & Buster's, the restaurant and arcade place. There was one over by the shopping area we had been to a couple days ago. Diana and I thought 'why not?' and asked the boys if they would want to. Of course they do! The five of us made our way there and let the boys run free, playing whatever arcade games they wanted to! The three of us set up camp at one of the booths and told them to come back when they were done. They raced off to check out the 'casino for kids'! After about 15 minutes I decided I'd wander around and see what they were up to. They were jumping around from one game to the next seeing all the fun they were able play. Finally, when their game cards were empty, they turned in the tickets for little trinkets in the redemption store and we called it a night.

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R and R

After the hustle and bustle of some busy days, we all took a much deserved break. We spent the evening hanging out at the hotel and watched a movie together. Everyone got themselves some ice cream dessert and a blanket and snuggled up to watch some DVDs we rented. All went well until about an hour into the movie when the DVD player stopped working! For the life of us we couldn't get it to play further in the film. I think maybe these players are really old and can only read single layer discs, so we were out of luck and just had to deal with the fact that we weren't going to be able to watch the last half hour of 'Ron's Gone Wrong'. Dang.

Food and Bird Hut

On our way back from the state park we stopped at this really cool restaurant. It is an open air building that's open in the back and a huge thatched roof that was 30+ feet tall! We found a table and put in our order, then wandered around on the docks in the back of the place. Without a back wall on the place, that meant that birds can swoop in- and they do! There were a few different birds up in the rafters that came down and picked up any food that may have made it's way to the floor. It was really cool and the boys really loved it, The kept trying to catch the birds but they've seen it all before and could easily escape their traps. The place had a stage in the front as well, so of course Tavish and Ledger hopped on it at one point to give us an impromptu dance show!

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Fish Fry Bar

After our day at the shops, we stopped at a fish shack that David said he heard was great. We had to wait a little bit before they could seat us (not surprising considering there are 9 of us), but once we got in there we loved the atmosphere of the place! It's one of those places where they let you  draw on the walls, or in the case of this place, there's a tradition of stapling dollar bills to the walls- and every one of them was filled! The place is apparently known for its fresh fish and oysters. Alanna ordered a plate of them for the table. Diana wasn't brave enough to try one, but I did. With as little experience as I have with fresh oysters, I can't really verify if they are as noteworthy as advertised, but they were not bad! We all filled our bellies to their fullest and had a fun time chatting and being silly.

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Boat Ride

 Every time we go to Florida we have to do a nature day. When we've gone to Orlando we take a day to go see the manatees, so when we are in Panama City Beach, we went to another Florida state park: Wakulla Springs. The whole family made it's way over to Edward Ball State Park to go on a boat tour through the waterways of the park and see some cool animals. We got to see lots of gaters and birds and stuff. The part that I thought was the coolest is that this is the exact location where they filmed a bunch of movies from the 50's like 'Tarzan' and 'Creature From the Black Lagoon'! The original mansion on the property has been converted into a visitor center and restaurant, which looked really cool.

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Shop and Play

One of the afternoons we all headed over to the outdoor shopping area just down the beach. There were a bunch of different touristy shops and restaurants along the two street shopping district, as well as a huge Ferris Wheel and other fun activities. David had gotten us all tickets for the wheel so we could get a good look, 100 feet up, of the whole Panama City beach area. It was really cool to be up that high. We piled into 3 or 4 different cars on the wheel and got to see the whole place from such an awesome perspective. After the ride, Ledger and Tavish spotted those fun bungee jump and bounce things. We let them each have a turn on them and they loved it, bouncing 15+ feet in the air! After that we stopped at a Croc shoe store and got the boys beach shoes for the rest of the week. The adults wanted to check out a few different stores than the two boys, so I volunteered to wander with them and give everyone else a few moment's peace. The three of us checked out some of the souvenir shops and did a little exploring. Eventually we met back up and headed off to dinner.

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Beach Fun

We made quick work of getting out there on that beach! I'm not much of an ourdoorsy kind of guy, but the beach was too beautiful to pass up. I think what helped me is that it wasn't too hot. Most of our time there was in the low 70's, just right for me. Diana and the others would have liked it a bit warmer, I'm sure, but for me it was perfect. Of course, the ocean was way too cold to actually go swimming in, but we spend many days walking up and down the beach as Diana went looking for shells. We also made different fun designs in the sand on the beach, big enough to write messages so they could be read up on our balcony!

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Hotel Arrival

Diana's mom and David had been down in Panama Beach for a few weeks already when we arrived. David picked us up at the airport and brought us to where they were staying. They had rented out an extra hotel suite for all of us guests just a couple doors down from the one they were staying in. It was very impressive- and very big! The suite had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and a balcony with an amazing view! We all felt like royalty with these accommodations. It was right on the beach and had a pool, hot tub, and lazy river for the kids. We were a week or two early for the busy tourist season, so for the first half of our stay it was also pretty empty- it basically felt like the whole place was just for us!

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Off We Go

 We've been planning this for many many months. David and Mom have been looking forward to their family coming down to visit them in Florida. They have been down there for a few weeks, and all of us, along with James, Barbara, Alanna and Tavish, have been invited to join them for a week! We couldn't say no to such a fun time! I was excited for some time off too. Granted, I've only been at the job for a month and a half, but I'm still ready for a vacation.

We packed up and drove down to Chicago for our flight, stopping by Diana's dad to drop off the dog first. We figured we were on time for the flight, but it seems we forgot Chicago is a different time zone... oops. We rushed to check-in ad Midway and rushed through as fast as we could. Things went a bit haywire at that point. Let's just say that I lost my cool for a minute, and my son will never let me live it down... None of that matters though, because we made it to our gate just in time. We got on the plane and finally the anxiety and rush melted away and we were able to just relax as we flew down to meet the family in Panama Beach!

I Finally Got It

 It finally happened. Diana spent the afternoon making an impressive pasta dish for us to have for dinner. She had ingredients all over the kitchen, measuring, cutting, and boiling! By the time it was done she gathered us together at the dinner table to enjoy this gourmet feast. The only problem was that I couldn't smell or taste what she had made. Curses! I know what that's a side effect of... Time to get tested. It was almost instant on the test: yes, I have COVID. All that work over the past year and a half trying to avoid it and it finally caught up with me. I let work know and suddenly found myself with three days off (that was the best part of it, to be honest). 

I was fortunate in that it was a mild case. I felt perfectly fine the whole time, other than the loss of taste and smell. I went to be early that night, but other than that, I felt totally normal. I've heard so many stories of those who were hit hard by it, some even spending weeks in the hospital. I'm certainly thankful that I got the weakest of cases. Thanks vaccine!