Back to School Shopping

We knew Ledger would need a bunch of new clothes and stuff for the upcoming school year, we decided to get ahead of it and start the school shopping early.  We made the plan to go shopping in Holland, so we headed up there. Whenever we go out shopping, Diana and Ledger's favorite part is usually the part where we go out to eat! We were driving by Russ', which caught Ledger's eye, and he got really excited about going there for lunch on our way to shopping. I honestly have no idea why Ledger likes that place so much... For those who don't know about Russ', It's a local chain that's really popular with Dutch people over the age of 70. And Ledger, apparently. 

It was always my grandma's favorite restaurant, but she always pronounced the name wrong. The place is called Russ'. Please note the apostrophe, there by stating that the name is supposed to mean that someone named Russ is the owner and it belongs to him. When speaking, it correctly would be pronounced 'Russes', so show ownership. My grandma didn't seem to understand that and would always call it 'Russ'. She would say 'Lets go eat at Russ'. This delighted me to no end!

Anyway, after a delicious meal, we made our way to a couple stores and got the boy a bunch of shirts, shorts, and pants. We just need one more trip out this summer to get notebooks, folders, etc. and we will be done with his back to school shopping!

A Boy and His Dog

Over the summer our dog seems to have made a big turn around on Ledger. The two of them have always gotten along, Ledger loves that dog a ton! Wiggins though, on the other hand, was a little tepid about the boy. Wiggins would come over to Ledge and get petted or play, but the dog would never seem to seek him out or lay by him. That's changed in the past month or so. When Ledge is on the couch watching TV or playing on his tablet, Wiggins will eagerly jump up and snuggle with him. Maybe Ledger is a little bit more calm with him, or Wiggins just decided he trusts him, but either way, both of them are getting along smashingly these days!

Both of them are so cute in this picture, so be sure to check out all the other random pictures of Ledger and Wiggins!

Haircut Again

I know I thought the last time I grew out my hair would be the last time, but I kinda snuck another one in... I've had my hair styled back since I cut it a year and a half a go, so its been a little long on top, but I've always been sure to keep it short on the sides and back. I kind of got a little lazy with the haircuts, and it all kept growing out. Diana trimmed up the back once or twice, but before I knew it, the (thinning) hair on top was about  10 inches long! I always love having long hair, but the evil villain called 'male pattern baldness' keeps thwarting my plans! The day finally came where I finally accepted my fate and told the wife to grab the trimmers. Off it came, and this time I didn't try to keep it longer on top- buzz it all!

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Allegan on the 4th

 Now that Mema and Papa no longer have a place at Sandy Pines, we were unsure what we should do or where we should go to celebrate the 4th of July.

We live in Allegan, so we figured we could just go downtown and watch the fireworks with our fellow Alleganians! They had a bunch of events scheduled downtown all day, but we just wanted to see the fireworks. We rolled in around 8:30pm. It was already pretty busy, so we had to park pretty far away- all the way over in the parking lot of the Frugal Hoosier (that's what Diana and I call the local grocery store). We brought chairs so we could have a place to sit to watch the show. They are currently doing a lot of road construction downtown, so most of downtown was filled with orange cones and caution tape! We were still able to find a pretty good spot to sit over by the gazebo at the park. The line to get drinks was so long and so expensive, that I actually just walked back to the gas station and got some fountain drinks for us at a fraction of the cost! Even with the long line, Ledger wanted to get a fried snack. He was willing to wait, so I gave him some cash and let him wait by himself. Eventually he brought back deep fried Oreos! He was very pleased with his treat and gobbled them down, kindly giving Diana and I a small bite each.

At dusk we settled in to our seats and got ready for the big show. The firework show was great, probably better than the Sandy Pines fireworks, so we were very pleased with our decision. Afterward we gathered up our things and headed home, pleased to participate in our little town's celebration!

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Strawberry Cookie Plush

My boy's favorite game for the past couple months has been Cookie Run Kingdom. I have no idea how to play, but he loves it. Actually, he doesn't play it that much, instead he loves the characters in it! The style and design have inspired him and his animation so much that he just loves to draw the characters and animate them. One in particular has become his absolute favorite: Strawberry Cookie. He loves plush characters, so of course he has spent time online looking for a plush version of his beloved Strawberry Cookie. He found one, but unfortunately it wasn't going to be released for another month! A month later he still desperately wanted it and actually talked his grandpa into getting it for him! When it finally arrived he was so pleased! He tore into that packaging and was elated to finally have it all this time later!

It's been a while now since he got Strawberry Cookie, but he still loves it just as much!

Greg's 70th Birthday

My best friend Greg turns 70 this year! His son Adam invited me and Aaron to a special birthday celebration to honor the milestone. Aaron and I were the first ones there and got to help Adam set everything up in preparation for all the guests. A few years ago we had a special celebration at Greg's for his retirement. He spent his career as a philosophy professor at Calvin College and has really been enjoying his retirement. Adam invited a bunch of Greg's friends over to celebrate. After chatting and laughing together, we filled up plates from the delicious spread, and gathered in the living room. Adam suggested that we should go around the room and each share a special memory of Greg to celebrate him. I spoke of the time he brought Adam and I to a Star Trek convention back in middle school and how much fun we had while he just hung back and listened to a football game on his headphones. It was really fun to hear all the loving stories from everyone else who was there as well. I'm certain Greg felt the love and appreciation we all have for him on his special day!

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Father's Day

We were invited to join the whole Brink family for a special Father's Day meal at Mema and Papa's. We got ourselves ready and headed over there, making sure we weren't a half hour late like last time! We got to celebrate Papa, Tim, and myself for Father's Day, and for the first time Chad joined our ranks!

For the first time ever we had the complete family now that Chad's son is joining us. Since I've got 11 years of experience, I made sure to impart my vast fatherhood wisdom... Actually, my advice to him was to take as many photos and videos of his son as humanly possible. I've always found that I never regret taking pictures and videos of my son, and now that he's grown up so much I wish I had taken more while he was little!

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Game Night

Diana has never been much of a game person, and Ledger feels the same. Sure, Ledge is always up for playing video games, but board games or card games have never been his thing. There are a few games that Diana enjoys, she likes Yahtzee and a couple different card games, but that's about all. I have been pretty busy and stressed from work lately, and I think Diana was starting to notice. She asked if we should maybe do a family game night to give all of us a relaxing and fun time together. Great idea! I went down and grabbed a few different games that I thought we might like to play: Yahtzee, Uno, Life, and Skip-Bo. She opted for the last one, so we all three sat around the table to play. Ledger had never played it before and it had been quite a while since I had played. Diana said that Skip-Bo was one of the games that they played growing up all the time, so she brushed us up on the rules and got us up to speed. We spent the next hour playing it a few times and having a good time laughing and relaxing. Ahhh, I needed this more than I realized!

Grandparents Summer

Now that summer is here, the first thing on Ledger's list of things to do: go visit Grandpa and Grandma! Wouldn't you know it, its the first thing on their list too! We made plans with them for Ledge to spend few days with them. It's about an hour and a half 

to get to their place, so Grandpa offered to meet us half way. We handed him off and Diana and I got to have a few days with just the two of us! Granted, I still had to work, but it was nice to have our evenings to ourselves for a couple days. We went out to eat together, went for late night walks, and just generally enjoyed each other's company for a while. We love being parents, especially to such a loving little boy, but it's still nice to have some time with just us adults!

While Ledger was gone a package showed up at the house. Not sure what it was, I brought it with when we went to go pick him up. We met up half way for a quick dinner at Burger King and we found out what the package was: Ledger had talked Grandpa into getting him a stuffed animal from one of the games he plays! That kid, he can sweet talk his grandparents into anything!

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Jaidey's Open House

They keep getting older! Our dear sweet little Jaideyn is graduating high school and had an open house to celebrate. We made our way over there on this unfortunately rainy Sunday to congratulate her. Tim and Jill had the whole place decked out, complete with a few tents in the driveway so we could stay dry. It was run to look over all the pictures they had on display- we were even in a few of them. She has big plans to go to Trinity College in Chicago next year to play soccer and begin her education in nursing. Part of the fun was seeing all the extended family members as well- Ted and Joni, Aunt Marlene, and all the rest!

Congrats, Jaidey, and good luck becoming a Troll! (that's the mascot of Trinity College)

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Baby Brink

Finally we get to meet the newest member of the family! My brother and his family made the long journey across the country from Washington state to dear ol' Michigan. He's now retired from the military and came back to live with Mom and Papa for a month or two while they look for a new home. Lucky for us, that means we get to see their little one!

We had been planning ahead for his arrival- Diana enlisted her mom to make some really cute crocheted items for him and we were finally  able to give them the amazingly made gifts!

It was really nice to see my Chad and Myuki as well as their amazingly cute little fella. Now that they are in town (for now), we will be able to visit a bunch more!
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Last Day Picnic

It's finally here- 6 years in the making. The last day of Ledger's elementary school career! He's pretty pumped to be done with school this year, but he's also a little sad. It's been a good year for Ledger and his class as the biggest kids at the school. He got to do some extra curricular things, he got to do safety patrol, go on a bunch of fun class trips, and even have his mom as the lunch room and recess helper! Though there were a bunch of fun things, there is also the sad realization that this is the end of something important. He's been excited for the year to be over, but leaving West Ward for the last time was hard for him.

Fortunately, they had one last blowout! Every year the school has a half day picnic on it's last day. All the parents and families are invited to come and join the students for lunch. In years past, all the parents were invited to bring food for their kids and eat out on the lawn. This year the school had Pizza Hut host the event and we could buy personal pizzas and drinks for cheap. They were the perfect size, and it took away the hassle of trying to find something ourselves. After eating, all the kids were invited to play a game of kickball against the teachers. That only lasted about 15 minutes before it broke down into just a chaotic mess of kids running around. Eventually, the teachers gave up on trying to wrangle everyone and dismissed the kids to head home for the year.

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Elementary Graduate

Its a pretty big day: our son graduated from elementary school! He's still got one more day of actual school, but the ceremony is tonight. There's a bunch of different stuff rolled into the ceremony tonight, including a song from the fifth graders and awards given out recognizing each student's strengths. We all dressed up a little bit for the celebration (not too fancy though, I'm still wearing my sandals). We got there and found seats near the front and Ledger went over to the student section and found his assigned seat.

The whole thing started with a video of pictures from their years there, even some super cute photos from kindergarten and first grade! Next, the kids came up and filled the risers so they could sing the song they had been practicing in choir. It was really cute and Diana certainly shed a tear or two. Next, the fifth grade teachers came up and called out each of the students to recognize them for a special aspect of who they are. Ledger, not surprisingly, was given the 'Art Super Star' award! Next, each child was called to receive their certificate of graduation from fifth grade. When Ledge got his we cheered loudly!

He's pumped to be done with elementary school, but the prospect of going to a different school next year for middle school is a little bit scary to him. He'll be fine- he's got so many friends and buddies that he's not going to have any problems at all next year. He is the funny kid, after all, and everyone likes the funny kid!

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Finishing Yard Projects

It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while I get the urge to do some yard work! As the weather gets a little warmer (not too warm, mind you), I decided to get out there and do a bit of cleaning up around our palatial estate. I even wrangled Ledger to come out and help as well! We put in a deck a couple years ago and I had grand plans to put some landscaping around it to make it look nice. I had put in a plastic edge and stepping stones last year, but I never got around to filling the space with woodchips. Well, I corrected that issue and got it looking really nice. Also, a couple years ago Ledger and I tore down the rotted out shed in the back yard, but we left the floor of the shed. We finally went out and tore it apart and uncovered a big cement slab that it was on. All together, the place looks so much better! Both he and I were all sweaty and dirty by the time we were done, but it was worth it to finally finish those two projects.

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Miranda's Open House

A few months ago Miranda bought a house. She had been looking for a while and finally found one she liked that was in her price range and an area she wanted to live. We've been over there once or twice, but she decided that she wanted to have an official 'open house' and invite everyone over to show off the new place. She's been working hard over the last couple months repairing and updating it to get ready.

David and Mom were invited to see her place as well, so we met up with them for lunch together and then went to see Miranda. Her family was there and we got to celebrate her beautiful house together!

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Bronner's Christmas

 One last stop before heading out of town: the famous Bronner's Christmas store! I've always been curious to check this place out. Before going on this trip, the only thing I knew about Frankenmuth was that they had a huge Christmas store. Bronner's has a ton of billboard advertising all the way over in Grand Rapids and Holland- I've even seen them in Indiana! Ledge was excited to see it all, so we stopped over before we left.

It certainly lives up to its claim- the place is humongous! We went in and started walking around; once we found the end of one room, there was another huge warehouse sized room right next to it! Most of the space is filled up with different crazy styled ornaments. There were a few fun displays of different Christmas stuff too. Ledger loved the enormous snowman, which he dubbed 'The King of Snowmans'!

We found Ledge a cute ornament to put on the tree next year, and I found a penny cruncher, so I was pretty pumped! Eventually we found our way out and headed home. Truly a fun trip. Thanks again Lissa and family!

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Frankenmuth: In Town

 One of the days we were in Frankenmuth we went into town to check out the touristy sights. It was really easy, the hotel had a shuttle to town, which ended up not being very necessary considering it's only about a 10 minute walk! We got there and wandered around the shops, checking out what they had to offer. My favorite was a Celtic shop that had kilts! I've always wanted one and tried one on- I loved it! I came really close to actually getting one, but couldn't really think of any time in my life when I would actually wear it, so I reluctantly (regrettably) put it back on the rack.

On the sidewalk they had a xylophone that anyone could play, which caught Ledger's interest! The rest of the group moved on to the next shop, but I stood there and Let Ledge play his heart out! He was rockin' those mallets for a good 15 minutes...

Eventually we made our way to a pizza shop and had a delicious lunch together. We wandered around for a bit more, but then made our way back to the hotel. This town is pretty cool!
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Bavarian Inn

 The hotel in Frankenmuth was really cool! Lissa's family had booked us in the biggest hotel in town: the Bavarian Inn. It was partially under construction, so the whole parking situation was pretty dire, but we found a spot eventually. Apparently there was a big dog convention in town and this hotel was dog friendly, so there were tons of pups wandering the grounds and halls!

The room was nice and had access to the balcony (with a great view of the construction...), but the best parts were the pool/water park, and game area! We hardly left the hotel because there was so much to do!

We spent three nights there and it wasn't enough, we just kept going down to the pool and game room- we didn't even have time to check out the second pool or mini golf course.

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Frankenmuth

Lissa and her family wanted to celebrate Andrew's birthday by going to Frankenmuth, and they invited Diana, Ledger, and I to join them. Sounds like fun! Diana and I had never been to Frankenmuth, but I've always heard that its pretty cool, so we took them up on the offer. I got the time off of work. We packed up and headed up to meet them there. They had booked rooms for us at the Bavarian Inn hotel. We got up there a little bit before Lissa's family, so we checked in and unloaded the car. When they got into town they let us know and we met up with them at a great restaurant. It was really nice to see everyone- it had been years since I've seen some of them. Diana sees them all the time, but I usually can't go because of work, so it's really cool that I can tag along this time. When we walked in and sat down at their table, Diana had to introduce me: 'See, he does exist!'

After filling our tummies with a great meal, we went back to the hotel. Everyone else checked in and we eventually met up together in our room and went down to see all that the hotel had to offer- and it was a lot!

Brian Regan Live!

Back in college, my friends and I discovered the comedian Brian Regan. His album was hilarious and we listened to it regularly! At one point I was home and going on a short road trip with my dad and convinced him to listen to it on our trip. He had the same response as I did- he was howling with laughter! Ever since then he and I have referenced those jokes and enjoyed a couple other comedy specials of his on TV.

Fast forward 20 years and Papa calls me out of the blue saying 'Brian Regan is going to be performing live, do you want to go?' Of course I do! So when the date arrived we met up and drove down to the theater in Indiana. It was pretty great to take a little road trip, just the two of us. It's been a long time since we got a chance to chat and connect. We stopped for dinner and fueled up for the evening of fun. We got to the theater a little early and found a good parking spot. We went in and grabbed some snacks and drinks before heading to our seats. The show itself was as hilarious as we had hoped! Brian Regan is so funny! His jokes are good, but its all about his delivery. That voice and facial reactions are what make him howlingly funny!

After the show was over we had a great ride back, chatting and recounting the great punchlines from the show. My favorite part of the ride back was when Papa and I took turns sharing some music favorites with each other on the truck stereo. He dropped me off and I thanked him again for such a fun and funny night together!

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