Our Aweful Beautiful Life

Labor day is always kind of a final fling of summer. Schools back in which means our routine is back in full force from the chaotic days of summer. The last couple of years, we've packed in a camping trip to Bruce Culver's pond and the kids love it. This year didn't disappoint.  We peeled away from the pond fun on Sunday afternoon to celebrate Mom & Don's 60th birthday. Since Dad had just turned 60 a couple weeks earlier, we thought a joint party would be a great time. We've been wanting to make fritelli's for awhile anyway. So, that we did! It was a great afternoon reliving some old memories, swimming, cooking and just enjoying company! Oh, and, you know, recreating a 40 year old picture! HA :) It was a pretty great way to wrap up Labor Day Weekend and an awesome summer!

We kicked off August by immediately shipping the kids back to school, which seemed nearly cruel after just returning home from vacation. That said, it was NICE to get back to a routine. I could tell too, that once fair ended -- Jason and Colton had BOTH caught the bug. I shouldn't be surprised then, that in early August (less than one month from ending Fair 2018) I was getting texts about steers Jason was interested in for the kids. On August 22nd.....less than one month from the day we sold Duke on the last day of the fair, we welcomed Beau into our family. The only kick in the pants about getting your steer so early, is having that much longer to fall in love with them. It's a big year on the Hall side of the family -- both Grandma and Grandpa turn 60 this year, and they also will celebrate their 40th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated Grandpa first, with a family swim party and cake. We rounded out late August with a belated (like, really belated....we're...

As long as we wait each winter/spring for summer to come around, I feel like we blink three times and it's over. After I paid the tab at Lickety Split, we hit a handful of ballgames, took some calves to the fair, went on a quick vacation and viola.....hello 5th and 3rd grades!

Keaton. Our 5 year old who is built like an 8 year old and has strength to one arm your brother. You are witty and snuggly. You are oh so kind and sweet. You are rotten and ornery too. A nice mix, I suppose ;). You helped me ring in the New Year, but most days you have trouble keeping yourself awake. We love watching you when you sleep....mostly because it means your staying in one place, and we don't have to chase you! :) Thought, to be honest, you're not the best sleeping buddy. At least with Emmalyn, you're evenly matched night time ninja to night time ninja!  Keaton we love how you idolize your Dad. If he's wearing jeans, so are you. "Work kahkis", so are you. If he's got on his construction belt, you better believe you're finding tools to wear too. Not only that, just like your big brother, you have picked up Daddy's hard work ethic. You never shy away from helping out.  This year was your first year of tball...

Once again, we took a post fair vacation to wrap up summer with the Stockment clan. The most awesome thing about Michigan City is that it's 2 1/2 hours away. We planned all summer to take the full week off, so we left on Saturday afternoon and joined Brad & Jacki for two full days solo before the rest of the clan came up. We beached some and explored the area, and got groceries of course. But on Monday, July 30th, we shared a co-Anniversary celebration and headed to Chicago for the day. After realizing in March how easy it was to take the South Shore Trains into the city, we felt like pros. We jumped on the train in Michigan City, and got off at Millennium Park. We saw "The Bean", and did our photo opps, then took off to explore. We walked Michigan Avenue, and found a Giordiano's pizza place. It had outdoor seating near a fountain, with plenty of birds lurking nearby. That part wasn't great, but the pizza... AMAZING! We set off again down Michigan Avenue a...