The events, themselves, didn't begin until last Saturday (6/25), but we spent much of the prior week preparing for said events. Besides your standard cooking, cleaning, lawn mowing, etc., one of my big projects was the car port. You see, my clunker of a car has had a bad-and-getting-worse-oil-leak for a number of years. I typically park said clunker in the car port on the end of our garage. So, over the course of the the five years we've lived in our current house, I've managed to create a pretty decent oil spill (think Valdez minus dead seals). Well, we knew that Saturday and Sunday were going to be hot, so we thought we could probably use the shade provided by our car port, but we didn't want to have people (and especially kids) stepping in or even having to dodge the spill, so, after trying a couple of homemade remedies, I got some oil stain remover from Lowe's which, after some additional scrubbing, did the trick!
Saturday:
In attendance:
Ryan and Cari
Even though they weren't able to come Sunday with everybody else, we had a great evening with Ryan and Cari. We had a few of the menu items for Sunday with them and were able to test a few things on them. I don't think they minded being guinea pigs. I got my shish-ka-bob technique down and we made certain that we had plenty of toppings for ice cream sundaes. We had a blast with Ryan and Cari.
Sunday:
In attendance:
Randy and family
Pat and family
Tim and family (who, thanks to the gathering, now has a blog of his own . . . kind of)
Everybody who came Sunday has kids (or kid, at least) All the kids had a good time together.
Despite the fact that we were getting together because of campmeeting, actually, none of us ended up going either night. Shame!
Sunday night, after everybody left and we got things mostly cleaned up and put away, it occurred to us that our weekend was over and we both had to go back to work in the morning! Good Grief!
A big thanks to my wife, Christy for not only allowing a bunch of my college buddies to come over, but for volunteering to host two nights in a row!
Monday:
After work Monday, we grabbed something to eat and went to another party that was being held at our church for some friends who were in town briefly after being out of the country for a while. It was great to have a chance ot catch up with our friends and hear about what they've been doing and what the future holds for them. After playing a version of "Duck, Duck, Goose" with the kids who were there where everybody ran around a circle when "Goose" was called and then lifting every kid there high enough to touch the basketball net, I was tired.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was the end of the line for concurrent parties. Isabel, a friend of Hannah's, was having a party celebrating the 6th anniversary of the day on which she was born, so we made a quick shopping trip for a birthday present and then a brief stop at Isabel's house for opening presents, and then cake and ice cream.
Wednesday:
Wednesday, we were able to catch our breath a little, though we did make 3+ gallons of punch for a party at my work on Thursday.
Thursday:
Thursday, I helped with a going-away party at work for a friend from work. Served aforementioned punch, etc.
Saturday:
Saturday, we went to Symphony on the Prairie which is the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Summer Series at Conner Prairie. It was a perfect night for this outdoor event. Too perfect, I'm afraid. By the time we got there, the place was already packed! I've been to at least a half dozen of these and I've never seen the place anywhere near that full. The orchestra's band shell sits at the bottom of a large hill where the audience is allowed to sit, picnic, etc. Well, had we been a group of only two, we might have found a spot to squeeze into, but with some friends from our Church, we were a group of eight and there was simply no way. We ended up over the hill (literally) where we couldn't even see the orchestra. We were able to hear the music, but we mostly just chatted together. My apologies to any who were in ear-shot of our chatting during the concert, but really, those who was close enough to hear us were over the hill, too and couldn't see the orchestra either, so the dirty looks were really unwarranted. On the plus side for the night, we did have a really good view of the fireworks following the concert and we were pretty close to the Howitzer Artillery Cannons that they use to add some Oomph to the cannon shots during the finale of the 1812 orchestra!
Sunday:
Our church had an outdoor service Sunday morning after which we headed to my cousin's house near Crawfordsville for the Stockwell family 4th of July get-together. Swimming, basketball, good food, fireworks. I've always looked forward to these 4th of July family gatherings. Ever since I was a kid, these were always memory makers for me. I hope that they will continue to be the same for Hannah.
Monday:
For the holiday, we managed to get Hannah down for an early nap after which we loaded up the bikes and went to a local park for a bike ride, picnic, and playing on the playground.
If they haven't figured it out already, regular readers of my little corner of the web will know how busy we've been when I say this: I haven't watched a single movie in over two weeks. I don't have any updates to the Films Recently Watched portion of my sidebar!
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