Spiedie Fest

We went to the annual Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally that's held every year here locally.  This time it was the weekend that we happened to also Move!  Yes - we've moved - that's for another post.

So after moving I took my exhausted self along with Makenna to the park.  We actually had to park at our local community college and be bused over this year (which wasn't as bad as I thought).  Usually I could get passes for on-site parking through work but no luck this year.

We enjoyed the many balloons and Makenna, as usual, enjoyed the different things she could play in or on - bouncy houses, etc.

Cottage Time in the Summer

We still have a cottage that we visit in the Summer - every year we think we're going to visit it more and every year we don't.  It needs some major improvements and when one of us wins the lottery (or better yet...plays the lottery) or some kind soul takes pity on us and donates money then we can do some improvements.

But for now we'll just continue to visit it when we can and make minor improvements when we can afford and enjoy the lake and the time with family.  These pictures were taken on July 28th and I put them in a sequence so you can see the evolution of shoulder jumping.  Unfortunately, I think this might be the only year she can get away with this as she grows too fast from one Summer to the next and I don't think Chris will be able to handle her height to do this next year but I guess we'll see.

 

 

Here's a link to a video of her shoulder jumping:

http://youtu.be/CnbGwmdIeWc

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Family Photos

On July 5th, we had a local photographer (and friend from church) take pictures of my side of the family as all my brothers were in town for this shoot.  Jake happens to be living in Boston but is moving to New Mexico for his job and Jared came back in town briefly from Texas.  So I figured it would be the last time in a while that we'd all be together.  These are some of the results:

Abbie Grosek

 Eli Grosek

 

 Jared & Jessica, Eli & Abbie

Brooke Grosek

 Hannah Grosek

 

Natalie Grosek

 Katie Grosek

 Autumn & Josh with Natalie, Katie, Hannah, & Brooke

 All the young kids

 Makenna Jones

 

 Chris, myself, and Makenna

 Me with all my "little" brothers (funny how I'm the shortest)

 The whole gang

 They all love their Uncle Jake

So if you love these pictures like I do and you need a local photographer - ask me!  I know just who to recommend!!

The Bear who came to visit

This is the third time in the 10 plus years I've lived here that I've seen a bear but this one takes the cake! 

It was on June 25th, and I was sitting at the dining room table on my laptop and the dogs started barking like nuts.  I, in my usual patient manner, yelled and them to shut it~  But they didn't so I figured there must be a deer outside that they were seeing through the glass sliding doors.  I got up to look and there he was (or she,)...a lumbering bear who just came in for a visit and decided that our yard would be a great place to lay down for a bit.

I immediately went and grabbed my camera and tried to "quietly" sneak out on the porch to grab a picture.  Unfortunately our sliding door isn't so quiet so I only caught a shot through the wood slats of our porch and then it running away.  But still - it was pretty cool (and funny).  But only funny because I was on the porch and not in the yard with it~

End of First Grade

The last day of First Grade was on 6/20/13.  She only had a half day and I had to go pick her up (because of issues on the bus) but here she is all snazzed up for her last day:

First Grade Talent Show

Makenna came home one day from school and said she wanted to be in the school talent show (she must've come to me some time in May).  I said "okay, what do you plan on doing?"  She replied, "Sing Katie Perry Firework"  I was astonished!  Not only did I not know she knew that song (which she really didn't) but that she had the courage and want to go up on stage was amazing to me.

So we set out right away to learn the song and I had her practice and practice and practice singing it and knowing the words.  Well probably at least 2 weeks into practicing we had her "perform" for us (Chris & I) where she realized she was really shy and scared to perform in front of us.  We tried to convince her how it was better for her to make mistakes in front of us and get over hear fear of singing in front of people when it was just us two instead of her whole school.

The whole time we practiced, I kept asking her if she wouldn't rather play the piano as she knows songs better and would probably feel more comfortable but she kept saying no.  Well, luckily after this mini-performance she realized maybe she should stick with the piano.  Although I would've been proud and encouraging if she still chose to do the singing.

She went to the try-outs and because she switched to piano, I think she was chosen.  Who knows, she could've been chosen for singing but when the day of the Talent show came, there were a lot of kids singing and she was only one of two who were playing a song on the piano.  Plus the announcer said that 110 kids tried out and only these in the program (about 20 - 30 kids) were chosen.  So that's why I'm glad we switched - she was able to be part of the talent show with her class and for her own performance.  I'm still really proud of her for trying out, having the courage to do something out of her realm and still sticking with doing the talent show and she did great!  Be sure to watch the videos below!

 

Doubles Rap  http://youtu.be/UBaiJofLLTk

 

Piano http://youtu.be/GTTmfbAXdlo

Cole Park

Every June around Father's Day Chris's church has a picnic at Cole Park.  This year it was on June 19th and here are just some pictures of Makenna from that day:

I love this picture as she seems so mature (she doesn't want me to say old) in this picture