First Day of School 2017

This is the only year that both Max and Lily will attend the same school. Max in 4th, and Lily in Kindergarten.

Lily was so excited for her first day of real 'big kid school' and couldn't wait to ride the bus. Max however, was 'meh'.

Guess who learned to ride a bike today

First try, and off she went. Didn't fall once.

Lily's first ballet recital

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

The kids see the ocean (we've finally arrived)

The view from the condo

Who were we kidding?

I planned the travel on this trip without thinking about the "family/children variables". It's past 10:00 pm and Google keeps adding to our ETA. Right now we are scheduled to reach Orange Beach at just after 1 am.

Screw it. We're getting a room.

Dinosaur World!!

What road trip would be complete without a silly side trip? The kids couldn't wait to visit the "Dinosaur World Giftshop".

For $3 less than than the cost of the cave tour, we were granted access to a walking path surrounded by over 150 life-sized brightly painted dinosaur statues!

We left Dinosaur World at 2:30 and Google says it should take us about 8.5 hours to get to Orange Beach. At 11:00 we'll finally be done driving, yahoo!!

Cave option #2

We were able to find another cave tour that was open. The Diamond Cave was pretty cool, and probably a better 1 hour option than the 2 hour tour we had planned at Mammoth Cave.

Mammoth Cave Tour

The website says to book early, so we booked our 10:30 cave tour 3 or 4 weeks ago. The tour is limited to 118 people.

We spent 30 minutes in the room before we went to bed. This is what we woke up to.

The hotel had a great breakfast, we filled up on waffles and sausages, and left at 9:30 for the park. The front desk recommended we leave early because the park doesn't plow or salt the roads (Kentucky looked to have received about 1/4" of snow overnight).

The parking lot was pretty empty when we got there, but there were still 104 tickets available when we bought ours. They must not have sold many of those.

We parked and I walked over to check it out.

Really?

The First Reinhardt Roadtrip

Camille and a friend rented a condo in Orange Beach, Alabama for the month of February. On Thursday we hopped in the van to visit them for a few days planning on making the 1,000 mile trip over 2 days.

We left Grand Rapids at 4:30 for a hotel near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. In the morning we will tour the cave, make a few other stops, and be in Alabama by 10 or so. The kids are psyched!

An encounter with Max's teacher

Bobbie Jo just returned home from the "Ranger Rally", a fundraising walk for Max's school. Apparently Max's teacher pulled her aside while she was at the school.

The students took a reading test yesterday and Max got a 900 something. He told his teacher he was concerned that he only got a 900, she reassured him that he did just fine.

When Bobbie Jo asked what a '900' meant, she was told "he was basically reading at an eighth grade level". His teacher is getting some books from the 4th grade class and putting Max and another boy together to read at this higher level.

I am so proud of this kid!

My First Day (by Max)

Found this in Max's desk when we went to curriculum night tonight.

Lily's Tantrum

She wanted 2 books before bed. Not 1.

Shortly after this she threw all of her stuffed animals all over the room, climbed into bed, and fell asleep.

Happy Father's Day!

These two

Bobbie Jo works this weekend, and the rain today has kept us inside. I've been trying to get some of the electrical work finished up in the basement, and these two have been playing together all morning.

They are closer than any two people I have ever met. Right now Max is helping her draw a 'ninja star'. She has requested a "blue element one". He's so patient with her.

I hope they stay this close forever.

Upgraded grocery-getter

In 2007 my Nissan was totaled in an accident. Hoping that we would someday need a bigger car, I took Bobbie Jo's Saturn and we bought a used Pontiac Vibe. Sometime over the following few months was when we found out Max was coming our way.

I'm on my second new car since that Saturn, and Bobbie Jo is (was) still driving that Vibe. It was in serious need of oil, a wash, tires, brakes, and probably general service. We hadn't had it in the shop in a few years. It didn't smell very good either.

We have entered a new era, and bought this monstrosity. It's an incredible vehicle; dvd, bluetooth, remote start, power-everything. We already have our first road trip planned for this summer, and I hope there are many more to follow.

Hey kids, don't trash it too bad. Because when you want to borrow the car.......

He did it!

Yesterday I got Max riding his bike. Previous attempts have all been failures, he would quickly give up, and had no interest in trying.

This time was different. He tried hard the whole time, and after every fall he got right back up and back on the bike. I'm so proud of him! We've got more to work on, but the hard part is done.

Watching him go for the first time, made me feel like the best dad in the whole world.

Happy Easter

A weekend vacation at Great Wolf Lodge

On Friday we loaded up Max and (a very sick) Lily, and made the trip up to Traverse City for a water park weekend at Great Wolf Lodge.

Lily rode everything she was big enough for. No fear in this kid.

This is a perfect representation of what it's like to try to get a family picture taken.

1000 gallons dumped every 5 minutes

Max getting instruction for his "Magi-Quest"

Max conquered his fears and went on all of the big slides, we ate mountains of ice cream, and slept well every night. The kids were incredibly well behaved, and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I think we might have to do this every year.