Midland, MI / 18-MAY thru 23-MAY

On Wednesday, 18-MAY, we "hit the road" for Midland, MI, to visit Doug and Ashley. Wednesday night we stopped north of Cincinnati and enjoyed dinner at Dewey's Pizza (our favorite pizza place). We slept in on Thursday morning, did some quick shopping in Cincinnati and arrived in Midland on Thursday afternoon. That evening Doug had a sandlot volleyball game. His team won both of their matches. Doug had a great serve.On Friday Ashley's parents, Bill and Anne Kulju, also arrived in Midland. This was our first chance to meet them. We really enjoyed getting to know them. Here's a photo of the whole gang: front row left to right: Ashley, Anne Kulju, Rosie; back row left to right: Doug, Bill Kulju and me.Friday afternoon Doug, Bill, Rosie and I drove to Frankenmuth, MI, (~45 minute drive) to visit Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, eat at Zehnder's restaurant (known for its chicken dinners) and attend the Frankenmuth World Expo of Beer.

Bronner's Christmas Wonderland is over-powering. It has more Christmas items in one store than we've ever seen. If you're looking for a Christmas item, you can probably find it at Bronner's. Here are some pictures from around the store. Rosie really enjoyed (i.e. coveted) this hand-carved nativity scene. However, it was a bit expensive.After an early dinner, we drove a short distance to the Beer Expo. At the entrance you get a little plastic beer stine when you pay your entrance fee; once inside you buy coupons to exchange for a sample of a vendor's beer. The Festival had microbreweries from Michigan and the surrounding states, plus some of the major US breweries. Bill, Doug and I are enjoying our first beer sample.Here's a photo of part of the crowd. There was also a tent set-up next to the main building.Rosie's favorite drink was the cream soda (non-alcoholic). It was really tasty.

On Saturday afternoon we all went to Ashley's dance recital. Multiple groups from very young (~3 yrs old) to adult danced. Ashley's jazz group did a great job and we enjoyed seeing her dance. She had a repeat performance on Sunday afternoon.

Doug did a lot of grilling while we were there. We're sitting on the deck while the food cooks. He and Ashley are a great team in the kitchen.Doug and Ashley enjoy just "hanging out" in the evening.We left Tuesday morning and drove back to HSV in one day (16.5 hrs). Doug and Ashley - thanks for the great visit!

Ft. Hood / 11-MAY to 15-MAY

On Wednesday, 11-MAY, Rosie and I left HSV for Killeen, TX, and Ft. Hood. Amy had invited us to come to Adam and Lottie's joint birthday party on Saturday, 14-MAY. We were excited to get to help and knew the party would be great fun.

On Thursday afternoon, Amy had a meeting; Rosie, Adam, Lottie and I jumped into our car and headed over to Temple, TX, to visit my uncle, Paul Elmore and his wife, Ola. We had a great visit with Paul and Ola. They have a pool in their backyard, but we didn't bring our suits because it was a little cool. However, suit or no suit and despite the cool weather, Adam and Lottie decided to hop into the pool. Adam enjoyed the water. Lottie's diaper (not a swim diaper) is getting a bit "heavy" in the back. Looks like it's time to change diapers and get back into clothes.Uncle Paul is keeping the pool clean and fishing out anything - including kids.On Friday morning Adam's school had a field day. This involved multiple outdoor games and relay races. The kids were having a great time. Adam was a fast runner; he's sprinting back to his team.
The weather was a bit cool and windy that morning. Lottie borrowed Gram's jacket to help keep warm.Amy enjoyed the sunshine and wind.Lottie had fun hanging around with her brother.Saturday was the BIG DAY! The cowboy themed birthday party started at 10 am. Lottie and Adam are getting in a little pre-party target practice.Rosie helped the kids make their cowboy vests using pre-cut paper sacks.I enjoyed cooking the hot dogs for the cowboys and cowgirls.The kids enjoyed the relay race where they had to put on adult cowboy clothes. Even if Chris couldn't be with us, his clothes were! Amy is explaining to the kids how to play the relay. Lottie and Adam looked great in Chris' clothes.Next it was time to cut the cake. The cake was a neat Woody (from Toy Story) cowboy cake. It was delicious; I have several data points on this.Adam and Lottie blow out the 5 and 3 candles. Great job!Now it's pinata time. Adam took some powerful swings at the pinata.Lottie is getting in her licks at the pinata.The last activity was the opening of the presents. Adam and Lottie had a great time opening their gifts.Everyone had a great time at the party and enjoyed the food. Great planning by Amy!

Territorial Fair - Historic Arkansas Museum

On Saturday, 07-MAY, after Rosie finished her 5K run in Conway (see an earlier posting), we headed off to the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock for the 38th annual Territorial Fair. The focus of the fair was life in Arkansas 150 years ago. This was the time that Arkansas was entering the Civil War.

Downstairs inside the Museum was an exhibit call "Reel to Real." The "Reel" part contained many original items from the film, Gone with the Wind. This included clothing items worn by the main characters, Vivian Lee and Clark Gable, items from the set, manuscripts, tickets for the original screening and posters. It was really neat.

The "Real" part in the adjoining rooms contained details and artifacts from what life was really like in Arkansas during this time. Needless to say, it wasn't easy. Cotton was king and much of life in Arkansas centered around agriculture.

Outside, the houses on the grounds were open with docents in the role of lawyers, cooks, boatmen, trappers, spinners and weavers. One of our first stops outside was where a woman was making cornbread over live coals (yep - we headed to the food first). When she turned it out, it reminded us of my mother's cornbread. We also got to taste some - it was delicious.

We saw a man making rope out of small twine. Kids were helping him and got to keep the piece of rope they helped make. We also got to enjoy fiddle music by Ricky Russell. We stopped in to see women spinning cotton and others cooking in the kitchen (again over an open fire).We got to join in the garland parade - yipee. Here I am ready to go. Yes, I tried my best to get out of this but to no avail.After the parade, Rosie joined the Maypole dance. This one I did avoid!Unwinding the ribbons was a bit more difficult that putting them on.We also saw some "new recruits" for the Union army. The age cut-off must be pretty low. They were learning how to stand at attention and march.There were a lot of historical games for the kids to try. Here's a table filled with different games.Here's one of the docents walking on stilts. She did a pretty good job.Did you know tea could be pressed into a tablet and used for making a cup of tea? I didn't. The docent is holding up a block of tea. This block would sell for $100-$200 about 150 years ago. Wow - it would be worth its weight in gold today (assuming there's a demand for pressed tea tablets).Looking over the wall we saw some really pretty wildflowers planted in the intersection. They were really colorful.We walked by a law office that was ready to meet your every legal need. In the atrium of the building Lark in the Morning (a 2-man band) was playing Celtic-Ozark music. We could really hear the Celtic influence in the songs - very interesting.It was a great day. I'm ready to head back next year.

Fish Tales!

I managed to get in two days of fishing this week - Yahoo! On Wednesday, I fished as a co-angler in the HSV Anglers Club tournament on Lake Balboa (in HSV). My fishing partner was Dick Paulsen. I won second place in the co-angler division (worth $8.00), and Dick and I won the boat prize - based on total weight of angler's and co-angler's fish (another $5.00 each!). With winnings like that, I should retire! Hey wait - I'm already retired.

Here's a picture of the winning group. From the right: 1st, 2nd, 3rd angler, 1st, 2nd, 3rd co-angler and boat prize winner. My partner, Dick Paulsen, is on the far right.On Friday, Rosie and I went to Lake Granada in the morning to do a little fishing. We were almost ready to go home when Rosie tied into a nice bass. He did a lot of running and she did a whole lot of reeling. She even got the handle of her reel tangled in her life jacket. We thought the fish had gotten off while we were getting her untangled, but he was still there. She finally landed a nice 17" bass.We went home for lunch and then took the boat over to Lake Balboa for some afternoon fishing. We didn't have much luck, but we did get to see the tornado damage on the lake shoreline and run the boat up and down the lake. And, as the saying goes, "A bad day of fishing beats a good day of working."

Rosie's 5K Run - Conway, AR

On Saturday, 07-MAY, we left home before 6 am to get to Conway, AR, for Rosie to run in the Women Run Arkansas 5K run. The race started at 8 am. She had been training at the HSV Walk-Run Clinic for the past 2-3 months. Several women from the Village joined in the "fun."

Here's Rosie before the race starts.All the runners are getting in a little zumba to warm-up. Some of the teams had really colorful shirts. Rosie is in the middle with the pink jacket on.Here she comes approaching the finish line.What great form (and cute legs). Don't forget to breathe!Here's a happy runner. The race is over. It's time to relax, get a drink and sweat.Rosie was 4th in her age group and finished the 5K in 35:26 or 11:26/mile. Great job!