Go, Go, Goers!

Turns out that making a pie isn't that difficult...it's just really time consuming. Ava and I spent several hours on Sunday afternoon, putting together our very first, homemade, all-from-scratch apple pie! I had a great crust recipe from Raddish, and I found an apple pie filling recipe online. Stich 'em together, and voila, you get pie! It tasted really, really good, and we gobbled it up over the next few days. Given the time commitment, I don't think I'll be making another one any time soon, but it was a very good learning experience for both of us. I have a lot of respect for my grandma, who used to make fresh pies, each and every week! It's a short blog post this week, as we are out of town, celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary. We're heading to a B&B in Wisconsin, and are looking forward to some adult-only time, while Ava and G are with Grandma Deb and Grandpa Whitey. More details to come on our adventures in a future blog post! Happy Anniversary

Oooof, what a weather event we had this week! We all went to bed on Thursday night thinking that there would be a standard storm moving through. Turns out that it was way more than just a thunderstorm...the wind was incredibly strong (recorded at 70+ mph) and there was a ton of damage in our town. We were very lucky, and didn't have any damage at our house, except a hard-sided cooler that was on our deck. It went flying off the deck and the top broke off. We ended up losing power from 3am-9:30am on Friday, and even Ava's school was cancelled. G's school had a two-hour late start, so to kill some time before his drop-off (and to charge up my phone), G and I took a drive around town to assess the severity of loss. I think the highlight of the trip was that he saw a shed that had been completely crushed. Yikes! This was one of our only light sources to use while getting ready on Friday morning There were confirmed tornadoes in the next town(s) over, so I'm incredibly grate

The kids went back to school this week...for real! For whole days! Both in person! WOW! Truth be told, it was a little weird to be alone at home, but the change in routine and schedule has been fantastic so far. Before we kicked off the school week, though, we had so much fun with friends last weekend. On Sunday morning, after our weekly run to the compost, G and I stopped by a new (to us) park. G had so much fun playing on the new equipment, and we took a fun little walk around the pond next to the park. We also ran into my co-worker (he was there to practice archery), so I had a chance to catch up with him for a bit. It was an unexpected surprise and a great way to start a Sunday. That afternoon, we had our good friends drop in for a surprise visit/dinner, and then G and I headed over to our neighbor's for an evening around a bonfire, and a chance to catch up with friends. We stayed up way too late, but in doing so, we heard the coyotes yipping in the distance, and were able to e

The YMCA summer programs are all done...and Ava has officially aged out of going to any of their daily programs. She mentioned something about maybe working there when she's older, which is an interesting idea. I guess she's only a few years away from getting a job...hard to believe. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to the Y staff on Friday. The lead site director for Ava's program (for the last three years) is amazing. She's detailed, thorough, and communicative...all very important skills when dealing with a gajillion different families. Hopefully she'll still be there in four (!) years when G is ready to move into the older Y programs.  We knew that G's site director (J) during the school year is going to be one of the staff G was with this summer (YAY!) and we just learned that when J needs extra help, it will be provided by the other staff that G was with this summer (double YAY!) We probably won't send G to that particular location next summer, and wi