20170812 - Broken Again

20170812 - L&J up early to a CC meet.  J&I out looking for phones for him, his is acting up and the screen is coming off.  We stopped at D's game for a bit.  D was having  great game and J found some friends to play with.  We headed out before the game was over to go see G's 1st game with his team. It was a LONG game, G did some pitching and got a couple of hits.  After the game D&I ran and got groceries and came back tot he house.  The McClain's and Tom and Landon came over for a cookout. We had some great food, the kids made their own pizzas and we cooked them on the grill.  We sat and chatted for hours.  The McClains bought a house while they were here :-o Everyone headed home, we got everything cleaned up and off to bed.

20170811 + Hanging Downtown

20170811 + Up in the am and in to work a bit later than usual as I wanted to confirm our email was actually working before heading in... In to work and had a productive fat day. L&D met with a Scout rep to review his readiness for his Eagle Board of Review and it went well, L was a bit annoyed with the experience... Home and D over to DGF7's for dinner, G spending the night at the Coles and LJ&I headed down to Creekside to meet the Mallonns at the Pigskin Brewery for dinner and to listen to the music.  Home and hung out, J's buddy Conor spent the night.

20170810 + GpaW Bday

20170810 + Up in the morning and in to work. L took J to pick up his schedule for next year. L had Dr. appointment to get cleared for teaching. She had to get a shot and it hurt her (panzy). Our email quit working at work so I headed home to use home network. LDJG&I met Gma&paW for a very nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. The boys told of all their vacation adventures. Everyone had plenty to eat and desserts were passed around, the wait staff sang happy bday to GpaW. It was a very nice night. We headed home and DGF7 was at our house and DJG&I joined her to watch Fate of the Furious. D&I out late returning movies. Happy bday GpaW! We Love you!

20170809 - D Back to Baseball

20170809 - Up in the am and D headed out for an interview and I headed in for a busy morning at work.  GmaB spent the night last night to take the boys school shopping today. At lunch I ran downtown to the Scout Store to get awards. Back and finished the day and headed to D's game. Hung out with the Dixons and had a good night. D's team lost butt those boys are having a blast.

20170808 - G Back to Baseball

20170808 - Up in the am and ready, D came home early,  I headed in to work.  Trying to get caught up on reporting. J had CC practice today. Had a full busy day of catching up. Headed home, L & GmaB went to D's baseball game, they lost but D played a bunch of different positions and even pitched.  J headed out on his scooter and G&I went to his first practice with his Fall team, this will be an experience for him... I hung out and talked with Tom and his dad until I had to go to the Scout Board of Review.  Home and we all hung out and chatted for a bit.  G headed to bed and DJ&I watched 'Colossal' before heading to bed.

20170807 - Back to Busy

20170807 - Up in the am and in to work.  It was a very quiet morning with a lot of catching up going on.  Full day in front of the desk sorting through email and getting things in order.  D worked a couple hours this am, got a hair cut and L got him all signed up for school.  J had CC practice this morning and G didn't get up until 11:30.  L has everything put away, laundry done and holding everything together.  After work I ran home for a minute, D went to DGF7's for dinner, J ran out for a scooter ride, I ate some pizza from last night and hung out with L&G for a minute before heading to a Landscape Board Meeting.  Home and LG&I watched 'Beauty and the Beast', D&J to Scouts.  D&J home, D over to a friends for the night, J finished the movie with us.  I got Doc and headed to Bible Bangers.  Home, checked on J&G and headed to bed.

20170806 + Putt-Putt & Tiny Soap

20170806 + Up in the am and we had a good bfast before getting packed up and hit the road. It was a nice day and we made our way across PA. We made a stop for ice cream and putt-putt at Dr. Doolittle's Roadside Cafe & Creamery in DuBois. We were joined by Bigfoot and a T-rex. It was a fun course surrounded by old train cars and we all did trick shots and had a blast.

More driving through PA, all the way to Grove City PA where we drove through the little town to see giant tools, a huge fish and a brain tree! We found a nice little restaurant and had a good meal.

On to Ohio and nonstop to the farm. Gma&paW weren't there so we ate a bunch of junk food, looked for some cats and got our picture pic taken in the corn, only a month late as I forgot to do it on the 4th of July. The last leg of the trip was smooth and we got home. We got the car unpacked, D&J vanished to DGF7's and scooter friends. G hung back with L&I and inspected all the little soaps we got on our trip. 9 great days, 1650 miles and countless memories.

The last leg of the trip was smooth and we got home. We got the car unpacked, D&J vanished to DGF7's and scooter friends. G hung back with L&I and inspected all the little soaps we got on our trip. 9 great days, 1650 miles and countless memories.

The Winger 2017 vacation was GREAT!

20170805 - Rocket, Books, Crosses and Baseball

20170805 - Up in the am and we had a good bfast before getting packed up and hit the road. It was kinds rainy and the traffic was pretty bad as we made our way across MA. We made a quick stop to see a Polaris Missile in Auburn and then headed across the Connecticut boarder to the Traveler Restaurant in Union CT. It was a neat place with big plates of good food and each meal comes with 3 free used books. We ate ourselves full, got our 15 books and hit the road again. 

Our next stop on the West side of CN in Waterbury, the Holy Land from the 1960s. It was run down and has been closed for years, but still super cool to trespass on. Back on the highway and through NY and into PA a bit of the back way to South Williamsport for a surprise stop at the Little League World Series Complex. They were closed but we were aloud to drive down around the stadiums and get some great pics. We found a Ponderosa type steakhouse to fill up on steak. We made our way to the hotel and attempted to go swimming, but the water was too cold so the only night we get to go swimming on the whole trip was a bust. Back to the room and we watched some TV.

20170804 - River cruise

20170804 - Up in the am and we headed out of the big city for a day closer to nature. We headed to Concord to meet up with Bruce and Ellen kohler, our cousins. We made our way to their place and took a tour of their house and grounds. We then headed to the grocery to get some supplies for a picnic and on through the beautiful town of old houses to the river. We got our canoes and kayaks and headed down river to the Minuteman National Park. We made our way on shore and had a nice picnic in the orchard of The Old Manse. The history lesson was especially interesting with all the family history Ellen added. Quite amazing the connection she has there.

After we ate we headed into the park for a walk through the start of our Country.  Amazing the think that there, on that spot, the world changed. We took our time, Ellen recited the rest of the poem that is not on the monument from memory. When our photo was taken a rather loud woman asked if we could move so she could get a picture of the monument with no one in it. If she only knew who she asked to move and the information she could have learned if she would have been polite...

Back into our vessels and headed up stream this time. There was a gentle current, and the boys had a good time hunting for turtles and exploring the banks. After our excursion we stopped for some ice cream before heading back to the house where Bruce Grant and I split off to get ingredients for dinner at the store. Back to the house and we all relaxed for a bit. The boys playing in the woods and eventually found some old tennis rackets while exploring the house and took them to the front yard where they used a wheelbarrow as a net for some sort of game.

L and Bruce started preparing the meal, and G came to assist with the lobster part and it turned into a bit of fun when the snapping and pinching going on. Everything cooked up and ready and we had a feast of lobster, swordfish, steak, fresh salad and corn on the cob from the local farm. What a superb relaxing meal. We finished up and helped clean things up before saying goodbye and heading back to the hotel.  A more relaxing day the previous few.

20170803 - UPGRADE!

20170803 - Up in the am and we jumped on the bus to get downtown. We started walking and D realized he lost his wallet so e ran back to the bus that hadn't left yet and found his wallet, lucky boy... we walked to the location of the boston Tea Party and saw the replica ship. We then headed downtown to walk on the freedom trail.

I spent a bunch of time on the phone trying to get baseball tickets for tonight's game, however we have been issued tickets for the 8/14 game. One slight problem, we won't be in Boston then... So I followed the fam as they headed down the freedom trail on the phone selling the tickets for the 8/14. I got those listed on StubHub and then headed a couple of blocks the opposite direction of the freedom trail to get hop on hop off bus tickets. I met up with D who waited back for me and we hiked halfway across Boston to meet up with LJ&G we found in a cemetery listening to stories of Paul Revere, John Hancock and my favorite Samuel Adams.

G was busy correcting the tour guide as we made our way to the Boston Commons and our tour concluded. We walked around the park and ended up a having a meal around the square that we topped off with fried Oreos. We jumped on the bus and headed to Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. After that we met up with my buddy Paul and we walked to the USS Constitution and some ice cream.

Feeling guilty about being in Boston and not getting D&G to a Red Sox game, so I snagged some tickets at 5:30 for the 7:10 game :-o My buddy Paul put us on the right train and DG&I headed to the Green Monster while he took L&J to the finish line of the Boston Marathon and to the top of the Prudential building where they had a great view of the city and he taught J how to eat oysters. Paul also took L&J to the bar in the Green Monster to see the field and then got them on a bus back to the hotel. DG&I made it to the game as it started and we had pretty good seats. We had hot dogs and a couple of drinks and were enjoying the crowd, it was electric!

Then something amazing happened. A guy walked up to D&G and asked them if they were together; they looked at me like 'should we answer this guy?'. I leaned over and said 'yes'. He said 'so all 3 of you are together?' 'Yes' again, he said 'come with me'. I rushed the boys out of there seats and we followed the man down the steps and he pointed and said 'go wait for me down there'. Well 'down there' was the baseball field. I mean THE BASEBALL FIELD. The man caught up with us and took up to some seats right up against the wall behind 1st base. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! The most AMAZING seats I have ever seen!

We sat ringside for the remainder of the through 'Sweet Caroline' and 'Take me out the Ballgame'. What are the odds of everything falling into place for this to happen? Needless to say D&G were in heaven and got some of the dirt from the field after the Red Sox victory over the White Sox.  We headed to the bus stop, waited forever, but got on a bus and headed back to the hotel. We met up with L&J and everyone told of their awesome experiences of the night. What a great day!

20170802 - Dancing Milk & Rained Out

20170802 - Up in the am and we loaded the car and headed North up across the George Washington Bridge and into Connecticut. We made a stop at the World's Largest Dairy, Stew Leonard's in Norwalk CT, where saw the animatronic displays all over the store. All this food made us feel starving so we headed out so G could see the Goats before we found a local diner to get a huge meal. We were the youngest patrons by about 3 decades, but it was good! 

Back on the road and into Massachusetts, L mostly missed the sign, and we drove for what felt like days before arriving at a military museum that was closed... On to the hotel where we got checked in and then across the road to catch a bus to go Fenway for an Indians @ Red Sox game. The stadium was awesome and we got to our seat, that were luckily under cover as it was raining, and then had a nice Fenway dinner of dogs and soda. DG&I headed out looking for very specific hats and found the across the road in the team store. We got back to our seats just in tie for them to cancel the game :-( So a little wet we headed out to the bus stop, not raining now, to catch our ride back to the hotel. We made it back in one piece and settled in for the night, a bit disappointed our evening entertainment was cancelled.