August Has Been Busy

August has been busy. Yeah, and it has gone by very fast. Well, everyone knows that Pops was on furlough for the first two weeks of the month. The first part of the first week was detailed in an earlier post. We closed out that week with Jennifer's birthday. No photos of the birthday celebration itself, but there are some of the preparation. The three homebodies made cupcakes; Pops baked and frosted, Diamond D iced and Mike Wazowski (Emma's nickname) did the sprinkles. It was quite the assembly line.


Everything proceeded in an orderly manner until Emma lost the capacity to focus on the task and not the sugar content of the frosting. After she had her first taste there was no turning back.

That weekend Auntie Joyce got married.


The wedding was in Chicago, and it was lovely. The days and weeks leading up to the event were hectic, I'm sure, so I hope she and Lawrence have had a chance to relax and enjoy being newlyweds. Thanks for letting us be a part of your day Heather and Lawrence.

Pops was supposed to be on furlough for three weeks but got called back after two. The second week the kiddos got sent back to daycare and a push was made to complete the basement remodeling project. It got done (done enough) just in time for aunt Dawn to move in. She's staying with us until she can move into her new house. Also, Grandma Mary (Nana) is staying with us as well, having moved here from Washington. She and Dawn will be living in Dawn's house. It has been fun having them here for everyone. Kevin the most maybe...he gets to have three friends to hang out with (Hank, Scout and Gracie). There are lots of walks and sniffing. Pretty sweet for a dog that gets often ignored in our super busy day-to-day normal life.

Desmond got some new motocross gear, elbow pads. He was pretty stoked.


Emma seemed to think his excitement was a bit much.


I started to think that she may be on to something when he insisted on wearing them at the dinner table.

Anyway, we went riding later that weekend. He had trouble understanding that it is good that we didn't have to use them even though he got to wear them. No crashes even though he started riding the track with more turns and "bumps". It was pretty exciting and he did really good...it's a lot for such a young kid to focus on and remember how to do.

This weekend the parental units made a trip to KC for a John Legend concert. The show was Jennifer's first real concert, and was very good.


It was at the Ameristar Casino there, and we stayed at the hotel. Pops does not like casinos, and couldn't share Jennifer's excitement to gamble (we didn't). In the end we had a good meal before the concert, the show was excellent, the drinks were many and the room was comfortable. The following morning as we were checking out we met Mr. Legend in the lobby. He was waiting for directions to a gym and he agreed to have a photo taken with Jennifer.

In case you can't tell, she was very excited.