Last Bits of Summer Fun

We had a summer outing to the horse track for work one Friday afternoon.  I took William as my plus one.  We started the morning by using up the Chuck E. Cheese tokens we had left over from the last day of school!  It was a rainy day, and the place was packed!   We carpooled with Michelle and her girls to the track in a torrential downpour.  The rain had let up by the time we got there, but the kids still had a lot of fun playing with the umbrella we brought.  This was my first time at the track.  I wasn't overly impressed.  The place was beautiful, but it was so slow paced.  Each race was at least twenty minutes apart so there wasn't much to do or see.  I know that time is for placing bets but I wasn't interested in that.

 

 

McPherson

On my birthday, we flew an early morning flight to Wichita to visit my parents.   Grandma Joni picked us up from the airport, and drove us home to McPherson  We had a fun day swimming at their neighborhood pool, playing with their puppies, and eating Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen ice cream cake for dinner! 

On Saturday we went to the Kansas Cosmosphere in the morning, ate lunch at Olive Garden, and then swam at the McPherson Water Park (no good pictures except the freckled nose and loose tooth) before having a cookout for dinner and then exploring some new construction in her neighborhood.

On Sunday before we left, William and Grandpa Roger enjoyed fishing at the local park - the same place where he had his first fishing experience two years prior - which really seemed to start his love of fishing!

The loose tooth that had been bothering William all weekend fell out on our drive to the airport, which was very exciting!   Our flight home was delayed several hours due to storms in Chicago, so O'Hare wasn't letting Wichita take off without a landing position.  Unfortunately the Wichita airport has only three places to eat - Dunkin Donuts, Chik-fil-a (closed on Sundays), and a bar and grill that couldn't figure out how to make a cheese quesadilla.   With those choices, we ended up eating donuts.   Luckily William a seasoned traveler and was great about entertaining himself with his Legos as we waited.  We finally took off but the pilot warned us as we approached that we may not be able to land before having to divert to refuel.  Thankfully we did land at ORD, though we had to wait an hour for a gate.   I took a photo of this crazy cloud while we were in the air.

 

End of Baseball Season

Baseball season was a lot of fun.  William enjoyed learning the game alongside his friends, and having John as the assistant coach.   We were very proud of his effort, and especially his speed in running the bases.   John is well-known on his softball team for his base running speed; I think William was taking notes watching daddy, or it just naturally runs in the family! 

 Safely on 1st base

 Playing catcher

 2nd base at a separate at bat

 Proud of his trophy

 William and Zac

 

 Still with energy to burn!  Mastering monkey bars this summer.

Fourth of July

We celebrated the Fourth of July holiday at home with a neighborhood barbecue, subdivision parade and another cookout with friends.

 

With our neighbors, we had dinner, playtime (including a movie) and sparklers on the 3rd followed by the subdivision parade on the morning of the 4th.   William walked in the parade with his Cub Scout pack.  They were the end of the parade and shot water guns at the people along the route.  Our neighbor down the street continued tradition by building a snowman to celebrate!

 

 

 

On the evening of the 4th, we went over to Bob and Michelle's house for another cookout.  They had just returned from their Florida vacation to Universal Studios, so we had a lot of fun with the Harry Potter jelly beans.    William got "dirt," and thought it was ok.. . . . at first.  We ended the night watching our city's fireworks from the grocery store parking lot.   Yes, he's sticking his head out of the sun roof!

Tinker Crate

William received a three-month subscription to Tinker Crate as his birthday gift from my parents.   He had an amazing time putting together the Lava Lamp that came in one of them!   These are projects that he can do himself; I just supervised when it involved pouring the oil and food coloring since I didn't want any spills.

 

Hobson Camp

After the amazing week of Cub Scout camp, the second week of summer camp was Hobson Camp - an outdoor adventure camp associated with a Montessori school in town.  Two of our neighbors attended the prior summer and loved it, so we joined them this year.  The goal seemed to be to be outdoors getting dirty and wet.  It was perfect!   The only bad part was that it only ran from 9-12, but John was able to work out a carpool with the other families.  And that week Grandma Joni was able to be in town to spend time with William in the afternoons.  

 

Florida

After we were home from our vacation to Disney World, some very tragic events unfolded in Orlando with the Pulse nightclub attack resulting in the death or injury of nearly 100 people and the little boy being killed by the alligator in front of the Grand Floridian.    I was already scheduled to return for a conference, but wondered how the city would "feel" after all this.   I built some time into my schedule to explore Disney on my own, and it was a little surreal talking to people who were there during both of these.  Except for the fence building around Crescent Lake (below) and some of the conversations that I had with fellow DVC members, Disney World felt normal.

I started my day with lunch at EPCOT.   I was focused on experiencing new-to-me attractions.   First up:  the Friendship Boat to go between Future World and the World Showcase.   It was a welcome respite, since I wanted lunch in France and there is 10 minute of unshaded walking in between.  I made it to France for my Grand Marnier slush, baguette and cheese plate.   I sat in the shade watching various cast members rope off an area where masonry was loose on the façade, and listening to a family try to decide what type of perfume to get as a souvenir.   

After lunch I enjoyed the Impressions de France movie and the American Experience show before grabbing a grapefruit beer in Germany for my walk to The Land to ride the new Soarin' Around the World that had debuted over the weekend.   Without spoiling anything, I'll just say the new movie and the sounds and smells are amazing!  And, for the places that I've been (i.e. Taj Mahal), incredibly accurate. 

After Soarin', I rode Figment (totally random) and then went to the new DVC member's lounge to get a free snack and charge my phone.   That's where I chatted up some Long Islanders who live in South Carolina and got their take on all the events that had recently happened.  Then it was on to O Canada and then over to the Boardwalk for some Ample Hills Creamery ice cream.  They had 10 flavors; I taste tested 7 before ordering my bowl! 

Next stop was Animal Kingdom to pick up Chester, William's new cheetah.  (He's the third one here. . .)   Since I was already at the park, I watched the Finding Nemo musical and the Tough to Be a Bug show before heading to Hollywood Studios for dinner and the new Star Wars fireworks.    Oh, I also rode Toy Story Midway Mania.  By myself.  As in, no one else in the entire car that could seat 8.  That's unheard of!   It was a really nice day to explore parts of the park that I haven't been on prior visits!   When I recapped it to John a few days later he called me Dora!  Haha.  We'll see if I have a chance to get back and use my annual pass any more before it expires in September!