Backing up & (many) life updates!

As alluded to in my last post, things have been a little CRA-ZY around here!!!

Vacation, holiday, family, work insanity (big audit prep), a birthday!, driving!, more family, a swim meet, chiropractor appts, kids’ jobs…. phew. It’s been a month so far.

I will attempt to recap a bit of what we’ve all been up to! The last you heard really, I was coming home from the cruise on July 1st. That was a Saturday. Sunday was a brief “unpack/ debrief from vacation” day, leading to the next day of interest being… July 3rd, Monday.

July 3rd

Not much breather in between July 1st and July 3rd (and we all dove right back into work (including Ethan) that Monday, and swim practice for Asher), but by ~6 p.m. on Monday night we were packed up again and heading out to Milwaukee for a couple days. My sister + family were staying at my parents’ house and we all wanted to be together for the 4th of July.

First on the agenda was the big downtown Milwaukee July 3rd fireworks show, on Lake Michigan. These are AWESOME fireworks. We’ve been going “most” years since the boys were little; they are fantastic! This ended up just being my parents + the four of us, but they did not disappoint.

We have a certain spot we always sit and it’s beautiful along the lakefront.

We got there a little early and just chilled on blankets and bought popcorn and enjoyed the evening. It was warm, still, clear, no bugs….an absolutely PERFECT night for fireworks!!

Beautiful fireworks:

July 4th

My family stayed at a hotel on the night of the 3rd, just since there was kind of “no room at the inn” at my parents’ house really with all the others staying there.

It worked out well, actually. We had some space + peace and quiet in the morning for a bit…we went in the hotel pool and hot tub and had the whole place to ourselves.

I read my book for a little while! (Always extremely nervous to read a library book near water!! 😬 But I was extra careful and mostly just sat on the steps while I read.)

After breakfast, the boys + I went back to the pool, because my mom drove over to the hotel with my sister’s 3 kids to swim! (Hotel was just down the street from their house.) The littles had fun swimming around and the boys and I supervised/ helped.

By 11 we checked out and were at my parents’ house, and by noon we all headed out to park for the 4th of July parade. My dad always stakes out a spot the day before, so we didn’t have to rush really, but we got there plenty early. It was HOT OUT, but the perk to pre-planning our viewing location = we were under a big, shady tree. 🙂 (It’s kind of a whole thing around there; everyone goes in advance and stakes out their little portion of the curb or grass with rope or leaves blankets out, etc.)

Parade:

My sister’s family had never been in the U.S. for a 4th of July since the kids were born, so we tried to do “all the traditional things” we often do. Parade included. 🙂

Waiting for the parade to start:

The parade itself was decent. Haha. Kind of typical smaller city, midwestern parade. But actually, this particular parade (which is in the city I grew up in, now one town over from where my parents moved to) is usually better than many other parades I’ve seen over the years. I mean, it’s still fairly basic- we aren’t talking Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade level or anything, lol- but they have usually have some nice marching bands, entertainment, etc. It’s mostly about the tradition of it at this point, anyway, but it was still fun. 🙂

After the parade we were all dripping and hot. We spent the afternoon just hanging out at my mom and dad’s. The kids played outside, rode scooters, shot each other with water guns, etc. Adults chatted and relaxed. It was a good time.

Eventually some food prep ensued, the kids retreated to the basement rec room (where it’s COOL) to watch the new Puss and Boots movie all together, and then we had our 4th of July grill out meal! (Thanks Dad for grilling!)

We had burgers, hot dogs, brats, chips and pico de gallo (Ivan’s contribution), fruit, etc. The basics.

I did very little to contribute to this meal. I think I got some strawberries out of the fridge for my sister to chop up. Haha. But you know what? Most holidays are celebrated at my house, where obviously I’m highly involved in all the cleaning, prepping, organizing, cooking, etc., so it was kind of a nice change to just check out a little bit this time….especially on the heels of our vacation…

In the evening we took all the kids over to the nearby skate park that the boys LOVE to ride their scooters on. My nieces are proficient scooter riders now too, so they tried their hand at one of the smaller ramps. They did awesome. The boys showed off their skills on the big ramps to their aunt and uncle.

My newly-turned-4-year-old nephew spent his time riding around and around and around in circles on a Big Wheels trike and had a blast. 🙂

Finally, at dusk we all drove over to the local park for more fireworks. This time the local show, which is actually REALLY good too!! We are lucky to have some great fireworks shows in the area.

The Ireland crew was very excited about this, as this would be their first time ever seeing big fireworks!!!

The kids were pretty gleeful when the show started. 🙂 So cute. My nephew kept exclaiming adorable things like, “This is the best day ever!!!!!!!!” ❤

After that, it was clearly way past bedtime for the littles, but they were doing fine, so we squeezed in 10-15 minutes of sparkler action back at the house. This was another first for them, and they loved them.

The boys are definitely not too old for sparklers, either. 🙂

Then…. we packed up our stuff and headed for home. A ~1 hour, 15 minute drive or so, at 11 p.m. We had considered crashing at their house and then just getting up really early the next morning (we all had to work the next morning…). But ultimately we decided to just get it over with and drive home late. A good call, I think. Our future-selves thanked us when we didn’t have to race around the next morning.

Asher also had to work! He decided fairly last minute this summer to apply at the same seed farm Ethan worked at last summer. It’s a temporary job, really just a few weeks or so, but it’s long, 8 hour days outside. Since we were away, the 5th was his first day.

The rest of that week was crazy busy for me, what was left of it, because my work department is in the middle of prepping for a big regulatory audit. Long story short, it’s just been a ton of meetings, extra work, long calls, etc. Just what I wanted to come back to. 🙂

Friday, July 8th

Okay, I’m droning on, I’ll try to speed this up a little.

So by Friday afternoon, after a short, intense workweek, my sister + family + my parents all showed up at our house. They had spent a couple days at a waterpark hotel in Wisconsin Dells (always a huge hit for kids) and now were coming to our house for a few days.

Her kids were exhausted after all the stimulation at the waterparks for 2 days, so Ethan and Asher babysat them while the 6 adults all went out to our Mexican place for dinner!!

I guess I didn’t take any pictures of this, but it was really nice. I really wanted take my sister there, in part because that place is just a big part of our life! We go there basically every Friday night, and it’s become “our place”. Since J lives far away, she doesn’t get those glimpses into my everyday life anymore. Plus, she and my brother-in-law love Mexican food and anything spicy, too, so it was perfect.

The boys did GREAT babysitting, and the kids had even been successfully put to bed when we got home.

My sister and I went in the hot tub, just the two of us, for a while and talked. A very lovely time!

Saturday, July 9th

This day went a little wonky, but it worked out in the end.

So, I haven’t mentioned it much here, but my van (a Toyota Sienna, 2012) was getting OLD. And it had over 175,000 miles on it, and was getting into that “may break down at any moment” territory. We had begun playing the game of sticking some money into repairs, and then wondering if it was worth it, etc. With Ethan’s far-away-high-school on the near horizon, we knew we’ll be driving more than usual for a while, too.

Anyway, it’s a long story, but the short version is that we wanted to replace our van, but Toyota Siennas are apparently very popular these days. There is HIGH demand for them (I get it; I LOVED my Sienna!), but there’s some kind of car parts shortage, I guess, making new ones hard to come by. We’ve been on a “waiting list” at our local dealer for a long time now. Also, due to the supply/demand imbalance, they are seriously jacking up the price on them, too. So even if we could get one, they are listing them at $10-15k OVER the MSRP, just because they can.

Therefore, we decided to consider other options. Car shopping is not something I would normally ever do when I have out-of-town guests in the house! But Ivan had found there were a couple of Honda Odysseys in stock at the local dealer and he wanted me to just “go take a look quick”….

“Be right back!”, we said, as we drove over there at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Flash forward, oh, 6 hours, and we were the new owners of my (first ever!) brand new vehicle!!

Pretty, no?? Like I said, this was a milestone moment for me, because we usually always buy slightly used vehicles!! I’m not really a “car person”, anyway. There was a slightly used option available that we seriously considered. But ultimately we decided that since we really want this van to last for the next ~5 years of the boys’ high school years PLUS any college dorm/apartment move-ins for another ~5 years after that, etc… the brand new one made sense. And I really, really preferred the lighter interior on this one, versus the dark interior on the used one.

I’ll keep it as long as I can!! It’s great. And I forgot how smooth new vehicles drive!! Also, that new car smell. I think that might be what pushed me over the edge away from the used one. Haha. Gretchen Rubin might have something to say about that, lol! The sense of smell….. a powerful thing. 😉

After apologizing profusely to my family (they were fine- after the waterpark days, they needed a chill, low key morning, anyway), we met up for a late lunch at a local farm restaurant.

It’s a great little place where they make their own milk and ice cream and have super yummy grilled cheese sandwiches. A very traditional Wisconsin type place.

They also have baby cows!! And play areas for kids, etc.

After lunch, my mom, sister and I took all the kids to a nearby splash pad. A fun, free option!

Saturday night Ivan and I cooked for everyone. We made milanesas (thin cut breaded steak), Mexican rice, beans, and salsa verde. Everyone LOVED it, so that was a relief. 🙂

July 9th, Sunday

Sunday morning we all went for a walk at the local nature preserve that I like to walk at sometimes. It’s super close to home, and free, and just a pleasant little place. Again, I mostly just wanted to share some of our “typical life” things with my sister + her family.

My favorite tree!! I have pictures of this tree in all seasons, and the boys have always loved climbing it.

I also love this picture!

After, we did a quick farm drive-by tour to show them where Asher is working, and then drove past the boys’ school. (Well, Asher’s school, now!)

Next up was a big playground, by far the coolest, most fun park in town. The kids had a blast here! I didn’t get any great pictures, but it’s very large and has a huge wooden structure, among other things.

Went home for lunch, and then spent the afternoon more low key. I think the kids watched a movie:

The littles had fun watching Asher play video games… hahaha…..

Sunday night I got to be Aunt/Babysitter for ALL the kids!! My sister and husband took my parents out to an outdoor theatre event (purchased as a Christmas gift for them). I kept the kiddos so they could do this rare adults-only outing.

I quickly realized how glad I am that my kids are older now!!! Haha. The noise! The action! The commotion!! I don’t have it in me anymore. lol!! Just kidding, it was all totally fine. But it was magnified, because Ivan’s sister brought her two kids over (4 and 6) to play with them….so then we had FIVE young kids in the house.

The kids all hit it off, made a bunch of messes with toys, ate dino chicken nuggets for dinner and then we all walked/scooted to the park.

It was a fun night and a good chance to spend some quality time with my nieces and nephew.

Ethan helped get them ready for bed:

July 10th, Monday

A work day for me, so not too much to report here. Still felt kind of chaotic though just having people in the house. The guys (my Dad, brother-in-law, Ethan and Asher) all went golfing in the morning. My sister’s family was away for the afternoon visiting a cousin, so things slowed down a little. E had tennis in the p.m. though and Asher had swim. We went out for pizza with my parents for dinner!

July 11th, Tuesday

Tuesday everyone left, but not until midday. I had a busy busy work day and my house was sort of all upended due to the fact that we’d had lots of people staying, etc…. but I sort of ignored everything in the evening and (finally) went back to the gym!

Also, a quiet walk:

July 12th, Wednesday

Because the fun never stops, Wednesday was Ethan’s BIRTHDAY! And the last time I posted. Also, everyone else was gone, but now Ivan’s uncle had just showed up in town, visiting from Atlanta. (Not staying with us, but Ivan/we were busy with him in the evenings all week.)

As I mentioned, the highlight was Ethan getting his temps!!

I blocked off an hour and we immediately hit the roads.

He is doing AMAZING. Seriously knocking my socks off. He has now driven all over, and by his second day I allowed him to drive all the way home from his high school (almost 30 minutes, through downtown Madison/city streets- NOT on the highway route yet, obviously). And he actually has already driven on our more local highway several times!! (During low traffic periods, but still- 70 mph, merging, etc.). He’s really doing fabulous. WAY better than I had anticipated, and honestly it’s kind of calming my nerves a little about the whole driving thing. (A teeny bit.)

His birthday dinner request was Red Robin. He loves their burgers. We went out with Ivan’s uncle, his brother and his 17 year old son.

His main gift (only gift, really) was an Apple watch that he’s been wanting for a while now. It is a lot simpler with older kids. I feel like when younger we got them lots of “little gifts”- a Lego set, a toy, a book, etc. Now we don’t have to do some of the “hoopla” because he really doesn’t care about much of that anymore. Perks to older kids…

Thursday & Friday 7/13-7/14

BUSY FULL work days without much breathing room for anything else. Friday night we had dinner with Ivan’s uncle again.

Saturday-Sunday:

Up at 5:15 to get ready to leave for a swim meet. I had to pick up Asher’s swim friend by 6:30 and drive an hour. I would have LOVED a slow, quiet weekend… my house still needed to be rearranged, my email inbox is overflowing….but alas, we had the final swim meet of the season.

It was sort of a big bust, anyway, because Asher frankly swam terrible. Not really his fault exactly- he missed a ton of practice during the peak of season for our trip + then barely swam the week of the 4th…He was just not in top racing shape. Maybe it was all the late night pizza and ice cream on the cruise. 😜 Oh well.

I think we both sort of wished he’d just skipped this meet, but it was the final meet for him before a break until fall…and given other conflicts, he already missed most of the other summer meets…

Anyway, my mom and nephew drove over to watch him. (My sister, BIL and girls were up camping in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota with some friends so Little Guy was staying with my parents for the week.)

We stopped for Chipotle with his swim buddy before driving home. I spent a big chunk of the afternoon re-setting our house, vacuuming, etc while Ivan did a bunch of neglected yard work.

Asher went fishing with a friend:

July 16th, Sunday

And finally, almost up to present day. Asher had Day 2 of his meet (went equally bad) but he caught a ride with his friend this time. I sort of felt bad not going since “technically” I was free…but I decided life has been C-R-A-Z-Y busy lately and I needed some time to myself.

Ivan had a soccer game at 8 a.m and Ethan had to work. I ended up dropping Ethan at McDonald’s at 7 a.m. (well, he drove!) and then going inside and sitting at a back booth with my laptop and tea for quite a long while. It was quiet/ not busy and very pleasant.

I ended up diving into planning our next year’s “big” Travel Adventure 2024…..I have been dipping my toe into it for months now doing preliminary planning, but I needed some dedicated time to really do some deeper research and hash things out. This is looking ahead to early June 2024, 2 weeks. I’m happy to report I made some awesome progress!! I actually ended up finalizing a basic itinerary and booking almost all the lodging (will be a multi-city trip). I AM PUMPED.

Should I tell you where it is yet??? Hmm…. maybe I’ll leave a cliff hanger. Hahaha. Wage your guesses in the comments. 😉 Clues: It’s hot. And dry. First person to guess correctly wins a lollipop. 😄

Okay! I think we’re all caught up. Probably way more than you wanted/needed to know. How has your life been going?! Busy? Slow? Good, I hope! 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a free day yesterday! I did not accomplish all of the life-catch up that I really needed to do, but, I feel a big sense of relief to have nailed down some important travel details for this particular trip. I know once school starts in the fall time will fly and I’ll blink and it will be Christmas!