First and foremost – Happy Birthday Grampa Dusty!

The last few weeks have been super busy, and so I have a bunch of pictures and stories to share. I will split it into two posts – one for the last few weeks and then just this past weekend.

Kevin had training in Vegas from June 9th to the 14th. While he was gone, the girls started their Mommy Boot Camp training. That week, we worked on cooking in the kitchen. One night while he was gone, Kayla made burgers for dinner. I coached her through forming the patties, pressing the dent in the middle, putting them under the broiler, and then flipping & checking. Her first try turned out good, don’t you think?

Another night later on, Ashley took a filet of flounder cut into 6 pieces. She mixed the crumbs for the breading and put them into the oven. Kayla followed the recipe for corn muffins (even scaled it to the right amount) and baked us buttermilk corn muffins to go with the fish. Here are the results:

The girls had really missed their Daddy, so they drew a welcome home sign that covered the entire driveway!

Can you guess the artist for this one…..

We have a goal this summer to try and get the most out of our season passes to Great America, so we have been inviting friends to use the special passes we have to get in other people for $15 or less each. Last week, we brought a colleague of mine from work and her son. It gave me a chance for some pictures too!

When you get to the park when it opens, you are the only one on a ride! Kayla is on the far left next to my work friend. Funny science thing: this ride is supposed to spin around, but the two of them did not have enough weight to get more than one spin!

Lunch time! We keep costs down by packing a lunch in a cooler. We then picnic right outside the gates and head back into the park when we are done.

Nothing like a spin on Viper to get that lunch settled in! The girls are the second to last row.

It was pretty hot that day, so Roaring Rapids was next on the agenda. I didn’t need to be wet.

And a final picture before heading home!

For details about this past weekend, see the next post!