First Texas Visitor!

I tried to post this a while ago, but the pics wouldn't update, so I had to wait. But here they are. We finally had our first Texas visitor this month when David's friend Garrett made a completely impromptu visit, meaning at 2:00 in the afternoon, he didn't have any plans for the night, but he flew into Louisville, Kentucky around 11:00 that same night. 

It was a real treat to have him, so we made sure to take him out to one of our favorite restaurants in town. He stayed for two days and then flew out early the next morning. 

We enjoyed playing card games together. 

Sitting around the fire making smores (and then I went to bed to give them guy time). 

And they got out the guns to shoot, a luxury of living out in the country now. 

It was a really nice visit with him, and I love how he made the time to come out to see David. He's one of the friends that showed up immediately at the hospital right after David's accident and stayed through the whole surgery, then he also came to visit a few times during his recovery in the weeks that followed. That's a true friend. :)

 

Family Vacation 2023

Our summer vacation looked a bit different this year. We went camping in Michigan and spent our daytimes at the beach at the Dunes on Lake Michigan. Juan flew in from Dallas and was able to spend the weekend with the entire Alspaugh family, brining all the cousins together on Mike's side of the family. It was a very busy few days, but it sure was nice to all be together in one place and to reconnect.

First stop after the airport, lunch at a Ramen place that I heard about because I know that Juan really likes to try Ramen places. 

The food was good, but he unfortunately did not give it a very good rating. He and his girlfriend like to try different restaurants all the time and then rate them. I guess this place didn't measure up to the ones in Dallas. 

Then I took him to a local coffee shop to use up a gift card I'd gotten for my birthday. 

Then I took him past New Song so he could see my classroom. By that time he was exhausted from his flight, so he was pretty reluctant to see anything more. 

We walked in the door, he went straight to the couch and fell fast asleep. Before I could even show him the house. There he stayed for the next hour or so until Mike and David got home. 

He did deliver this sweet gift delivery from my mom as soon as he got into the car at the airport. It was like Christmas in July!

That night I made sure we got a quick family pic despite everyone's reluctance. LOL. Hey, these moments don't come around very often. 

And I made sure we took a selfie in the car as we headed out the next morning. 

We made it to Michigan, and Chrissy had us a soup dinner ready within 30 minutes. (She's prepared!)

Grandma enjoying time with all three of her sons together. 

Our cabin. 

Sitting around the campfire, getting ready to make some smores. 

Mark and Reese, the only girl cousin. Love her so much. 

Getting the trucks ready to go to the Dunes, and Jaxon loved posing for pics during the wait. 

All hands on deck letting air out of the tires so the trucks could drive in the sand. 

Mike sure was in his glory driving his pride and joy that he basically built from scratch. They call it the Crawler (for rock crawling), but it worked well in the sand, too!

Finally we made it to the beach and enjoyed the water, which was cold at first, but got comfortable pretty quickly. Such an odd feeling to swim in freshwater waves. 

My mother-in-law and I in semi-matching hats.

Just hanging out by the water. 

Just a few Alspaugh men

Reese wanted to be buried. Chrissy used her talent to turn her into a mermaid. 

A little pool fun

Reese and Jaxon enjoyed playing with fun Uncle Juan.

Me, Reese, and Grandma

Hanging out to watch the drag races. 

Uncle Mark deciding to join in the drag race. 

Potty stop. 

Reese and I decided to climb all the way to the top of the dune together. That was a rough workout!

The view of Silver Lake from the top of the dune.

Looking over Lake Michigan from the top of the dune. 

My attempt at a Panoramic view. 

Then we headed into Silver Lake to eat at the best chicken wing place I've ever been to!

Our first full family pic. 

And then we had a little fun on the go-karts. 

And David and Kase went on the zipline together. 

And then we walked down the street to a cute little ice cream shop. 

Blue raspberry. Not bad. 

Another full family pic. 

The sun setting over Silver Lake.

Our last day on the beach together. 

Best place to go for a walk. :)

Ending the night playing card games. 

Juan found the hammock station.

And decided to sleep there all night! He said it was much more comfortable than the bunk bed. 

Then, at my request, we stopped at a blueberry farm on the way home. Had it just been us, I would have fought to pick my own blueberries, but it wasn't just us. So I settled for a picture of a blueberry bush. 

And went inside to buy 5 pounds of blueberries.

And a blueberry pie. 

Yum!

The perfect treat to end our family vacation, along with a fun card game. 

The next day, I let Juan sleep in a bit, made us a quick breakfast, and then we headed toward the airport. But we stopped for a tasty lunch at Cheddars together (the restaurant that he worked at during high school). We had very connecting conversation and a really nice time together. Getting all of us together is quite tricky and complicated, so I'm thankful Juan got to join us.