Grandpa's Visit Part One

July 2nd
Grandpa Bob's visit started on Tuesday, July 2nd which was also Alyssa's 11th birthday. She opted to go to Sk8ing Strong in the morning. Sk8ing Strong is a 4 hour skate camp that they run 5 days a week for 10 weeks in the summer. She loves it and wants to go every day but since I am not made of money and because I do not want to get up at 7:00 every day she goes once a week. We did bring her balloons and cupcakes when we picked her up but the balloon line made me late to pick her up so she was none too excited about any of it by the time I got there. I made her pose with her balloons anyway so that I could pretend it was a good idea but by then Chloe had already popped one.

Thankfully her birthday did get better. Seth picked his dad up from the airport and we all met up at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Lyssa's first choice was Panda Express but Seth said we had to go to a sit down restaurant so she went to choice number 2. She also chose Urban Culture for dessert. It is a self serve yogurt shop that is owned by the parents of one of her school friends. Seth actually took a pic at yogurt so he could show off our new phones to his dad....the ones that you just tap together to instantly transfer pics and videos. We actually used the phone camera for much of his visit just to play with it but I did take out the real camera one day.
 
We did also let Alyssa open presents but 3/4 of the grandparents gave her cash for new skates. My dad sent a present but she tore it open before I even had a camera ready and this picture is of some candies and cakes that my mom had delivered. Not much to see this year but the money will help her get a better pair of skates and that is very exciting for her and for us since we would like to avoid broken ankles. 

July 3rd
On Wednesday we shopped for 4th of July food and fireworks, went to see Despicable Me 2 (cute, but I think the first one was better), and went strawberry picking. It was past the prime of the season so the berries were teeny tiny and our baskets took ages to fill up but they were still super yummy. Thanks for being in the picture Alyssa....just showing her King side again.
 
That night we also went to Lyssa's skating class with her. It was the second to last day of the session so that is when they assess them and determine whether or not they have mastered the skills for that level. If not, you just retake that level. She passed Basic 1 in one shot but took two sessions for both levels 2 and 3 so I expected level 4 to take about two attempts. She had all the techniques down but had two skills that she needed to be faster on but her instructor said she was so close that if she went to Sk8ing Strong or open skate to practice she would probably have it by this week and be able to advance. So she worked on those two skills at Sk8ing Strong and today she was so much better. I could hardly believe the progress. Too bad Chloe's summer dance camp is not quite so impressive. Today they watched a movie...the camp is 2 hours long and they spent 3/4 of the time on a movie? I was none too thrilled. But I digress. Kudos to Lyssa for passing Basic 4 and heading on to Basic 5.
 
And now back to a week ago.

4th of July
I think I say this every year but I love 4th of July because there are no expectations. No presents, no real structure to the day and of course I love that it is a summer holiday so we can be outside. I know those are not very patriotic reasons for celebrating. I love my country too, I promise. And I love it even more for having a summer birthday.

We were invited to 2 parties and I really wanted to go to both but we also wanted to go down to the lake for fireworks so we only made it to one party, at the Christiansens. We had a BBQ and Seth brought lots of fireworks that the teenage boys could shoot off for the little kids. Then we all caravaned to the lake for the big show. We have learned not to park right at the lake or it will take hours to get home. We parked a few blocks away at the Boys and Girls Club and got out in no time after the show.

I finally managed to get a couple pictures of the day while we waited for the show.
 
Chloe danced around in the middle of the pathway and got in the way of the tens of thousands of people who were trying to walk by.











July 5th
We had the fun idea to go to Lake Geneva on Friday so we drove all the way out there and it was more crowded than I have ever seen it. There was not even a patch of sand big enough for all of us at the beach and Lake Geneva is kind of a snobby little town so they charge you $8 per person to use the beach and there is no way I was paying that when we wouldn't have even been able to sit together. We looked at renting a boat but like I said, snobby town, so super high prices for rentals. We moved on to Silver Lake and the kids loved it. I usually prefer something with a smaller swimming area so I can keep track of them better but the entire swimming area is shallow enough for all 3 kids to reach and they loved having lots of room to play.
 

 
Chloe likes to be left alone in the water.
 
Alex and Alyssa become best buds whenever we are swimming. I love it. 




 
The whole reason I went back to shore for my camera was to get pics with Grandpa but he followed me to shore and was done swimming so before we left I made him pose with the kids in front of the lake so I would have proof that he was there sharing the day with us.
 
While we were at the lake Bob said he wanted to take us to Bob Chinn's for dinner. Seth always suckers his dad in to Bob Chinn's. We rode down there in swimsuits to beat the dinner rush and had a super tasty dinner.

They had a special where you could add an entire lobster to any entree for $10 more so Seth and Bob both jumped on that and I added one as well and Alex ate it in place of a kids meal. He felt so cool.

Since Bob had been talking about his legs at the beach we figured he needed this t-shirt to take home, and some crab forks because he loves to take those home every time he visits.
 

Good times so far but I think I will stop right there for now because I actually busted out the real camera the next day and took a lot of pictures so I think I will do the rest of the visit in a second post.