Busy Week-end But No Pictures

We had a very busy week-end but have no pictures to prove it.

My friend Terri and I were chosen (delegated) to represent our Little League Board of Directors in Belvedere Friday night for the major league State Championship game. This ball park was not in the best part of town so we were a little reluctant to go alone but we did and lived to tell about it. As one of the parents said "it is never a good sign when on your first night you see a guy running down the street carrying a cash register". Despite where we had to travel it was a great game and Warner Robins won the State Championship again and will be traveling to Florida to play in the Southeast Regional tournament starting Saturday. They of course have hopes of making it to the World Series again this year.

On Saturday we had try-outs for the girls travel softball team that Autumn will be playing on and Jason and I will be coaching this fall. We had a good turn out but will definitely be a young team with inexperienced pitching. We won't loose all the games but certainly will not win them all either. One thing for certain we will have fun and hope to learn in the process.

Sunday I enjoyed the 95 degree weather working in the yard. Pulling weeds, cleaning out the pool, washing windows all those fun things. I did get some help from Taylor since he is still on restriction from his sneaking out adventure. Autumn and Chandler spent the day at the lake with my parents skiing, tubing and riding the jet ski. They had a blast as always and were exhausted last night.

Take Care
Michelle

Michigan Trip Continued

So we finally made it to Jason's parents house but not before receiving a little souvenir from Michigan's finest. We drove 1300 miles and 30 miles before our final destination JASON got a speeding ticket. Well, who knew that in Michigan if you are from out of state and receive a ticket you either pay cash on the spot or they take your license. Don't think for a minute I was letting him get away with them taking his license and ME having to drive the 1300 miles home. I was quick to come up with that cash.

We made it to Jason's parents house where the kickball and ladder ball games quickly begun. Look at the expressions on their faces. You would think they were throwing 50 pound weights.

After the game it was time for a break. Chandler, Gracie our goddaughter, Autumn, and Rylee our niece.

Our second day was the annual Pioneer Days Parade and Festival. Autumn enjoyed being in the parade this year with Jason's uncle. She threw about 3 boxes of candy through the course of the parade. Chandler and our niece Rylee enjoyed watching the parade and catching bags full of candy. I have so many pictures from the parade and the kids festival I tried to narrow it down for you.

After the parade my conversation with Chandler went something a little like this: "Mom I have to use the bathroom" "O.K. Chandler let's go. There it is go ahead" "Mom that is not it" " Yes it is if you have to go you better go ahead." With a look of disbelief he decided to go ahead and see for himself. I could not resist taking a picture.

Then it was on to the games where he of course was the first to find the baseball game.

Autumn could not be outdone she had to try also.

This is Autumn telling Gracie she has to leave for a minute to go and get a tattoo.

I am not sure if I should be more concerned about the fact that 1. she wanted a tattoo 2. where she wanted the placement of the tattoo or 3. the fact that the man doing the tattoos for the children had on a shirt that said Sugardaddy. That was a little scary.

We had a great time at Pioneer Days and ended the night watching the fireworks.

While at Jason's aunt and uncle's house I told Jason, his brother Jeremy and Taylor that I wanted to get a good picture of the three of them. This is where that statement got me.

I apologize for the beads Jason is wearing he should have done a better job of matching them to his outfit. Ha Ha

Since this is my blog and you Jeremy would not pose for my picture you have forced me to post this ....

You should have gone to the porta potty with Chandler . Next time act nice when I want a posed picture.

And for you my loving husband, I asked Autumn to show me with her face how good you are at basketball and this was her response:

I assume that means pretty stinky. Next time you also will pose for my picture.

And for you Taylor since I like you better than your dad and uncle I post this picture, your perfect golf swing.

That about sums up our trip to Michigan.

Have a great night.

Take Care

Michelle

Home Again

Wow! It has been a very busy two weeks. I will try and catch you up without making it too long.

Our trip started with an 18 hour drive to Mackinaw City. When we arrived my wish was granted.... cooler weather. It was 50 degrees and raining. Maybe next time I should be more specific with my wishes. For those of you that have had the pleasure of visiting Mackinaw you know there is not a whole lot to do indoors everything is outdoors. We started our day with lunch at the Dixie Saloon. We were not that impressed with the food but it is a neat place near the lake.

I did not notice until now this picture is very dark sorry.

After lunch we tried to fill some time shopping in the many souvenir type shops. I wonder what people thought about the crazy lady taking pictures in all the shops

You see how amused Taylor is with this adventure. You know 14 year olds are not impressed with many things their parents do or say.

The rain finally stopped so we tried to visit some of the lighthouses where it was still a chilly 55 degrees.

Now it was time for a trip to the lake where it was really cold with the wind coming off the water. The water was freezing. I could not even put my foot in. Taylor decided he would make a bet with Jason on who could go out the farthest in the freezing cold water. Of course Jason could not turn down a bet.

Taylor ventured into the water first

then Jason. By the looks of his arms maybe he thought he could just fly over the water and that would count.

So as you can see Taylor emerged the victor. Jason should know a 14 year old will go out as far as it takes to win $20.00

It started to rain again so we decided to take the kids to the indoor water park at the hotel.

Jason really enjoyed himself at the water park. The 18 hour drive must have caught up with him.

I am so glad Jason doesn't have a blog, I would be scared of what pictures he may post of me after he sees this.

After a busy, cold, rainy day we retreated back to our room to try and catch up on some sleep.

Well this is already very long and we are only on day ONE. I will sign off for now and post more tomorrow about our week in the Upper Peninsula with Jason's family.

Take care.

Michelle

Packed And Ready To Roll

The car is packed, the house is clean, the dog sitter has her instructions, we have a case full of DVD's, and three I-pods full of the kids chosen music so I guess we are ready to hit the road again. We are leaving around 4:00 today after Jason and I get off of work. We are planning to drive through the night and arrive in Mackinaw City around noon on Thursday. It is not easy to drive all night after working all day but we are hoping the kids will be doing alot of sleeping.

We typically make really great time when we drive through the night so we are hoping for the same on this trip. We will stay in Mackinaw until Friday and then on to the big town of Ishpeming, Michigan to visit Jason's family. I will try and update on Friday with some photos of beautiful Mackinaw City and the Mackinaw Bridge.



Take care and have a great week.

Michelle

Home Sweet Home

We are home from the beach. We had a great week in Panama City but are glad to be home. You are about to see more pictures of the Ring family than you ever cared to see. Sorry, I just can't help myself. We started the week off with beautiful weather and crystal clear water. The kids had a great time paying in the sand

catching jellyfish (notice the little 5 year old boy in the background more on this later)



flying kites



and never fear we didn't go a week without a baseball game they even managed to get a full baseball game in on the beach.



On Monday it rained almost the entire day so the kids/teens spent part of the day trying to complete a 500 piece very difficult puzzle. By 2:00 the teens had seen enough of the rain and the puzzle and decided to head to Hooters. They said they got ripped off because their waitress was OLD she was like 40 years old. Better alert the morgue she will be killing over any minute now at that age. So anyway they were then back to completing the puzzle (which they did accomplish after 2 days). I spent the day shopping at the new Pier outdoor mall. It is a great mall with some very interesting stores.





We awoke Tuesday morning walked out on the balcony and this is what we saw.....




no, the beach did not grow lush green grass overnight it was SEAWEED and it was BAD!!!!



We have been going to Panama City for over 15 years and I have never seen the seaweed like this . It was fascinating. When you would step on it it was like being in quicksand you would actually sink down into it about a foot.


So needless to say our next few days were spent at the pool hearing mom look dad look and seeing at least 1000 tricks a day :)












The teen boys spent a lot of time in the hot tub during the seaweed attack. Notice the little boy in the background again. Every time I went to take a picture of the boys this little boy was in the background. Finally in this picture I said excuse me would you move over just a little so I can get a picture to which all the boys replied he is fine just take the picture. The litttle boy informed me his name was "Chipper Jones the best player in Major League Baseball and he was friends with all of these guys". Well come to find out "Chipper" had a really hot sister who also brought along really hot friends. Who said these boys weren't smart?





Well....... I guess their plan worked notice the hot girls in the hot tub and who is front and center none other than "Chipper" . At least they have a good story to tell when they get home they were hanging out in the hot tub with Chipper Jones and a bunch of hot girls.



We went to a great local restaurant in Panama City called the Boathouse. The food was excellent and it also had a great atmosphere.



After dinner it was off to ride go-carts and play putt-putt. The older boys left us and headed to teen night at Club LaVela.

We also found time to visit the arcade across the street from our condo and of course Chandler immediately found the only baseball game in the arcade. He must have been having baseball withdrawals.

Later that night the older boys decided to walk across the street to Wendys. The inside was closed so only the drive through was open. Being teens they decided to walk through the drive through after ordering and waiting in line for 10 minutes they were informed they could not serve walkers in the drive through. After much thought and debate they decided to ask someone in a car to place their order for them. Order placed, food in hand, now back to the condo to enjoy the food. Oh wait not so fast here comes the rain storm, paper bags do not hold up well when wet. Next thing you know there is food all over the street and we are watching from the balcony laughing . There were not to many dull moments on this trip. If you look closely you can see the boys making their way to Wendys.

I will leave you with one last story from our trip. For those of you that do not have teens yet this is what you have to look forward to. One night around 3:00am Jason thought he heard the door open a few minutes later he got up to check well sure enough the room that the 5 teen boys should be in is empty. Jason being the calm, rational dad that he is decided to let them have their fun but pay for it later. He set a trap on the inside of the door of coolers, beach pails, beach chairs, etc.. so when they came home and opened the door they would know they had been busted. Needless to say had I have heard the door my reaction would have been MUCH different. But his worked perfectly. When they arrived home and realized they had been caught they had to spend the rest of the night worrying about what we were going to say. I would just loved to have heard that conversation. They did however devise a great story of a girl texting them to come and help her because she found a cat on the beach with rabies and they needed to call animal control. Are you kidding me how do they come up with these stories? So as you can see we had a fun and eventful week at the beach. We are now home unpacked and ready to start a new week. We will however be leaving again on Wednesday after work to go to Mackinaw Island and then on to the Upper Peninsula to visit Jason's family. I will try and post again before we leave.

Take care and enjoy your kids while they are happy digging in the sand not rescuing cats from the sand. :)

Michelle