Grandpa Smiley’s 90th Birthday

In October we celebrated my grandfather’s 90th birthday in West Lafayette.  My grandparents met Matilda for the first time and we had a wonderful time honoring Grandpa Smiley with my cousins and extended family.

Fourth of July with a Bang

Since I was 38 weeks pregnant we stayed in town this 4th of July.  We headed over to Kevin and Tammy’s for their annual firework extravaganza.  Kirk and Papa had been setting off some smaller fireworks for Eliza over the previous weeks so that she was somewhat prepared for what was to come.   There are so many fireworks to set off that our family can’t even wait for it to get dark.

I have had contractions (ugh) for the past few weeks.  I normally have about three an hour, but it can vary a lot.  While enjoying the fireworks I noticed that they were coming more and getting a bit more uncomfortable.  After waiting a while they didn’t seem to be changing so I timed them to be about 5 minutes apart.  After getting Eliza home with Gram we headed to the hospital to see if anything was going on.  They watched the contractions for a while and saw them start to taper off so we were sent home and told it would be “soon.”  Seven days later we are still waiting.

Eliza loved the fireworks that dropped the “parachute men”

The infamous Value Jet, an annual tradition of strapping fireworks to a glider for repeated launches until it breaks/melts

Easter 2011

For over a month Eliza would get excited whenever she saw Easter eggs, begging her daddy to hide them outside.  But Easter turned out to be quite rainy, so we had to celebrate (and let Eliza hunt for eggs) inside.  At church we celebrated our friend Tony’s baptism (perfect day for it, right?) and Eliza went to the 2 and 3 year old room for the second time.   She gets a little overwhelmed by all the kids running around, but after a few minutes of playing with the toy kitchen she really seems to settle in and interact with some of the less rowdy boys and girls.  Her favorite activity at Sunday school is sitting at the children’s table to eat a snack and drink out of a Dixie cup.  Last Sunday she had to take the cup home with her, it was so exciting.

Of course the real joy of Easter was not overlooked as we praised the risen Lord.  This year it has been great sharing our faith with Eliza, and over the last month we’ve began to pray together.   She thanks God for her food, her water, and her ice.  If we leave one of those three out we will have to pray again.  There have been times where we pray five or more times during a meal.  We’re working on praying for other things, like our family and friends.

After church we headed home to open a few Easter gifts and hunt for eggs around the house.  Eliza loved the search and finding nickels inside the eggs for her piggy bank.  Then we headed to Gram and Papa’s house for lunch with Cece (Cindy) and Steve.  We don’t get to see Cindy and Steve very often (and sadly they’ll be moving to South Carolina soon) but Eliza talks about Cece all the time – it’s hard to resist her smile and curly hair!

Eliza's First Camping Trip

Back in October we spent a weekend with Lynne’s family at Land Between the Lakes, a national recreation area in Kentucky.  It was a lot fun with great weather, hiking, kayaking, campfires, and playing with Eliza.  She loved spending so much time outdoors!

4th at the River

We had some temperature trouble around the time of the river, Eliza ran a fever the day before (due to teething I think) and then outside it was H-O-T!  At the last minute we decided not to camp and instead just go up for the day of the pitch-in meal.  For those of you reading and a bit lost, this is Kirk’s family reunion that takes place once a year on family-owned farm land up in Rochester, IN.  This year there were almost 100 people there.  It is great to see extended family and for Eliza to be able to play with her cousins. 

Due to the teething Eliza was tired and looking for something to chew…a bad combination!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Smileys have been having all girls lately!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eliza playing with Kendra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the meal we go around and count the number of people there and say grace. 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fun day, and hopefully we’ll be camping next year!

 

Beer and Art

Last weekend Lynne, Eliza, and I headed up to Ann Arbor to visit her family and attend some amazing events.

First, Lynne’s dad and I went to the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti.  Since I’ve become a bit of a beer snob, this was right up my alley.  Also, it was great to taste beers from so many brewers I don’t normally have access to in Indianapolis since they were all Michigan microbreweries. 

Overall, there were some big winners, big losers, and lots of interesting palette action.  We each were able to try 32 different types, and for the beer geeks you can read a full review HERE (read it, it took some effort to compile).  For lazy readers, the best of the night were New Holland’s 2008 Dragon’s Milk Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout and El Mole Ocho (mole as in the Mexican sauce, not the rodent).  Worst of the night were Liberty Street Brewing’s Clementine Lemon Thyme and Woodward Avenue’s Vanilla Porter.  We had great beers at Bell’s too (as if there was any doubt), enjoyed some bbq pulled pork sandwiches, and met some really interesting fellow beer-samplers.  There were 54 breweries with over 400 beers, so we plan to make this an annual event – it’s the only way to try them all!  Next time I’ll do some pre-planning via www.beeradvocate.com, just to make sure I don’t miss out on any highly ranked beers.  Check out all the brewers that attended here and let me know what I totally missed but should have tried!

(Photos are from my phone, so sorry about the poor quality)

The city was packed with people over the entire weekend for the 51st annual Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.  It was my first time attending, and I was quite impressed.  Hundreds of artists of all types set up booths through the city and U of M campus, so no matter what type of art you were into, there was plenty to see.  Photography, paintings, metal, wood, ceramics, jewelry, you name it, it was there.  We enjoyed a lot of the photographers’ works but having learned more about the art, we found ourselves looking at pieces much more critically.  To top it all off, they had some excellent street food that went well beyond what you’d find at a state fair.  Mahi mahi, coconut shrimp, and crab cakes anyone?

I’m pretty sure we’ll do it all again next year!

Photo Booth

Thanks for everyone who celebrated Eliza’s birthday with us.