July 2022 Update

This seems to have been a more eventful month, so that will make more content for this update, but no guarantees about whether or not it interests you.  I write these because my Mom asked me to years ago, and even though she's in heaven, I still keep it up.  Who knows if anyone reads them, but maybe they will interest my descendants years from now.

Anyway, here goes for this past month.

 

My chorus did a performance at a local nursing home on June 28.  The audience seemed to appreciate it, although there were a couple of the songs we sang where we got out of tune, and I was not sure which key I was hearing.  Others noticed it too, and so we’ve been working on that in rehearsals.  There’s always room for improvement, and in our case, lots of room.

 

When Covid kept campgrounds closed, our family decided to camp in the Mickles’ (my daughter, Hannah’s family) back yard.  We had so much fun then, that we did it again this year over the July 4 weekend.  We ate good camping food, did fun activities like tie-dye and fireworks, went on outings to local playgrounds and an ice cream stand, and generally enjoyed each other.

 

The next week some of the grandkids went to a real live camp, and since both Hazel and Ivy (Ella’s daughters) went, we had her youngest daughter, Josie, over to our house for a couple of days of “Grandma camp.”  Krista’s mom used to have some of our kids to her house for grandma camp when their older siblings were at camp at AMOC, so we sort of continued the tradition.  She slept in Jem’s room for two nights, and spent the days doing special things with her Mommom.

I mentioned last month that Zach had moved to Louisville, Kentucky.  He had to come home for an orthodontist appointment, so he made a weekend of it that following weekend, July 8 – 11.  It was great to spend some time with him again, and we had a little party Sunday afternoon at our house with homemade garbage plates.  I think I’ve talked about those before, but in case you’ve forgotten, they are a Rochester area specialty where you can get your year’s supply of cholesterol all in one meal!  You make a base of some kind of fried potatoes (we used tater tots, but air fried them to be a little less obnoxious) and mac salad, top that with a meat, like burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers (we used burgers or dogs), and then smother all that with your choice of toppings, like ketchup, mustard, onions, or spicy meat sauce.  It really is delicious, but definitely not something you should eat every day.

 

This past Saturday, the ladies got together for a baby shower for Abigail and her baby, who is due in late August.  The venue Hannah found for this was in Canandaigua, which is about an hour’s drive southeast from our home.  While they did that, I spent the morning with Hannah’s son, Alex, because Kevin had worked overnight the night before and needed to sleep.  Alex and I had a really fun grandson/grandpa time exploring Canandaigua’s playgrounds and eating lunch at McDonald’s.

Playground at Kershaw Park on Canandaigua Lake

Pirate ship themed playground

Lunch at McDonald's

In case we weren’t exhausted enough after our Canandaigua trip in the morning, Krista and I went an hour’s drive the other way (north and west) to the Lighthouse Christian Camp in Barker, NY, that many of you are familiar with.  Her father’s family has a reunion there every year, but we didn’t plan to go this year because of the morning trip.  Then Krista’s brother, Dick, and his wife Debbie, let us know they had come all the way from Kansas to be at this reunion, and we couldn’t miss the opportunity to see them, so we drove out there that afternoon/evening.  I have to say, I had to settle for seeing one of my most faithful readers of this update, Aunt Marion, on video because they couldn’t make that reunion, but we had a good time talking with everyone, especially Dick and Debbie.

 

My son Levi has had some exciting times lately.  He will be going to Genesee Community College this fall for their ACE program where you can complete your senior year of high school and freshmen year of college at the same time, and we have been working on the testing and registration for that.  We’ve also been looking for a car for him to get him there and back.  Then his latest adventure was having oral surgery this past Thursday.  He’s already tired of eating just soft foods, and can’t wait to get a cheeseburger and fries again as soon as he can.

 

Well, there you have it.  That’s our latest month, and we’ll talk again in August!