Ryan = Teenager

Impossibly, Ryan is now a teenager. We had fun celebrating his amazingness. 

Burke took him, and four school friends to an escape room. Afterward, Evan and I joined them for ice cream. This felt like a fun, COVID-respectful birthday experience. At school, these boys also participated as a team for Battle of the Books, and tied for first place. Ryan went to elementary school with two of them, and the other two are also participating in tennis club (which Ryan recently joined). There are a lot of overlapping interests among them, and they are really nice middler schoolers! We are so impressed with and proud of his friend group.

Ryan asked for a trampoline this year. Those can be expensive, so it became a group gift. It was also hard to hide and wrap, so I just drew on the box for the reveal.  

Ryan helped Burke put it together, cultivating appreciation (it was not easy!) and gathering life lessons. He was happy to help, and pushed through a tedious part of assembly that he worked on alone while Burke stepped away to teach a violin lesson. This is the perfect gift at the perfect time, and the boys enjoy it so much. They may wear it out! We are proud of Ryan for a thoughtful gift request, and to Grammy & Grampy, Nana & Lolo, Joey & Christine, and Aunt Mary & Joe for pitching in. 

This is 13!

This is silly 6!

Back to present day... The day before his actual birthday, my family was able to join us to celebrate Ryan's 13th! It's so very special to physically spend time with people these days. 

Ryan and Emily bounce

Evan and Caleb pretty much played baseball the entire time!

Burke once mentioned that his parents used to hang up their new age in crepe paper shaped numbers to celebrate their birthdays. That sounded like a fun tradition to continue. We used to use crepe paper, but when that ran out we switched to colorful tape. This year, we used it as an opportunity to have fun with Roman numerals.  

On his actual birthday, we celebrated with Bit of Swiss cupcakes.

This is 13! We continue to be so excited to watch Ryan move through the stages of life. High school is right around the corner, driving, college. I hear it moves quickly! We will always be his biggest fans and supporters. We are so thankful and honored to be his parents! Happy 13th birthday, Ryan!!

Spring Break

We finally ventured beyond the 60 mile radius of our home we've been living in since March 2020. This getaway felt like a safe way to begin traveling again. We stayed in-state, and booked a short stay in a cabin in a relatively remote location that we've never really explored before. Petoskey, Michigan, our destination, was my mom's idea, so it made sense that they came exploring with us. We all enjoyed the change or scenery, being surrounded by nature, and exploring new locales. 

Front of cabin on Pickerel Lake

Back of cabin

Pickeral Lake

Petoskey State Park: 

We all enjoyed searching for Petoskey stones - Michigan's state stone.

This body of water is Little Traverse Bay.

Roast & Toast: The perfect spot for our first indoor dining experience in over a year. They clearly were following and enforcing Covid protocols, which comforted us as consumers. Bonus - The food was so delicious! We will continue to avoid in-person dining on the whole, but baby steps, right?

We all worked on this puzzle at the cabin. It was our second time completing this one, but it was still super fun. The teamwork, conversations, and colorful book covers made this a happy family moment.

We took a drive to Charlevoix, Michigan to check it out. We went to Fisherman's Island State Park to continue our Petoskey stone quest. The park was beautiful, right on Lake Michigan. Bonus - We hit the Petoskey stone jackpot!

My Grandmother's Table: We stopped into this little coffee shop/restaurant for a quick pick me up after our time at Fisherman's Island State Park. We appreciated this sign outside the restroom.

We never heard of them before this trip, but we were happy to discover The Mushroom Houses of Charlevoix. They are unique, adorable hobbit-looking houses designed by self-taught builder Earl Young in the early 1900s. We drove around and looked at a lot of them. Apparently, you can book them as vacation rentals. Maybe we'll check it out some time. Side note: The guy who helped us at My Grandmother's Table owns one of the Mushroom Houses. 

Soon, it was time to head home...

Grampy & Pickerel Lake

Grammy & Grampy and their oldest grandchildren

I tried to use the timer on my phone camera with mixed results. We were backlit and there was nothing I could do about that. 🌞

It was a very enjoyable spring break adventure!

Family 💙 Nature 💙 Travel 💙 Memories