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We split Thanksgiving this year, with Brandi and Nick staying home while her family came to visit, and I flew to St. Louis for Carrie's family gathering. Brandi made a full dinner, and the kids were entertained with trips to the Zoo Lights and Harley Davidson stores. We got beanbags and the old TV setup in the bonus room so Thatcher and Nick had a place to hangout, play video games. I was able to join them for a dinner when I flew home. I did a 48-hour turnaround for Carrie's dinner, which was low-key as usual... this was our Christmas gathering, but early this year. Brian spoiled us with the 'expensive' bacon, complementing enough food it couldn't possibly be consumed by all. I got a late dinner my first evening at Cooper's Hawk, it was outstanding.
He's settled in well at SFS, had a great report during our Teacher meetings. Nicks' got a circle of guys he hangs with, and he's making the grade. The tough part is getting used to the routine, which feels like a career with so much activity to track: checking email, reviewing online assignments, calendars changing... Nick's getting used to writing it all down to keep up, but it's a constant chase.
A few pics here.
Winding down the summer, we had some warm days to swim, even though the water had cooled; my last swim was teeth-chattering. Nick was helpful closing the pool, we pulled a new cover this year. Football season fills the weekend afternoons, of course Nick hates watching football, so he washes my car instead. There's a small pond in our neighborhood that's stocked, there's pics here of Nick fishing. He's had the equipment in storage for years, now it came in handy. He didn't catch anything, but he got a feel for it.
Brandi and Nick got tickets from my friend at work to attend the Halloween event at Greenfield Village. Brandi's Wednesday Addams costume was perfect, Nick didn't dress up, really. He also didn't trick-or-treat this year, but it poured rain and washed out the evening for most kids.
We brought our Corvette home after a light restoration this summer, so we enjoyed a few evening rides in the Fall. I was riding around NY on a work trip, eating at east Long Island diners and seeing a ballgame at Citi Field with Joe Cook.
He had a karate test in there somewhere as well. He's got a good routine at karate, he's a veteran student having been there a while.
A few pictures from the last couple months.
Jason
School started at the end of August, so Nick's summer was a little shorter than others, ending in Michigan and starting in Ohio. School shopping included the annual tables at Dillard's where I buy my shirts for $10 when they go on sale, and this year I was buying for us both. I like the school's plan, they are really working with the boys. Nick's starting to get the swing of things, even knowing when he needs cover... he asked me to cover for him about forgetting his notebook in the first week. He looks good in a jacket and tie, from a height perspective, he and I are about the same size. There's so many sites and apps for Brandi and I to remember, we never bothered to figure it out last year... he got all A's last year and we didn't figure it out until we found a paper copy buried in his 6th grade bag in the corner when 7th grade started.
I did the Dream Cruise alone this year, as Nick decided not to join me that morning, backed out at 5 AM. Brandi and I had a Saturday night Chili Cookoff at Jasinski's, I was setting up for Fantasy Football, sold the Jeep to Brad, and I had a short trip to NY for Volvo, so the month was really focused more on us than Nick, he spent his time relaxing to begin school. With all of that time, you'd think he'd remember the basics, like trimming his thumb nails (he trims the other eight fingers, then gets distracted.)
The photo here with the snow plow reminded him of his childhood when we lived next to the Chrysler dealership, so he wanted to re-create the moment.
Photos are combined with July this month, as there's only a few.
Jason
It's been a hot month, lots of time in the pool. We had tickets to the Mud Hens game on a Friday night, Nick was booked to throw out the first pitch, roughly 95 degrees at game time. We barely made it onto the field in time, they called out Nick's name, handed him the ball, and sent him to the mound... I didn't warn him ahead of time. He threw a better pitch than the mayor, Wade's toss was a little shorter, then we spoke with him down on the field afterwards. I went to school with Wade, and his son now goes to SFS with Nick.
The school hosted a camp at Vineyard Lake, where the 7th and 8th grade boys get to know each other before the year starts. We left Nick for the weekend, where he got a lucky draw of the cabin with air conditioning. The kids spent most of their time in the lake, though, and Nick didn't go in. But he said the food was good, they were kept to their chores, and he knew a couple kids from his past schools. The camp was property purchased by the Oblates back in the 1940s for a couple thousand dollars, it's a beautiful 40 acres or so for the school to use. Brandi and I walked the MSU Hidden Lake Gardens for the afternoon after we dropped him.
Our phones stopped working at one point because they were full, roughly 50GB of space filled, it seemed like overnight. After hours of investigation, I realized Nick had takes selfies on his iPad, thousands of them. He sat in bed and shot photos of himself non-stop, and filled our storage space. Really, Nick? I took a screen shot before I deleted them all.
Photos combined from July and August this month.
Jason
Nick and I attended the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, WI this year, the largest air show in the world, with over 10,000 aircraft flying in for one week each year. My company was fielding brand research for Ford onsite this year, so this was a work+play trip for me (guess which one I did more of?)
We drove about seven hours on Sunday, planning to spend all day Monday at AirVenture. It was a rough start for the work portion, with FedEx losing our equipment, and then Monday morning the support team arrived two hours late... Nick claims I planned that on purpose to throttle his fun. But he got his time in, wandering for a couple hours on his own while I worked with Suzanne to set up the team (once I got them in, running around with passes and cash). Nick and I got about four hours of the day to walk around, enough to have sore feet. We saw warbirds, small aircraft, vintage aircraft, and a few classic cars at the Ford display. The formations and fly-overs went on all day, and were amazing. Nick was able to strike up a conversation with all kinds of people, because he knows the planes, especially the military folks.
Our hotel in Fond du Lac wasn't bad, we had to share a bed (the hotels sell out a year early), which was better than all the tents onsite at EAA that got washed out in heavy rains. The food wasn't that good (our pizza at Ala Roma was excellent!), and the crowds were overwhelming, but the weather was perfect. If you've never experienced AirVenture, it's one of those places you need to see at least once, even if you're not into planes.
And there's always a 'Nick moment'... I told him we were working, so no clothes with logos or pictures on them because others could recognize those and be influenced; we represent Ford, must remain neutral. On the morning we go onsite, he packed, and was wearing, a Morpace shirt (the former name of my company.) He says, "No one will know what this is now!" Sadly true.
Jason
