Mr. Bichler: July~Independence Day and Beyond

Yes, once again life got a little too busy for me to sit down and write. I hope I can remember to share all of the great times that we have been having since our company arrived on July 2. Trish came in on Tuesday and the kids were signed up for Dino Camp at the zoo. They loved the dinosaurs and the camp experience and in the afternoon we went to Zoombezi Bay. The weather was just about as perfect as you could get and we ended the day on the giant slide while Lily slept.

Unfortunately, during our 4th of July Picnic, I was also very preoccupied and didn't take any pictures at our picnic until late in the day during the treasure hunt and most of my cousins had already gone home. Too bad because my sister and her daughter, Amy and her husband were there, Mom and Dad made an appearance and about 30 others, all family and mostly on the Wilson side of the family. (some that I knew but most, I didn't have a clue) It rained all day so we spent the afternoon in our garage. I was so glad that I spent nearly a week preparing the pool, pulling weeds from my flower beds, mulching and mowing when all I really needed to do was to fire up the blower and move the truck out of the garage. I do think that in the 30 or so years that we have been having picnics around the 4th, this is the first time we had rain so hard that we couldn't even be outside. I guess that big garage came in handy. After dark, when it finally quit raining, we set off some fire crackers and enjoyed ourselves with just the immediate family.

Budding musicians

It's a Treasure Hunt

The treasure is found and all are happy

Lily trying to pet the fish

Sara and Matt headed home on Thursday night as they both had to work on Friday. Trish and Chad left early on Friday because Chad needed to get back to Dover. Luke and Lily stayed with the Grandparents until Sunday, July 14. We did the co-grand parenting thing which gave us time to recharge our batteries in between visits. While they stayed with us we went to Dayton to the Boonshoft Museum before Judy, Amy and Brian flew back to Georgia out of Dayton Airport. On Monday, Sharon and I took the kids to Slate Run Farm to geocache and see the farm. If you go, just FYI...the farm is closed on MONDAYS! Bummer, but we had our picnic and found our geocache and had milkshakes at Steak and Shake on the way home. To make Luke's day, Sharon let him fish in her pond and he was on cloud 9 after catching 3 fish before we could even bait a second pole. On Saturday, I took them to the Grange Audubon Center and Bicentennial Park to play in the fountains. We also wanted to find another geocache on the Metro Parks Geo Trail but this one eluded us and the day was getting short and our patience was getting even shorter so we left empty handed. Sunday, we loaded Luke, Lily and their tadpoles up in Grandma and Pop Pop Ed's car and sent them back to Delaware. It was a wonderful two weeks but I am exhausted. I hope everyone had as much fun as we did over the Fourth!