Summer sure goes fast...

Well, it's near the end of August already and Grace will be starting Kindergarten next Thursday. Can you hardly believe it? She really is growing up fast. Everyone tells you that when you have a child and I have to say in the beginning I didn't really believe them because in the beginning it's not so easy and the days seem so long when you don't get much sleep, etc. But as she gets older and is into more activities, time really seems to be going faster.

Julie had the last week off as we tried to shoehorn in everything we hadn't gotten done over the summer that we wanted to do. We went to the Rolling on the River ride on Friday the 15th. We went on Friday to volunteer and get things ready for Saturday. We ended up camping at Jellystone and I have to say it's great if you have kids. It's very kid friendly with numerous kid-oriented activities and a really nice campground. It really is worth the premium price to stay there. We started out with the intention of camping at a retreat center for free. We also went with the thought that we were going to stuff goodie bags and then I was going to do route sign checking. When we got there which was only about 20 minutes after they were supposed to start stuffing the goodie bags, they were already done. So we helped set up the expo center a little and then they asked us to drive the 100 mile route to make sure the signs were easy to follow. Since we needed to set up our tent for the night we decided to start driving the route and when we got to the retreat center we'd set up our tent. The retreat center which was about half-way through the 100-mile route was also a rest stop. We get there and the camping is in a soccer field. And we can't put our tent close to the outside of the field because that's where they're going to drive the hay ride later that evening. We weren't so excited about this setup so we decided to go to Jellystone. It wasn't free, but like I said; well worth it. After we set up the campsite we finished driving the route which prevented me from cooking dinner. And it was so late at this point that restaurants are closing; we ended up eating at a family restaurant which was quite good.

Then Saturday was more volunteering and the ride itself. We started the route a little late because we were helping out at a rest stop. Turns out the port-a-potties weren't delivered to this location. And the winery (which was where this rest stop was) was several hundred yards away from the road. So if a rider wanted to use the facilities they were going to have to ride or walk quite a distance. At first they just moved the entire rest stop up by the winery building. Then they decided (logically) to keep the rest stop by the road and if anyone needed the facilities they would need to go up to the winery itself.

The problem we were helping with was that you came around a corner and the corn was high and the rest stop was off the road a few yards and you couldn't really see it until you were practically past it especially if you were riding fast. Some of these riders were easily riding 20+ mph because they got to this rest stop pretty fast--like 1-1 1/2 hours to go 27+ miles. So we were here to direct the riders into the rest stop since they couldn't really see it while they were riding by. Grace really got into this and was yelling out "Rest Stop" as each rider was getting close.



After we were there a few hours our replacement arrived and then we headed back to the start/finish line to start our ride. I think we started our ride around 11 am or so and it had obviously warmed up a bit. It wasn't a hot day, but with the sun beating down on the black pavement it was quite warm. And by this time Grace was getting tired because we got up early and she kind of went to bed late the night before. So Grace was hitting a wall and with Julie being pregnant the beginning of the ride wasn't so pretty. Grace was complaining that she wanted to hook her bike up to Julie's and Julie saying no and we weren't even to the road yet. So when we finally got to the road Julie let her hook her bike up.



If you're wondering what I'm talking about when I say hook up her bike to Julie's, I'm talking about the Trail Gator. It's a really cool idea that in my opinion works exactly as advertised. Some people on Amazon have complained about it, but we had no problems...except what I mentioned about the hot pavement, the pregnant wife and the tired and cranky child. Oh and did I mention the hills? Yea they don't call it "rolling" on the river for nothing. There are quite a few hills and some are quite steep as well. As soon as we left the fairgrounds and turned onto the road there's a big hill. Julie was like you've got to be kidding me. So anyway, Julie and Grace made it somewhere between 6 and 7 miles and I ended up doing the whole 15 miles.



We stayed Saturday night because we had planned to go canoing on Sunday but we ended up taking a little too long to pack up and missed canoing. On Monday we went downtown Chicago to the American Girl store and had their lunch with Graced. She brought Josefina with her and it was a complete surprise. We took the train and the bus and then walked around the corner and there was the store. I think she was really surprised because she was very excited. The food was really good and there was a lot of it. Just a warning to other fathers; you will be one of the only men in the room. After lunch we ended up buying Grace a couple things and then we stopped at Garrett's Popcorn on the way back to the train station. Man do they make good popcorn.

Then on Tuesday we went to gymnastics for only an hour but at least Julie got to come and see Grace do stuff she's never seen before like her back handspring. Then we drove down to Marriott's Lincolnshire Theater for the play "The Princess and the Pea." After that it was lunch at Red Robin - I love that place.

Wednesday we went to Great America (Six Flags for the younger folks) with one of Julie's sisters and a cousin and their 4 kids. It was a lot of fun and a pretty much perfect day to go there as they weren't that busy and the weather was good.

Yesterday we just relaxed and went swimming at one of Julie's other sisters houses. Before that we all went to lunch. Today Julie had to go to work and Grace and I have just been hanging out as it's been raining off and on and we're both tired after a busy week. And no plans as of now for the weekend sound really good too.