Golfing, Swimming and Singing - 234/365

Today was a busy day. 

Jim started his day on the golf course with the boys. They played over at Avalon and had a great time! 

This evening, Jim and Reagan went over to his parents for a little cookout and swimming. Reagan just loves swimming in Sean and Barb's pool. They had a nice time. 

Nana and I were off to see Darius tonight at Blossom. We were so excited! We hadn't been to Blossom very much this year. It was nice to be back in our wrist band area and have good parking! LOL!

It was a fun day for all! 

Golfing guys

Ready for a dip!

Swimming!

Ready to rock!

Rocking Rucker!

Purple, Fire Trucks & Golf - 279/365

Today was purple day at preschool today! Reagan was excited because it's one of her favorite colors!

Daddy dropped her off at school today and he even wore purple, too! They had a great day and learned the purple song.

P-U-R-P-L-E, purple, purple

P-U-R-P-L-E purple is what that spells

Purple grapes on the vine

Purple kool-aids fine

P-U-R-P-L-E purple is what that spells!

Today was also Fire Safety day at school. A real fireman and firetruck came to talk with the students. They learned all about Stop, Drop, and Roll and got to sit in the firetruck. 

The kids were thrilled. The fireman gave them all a badge and a fire hat!

For Jim, today was his Rotary Golf outing. They had it in place of their weekly Tuesday meeting. They hat it at Kensington Golf Course. They dodged a few raindrops here and there, but overall they had a nice day. It wasn't too cold. 

Jim's team came in second by one shot. They came in 5 under and the winner was 6 under! They were happy with that! They had a great time getting to socialize outside of a meeting!

Reagan and her friend, Alvia!

Reagan and daddy in their purple. 

Our little firewoman.

Jim and his team for the golf scramble. 

Father's Day - 166/365

It was Father's Day today! 

Jim and Greg started the day with a father/son round of golf at Squaw Creek. It was a nice cool morning with no rain for a change!  They played the back nine and they both said they played will. They were both proud they played the famous par three 18 a combined one under! Jim had a birdie and his tee shot was less than a foot away from the pin. 

After golf, they sat on the patio enjoying the weather and had some coffee. It was a nice way to spend the morning. 

This afternoon, Papa, Nana, Jim, Reagan and I were headed down to Grandad Downard's for a little father's day picnic. Nana and Papa picked up some catering from Stonebridge to bring down. They got the chicken marsala, tavern pasta, and roasted potatoes. It was SO YUMMY! 

We had a nice little visit!

When we got home, we let Papa open his presents! He loved everything! 

It was a nice day with all the dads!

Happy Father's Day! 

 

Skagway - 240/365

It was Skagway day, today! 

What an amazing little town it is! It's sandwiched at the base of two huge mountains. It was a little foggy and misty this morning, which made it even more beautiful. 

 Everyone was doing different excursions today, so Nana, Papa, Jim, Reagan and I were on our own. Today was our helicopter ride to a glacier and we were PUMPED! 

The helicopter pad was just steps from the ship. In fact, they were the first things we noticed when we peeked at Skagway from our balcony. It was literally RIGHT there! 

We walked on over to the helicopter pad, got all checked in and watched our safety video. Everyone has to wear these bright orange vests over their clothes and wear special boots. The boots actually slip right over your tennis shoes and velcro closed. They are super fashionable! Reagan's boots were just regular snow boots. Finally, it was time to load the chopper. Reagan and I got to ride in the front with the pilot. It was SO COOL! You have to wear these huge headphones, so you can talk to the pilot and muffle the noise.

After a few seconds, the helicopter started to shake and the next thing we knew, we were in the air! It was amazing! There were four choppers in total on the way to the glacier, each holding 4-6 people. We were the third chopper. Our pilot was a little quiet. He was nice, but not overly friendly. He pointed out some interesting stuff on the 20 minute ride, but didn't really elaborate on much. We got to see the town of Haines and many beautiful waterfalls. 

As we rounded the mountain to the glacier, it was just jaw dropping. The sheer size was amazing. We started to lower and you could make out people standing on the glacier. We noticed a little tent and about 25 or so people waiting. We hopped off, those people jumped on, and away they went. The whole process took less than 5 minutes and the choppers were gone. So, there we were, with 3 tour guides and twenty strangers, in Alaska, standing on a glacier. It was amazing!!! 

It was a little windy and chilly, but not freezing. Jim and I, didn't have any gloves and were fine. Reagan was a little apprehensive, but she did great! We each got these little poles with a point on the end to help us maneuver around the ice. Walking around was stunning! The HUGE crevasses that have formed were amazing. Our tour guide threw a HUGE rock down in one of the holes; I bet it was a good 10 seconds before you could hear it hit the bottom! Absolutely amazing! 

There were waterfalls down in some of the crevasses, too! A lot of people think, the water is the glacier melting, but it's actually water run off from the mountains surrounding it. It makes it's way through the glacier since it has no where else to go. They also said, it takes about 100 inches of snow to make one inch of glacier. Crazy! 

We got to explore for around 45 minutes, before the choppers came back for us. You heard them "coming around the mountain" and they were on the ice in seconds. 

After the glacier, we were going to spend some time exploring Skagway. We were docked 7:00-5:00, so we had a ton of time. Ray and Jen, were still on their bike tour, so we met Ed and Pam.

Skagway only has about 800 all-year residents and it's 4 blocks by 25. Amazing! There is NOTHING there, NOTHING! I would go bonkers living there, but it definitely fascinating to see. 

We explored a little, then Ed and Papa headed back to the ship. Nana, Pam, Jim, Reagan and I, decided to hop a little bus to the Klondike Gold Panning and Dredge Tour. This was so fun! We got a little demo on how to do it, then we were off! Reagan had a ball dipping her pan in the water and was quite wet by the end! Jim, Reagan and I, ended up getting $31.00 worth of gold out of our three pans. We purchased a little clear pendant, you can wear on a necklace, as a way to display the gold flakes. It's so pretty! It was a fun little side trip that we pretty much stumbled on! 

After our gold panning, we went to meet Ray and Jen at a little pub for some snacks and BEERS! YAY! We had a couple different dippy's and shared stories of our day. 

We finally had to head back to the ship. All aboard was 5:00 and the line to get on was super long! Some of the employees were starting to look a little nervous, since they have a strict depature schedule. We finally got on and headed up to the room. Jim and I, Nana and Papa, Chips and Kathy and Raymond and Jennifer all had balconies right in a row, which was fun. We were going to stand out there and watch the "sail away." We weren't leaving and weren't leaving, when suddenly, over the PA system, they started calling a few people. Here, one person had not re-boarded the ship!!! We watched as a couple cars came and went and watched two people literally RUN down the sidewalk to the ship. After about 45 minutes of waiting and calling, the ship left Skagway with one less passenger. No one knows what happened to him/her. Good luck getting home from Skagway though!

Once we got cleaned up for dinner, Jim, Reagan and I went to a Sponge Bob meet and greet and had dinner at Azura. After dinner, we played a little golf, shuffle board and did a little dancing. We had a great time on our little date night with Reagan! 

This evening, was the Chocolate Buffet! Absolutely amazing! The whole room is just different chocolate desserts with beautiful ice sculptures and chocolate animals! We found Ed and Pam on the back deck, so we chilled out with them for awhile! It was an amazing way to end the day! 

The photo of the day is all of us on the glacier! Good times! 

 The next is us at our gold panning adventure...

Reagan golfing.....

                The final one is a HUGE cake of the ship at the chocolate buffet. 

 

Grandmas & Golf - 229/365

It was quite a day today! 

Reagan got home from grandma's around 10:30. She was so excited to see Brinkley, it was cute! She told us all about her adventures at grandma's. They had a great time! 

Shortly thereafter, Nana, Pam and Paula stopped for a real quick visit. Paula never had the chance to meet Reagan, and wanted to say "hello" before heading back home. Reagan took to her immediately and loved showing her all her toys. Reagan took them out back and demonstrated all her climbing abilities on the play set, too! 

When they were getting ready to leave, Nana asked if her and Papa could steal Reagan for the day. They were going to go down and visit aunt Barb, great grandma, and grandad Downard. Barb has been staying with them since her surgery since they have a ranch. It was easier for her to get around. We said "sure!" They headed down there and had a great time! Reagan loves going down to visit and especially loves playing with Zeke! They had a great visit and Reagan even got to play in the corn.  They stopped for dinner at the Shale on the way home. When they pulled in, Reagan asked, "What's this place?" Nana said, "this is the Shale where we're going to have dinner." Reagan replied, "Oh NO! What happened to Tippy?" I think she might eat there once in awhile with Nana and Papa. LOL!

While Reagan was off on her adventure with Nana and Papa, I just did some chores around the house. I cut the grass, pulled a few weeds, watered the flowers, and did a little general cleaning. It had been a couple days, since I took the time to do any chores, so the house was ready for a little tidying up! Jim took advantage of the baby free day and hit the links. He called Greg and asked if he wanted to play, so of course, he said, "sure!" They were going to meet at Mill Creek to play. Unfortunately, when they got there, they couldn't get out, because of an outing. They called every course around and no one could take them. It was looking hopeless when Jim decided to try Stambaugh. Thankfully, they weren't busy, so they went there. Jim said he was happy because he hadn't played there in ages. It was fun for him, because he said he pretty much grew up playing on that little course. They had a great afternoon together and both played well.

The first photo is Reagan with her Great Aunt Pam and Paula...  

The next is Jim and Greg at the golf course....

The final one is Reagan and Zeke hanging out at Great Grandma Downard's....

Playday & Sister Hazel - 193/365

Super busy day today! 

We started at Reagan's gymnastics class. I'm amazed at how much better she does every week. This week, she was bear crawling across the double beam with no help at all. It was amazing! She gets higher and higher on the trampoline, too! I love watching her grow and learn new things.

The kids were thrilled this week, because at the end of class, they not only got their hand stamps, but they got popsicle, too! Reagan was so excited! 

After gymnastics, Nana met us at the house and we ran to lunch at Steamers and a couple little errands. Nothing major. 

Reagan and I were having a play date with Heather and McKenna this afternoon. The girls had fun! They loved playing on the slides, swing and in the playroom.  Heather and I got to have a nice chat, too! It was a really fun time! 

When Jim got home from work, we were off to Cleveland to meet Raymond and Jennifer. We were seeing Sister Hazel at the House of Blues! 

I loved Sister Hazel back in the day. A couple years ago, Jim and I were at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and they were the Eat to the Beat Band, for the three days we were there. We ended up seeing probably, six of their shows over the three days. Jim really got hooked on them, too, so it was fun to see them in person again. 

We met Raymond and Jennifer at the Harry Buffalo in Cleveland, with a surprise visit from Shoup, before the show. Dinner was great! We even had a giant bear walk over to the table and offer us a complimentary shot of Jim Beam Honey Bear Whiskey. It was delicious! We kinda just sipped them throughout the dinner, since we're all a little afraid of whiskey. LOL! I don't think any of us even finished the whole thing, but it was delicious, as far as whiskey goes.

We went over to House of Blues around 8:30. The opener was Ok. He did Wagon Wheel which was hilarious, since it's Reagan's favorite song. 

Sister Hazel came out around 9:30 and sang for around 2 hours. It was a great show and they sounded exactly the same. They ended up being in the small room, so there was probably only around 300 people there, which worked out nicely! It was a very chill crowd, too. We had a great time! 

 In the big room next door, there was huge party going on that was rocking the walls! It turns out, it was a Sweet 16 Party! They even hired Mushroomhead to perform! CRAZY!

 Reagan spent the evening with Nana and Papa and had a super fun slumber party, while we enjoyed the show! They went to Tippy for dinner and had fun riding around on a golf cart! She just loves her slumber parties over Nana and Papa's! 

The photo of the day our group at the concert...

The next is Reagan and McKenna having a tea party

And finally, a collage of Jenny and our bear friend, Reagan checking her score from her golf game with nana and papa, and Reagan with her yummy popsicle at gymnastics.

Children's Circle of Friends Foundation Golf Outing - 189/365

Today was the Children's Circle of Friends Foundation 28th Annual Celebrity Golf Scramble. Jim's dad is the President of the Circle of Friends Foundation and the Executive Director at D&E Counseling Center. The Circle of Friends Foundation helps provide D&E with the finances to help treat and prevent mental disorders in children around the Mahoning Valley.

Each team that plays in the tournament is lucky enough to get paired with a celebrity. Most of them are former and current players from professional and college sports teams. This year, some of the most famous players were, Ed Muransky, Otto Orf, John Greco, and Greg Pruitt, just to name a few. It turned out to be a beautiful day for the outing. It wasn't super hot and no rain!

Greg had asked me to take pictures of the tournament, and I was thrilled to do so! Jim was my "assistant" for the day. We drove around taking pictures of the golfers in action on the course. He drove me around, so I didn't' make a wrong turn and get clobbered by a ball! LOL! We had a great time spending the day together!

One highlight of the day, for me, was getting to meet Otto Orf! Back in the day, my family was HUGE Cleveland Crunch fans. We had season tickets and went to every game up at the Cleveland Convocation Center, now the Wolstein Center. When they were in the playoffs and winning the championships, we would travel all over to watch them! We had the best time! Otto was the goalie back in the day.

I didn't even realize he was there at first. I was taking a group picture of the celebrities, after I was done, they scattered. I looked down and noticed one of them had forgotten to pick up their back pack. I noticed a name written on it and it said, "Otto Orf!" I said to Jim, "Oh my God! Otto Orf is here!" We looked around and immediately spotted him. We walked his bag over and ended up chatting for a few minutes. He was THE NICEST GUY and we had the nicest talk! He even sat with us at the dinner that evening. It was too fun! He lives in Rootstown with his wife and daughter and is still very involved in soccer. He ended up giving us a sealed box of 1992 MSL Pro Soccer cards. We're going to gift them to Uncle Ray!

We also got to chat briefly with John Greco from the Cleveland Browns. He was also super nice! He is the cousin of Karen, a family friend of ours. She always talks about him, but we had never got to meet him. He was super sweet to Reagan, too!

Jim's mom, babysat Reagan all day during the golf part, but they both came out for the dinner. Everything went perfect and everyone seemed to have a really nice time!

 Hopefully, a lot of money was raised to help the children that need it most in the valley.

The photo of the day is the group shot of all the celebrities that donated their time and money to help the kids.

The next is Reagan and I with Otto.....

Pictures & Children's Circle of Friends Dinner - 188/365

Another busy day today!

Jim started his day at Austintown Urgent Care, to finally see what was going on with his throat. He was in and out fairly quickly, with a diagnosis of Pharyngitis. They gave him an antibiotic and antihistamine. Hopefully, once the antibiotic kicks in, he'll feel better. He keeps saying it's so weird because it's just his throat. No other symptoms...no congestion, no cough, no fever. Weird!

When he got home, we took Reagan out back to do a little swimming in her pool. She just LOVES it! She was in there a good hour and a half! She has some Disney Princesses that are actually pool toys, but yesterday, she wouldn't put them in because she didn't want "their gowns to get wet for the ball!" LOL!

While she finished up swimming, I headed over to Jennifer's mom and dad's to take some family pictures for them. My mom came to be my "assistant" since there were so many people! We just wanted to make sure everyone was seen with eyes open! LOL!

We followed Raymond and Jennifer down, and got right to work! What a fun group to photograph. Each family wore a different color, it was so cool! We would just yell, "Ok, orange family you're up next!" I had such fun photographing them and can't wait to see how the pictures came out!

This evening, Jim, Reagan, Jim's mom, my mom, my dad and I, all headed over to The Lake Club for Greg's, Children's Circle of Friends Golf Outing dinner. The outing is actually tomorrow, but they have a nice pre-tournament dinner and putting contest the night before, to welcome and thank everyone for coming. Ed Muransky has been kind enough to host this year and in years past. It's always such a nice event and the food was fabulous. It was a BBQ style buffet with ribs, pulled pork and baked potatoes the size of footballs! They even made special for Reagan, chicken tenders and smiley fries!

This year, Jim, Nana and Reagan joined in the putting contest! None of them won, but they still had a great time! It was such a perfect night and Reagan was really well behaved! Looking forward to the outing tomorrow!

The photo of the day is all of us at the end of the evening.

The next is Jim, Reagan and Nana in the putting contest....

And finally, a sneak peak of Raymond and Jennifer's family picture!

Wagon Trails & Senior Golf - 181/365

Family fun all around today! 

 Jim and Greg, took in the Constellation Senior Players PGA Championship today. The tournament was played at Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh. The PGA ended up sending the players off both sets of tees to get it done faster, so Jim and Greg left to go around 6:30am. They got to the course at 8 and stayed the whole day, until the leaders were coming up the last hole. 

 One of the highlights of the day for them, was Greg getting to talk to Fred Couples. They were watching him warm up on the driving range, and being a leader, there were no other players around at that time. The staff had already torn down all the ropes surrounding the range, too. Freddie started to walk toward the practice putting green when Greg said, "Go get em, Fred!" Freddie replied, "Thank you very much! I'll try my best!" What a cool moment! 

Another cool thing about this tournament was, it was Colin Montgomerie's senior tour debut. They said they really loved getting to see some of the greatest golfers of all time like, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Craig Stadler & Cory Pavin. In the end, Kenny Perry beat Fred Couples by 2 strokes. They said it started pouring the minute they got in the car, so the timing was perfect! They really enjoyed their time together today! 

While they enjoyed the tournament, Reagan and I had some family fun of our own. Ed and Pam were in town for a friend of the family's party yesterday. They were going to head home today, but not till later afternoon. Ed went to visit a friend for the morning, so Nana, Pam and I, took Reagan to Wagon Trails in Vienna. 

We got there right when they opened at 10:00 and were the first wagon out. Being the first wagon out means, HUNGRY animals! We made our first stop and got swarmed by animals. I think the camels caught us all off guard, because their heads just were all of the sudden, IN THE WAGON. They were HUGE! I bet their heads alone were the size of Reagan. Anyway, we all jumped back and Reagan just wigged out and almost started crying. I felt so bad. She was a little shy at the next stop or two, but by the end she was throwing food at all of them! She said her favorite were the deer, because they were little. LOL! 

Speaking of deer, we saw one laying up against the wall having a baby! The poor thing was breathing heavy and kept trying to look down at her "girl area." The driver didn't seem to concerned for her. They see it all the time, I guess. I've never seen anything like that! 

At the last stop, we ended up dropping two buckets over the side...ooops! There was a lady who saw and told on us. The driver was funny, she said, "Oh it happens numerous times every day!" Ha ha, take that tattle tale! 

After Wagon Trails, we met papa and Ed for lunch at Inner Circle. Uncle Eddie brought Reagan another Toob of animals. This time it was Dinosaurs! She LOVED them! They sure kept her busy during lunch! Thanks, Uncle Eddie! 

 This evening, Jim, Reagan and I went to take a walk at the three mile trail. We were at the complete the other side, ready to turn around, when we started hearing thunder. I checked my phone and sure enough, there was a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Eastern Mahoning County. It said there was a severe storm moving north toward Boardman, carrying wind gusts of 45MPH with penny size hail. We looked at each other and just started booking it. We would run a little, then walk. We passed an older guy on a BIKE during a walking part, and he said to us, "You better go faster than that, there is a severe storm coming." We wanted to say, "Thanks for the scoop grandpa! Can we have your bike?" We made it back to the car in RECORD time and it was JUST starting to sprinkle. When we pulled out of the park though, there was only a small black cloud. I don't think it ever did storm. At least it didn't in Canfield. Oh well. We got some jogging practice anyway...LOL! 

 I have a couple photos for today....

The first is Jim and Greg at the golf tournament...

The next is two pics from Wagon Trails...

And finally, Reagan with Uncle Ed, Aunt Pam and her new Dino Toob...

In closing for today...I wanted to mention that today is the 6 month mark for this project! I can't believe I've been doing this for 1/2 of a YEAR already! I'm so, so happy that I'm doing it though. It really is fun and I love documenting all the small and big moments in our lives. Even six months in, it's fun to scan back on what I've taken pictures of and see what we've done. I love it so much, that lately, there is numerous photos of the day. I guess it will just make our final hardcover book more fun to look at over the years to come! 

I want to thank all who stop in and peek at the blog daily and for your wonderful comments. It means so much to us that you care enough to keep up with our lives. You each mean a lot to us! You keep me motivated and on track! I appreciate it! Love to all! 

Here's to 6 more months! We can do it!

Day in the Outdoors - 104/365

It was a nice sunny day today! 

The temps were supposed to be in the mid 60's, but I don't think they quite got that high. It was still nice though! 

 Jim and Greg ended up taking advantage of the nice weather and hit the links at Candywood! It was Jim's first time out in almost a year. He was dealing with a herniated disc all last year, which kept him from playing. He played once in May last year and that was it. He said he felt like he had to relearn how to play...LOL!  Jim said he squeaked out a couple pars, which made him happy. Greg played really well, too! I guess his back is a little sore but doing OK. Hopefully he is able to get out more this year. 

 While he was out hitting the links, Reagan, Nana, Brinkley, Ray, Jen, Dexter and I, all hit the walking trail. We did Kirk to Herbert. We just love that trail and when you have a lot of people, the nearly 4 miles flies by! It was so nice to get out and chit chat with Ray and Jen. Reagan is always excited to see Dexter, too!

 Another fun thing that happened today, was my new 105mm macro lens finally came in! My mom picked it up from YM yesterday and brought it over today! YAY! Perfect timing for Spring flowers and the beach! We don't have any flowers blooming in our yard yet, and I was dying to try it out. I ended up slicing a lemon and put it down in Sprite to get some bubbles! LOL! It turned out pretty good! I LOVE the lens and can't wait to experiment more! 

There are three photos for today... the first photo is the lemon....

The second is all the "britts" at the trail...

And last, but not least...Jimmy and Greg hitting the links!