The kids and I spent the afternoon in Saugatuck.  Life is so very good.

Thirty nine.

I had a wonderful birthday.

Some highlights:

Jessen brought me flowers and Tim Horton's doughnuts for breakfast.

Also, Bennett wrote me a wonderful letter:

Dear Mom,

Happy Birthday!!! I hope you're enjoying your birthday. I'm sorry that I didn't write a poem, but instead I wrote you this letter. I hope you like this.

For the rest of this letter I wrote about why I love you and the things I love about you most of all.

I really, really love you because you care about me, love me and no person in the world could have a better mom.  I love you with all my heart.  You can't be replaced.

The things I love about you are that you're funny, smart, beautiful, and happy.  I'm so glad that God chose me to be your son.

Happy Birthday!

Bennett

p.s. Sorry again about the poem.

Life is so good.

Here's to an amazing year.

A night out with good music, good beer and GREAT friends.

Cindy, Brian, Kim and Vicki came out to celebrate my birthday at Old Boys Brewhouse where Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys were playing.

Fantastic night!

I watched Wayne's World 2 this evening.

I also realized that the Gin Blossom's "Idiot Summer" is on the soundtrack...nice!

"...Cross the t's and dot the....lowercase j's."

Dim lights

Sipping my favorite beer, reading my favorite author, sitting on my deck on a warm summer night.

That's for you, Scott.

The boys and I took our dogs to the dog park!

And there were puppies there to play with!!!!!

Coast Guard Festival!

In the morning, it rained on our parade:

But the sunshine came out later and we enjoyed a great evening waiting for the fireworks to start!

Bright Eyes at Frederik Meijer Gardens with Vicki!

Phenomenal show!!!!

While making our way back home, Bennett and I ran into a little rain coming out of the mountains in Arizona.  But once the rain started to clear

we did get a treat of seeing a couple of rainbows.  You can't see in this photo, but this was a double rainbow!

Phoenix!

We made the LOOONNNGGG trip to bring Kaylie back for school and although our trip was very, very brief, we did get to enjoy some of our favorite Phoenix eats.

Here are the kids enjoying lunch at 5 & Diner....yummy!

Well, I got off track for a couple of days with my days of fun.  Not that I didn't have any fun but it has been a busy week, filled with driving and errands and a bit of stress.

I am back on track now, however, and I can't think of anything more fun than celebrating Bennett!

Today was his actual birthday and while it was raining heavily most of the day, it was a fantastic day!  I made his favorite dinner

- lasagna and we enjoyed his dark chocolate birthday cake made by Kaylie!

It's not every day your young man turns 11!

Today, we celebrated Bennett's birthday a few days early with a Laser Tag Party for he and a few friends!

Today we drove to Cincinnati for a visit!  Although it was oppressively hot and humid, the entire day was full of fun things but here are some favorites:

*lunch at our favorite mexican restaurant - El Rancho Grande

*playing with Kaylie's friend's baby girl

*visiting with our old neighbors and bringing their son(and Bennett's bff) back with us for the weekend

Swimming championships!

Bennett qualified for the "A" meet times this year in both the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke. He took first place in his heat in freestyle and dropped five seconds off his best time!  He then went on to take second place in his heat for backstroke and shaved a little off his time, as well!  Way to go Bennett!!!!

Here he is posing with his first place ribbon for the 50 freestyle!

I'm all about this entire album right now but this is probably the best love song I've heard since forever.

Every Part of Me

I treated Kaylie to a trip to the hair salon in GR this evening and since we were so close I just HAD to get Chipotle! (There is only one Chipotle in Grand Rapids and it is the closest one within a 100 miles).

Mmmmm guacamole.

Kaylie and I picked out a new betta fish for Bennett!

He was feeling pretty heartbroken because his previous betta fish died over the weekend. So, Kaylie thought she would cheer him up with an early birthday gift.

Meet Neville:

Pizza and "Switched at Birth" Night!

Kaylie has pulled Bennett and I in on her summer indulgence television show - Switched at Birth.  The whole show is simply ridiculous on every level but it's a huge source of amusement for us.  Also, we love to pretend we know sign language and speak to each other that way throughout the show.

We spent the day with friends in Sliver Lake and took a ride on the sand dunes!