It's been a crazy fun month. My blog posts are usually serious, so instead, today I'm going to share with you some of my favorite stories from the month of July. I hope you enjoy. :)
I'll start off with a classic Mad Libs story entitled "Your Undead IQ," as written by my daughter and narrated by myself and Melissa.
Are you an undead expert? Take this powerful quiz to find out!
1. Where do vampires sleep? a) with the fishes, b) on the beach, c) inside a cat, or d) in a striped coffin
2. What is a zombie's favorite snack? a) moon salad, b) chocolate-covered pillows, c) school bits, or d) brains
3. Where do ghouls go to meet ghoul friends? a) the grocery unicorn, b) the cookie park, c) a confused school, or d) the grave-trip
4. How do mummies become undead? a) they ask Lindsey nicely, b) they travel through time using a glove machine, c) they earn extra floppy grades in school, or d) they get cursed by a soft sorcerer
If you answered mostly Ds, you're a real undead Kleenex! Your curly expertise will come in handy - in this life and beyond...
Good times, good times. Thanks to Melissa, Lindsey, and noun expert Bryan for your excellent contributions to my daughter's Mad Libs education.
Speaking of Bryan, he passed the "get continually harassed by Mary for two days" test, which is a good sign. Within an hour I was comparing him to my dog and he didn't even flinch. That's significant right there. Take note, Lindsey.
Let's be honest though - there was a very simple and obvious reason that I wanted to visit the cheese state. It was so delightful to show my daughter the campus of my alma mater Concordia Wisconsin. That's where I met Lindsey (when I came to her room to help her roommate with English and basically didn't leave for a year) and Melissa (when she stopped by my room at 8 AM on the dot to collect money for vegetable oil). CUW is where I joined Students for Life, the group that inspired me to become a foster parent in the first place. Without this incredible school, my daughter and I might never have met.
And have I mentioned the bluff?
We walked down the stairs to the beach, dragged ourselves back up the switchbacks, bought a Zoey the comfort dog plush in the bookstore, posed for a picture with Freddy the Falcon, and giggled at the summer hours for the Falcon's Nest.
Other Wisconsin-y highlights include: eating cookies while watching American Ninja Warrior with Melissa in her ANW hat, feeling very old at a trampoline park and a water park, the "men's ballet" at the water ski show, and naming dozens of badgers for Lindsey and Bryan to own.
I'm really quite astonished that I've gotten this far in my July blog post without mentioning my nephew. Have I ever mentioned my nephew on here before? I clearly need to make up for lost time. His name is Kylen and he's the cutest person on planet earth. Soon he'll have some cute competition, but for the moment, no one can make me smile quite like him.
Kylen's accomplishments include:
- Being totally obsessed with my dad, AKA Opa. Which is, of course, very appropriate as my dad is awesome. Everyone coming to visit Kylen arrived before Opa, and this was extremely concerning. We're all small potatoes in comparison.
- Mowing the lawn (and the driveway) (and the sidewalk) with his bubble mower. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it, and Kylen's up to the task.
- Making spaghetti with tomato sauce, thanks to the super-cool pasta play set his super-cool aunt and cousin gave him for his third birthday.
- Loving tractors a lot. I wasn't next to him at church, but I'm told that all he talked about the whole time was returning home to his new toy tractor from Oma and Opa.
- Not appreciating Opa's very scary sneezes.
- Naming his stuffed animals after letters of the alphabet.
- Pulling up his pants a lot.
- Playing frisbee with Oma.
- Identifying the dogs (excuse me, puppies) in his neighbor's yards.
- Have I mentioned he's cute?
There were other people in Marion as well - Zach and Lindsey, my parents, my grandma - but none of us will deny that we were there for Kylen!
After saying goodbye to Kylen and his crew, we headed up to Minneapolis for my youth ministry conference with Melissa and my daughter's summer fun camp at the Mall of America with Lindsey. It was amazing to attend the conference. I learned so much and immensely enjoyed myself in the process. Meanwhile, my daughter and Lindsey rode roller coasters, met members of the Paw Patrol, climbed tall towers, made their own crayons, built a bear (technically a dog), and played arcade games. Lindsey also drew me this excellent map, which probably meant something at the time.
My personal favorite activity, however, had to be the lumberjack show hosted by Concordia St. Paul (not THE Concordia, but still a good one). Oh goodness, it was hysterical. The lumberjacks were such hams and cracked us all up with their antics. I really hope we have that option for the National Youth Gathering next year.
After Minneapolis, we spent a few days in this little place called Urbandale where I used to live. We went to the Botanical Center, where my dad and daughter ran around on a scavenger hunt while my grandma and I gave up and visited the gift shop after half an hour because it was very hot in there. My dad and I soundly defeated my mom and grandma in cards one night, only to lose just as soundly the next night, despite the fact that we were the sober ones. We also decided that we would like a turkey-shaped ice cream cake for Thanksgiving this year, please.
Speaking of ice cream, I'll leave you with this list of all the places my daughter and I had ice cream on our fourteen-day six-state adventure. Thanks for a great trip that will hopefully be repeated soon, friends and family. :)
- Dairy Queen
- Culvers (twice)
- Kopps
- Zach and Lindsey's house
- Target/our Minneapolis hotel
- ColdStone (twice)
- Baskin Robbins
