This summer has been quite the busy one so far for you/us! Back in June, we did a one night stay for a paranormal conference in the Wisconsin Dells. It was a cute resort where you and daddy got to share bunkbeds, which you loved, of course.
Just after that, Nana & Pa-pa came to visit and help with house projects for a week and a half. We always love when they come to visit and had a great time. Then, at the end of June/end of their visit, you and I traveled with them to Niagara Falls! We stayed in a different place than they did, but we did everything else together. We also went to a state park in NY called Letchworth--it was outstanding. You loved the playground most of all, but you also enjoyed the trail with the stairs to see the falls. On the way back home, we went to Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario; it wasn't all that great, but we still liked it ok. You were disappointed because we couldn't stay longer at the beach area. There were also quite a few bugs.
On the 4th of July, you and I and daddy traveled to Sturgis, SD to join Nana & Pa-pa over there, to share an Airbnb house together! It was a wonderful time, except for a storm that hit while we were attending the Badlands Astronomy Festival on 5th--it did a lot of hail damage to their truck :( Thankfully, we were not there and it did not come through the Badlands; it did, however, cover the sky for the first night of the festival, so we didn't get to see any celestial objects until the following night. You got to see the moon and Jupiter plus 3 of its moons that night--really liked that :) We also visited Mt. Rushmore, drove through the Needles area of the Black Hills (where you adored climbing the rocks), had a great meal at Shipwreck's (in Rapid City)--complete with live music, 2nd day visited Dinosaur Park (awesome place), the Reptile Gardens (also awesome), ate at Wall Drug (it was decent), visited Prairie Homestead (pretty cool, very hands-on experience) and saw some buffalo and bighorn sheep in the Badlands. Quite the vacay for such a short trip!
As if that were not enough, we accepted to host a French group leader a week after we got back--she is still here, in fact, staying through the 30th. We just did another mini-vacay with her; Grandma Judy came over and we all went to the UP of Michigan--partly for fun, partly to avoid a heat wave here that was bringing heat indices of 115! We took a boat cruise at Pictured Rocks (you really liked this), ate at a great little restaurant in Grand Marais, came back to our hotel room lacking electric (I had to drive in the crazy storm, it was not very fun) and suffered through 4 hours of a very warm room, 2nd day went to Mackinac Island, had a very nice time even through it rained on us in the afternoon, went to a fish fry/fest in St. Ignace--you did not try any of the very good whitefish, silly boy--but you did enjoy the kids' inflatables play area...until you fell off of a slippery one and scraped your ankle a bit.
On the way home yesterday, you lost your tablet at Bayshore Mall in Milwaukee. We tried to find it and the lost and found people have looked for it, too, but it seems to be gone. Google hasn't shown any new sign-ins for it, though, so I hope that maybe it could still turn up...doubt it, though. You handled it surprisingly well--probably because you have 2 other devices plus a computer. We told you that if and when you get a new one, it will not be going out in public places like this. Only in the car and at home/Nana's/grandma's/etc.
You have also been discouraged about karate lately, particularly the new weapons class we had you try. We decided today that you could drop the weapons class; hoping that it will help.
Love you lots and lots ~mommy
