Category Archives: Family

Family, Humor, Memories

Things I Actually Said to My Son When He Was a Kid

  1. (At age 2) “Put down that crowbar”
  2. “You’re the best kid ever. Except for Jesus.”
  3. “Don’t be on fire.”
  4. “Go chainsaw nine more people and see what happens.”
  5. “Call your dad and tell him he has to come home because I’m stuck to the carpet with a fishing hook.”
  6. “No, it’s not an umbrella. But it is a raincoat.”
  7. “Good thing you’ll be filming it when you light your friend on fire. That way they can use it as evidence at the trial.”

Family, Favorites, Nature, Quad Cities

Possible Activities for While My Family is Visiting From Out of Town

  • Vanderveer Park
  • Swim at the Y
  • Bettendorf Family Museum
  • Putnam/IMAX
  • Channel Cat water taxi
  • Red White & Boom
  • ComedySportz
  • LeClaire (American Pickers, Happy Joes, shops)
  • Steel Plow shakes
  • Blackhawk State Park
  • Game Night
Events, Family, Games, Health, Music, Work

Summer Programs You Can Join at Two Rivers YMCA

  • Swim With Craig – English Channel Swim Challenge (May – July)
  • Summer Camp
  • Swim Lessons / Private Lessons / Adult Lessons / Camp Lessons
  • Safe All Summer – Family Fun Day (June 10)
  • Learn to Row, Rowing Clinic (June 19-22)
  • Body Combat / Body Attack / Body Vive / Body Flow
  • Tee Time – Family Fun Day (July 15)
  • Slim Down Challenge (June 5-July 30)
  • Grynd, Advanced Hard Rock Yoga
  • Dodge Ball Clinic (July 10-13)
  • Pickle Ball Clinic (July 17-20)
  • Aqua Ex-Stravaganza, free water exercise classes (June 10)
  • Boy Scout Swim Tests (June 10)
  • Running Clinic (June 12-15)
  • Tumbling
  • Tae Kwon Do
  • T-Ball Clinic (July 24-27)
  • Paddleboard & Kayak Rentals
  • Going Gaga, Gaga Ball Tournament – Family Fun Day (August 12)
  • Personal Training
  • Silver Sneakers
  • So much more….

Events, Family, Favorites, Memories, Nature, Travel

Places I Visited On My Road Trip of Awesomeness Earlier This Summer

  • Mount Rushmore
  • Wall Drug (Wall, South Dakota)
  • Gillette, Wyoming
  • Missoula, Montana (including dinner with 2 college roommates)
  • Spokane, Washington
  • Idaho (a gas station somewhere along I-90)
  • Columbia River Gorge
  • Horsetail & Multnomah Falls (Hood River, Oregon)
  • Portland, Oregon
  • Crescent City, California
  • Redwoods National Forest
  • A beach somewhere along the California coast
  • Trinidad Bay & Memorial Lighthouse (Trinidad, California)
  • Redding, California
  • Reno, Nevada (visit with the Lewis family)
  • Virginia City, Nevada
  • Lake Tahoe Overlook
  • Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah)
  • Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Casa Bonita (Denver, Colorado, with another college friend)
  • State Capitol Building, Lincoln, Nebraska
  • Huxley, Iowa (Aunt & Uncle’s house)
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Columbia River Gorge
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Multnomah Falls
roadtrip6
State Line

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Wyoming
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Salt Flats

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Casa Bonita

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Events, Family, Favorites, Holidays, Inspirational, Memories

Twenty Three Ways My Kid Is Amazing (in honor of his 23rd birthday today)

  1. His sense of humor is unmatched.
  2. He’s smart and conceptual and thinks deeply.
  3. He never gets embarrassed. About anything.
  4. He taught himself to play guitar.
  5. A headbanger from the start, he now headbangs in his own heavy metal band.
  6. He’s hilarious.
  7. He is deeply compassionate and empathetic.
  8. He desires to make the world a better place.
  9. He works ridiculously hard.
  10. He desires experiences more than things.
  11. He sets goals and works to achieve them.
  12. He’s been “adulting” since the age of 19, paying his own rent and bills and way.
  13. He married his high school sweet heart and loves her with his entire being.
  14. He has a global outlook and cares about the world outside of his own.
  15. He laughs with his whole body.
  16. He carries things for me, (which is to say that he helps me any time I need it.)
  17. He programs electronics for his grandparents.
  18. He still loves old school video games.
  19. He has an inborn gift for music.
  20. He hugs his mama and tells me he loves me.
  21. He is never afraid to show affection to people he cares about.
  22. He has been through some things that would cripple lesser men, but the fires have forged him into a resilient and capable man.
  23. He is the best thing I have ever had a part in creating.

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