Lake Erie

Last January the Kappel Kids, i.e., those three children born by Max, expressed a desire to spend time together this summer away from holidays, and in a location that was neutral.  By neutral I mean not at on Wentworth since it’s the only one that could hold that crew, and also so that the burden of shopping, cooking and planning could be shared among the group.  A location more central to everyone was also desired, so that required a place somewhere in between Arlington, VA and Chicago.  A 5 bedroom rental on Lake Erie in Madison, OH was chosen and plans were made.  Unfortunately, Amber and Evan were not able to attend because the date chosen was too soon after Marshall’s birth and Will, in his normal mode, had too much work to be able to leave for 6 days.  But Brandy with Elise and Mikayal, Marianne, Clint and their respective 4 children all arrived for the week.  One question posed to Max from each of the Kappel Kids after the trip was "Did Don have a good time?"  I think that my good time was spent behind the lens of my camera capturing this vacation that seemed to be enjoyed by all.

I do believe that the week was pretty much a success except both Reeder and Mikayla had a day with some health problems, but those were temporary and didn't darken the week's fun.  With that setting in place most of the rest of this blog will focus on pictures rather than words.  I’ll attempt to put them in chronological order with brief descriptions, but I'm not certain I can match them all to days.

Brandy arrived on Saturday shortly after we got there.  The Kappels arrived on Sunday.  This gave Mikayla time to discover the toy box before all the competition arrived.

I don't believe Elise had any idea what was going to happen that week in this strange house, but she appeared ready.

Once the Kappels arrived Brandy and Clint spent some time with the little ones catching up on their respective busy lives.

While the bigger kids headed down path to the beach.  It was a windy day and there were some good waves coming into shore.  Hayes definitely  liked the waves.

Weiler wasn't much interested in the water, but he did enjoy all of the wondrous objects that washed up on our beach.

And he helped Hayes in some of his work on the beach.

 And the girls loved making sand "castles"

Sunday afternoon required some quiet time for the kids and some Futebol for the adults

And of course we brought yard games for the kids and adults alike

Elise found a new friend,

Enjoyed attention from Grandma

But really wanted to be outside where the action was.

Reeder and Mikayla developed a grand friendship

and shared their love of Grandma Lucas' chocolate cake.

Amelia did make it down to the beach

Hayes continued to  find interesting drift wood

But the paddle board on a windless day proved to be the next most fun thing to do.  Thank goodness Clint was in good shape to make sure everybody got a ride.

And Amelia had great times and some disappointments.  She does express her feelings in a way we all know about it.

It was always fun to watch Clint eat breakfast.  He becomes very popular when eggs and sausage show up.  I don't think he ever had a meal in which he didn't have Weiler or Amelia very close by wanting to share.

But we also had plenty of inside games.  War was one everyone could play

Elise was just on the cusp of walking without support

SORRY! was always popular.  Max really didn't want her picture taken with her "obvious bed head", but this picture was taken around 1:00 p.m.  On vacation, what you see is what you get.

And Hide and Seek proved to be great fun in that big house.

Thursday night was deemed S'mores night and since we couldn't build fires on the beach, we used the grill.  Clint turned on his Bose blue tooth speakers and a Country station and the kids (including Marianne) jived to the music and roasted marshmallows.

And Clint taught Mikayla the fine art of roasting a marshmallow with a stick

And as you can see, she had no trouble perfecting the art of S'mores

I'm not sure how many S'mores these two had, but I don't believe I ever saw them without one once the marshmallow roasting began.

And now a bunch of pictures that are fairly random, but some of my favorites.  First is Amelia showing off her new purple snow boots that Marianne found at the local Walmart for the price of only $5.

Elise and her watermelon.

Reeder fishing on Grand River, which flows into Erie.

Hayes preferred just wading in the river

And Amelia just liked stomping in the water

Another breakfast morning for Clint Amelia and Weiler

We did have an interesting storm with water spouts forming over the lake.  We were glad they stayed out in the middle of the lake instead coming inland.

This one from my telephoto lens show it pulling the water up from the lake.

And there was a Kayak we were able to use, and once again Clint did the work and the kids loved the ride.

But as I do remember that Marianne did take a Kayaking course during her study abroad in Alaska, she did do the honors for Reeder.

 This interesting piece of drift wood was named the Rhino Totem to which the city below it was built by all of the kids working together.

And finally on our last evening we did a recital which included piano pieces by Reeder and Hayes, a duet of "Let It Go" from "Frozen" by Mikayla and Hayes and finally a dance improvisation by Mikayla.

Before we all left for our separate homes, we decided we needed some group pictures.  Not everyone smiling, but it is what it is.

And finally, from our back yard in the evening, a couple of our sunsets

May was a busy month

In early May Max was in Michigan doing some heavy lifting of Elise for Brandy, and I was back in Cincinnati using our fabulous new kitchen, cooking amazing dinners of scrambled eggs, microwaved hot dogs, or turkey sandwiches.  I am pretty good at executing cooking plans.  I just am not so good at planning meals so I tend to eat whatever is in the refrigerator.  But as Mother’s Day approached I headed to Michigan to pick up Max so we could drive to Arlington, VA.  This year Mother’s day fell on the same day as Reeder’s first communion.  Since Reeder was Max’s maiden name and Max is her God Mother, it made sense that we be there.   Once the service was completed, we headed for the National Mall for pictures and a picnic lunch 

The reason for the party

 The Kappels

A proud Grandma with Reeder

Lunch on the Mall

 followed by the Natural History Museum, Reeder’s favorite Smithsonian museum, but also Weiler's favorite place too I think. 

It was a hot day and ice cream on the Mall was enjoyed by many.

 Not a drop wasted

Weiler got the comfy seat.

Hayes went for the cone.

And I guess Reeder was just too fast for me to get a picture of her favorite frozen desert.

On Monday we got a tour of the Pentagon (sorry, no pictures allowed) and then on Tuesday we went to the National Zoo and were lucky to find Bao Bao, the Zoo’s newest baby Giant Panda during her first week of viewing.  Bao Bao posed for us and then called her mom (Mei Xiang) out for a family photo shoot.

Bao Bao munching on some bambo.

 Bao Bao and Mom

The next weekend was graduation weekend at U. Pennsylvania in Philly so instead of driving back to Michigan and then back to Philly 3 days later, we stopped in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and spent a few nights in a B&B.  Rehoboth Beach was nice for a mid-Atlantic beach, but the weather was wet and windy and the camera never made it out of the bag.

Philly was where my camera got a workout.  First of all we got to meet Sarah’s mother, Nazek.  As you can see, Nazek and Max got along quite well.

And then came graduation.  The Nursing School commencement was held in the Kimmel Center in the city center of Philly.  Penn Nursing is rated as the best nursing school in the country (as well as the world) and to  have two family members getting their Ph.D’s made it all the more special.

Getting Ready for commencement

Graduates and parents

Sarah being hooded by her advisor

Matthew being hooded by his advisor

Post graduation relaxing

And to finish off the month of May, Amber delivered Marshall Rudy Dushman to the world.  He is a big boy and is making his presence felt in the Dushman household.

A short nap in his cradle

Loved napping on Grandma's lap

An awake moment in his swing

Enjoying a joke from his Grandpa

And of course, the proud parents whom Marshall is breaking into parenthood.

And finally, a couple of pictures that I just really like:

A Rose Breasted Grosbeck sitting on my Paw Paw tree

Amelia peeking from around a tree.

On the Road Instead of at Home.

Now that we have our house back and have resumed cooking in our kitchen and using any one of our three remodeled bathrooms, we are hoping life becomes a bit more routine.  Max has started her food blog again and, even though the title is In the Kitchen with Don, Max's blog is pretty much her own creation.  I do help in a very small way in pushing a shutter button, but the recipes, views and descriptions are all her creation.  Consequently, she suggested that I take over Windows on Wentworth in order to share our lives more broadly to friends and family.  Consequently, allow me to rewind back to March.

There is nothing like a spring drives across the country side, but our spring driving has been about 5,000 miles.  Since March we have motored multiple times to and from Chicago, Michigan, Arlington VA, Delaware, and Philly.  It has been a very busy spring.  We delivered baby stuff to an expecting Amber, baby sat for a Red Sox baseball game in Detroit, sat in on two Ph.D. dissertation defenses in Philly, attended a baby shower in Chicago (only Max), helped Brandy during her recent surgery in Detroit, went to Reeder’s first communion in Arlington and toured the Pentagon while we were there, killed some time on the beach in Rehoboth  Delaware before heading to Philly, met Sarah’s mother, Nazek who was in Philly for Matthew’s and Sarah’s graduation, attended and then celebrated their graduation, drove back to Michigan to drop Max off to return to the heavy lifting of Elise during Brandy’s recovery, drove to Bluffton to celebrate my grandniece, Baily's, high school graduation and finally drove back to Chicago to meet Marshall Rudy Dushman, our newest grandson.  In the few spaces in between driving we had visits from Marianne et.al. (except Clint) and our good friend Gay from Florida.

I didn’t get pictures from all of these events, but I'll give you a sampling of what pictures I did take.  Since I am covering several months I'll include March and April in this blog and May and June in a second one.

Marianne et.al. (Clintless) visit in late March:

The Kappels came for Max's birthday just a little late because of a snow delay for the original party.  We needed lots of indoor stuff to do in March since the weather was very wet.  Roller tracks are great fun

And bowling is a sport anyone can play...

And it doesn't really matter how you get the ball going in the right direction...

Or how long it takes to get there.

And nothing ever seems to stop Marianne.

Our new kitchen sink will  hold a large load of dirty dishes or other dirty things...

 But our new "Guest Tub"  was made for grandkids.

And because the Kappels were supposed to be here for Max's birthday, but prevented by 12 inches of snow in Virginia, they decided we needed to celebrate "appropriately" for Max's enrollment in Medicare.  And yes, there are 65 candles on that cake.  She needed lots of help in getting them blown out.

And finally these last two are here because the Lenten Rose is always our first flower of Spring

And because I just like this picture a lot

A Quick Trip to Philly:

It's a real treat to have one of your kids graduate from college, but we have been fortunate enough to have all seven graduate, some with multiple degrees.  Our group "thus far" has accumulated 2 Associate Degrees, 6 BS degrees, 6 MS/MA degrees (2 more in process), and 1 Ph.D. (1 more in process).  Max and I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit in on Matthew's and Sarah's dissertation defense at U. of Penn School of Nursing, Matthew one day and Sarah the next.  They certainly made it easy for us to be very proud of what they have accomplished.  Below are pictures from the those days and it should be obvious from all of the smiles that their defenses went very well.

Clint even drove up from D.C to join  us.

This is Matthew with his Adviser (in the grey dress) and one of his committee members looking at some of the data he analyzed for his project.

And this is Sarah with her Adviser just before she began her defense.

I'll stop here for now and begin again with our marathon trip in May.