Last week was eventful, but not always in the best ways...Tuesday I got in an early morning 11-mile bike ride / benchmarking hunt, just before everyone (including Mom and Dad) hit the road for Saugatuck for a family gathering for Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary. We stayed a few days at the Douglas House B&B together with Laura & Thomas and Ben. The B&B itself is beautiful, with several very nice rooms all of which were occupied by us, a nice patio garden, and the food was amazing. Wednesday, Missy woke Beth and me up and told us that there were men with badges in the house. They turned out to be EMTs attending to Dad, who had been having chest pains and shortness of breath. He was taken to the hospital and spent a good portion of the day there. But in the end, it turned out to be more or less nothing...acid reflux, and he missed some medication. Scary stuff anyway.We found a nice public beach that seems to be mostly unknown and had a fun beach day, then later on did some shopping and had dinner at a really swanky golf club. We all took a duck tour of Saugatuck and Douglas, by land and by sea, Thursday afternoon (I took so many pictures that the driver started calling me 'creepy camera guy' after a while), and I took the kids to the dune buggy ride in the afternoon. Later on we all went to South Haven for some shopping and to eat dinner at Clementine's, and see the sunset at the beach. Friday we all headed home. We took the kids to see Ice Age 4 when we got home, which they enjoyed, at least.

Mom and Dad came for a visit last Thursday, which just so happened to be the same day that the garage door belt AND the air conditioner broke. The A/C we were able to get fixed right away, thankfully, since it has been outlandishly hot this summer. We have the emergency plan for it, yay. Friday we all went to North Webster and rode the Dixie, first time for everyone. Not sure why we've never gotten around to that, because it's a great ride, and I wouldn't mind doing it over and over. The kids even got to steer for a while, which they thought was really cool. Sunday morning, since I can't run due to the tendinitis, I thought I'd give bike riding a try. I went 13 miles, and was able to combine it with a bit of geocaching/benchmarking along the way.

Tonight, the kids and I went to what must have been one of the most embarrassing rodeo shows ever at the KC fair. It started off poorly when several riders bearing large US flags rode out, paraded around, then came to attention as the announcer asked all to rise for the national anthem, then after several minutes of silence he announced that they were having technical difficulties and would not be playing the national anthem. Then the riders went off. There were some garbage can chariot races that weren't as funny as it sounds, and some other riders doing some riding tricks that weren't all that impressive and went on way too long, but the best part was when one of the horses got spooked and bolted from the arena through the area behind it, headed for the parking lot, and the announcer had to scream "CLOSE THE GATE!!!!" over the PA system. It was such a bad show I felt embarrassed for the performers.

Monday the 2nd we dropped off Missy for 3rd grade camp at Michiana Christian Service Camp. Beth always gets nervous dropping the kids off for any camp kinda thing, but Missy was excited and she always has loved MCSC. We went and got her just a few days later on July 4th, and since it was such a nice day, why don't we just continue on to South Haven? we thought. So we did, and we spent one of the most perfect beach days there that there ever was. The bad part of the day was earlier, when I went for a morning run and just 3 miles in, the pain in my ankle was getting to the point where I decided not only should I stop running now, but I should stop running altogether until it goes away. It's definitely tendinitis, so there's nothing to do for it but just ice it and not do what makes it hurt. Which is run. So that was my last run for July. Anyway, that first weekend we were going to go camping with the Pinksters at Chain O' Lakes but it has been so unbearably hot this summer that we cancelled at the last minute. Nobody was going to enjoy being out there, us with no A/C, they with Cubby who can't be out in the heat, etc. So instead, we let the kids camp out at our house. We pitched the tent in Alex's room, and he and Trevor slept in it overnight. They were here through Sunday.