Sunday, August 29, 2010

End of Summer.....Beginning of Real Life


When did she stop needing me to change her clothes, or brush her hair? All of a sudden my little girl grew up. Kaitlyn has spent the end of her summer working to get money for her car. Logging miles to get her drivers license. And making good choices.

She is perfect for this job, as she is a social butterfly. She's building up the muscles in her hand, apparently it's very difficult to scoop hard ice-cream!!

Come visit Katie at the Hometown Creamery in North Muskegon, they will be getting a coffee machine, too - so, they'll be open year-round!! (This is important for Grandpas to know)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Introducing "Coat Boy"....

You would think that the "Story of the Day" would center around the two of us spending time together in Chicago, but with the Cooks, it is ALWAYS so much more......

On a very "ridiculously easy" bike tour of the Windy City, we saw some beautiful sites - like the Old Playboy Mansion, for example - which everyone must see ONCE in their lifetime, right? We also gathered some very valuable historic information about the city of Chicago. But, in addition, we also met some very fascinating people.

"Coat Boy" being one of them.


We are actually pretty smart people, so we should have known how the relationship would progress based on our first encounter with him. Upon arriving at the Bike Tour location, he approached Dan and informed us that this tour was the best in the city, and that he would be repeating the tour TWICE the following day.

At that point, our question to each other - VIA our eyes - was "Why in the world would you want to do this MORE THAN one time in a week??"...

As "Coat Boy" proceeded to do his WARM-UP exercises,
(YES, he was actually doing WARM-UP exercises),
we gathered our helmets and water bottles - and secretly checked our phones for any recent facebook updates.....as that was the *normal* thing to do.

As the tour began, it became apparent that "Coat Boy" was a very FAST rider, as he was constantly speeding up to ride DIRECTLY BEHIND Mary, our tour guide. At first I really just thought he was a Professional Bike Rider, as he insisted on being the *Right Hand Man* at all times.

He quickly became the Teacher's Pet, as he knew the answer to EVERY question Mary asked the group - most likely because he had BEEN ON THE TOUR a dozen times before, and could most likely RECITE Mary's entire speech from memory.

By complete accident, Dan and I started off from one stop in the "FIRST" position, simply because we were right next to Mary as she left the Catholic Church. We followed closely behind, not anticipating that "Coat Boy" would experience a weird form of jealousy....

As I avoided a large pot hole, from the corner of my eye I spotted "Coat Boy" veer around me and SPRINT-peddle to catch Dan - as Dan had begun a polite conversation with Mary about her residence in the city of Chicago.

Im assuming "Coat boy" had *planned* to ask Mary about where her residence was located, but was too busy doing WARM-UP EXERCISES to remember to ask her. Dan, however, had managed to gather alot of information in a very short amount of time.

It was at this point, I think, that something SNAPPED for "Coat Boy" and the Bike Tour officially became interesting.

By the last leg of our tour, the picture of Dan and "Coat Boy" next to each other was pretty much like-
let's just say -
TWO race cars
one yellow
one red
TWO drivers
one cool
one not cool
BOTH glaring at each other off the start
peddling as fast as humanly possible to catch Mary first

I'll let you decide which ONE
well,
WON....

And for the wondering mind - "No, (although it was a HOT 90 degrees here in the city) "Coat Boy" never removed his COAT.