Time flies, stuff happens, and my writing suffers! It' hard to really comprehend all that has gone on in the humble Milwaukee Grady household since last I wrote on this 'blog, but I suppose I'll try to capture it here for your amusement, or at the least, for you to practice your proof reading skills!

The great family vacation! 

We took a year off last year from what had become an annual tradition, a trip up north. This year we again booked a cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin for a week. Along with several other families, we took over Kafka's Resort on Lake George near Rhinelander. Kafka's was a very nice place, if not a little on the "quaint" side, with a very stodgy owner who I can't believe actually managed to rent out his place to anybody with kids. Kafka seemed to like things to operate in a particular way, and if you didn't see eye to eye with him, he figured you were trying to put him out of business, and he let you know it!

Well, Old Man Kafka aside, it was a very nice week with beautiful weather and plenty of outdoor activities for the kids to partake in where they would normally be watching movies or playing video games. We spent the days fishing, playing in the sand, swimming, playing on the playground, and different variations of those repeated throughout the week. The smaller kids (there were 12 total kids in our group) launched a fish hatchery business - Ethan and Quinton didn't really participate, though Quin did his best to keep them stocked with fish and did enjoy playing with the fish in the "hatchery."

Quin has actually proven himself to be quite the fisherman. He was up early most days fishing with whoever would help him untangle his Spiderman fishing pole's line and help him bait his hook. By the end of the week he was baiting his own hook and taking fish off himself. He and I went out on the boat with one of the other guys in our group one day, and Quin was able to occupy himself fishing the entire 90 minutes we were out there - and if you know Quin, that is quite a feat!

Ethan had quite a time doing water sports while up there. He had successfully started skiing behind our friend's boat this summer, but while in Rhinelander he became quite adept at it, mastering getting outside the wake and even the smooth dismount to come to a gentle stop in the shallow water so he didn't have to swim back to the launching point. He really likes skiing!

We did have one day that was a bit on the rainy side, so Quin, Ethan, Jacob (a friend's boy) and I went on a Rhinelander Hodag hunt. The boys and I tried to capture as many Hodags on our cameras as we could. In 2 hours time, we located at least a dozen throughout town. Quite the adventure!

The Circus

Quinton has been a big fan of Curious George for many months now. The wonder that is Netflix Streaming gives him the opportunity to watch many hours of this show per day, episode after episode. I think part of the reason he enjoys the show is because George shows him things that he can try to be even naughtier than he is now! That aside, he was really excited when George went to the circus. For the weeks following that episode he was begging and pleading for us to take him to the Circus. "We never go to the circus," was his battle cry.

A few weeks ago, Jenny actually located a circus about 60 miles from our home in Racine. It came across on a Groupon, so we got admission for 4 and 2 pizzas for $35. We didn't really think it was a great deal, but when we got there we were faced with a hefty dose of sticker shock. Normal admission to the circus was $38 per adult! I doubt anybody actually paid that due to different deals going on around town, but other prices were right in line with the admission. For example, you could go for a 2 minute pony ride for $6 or a camel ride for $12. A little cup of lemonade to wash down your prepaid pizza ran $6 a piece!

All in all, the circus was definitely fun. Both of the kids had their favorite parts, and the performers were pretty good for a traveling circus in today's day and age! Quin really enjoyed the "clown" who did an act where he was dancing to a song that was playing on his boom box. Another circus official would come out, turn off the boom box, and in Broken English tell the clown, "No Music!" The clown would turn to the crowd who would boo him, the official would turn around and plead his case, then walk away, at which time the clown turned the boom box back on. Quin was in stitches at the end when the circus official put the boom box in a garbage can and put the cover on to stifle the music, only to have the clown take the cover off of the garbage can and have the music play again. Like I said, big fan of Curious George...

Jenny and I had a favorite part as well. Just prior to intermission, the ring announcer addressed the crowd to inform them that during intermission, several rarities would be available in the ring for people to take their picture. On one side of the ring was a real lemur from Madagascar. In the other side of the ring was a 7 foot python! Then, in the middle of the ring was everybody's favorite Transformer, Optimus Prime! When they announced this, we looked up to see a 6'5" Eastern European guy come walking out in what can only be described as a kid's Halloween costume - in fact, Ethan actually has this costume - complete with flimsy plastic mask! He then proceeded to dance by himself in the middle of the ring while the diapered lemur and snake took pictures with a steady stream of patrons. Our best guess is that this is some sort of circus hazing where the new guy has to dress up as Optimus prime, kind of like Happy Gilmore was enticed to stand on the 18th green at 9:00...

Ethan's first driving lesson

We still have my dad's old truck sitting around in our driveway. I insure it but don't license it, and pretty much just use it to move things around the yard - sort of like a big wheelbarrow. Over the summer we removed a bunch of branches from various trees around the yard and had them stacked up in the back of the yard. A couple of weekends ago we were going to pick up the branches in the truck and drive them to Jenny's sister's house who was going to be renting a wood chipper for the day.

As I was preparing the truck to go pick up the branches, Quin asked if he could ride in the back, to which I agreed immediately. Quickly afterwards, Ethan asked me if he could drive. I hesitated, but then said OK, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? I lined the truck up pointing toward the back yard, put it in park, then slid over to allow Ethan to drive it to the back. He put it in gear, then started rolling right toward the house. I started chanting, "brake, brake!" to which he responded, "I am!!!" I quickly flipped the truck to park, it rolled about 10 more feet right into our front lamp pole, bending it to a 45 degree angle, then finally came to rest. Ethan was frazzled, I was yelling, so I told him to move over and I would drive it - sure enough, no brakes! I suppose it wouldn't have been so bad if our neighbor hadn't been outside watching the whole thing unfold! Just call us the Oconomowoc Hillbillies, I suppose.

First day of school

Last Tuesday was the first day of school. Ethan's first day in 6th grade and Quinton's first day in K4. Quinton was, and still is, very excited to ride on the bus, and has seemed to take to school quite well. I was a little worried that Quin would be a handful at school. He seems like quite a handful at home! On the first day he went in, I was at work when I received a call on my cell phone from a 262 number that I didn't recognize. My mind immediately told me that Quin was already in the principal's office! Well, it turned out not to be the case and Quin's been good enough not to warrant a call home yet.

Well, I suppose we did get a call home the other day. Quin got off the bus and told Jenny that he had sat in some "pokey grass" at school and that he cried. Later in the evening we got a call from his teacher telling us that she thinks he was bit by a bee on the playground and was very upset about it.

He seems to be doing pretty well in school. Last week as I was coaching Ethan's soccer practice, Jenny dropped Quin off for the last 20 minutes of practice so she could meet up with somebody. We were scrimmaging at the time, so I was walking up and down the sideline with my clipboard and practice cheat sheet with me. He asked if he could draw me a picture, so I gave him the practice sheet and pen. What he drew is classic Quinton - a big circle person with stick hands and feet and a circle head. This particular person was kicking a soccer ball. The best part of this piece was that Quinton signed it for me. His name's not perfect on it, but it's definitely Quinton, and he didn't even have anything to copy it or anything. Jenny is bragging that he's been in school only a week and has already mastered the letter Q and is obsessed with soccer.

The Soccer Gradys

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but soccer has torn through our house as a family pass time. I was hornswoggled into coaching Ethan's U12 rec team. Ethan is doing very well this year and has already scored 3 goals in our first game of the season, a game his team won 12-0. Quinton has started playing U6 ball, which consists of a 30 minute practice followed by a 30 minute game each Saturday. This last Saturday was Quin's first session and he was VERY excited. As soon as he woke up at 6:30 he was asking when we were going to soccer. He continued to ask when we were going until we got there at 10:00. In fact, as we were driving there, he frequently asked us if we were going the right way, and when we would stop at a stop sign he would ask why we weren't going to soccer... He had a great game! He listened very well to his coach and even scored 2 goals, one for each team!