Packers Pre-season

 We had such a good time last year (and missed Mom so much) that we decided to do it again this year and this time we brought some friends!  Packer's pre-season is a fun weekend.  The game played on Saturday at noon (best timing!) and the tickets didn't cost an arm and a leg so we decided to give it a go one more time.

The weather was HOT this year - much different than last year.  It was nearly 90 and we were sitting right in the sum...so I have to give these kiddos some credit.  The lasted most of the game and didn't complain (too much).  

Mr and Mrs. Ware joined us too - I'm so mad I didn't get a full group picture!  We camped at the Brown County Reforestation park again - a short drive from the field.  I'm not sure if we'll do pre-season again next year or not, but I know Ryan wants to go back up to this campground to explore some of the hiking and biking that leaves right out of the park and I'd really like to do the hall of fame and stadium tour sometime (which doesn't run on game day weekends).  So, long story short, I wouldn't be surprised if we find ourselves up in Green Bay again next year...just maybe not tailgating a game.

We also did a MUCH better job at tailgating this time around.  We had a fancy Bloody Mary bar (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Ware), Mimosa (thanks Mom), pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns...and we even remembered seasons salt and pepper, and garbage bags this time!  It's clear that tailgating is it's own whole routine to pack for and we just quite aren't there yet.  We still have some work to do before I'd call us expert tailgaters :)

This is when we knew it was time to start packing it up and heading to the cars.  We were starting to loose then by the end of the third so we called it quits and started heading toward AC.

First Day of School

 

I say it every year - and I mean it every year.  I can't believe the summer is over.  I can't believe it's back to school today.  And mostly, I can't believe I have a 7th and 4th grader.  

I loved this summer - the combo of the kids being pretty self-sufficient and having Sammi here for the summer to play with the kids - I feel like I finally found the right combo for us.  The kids enjoyed being home and not at camp all day, and I loved the whole vibe of "less" this summer.  We found the perfect groove and I'm sad to see it end...but I'm also looking forward to getting back into a routine and fall is just around the corner!

We somehow missed the bus today for the first time EVER!  (I truly believe the driver didn't even go down our street somehow)...but luckily I was home to deliver the kids to school this morning.  The kids thought it was a very entertaining way to start their first day back.  Hazel said "I've never been driven to school before".  She must have forgotten about that entire COVID year where I drove them to school every. single. day.  LOL!

Here's to not missing the bus tomorrow and a year full of friends, new memories, and very little homework (I hope!).

Acadia - Part 3 (The trip back home again...)

 

Our trip out to Maine included all of the private campgrounds and hiking and national park stamps we could find on the way...our way home was filled with friends and family time!  We left Maine on Monday morning and our first stop on the trip home took us to Rhode Island.  Talk about a state I never thought we'd check off our camper map!  But, earlier this spring Ryan found out that his college friend Brownie and his family were moving to Rhode Island this summer from California.  They are a military family so they are often on the move.  We visited them last summer in Cali for Brown's promotion ceremony and now just a quick year later we planned to visit them on our return trip.

I did a terrible job - I didn't get a SINGLE photo of our time with the Browns.  What a miss!  We so rarely see these families...I'm so bummed.  We did have a nice evening with the Browns though.  We arrived around 3pm and hung out for the evening.  The kids played nicely and I know Abby and Hazel were super excited to have a new set of toys to play with after over a week of living out of the camper.  They were excited to have a basement to play in (and us adults were happy for the separation of space and noise - lol!).  

Being a weekday, the Browns were in the middle of kid activities and trying to get school kicked off (they are homeschooling this year) so we didn't stick around for too long on Tuesday morning.  We grabbed breakfast and hit the road around 8:15 the next morning so it was very much a quick trip in Rhode Island.  We didn't get to explore much, but we had a great time catching up with the Browns.

Tuesday took us from Rhode Island to New York where we stayed with my friend Lindsay and her sister, Sarah, at their lake houses.  The drive was right in our sweet spot - 5 to 6 hours.  Lindsay was working (darn us vacationers messing up the work week) and Sarah was coming from their home in New Jersey so we ended up having some time to spare on our drive that day so we stopped at a brewery for lunch along the way.  Turns out breweries that are open on a Tuesday are hard to come by in New York - I could only fine ONE that was open for lunch that day, but it was great.  They had good beers, great wings, really great fries and it was nice to sit down and eat lunch.  For the majority of the trip we'd eat breakfast in the camper (or the girls would eat in the car while we drove) and then we'd make lunches in the camper when we stopped for gas.  Abby being gluten free has really helped us say "no" to fast food stops, saving us money and helping us make better food choices.  Unintended (but good!) consequences for sure!

We spent Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday hanging out with Sarah and Lindsay making crafts and letting the kids be kids!  It was cool and rainy - which honestly was welcome after so many hot, humid days on the trip.  So the kids stayed inside most of the day.  Us adults caught up on life, shared stories and laughs, made cocktails in the afternoon and mostly just supervised a massive craft haul. 

The kids made custom jean jackets, custom sweat suits, cups, hats, notebook holders, bracelets...I'm sure there was more but I can't even keep track now! They had the time of their life and I'm sure they are going to be expecting me to up my craft game now.  I have a feeling there are going to be lots of requests for iron on patches in my future.

We also got to meet Nanny Amy - Lindsay's summer nanny for the last three years.  She was great with the kids and was so sweet and fun to talk to.  She even gave Abby a cool new hairstyle.

We left New York on Thursday morning and continued our trek back toward the home front.  We made it all the way to the east side of Cleveland Thursday afternoon where we explored lake Erie for a few hours.  A huge storm blew through a few days earlier and had knocked out the power in the entire town until a few hours before we arrived.  We were bummed to find the brewery we planned for dinner was closed but the kids were all too happy to just play at a little beach we found and eat Smashburger Tacos right at our campsite.  

We so often find ourselves traveling in a big herd of people, with friends and family in tow for these vacations, it was so strange to be by ourselves for the last part of the trip.  We traveled home solo for the last 4 days and while we sure missed being with everyone, we really loved being just our small family too.  We could pivot plans on a dime, move quickly once we had a plan and really enjoyed hanging out with the kids in a more focused way.  Thursday evening we planned ladder ball and threw the football with the kids (Ryan decided he wants to teach us all how to throw...me included - LOL!).

It's funny - we drove all the way to the east coast - all the way to Maine and it wasn't until we were sitting on a tiny little beach at Lake Erie that I felt like we were actually at the ocean.  Of course, we weren't...but it sure felt like it.

A standard deep lunge picture because we wanted Erin to know we missed her lots on this trip!  (The kids even joined in on the lunge).

All in all, here's my quick recap:

• We drove a lot (see the photo below for our trip total).
• We figured out that we prefer driving for about 5-6 hours per day - 350 miles doesn't seem like a chore and we still have time to explore when we arrive at our destination for the night.
• We love a road trip - but we can't do them every year - we need to every other, or every three years them....
• The kids are really good kids - they get drug along to a lot of places they wouldn't pick and they are good sports.
• We love a destination - something to do when we get to a place...a hike, a swim, a lake...hell, even a brewery!
• These long road trips aren't REALLY camping.  Sure, we sleep in the camper, but we're really tourists...doing tourist things.  Not usually just sitting around a campsite during the day.
• We love games - we played games almost every night.
• We liked Maine but it felt like Wisconsin...and we can get to the north woods in 6 hours.  We didn't need to drive 20+ hours to get there.
• We want to visit Vermont again - I wished we'd had another day there!
• Lake Oquaga (Lindsay's lake) was beautiful!  We could live in that area of the world...hilly and full of trees.  It was one of our favorite areas to drive through.
• There are lots of strange names on the east coast that we can't pronounce.  LOL!
• I love lobster - hot or cold.  Ryan, not so much!

If you've read this far, you might be wondering "so where are you guys going next!?!" and the answer is, we don't know!  We have a Ritterbusch family trip planned to the Florida panhandle area next year (which we'll fly to) and a wedding in Mexico next spring...but outside of that, we don't have our next big family trip planned.  2026 will be a Ritterbusch family reunion year and that might send us on another big road trip but the location and date haven't been set yet!  We've been causually talking about the Ozarks area, or maybe doing Isle Royal next...but we don't have anything in the works just yet!

Abby's Birthday and Piggies

We weren't home from vacation an entire week and we were right into celebrating Abby's 12th birthday.  The week was a little crazy - I was in the office for training, we had Stella and Lucy over for a few days because Jamie needed summer help, Ryan went to Texas for 2 days...but no matter how crazy life was, we weren't going to forget about Abby's birthday!

I scored a gluten free angel food cake (box mix) special for Abby and while there was a good bit of egg drama (call it 3 dozen eggs to make this one cake) we managed to get together enough to have a cake with candles for her to blow out on her actual birthday.  But, the cake was far from the highlight of the day!  It was the piggies!

Our beloved hamster, Ash, passed away just a few days before we left on our trip to Acadia.  She was the best hamster and she far outlived all of our others.  We had her for nearly 18 months and I had a feeling she wouldn't be with us much longer.  I was grateful she passed away while we were still home and could bury her the way we wanted to.  

Abby was devastated but she knew it was coming and had been talking about if she'd want another pet when Ash died.  I wasn't super surprised to hear her start asking about guinea pigs....so I asked her to do some research and create a presentation to tell Ryan and I all about being a guinea pig owner.  She immediately jumped into her research and a day or two later she had a full 15-minute slide show to walk us through.  (She is adorable!)

So, last weekend we welcomed these two sweet girls into our family.  Abby is holding Alice and Hazel has Willow.  They are both girls and we got them from a guinea pig rescue in Rockford that Abby found while doing her research.  They are still a little shy - but they are getting used to us and Abby is over the moon about them.  They both live in a cage in her room and while I loved the ham-rats....these girls are a little bit less nerve wracking (at least so far).  They aren't so easy to lose and the are pretty snuggly once you get them out of their cage.  I think we're going to like being piggie moms!

And, it wouldn't be a birthday without a custom cake from Auntie.  Honestly, these kids don't know how lucky they are to just order up something random and it appears!  Abby asked for a Mer-dog this year and I gotta say, I had my doubts, but Auntie delivered yet again.  

Dear Abby (Age 12)

Happy Birthday sweet Abby girl.  I cannot believe you are 12!  I say it every year, and every year you get one year older and I'm in disbelief that another year has passed.  It's going way too fast.  This has been a year filled with change, learning and finally getting some answers about why you've been feeling so crappy for 2+ years.  It's been a long journey to get here, but I have to say, the little girl I see standing in the dining room working on a puzzle right now is so very different from the kid I knew last summer.  We figured out that you had some allergies (mostly gluten at this point) and that was the key that unlocked a whole new child in you!  You're eating and growing and feeling great and it shows in your attitude, in your willingness to accept change and in your ability to be flexible and adaptable.  I'm so proud of you, it wasn't an easy road to get here.  In the last year we put you on some medication to try and help, you gave 7 vials of blood to find out you had a gluten, dairy and beef allergy.  You did a 12 week full elimination diet that honestly you took in stride in ways I think most adults wouldn't...I'm really very proud of you my sweet peanut.

Current events:

• The 2024 Presidential Election and all the drama surrounding it including Trumps guilty verdict and many Supreme Court rulings reversed to being more conservative.
• 2024 was a leap year.
• We had a total solar eclipse and the whole family got to see it!
• The 2024 Summer Olympics which just finished up a few days ago.
• Joe Biden backed out as the democratic candidate just 20 something days before the convention - he's backing the current Vice President, Kamala Harris but we're a few days out from the convention and that'll be the real answer on who we'll be picking from in the election.  There's one thing we know for sure - this year will be one for the history books for sure.

Are Owies still around?:  They sure are!  I have no idea how much longer, but for now, they are still very much in your every single night.    

Current prices:

• Eggs: $4.00
• Gas: $4.25 a gallon though for the first time in a long while diesel is less expensive than regular gas around $3.90 a gallon.
• Plane ticket: $300 

Things you’ve learned in the past year:

• Age 11 has been a big year for you.  You’ve been through a lot of change over the last 12 months and you’ve handled it better than I could have ever expected.  Here are all the things I recorded over the last year:
• Visited Lambeau Field for the first time
• You stopped asking for chocolate milk every morning for breakfast
• You got your ears pierced and got braces this year!
• You started shaving your armpits (and also your legs).  My goodness, you are getting more and more like a teenager every day.
• You got both your yellow and now orange belt in karate.
• Makeup!  Can you believe it?!  Auntie got you makeup for Christmas and now you’ve added that to your routine for getting ready each day.  I can hardly believe I have a kid old enough for make-up.
• So many things happened at school this year – you tried track and also started playing the guitar in band.  You were also a Riley Viking Award winner (one of the first 6^th graders to win it this year!).
• We all know anything teeth related really isn’t your favorite but this year you lost three teeth all in one night (!!) AND you lost your last baby tooth just a month or so ago.  Goodbye teeth drama (I hope!).
• You went gluten, dairy and beef free for 12 whole weeks while we figured out what was going on with your diet.  It’s taken us a LONG time to figure it out, but the difference this new diet has made is truly amazing.  You’re feeling better than you have in a long long time and we’re learning to be gluten free around here.  I’m thankful we were able to reintroduce dairy and beef though!  Those 12 weeks were tough.

Interest rates: 8% +
Current President:  Joe Biden

Your best friends: Evie, Amelia, Janell, Katrina and Calloway are my best school friends.  My other favorite friends are Stella, Natalie, Tanner, Parker and Reese and Kayden.

Pop Culture:

• Red light masks
• Beyonce released a country album (which I personally really enjoy!)
• ASMR – so strange!
• The Taylor Swift Era’s tour
• AI really took hold in 2024 – everyone is talking about ChatGPT

A sweet story about you:

Sixth grade was a tough year for you.  We had a lot going to try and figure out your belly issues and all of the middle school drama was swirling for sure.  I think you spent the last year feeling like a bit of an odd duck, an outsider who didn't quite find "her people" yet at school.  But I have high hopes for seventh grade.  We just got your school schedule and you already texted your friends to see who'd be in the class with you and I can tell you're a little excited to return to school.  If I ask you directly, you say you don't like school but I don't really believe you.  In nearly the same breath you told me "I really liked doing band and choir and rock band last year, I can't wait to do that all again this year...but not track.  I'm not doing that again".   I'm vowing to try and help get some play dates and sleep overs on the books with some of the girls in your class this year, but a lot of this is just figuring it out on your own.  I wish I could give you all my perspective and all my own life experiences to save you the hurt feelings and broken hearts I know are ahead of us.  But even as I type that, I'm thinking "said every parent ever".  It's part of growing up, learning all these lessons for yourself.  I just want you to know that Daddy and I are here for you forever and for always.  We're your biggest fans and we can't wait to see what you've got in your future.  

Fashion trends:

90’s/early 2000’s style is somehow back.  Wide-leg jeans, brands like the Limited and Dehlia’s are coming back…high rise trousers, metallics, cropped denim etc.

Current prices:

• Eggs: $4.00
• Gas: $4.25 a gallon though for the first time in a long while diesel is less expensive than regular gas around $3.90 a gallon.
• Plane ticket: $300 

What was on your birthday list this year?  Hoop earrings, a mermaid tail, guinea pigs (!), a horse barn house and Legos....and how could I even forget about the guinea pigs!?!  That's right, I've already committed to it so there's no ruining the suprise.  With Ashy passing away just a week or so before we went to Acadia I knew we were in for some new pets in the family.  We're headed to a guinea pig resuce in Rockford on Friday night so we'll have some new friends to share about here soon.