Happy 14th Birthday, Evan!!

Evan is 14!!  Seems crazy to believe my baby is 14!  But, here we are.  Two teen boys in the house keeping me on my toes.  

We celebrated with Scott's side of the family on a weekend late August.  We had everyone over to our house for lunch (pizza, wings, veggies) and for the fantasy football draft.  Evan also had a few friends over for pizza and a sleepover.  They talked me into taking them to Sportway to mini golf and use the batting cages.  Luckily we had lots of batting cage coins left over from last year.  On his actual birthday, he had school and football practice and Sean had a game so we got him a carry-out from Pita Way for dinner and opened his gifts before we left for Sean's game.  Finally, we celebrated with my parents labor day weekend over at their house.  They grilled steaks and we swam at their pool.  

His gifts this year included sports cards, new batting gloves, baseball hats, a Tigers jersey, and other small things.  He's officially taller than me and is around 5'8" and weighs about 125 lbs.  He's kind of in between youth XL and adult small in clothing, depending on the brand.  He's wearing a size 10 shoe, which is crazy to me.  He's growing like a weed, despite still being a relatively picky eater!

He's playing baseball for this upcoming year with the Dbacks Elite - Pazur team.  It will definitely be a change for us to go back and forth to Dearborn for practices, but we're hoping this is a good year for them with development for high school.  He's also playing 8th grade Varsity Blue for West Catholic.  He's playing slot receiver, tight end, a little bit of running back, safety and linebacker.  With those positions I'm definitely nervous during games!  He's all about sports all the time.  When he's not at practice, he's conditioning his arm for baseball in the garage or using his pitch back machine.  

Evan is not big into TV or movies, although we did watch Outer Banks together all summer and enjoyed all the seasons.  He's about his phone, music, and sports.  Occasionally into collecting baseball cards too!  He had a girlfriend for most of 7th grade year and this past summer, but he decided to be "single" for 8th grade year.  I can't believe next summer he will start drivers training!  They're growing up so fast!

Happy 14th Birthday, Evan!!  We love you so much!

First day of school 2026

This year was extra weird with all of our school districts starting at different times.  Scott started back on August 25th, the boys started on August 31st, and I didn't report back until September 1st.  This is Evan's last year at East!  He has Spanish 1 and health as his electives this year (PE in second semester).  He's playing 8th grade Varsity Blue for West Catholic and has practices nightly with games on Saturdays.  This is definitely a busy season!

Sean is in 10th grade this year and has all the typical 10th grade core classes and also has Honors Anthropology and Photography as his two electives.  He has classes in all 3 buildings this year with his walk from Canton to Plymouth being the furthest walk.  Definitely helping him prepare for college life!  He's playing JV football this year and has games on Thursdays at 6:30pm.  

Scott's starting his 22nd year of teaching and I'm starting my 21st!  I hope we all have a great, safe, and healthy school year!

Costa Rica Family Vacation 2026: Guanacaste

On Friday, we checked out of La Fortuna and had transportation booked to take us to our last stop, Guanacaste.  It was another long drive and even longer because our driver took us to the wrong resort, but we finally arrived and the resort was beautiful!  We stayed at the W Costa Reserva - Playa Conchal for two nights and had an amazing room overlooking the ocean and sunset.  I loved that balcony and view!  We were greeted with a complimentary cocktail, checked in and immediately put on our bathing suits to head to the beach.  The kids wanted to go to the ocean over the pool to start.  We ordered some beers on ice and some chips, salsa, and guacamole to hold us over until dinner.  Dinner was at the resort and was decent, but very expensive.  That evening we checked out Eric and Ana's room that had a hot tub on their balcony and a foosball table.  It was fun!

Our last full day of vacation was spent alternating between the pool and the beach.  I think we were more than ready for rest and relaxation after lots of excursions.  The breakfast buffet at the resort was delicious!  When we came in for a small break from the sun, Scott and I went to the lobby bar for a rum tasting and ended up being the only two guests there so the bartender was very generous with his pours and with sharing his knowledge about rum.  That night we went to dinner out at Coco Loco and I think the boys really enjoyed their steaks cooked on black rocks.  Back at the resort, we played games with everyone and said our goodbyes.  It's always sad having to say goodbye to Eric and Ana.  Until next time!

The next morning we were up very early for a long drive back to San Jose.  We had originally booked flights out of Liberia, which was must closer, but the airline changed our flights and we had to switch over to San Jose.  We had a layover in North Carolina and got back just after midnight.  Whew!  Long day of travel.  But, we had an amazing trip to Costa Rica with family!!