Kenny 2013

 

A lot of pictures here and a lot more that will never be published.  Good Lord we had a lot of fun this year.  I think I had more "oh man I can't put that picture online" photos this year than I've ever had before.  Proof of a good time.



 

 

 This is us on Friday night. 

We arrived in D town at about 3ish on Friday afternoon.  Hung out for a bit and then got ready to go out.  We hit Hard Rock which is where we usually go.  But this year no Paulina Jayne so we were pretty disappointed.  After Hard Rock we found a little street party happening in the round a bout so we had a drink and hung out there for a little while.  Everyone agreed early to bed since we planned to be up and tailgating by 9 am.

The bar set up in the back of my suburban. 

More booze than we could have ever drank in a day.

 And Kassie starts us off with baby bloody Mary's.  Thats what did it, thats what caused all the drunken debauchery that day.  Dang it Kassie!!

 Hangin with Allison, my sis in law.

 

 All the girls.  I think we have everyone in the pic. 

The group has grown over the years.  I'm proud to say myself, Allison and my mom are 3 of the original 4 that started this. 

 Ronda and Aunt Kathy, duck lips.  I'd say Kathy needs a little more practice.

 And this is where it all goes down hill. 

Group pictures that get a little crazy. 

 

 I'm not sure what was happening here. 

 My step dad Terry showed up with Hippie and Michelle.  Terry was hanging out with them in Detroit and they decided to crash the party.  Terry and Hippie went to check out the crowd and brought this guy back with them.  He was a one man band and sang some songs for us. 

"Man they were good" says Diane.  "Mom there was only one of them"

geez who brought her.

 Later in the day Adam and Amanda showed up.  Just in time to cause some trouble.  I don't know what it is about her but Amanda seems to bring out the best/worst in me.  We had a great time.  They only stayed a short time.  They were there to see Eric Church and I think we didn't really care a whole lot who we saw. 

 Proof on my camera that I did see Eric Church. 

And then.....best sight of the whole day.

Kenny up on stage.

I'm so very sad that he's taking next year off.  I keep hoping he'll change his mind.

Not only will I miss him oh so much but I will miss this weekend with my girls.

We always manage to have the best time, through all the drama, drunks, and crappy mishaps at the hotel.  Already counting down the days till summer 2015.

Mother's Day Weekend

My brother Ryan has a hard time thinking of what to give us for Christmas so this year he gave us a weekend in Detroit.  He planned the whole thing and treated us to everything

 So this past weekend we took off on Saturday morning to meet up with him. My other brother Josh and his family came too. 

We met at One Eyed Betty's for brunch. So delicious. It's in Ferndale and we would definitely go back there again. There was easily 50 beers on tap and another 50 in bottles. I enjoyed the bottomless mimosas. 

After brunch Ryan took us to see the Heidelberg project.  I had never heard of it so I had no idea what we were going to see.  Ryan told us we would be going into the heart of downtown Detroit, meaning not a great part of town. 

So apparently this artist bought up some property and decided to make an art gallery type of thing out of it.  I'm not sure if it started out as one house and just expanded or if he always intended to just keep buying up property.  I guess every house or every yard has a riddle. 

It's weird, strange, unusual, kinda icky.  I'm not sure how I felt about it.  I guess his intent was to turn a failing falling apart neighborhood into something people would drive to see.  Something people would talk about.  And if that was his goal he certainly achieved it.  I'm so glad we went.  Something I couldn't have imagined till I saw it. 

This house was just a house in the middle of all of it.  People lived here and they were profiting by having everyone and anyone pay $1 to sign their house.  They had a bucket of sharpie markers on the porch and the lady was collecting money.  The kids thought this was super cool and signed their names and the date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chase met the artist and asked him a few questions.  I'm not sure what else I would ask except "why"

It's so weird. 

I hope its bringing money to the neighborhood and I'd be curious to go back in a couple years and see how its changed.

 After that adventure we went out to Belle Isle.  I had never been out there.

It's an awesome island with several old buildings on it. 

They were set up for the Detroit Grand Prix in a couple weeks.  Pretty cool that we drove on the track for a little bit.  We also went to the aquarium.  The building was built in 1903 and it was pretty much a bunch of fish tanks.  The picture below isn't that great but I was trying to get a picture of the ceiling.  It was like being down in a tunnel and the ceiling was all shades of green tiles.

 

 

Next door to the aquarium was the observatory.  Another amazing old building. 

Tons and tons of flowers and plants.  

 

After driving around the island we went and checked into the hotel.  We stayed at the

Hilton Garden Inn.  The kids were happy to hit the pool for a little bit and the parents were happy to hit the bar for a little bit. 

We got freshened up and went to dinner.

Ryan wanted to go to a bbq place that he thought we would love but it was packed with a really long wait.  So we ended up at Fishbones right by the casino.

It was really good but the waited was so busy with his crush on Ryan that he couldn't focus on what the heck he was doing.

 And then it was off to the Tigers game. BRRRRRRRRR It was so cold.  We were not dressed for a freezing cold game.  We bundled together and tried to stay warm.  I think that everyone had fun.

 Uncle Ryan and the crew!

 I really love this picture of Jeremy.  He looks like he knows what the heck is going on hmmmmmm......

 Sarah is all about the mascot!  He kept smooshing her head though.  I didn't get any decent photos.

 

The boys.

They don't look cold at all, they were freezing.

 

 

After the game we walked back to the hotel and the kids crashed in one room and the adults hung out in the other.  We sat around and talked for a long time.  Josh, Ryan, and I talked for a long time about the family and how crazy we all are. 

Poor Jeremy and Allison couldn't cut it and we were serenaded by their light snoring lol!

So sorry Jeremy and Allison were we keeping you up with our sibling bonding time???  lol