Tuesday, October 10, 2017

THE BORUPS TAKE OHIO

Back in 1984, a movie came out called The Muppets Take Manhattan. 

Kind of a quirky little music-filled story of a charming and eccentric cast of characters who travel to New York to make it big in the world of theater and end up finding love, true friendship, real happiness, and a crazy story to tell.


This last weekend I had front row tickets to the show The Borups Take Ohio.

Kind of a quirky, fun-filled couple of days with a charming and eccentric cast of characters who travel to Ohio for a fun little sibling weekend get together and end up finding roller coasters, pizza, ear wax, and a crazy story to tell.



Oh my, what do you even say about these 3? 
We had so much fun with this crazy crowd!  Stephanie showed up Thursday, Steve and Greg joined Friday evening, and it was all laughs, smiles, and fun for the entire 5 days they were here.  Our house felt so quiet and empty when they left.  

Before the boys got there, we took Steph downtown to check out the Scioto Mile, try some Indian food at North Market, and satisfy that sweet tooth with some Jeni's ice cream (Naturally. Is there anywhere else?).  I opted out of the morning jog through the metro park.  I hate to intrude on some good brother/sister bonding time.  
Oh, and also, I hate to run.
But they had a good time with that.  Those parks are so pretty.
We also hit up Dewey's pizza one night for dinner.  


Steve and Greg got in late Friday night, but that didn't hold anyone back from some action-packed, fun-filled Saturday plans.  Those crazy Borups all got up nice and early in the morning, and the four of them hit the road, bound for Sandusky. 
Yup, you guessed it,

Cedar Point for the win!

And a win it was!  I wasn't there, so I can't say for sure.  But there sure wasn't a disappointed face to be found in the crowd when they all came dragging back in late Saturday night.  
Annddddd... I think the pictures speak for themselves.


And what were the girls and I doing all day Saturday while the Borup Party Train ran all over Cedar Point? 
Well you know we weren't sitting around bored.  My two best pals and I went out and about for the day to do a little of what we do best.  We added another line on our fun-filled "firsts" list.  
It was a beautifully warm, nice fall day.  In fact, it felt a lot like an apple-picking, corn-tossing, play at the park kind of day.  So that's exactly what we did!  The girls loved apple picking.  That's a first for us that may just need to become a fall tradition.  And the new metro park playground we found might also deserve another visit or two.  They were in heaven!


Cedar Point may be awesome, but by FAR, the highlight of the whole 5 days was when Steph pulled out the ear wax removal squirt bottle she had brought along with her, and we all watched Tim clean disgustingly large globs of ear wax out of her and Greg's ears.


Now here is a standard of entertainment to aspire to.
No better time has ever been had by anyone, ever!
I mean it when I say, the Borups know how to have a good time.

(*Note From the Author: Though I considered omitting evidence of this particular part of the visit ever taking place, for the sake of keeping this record historically accurate and complete, I decided to take the sarcastic approach and include it after all.  Let the record show however that this was NOT actually the highlight of the trip, ear wax is NOT a necessary part of real fun, the Borups DO in fact know how to have a really good (and very normal) time, and this is NOT indicative of the type of entertainment that typically comes about during family get-togethers!   
Lest you all think we're a bunch of crazy weirdos...) 


Jokes aside though, this family really does have the cream of the crop.  
Tim had to go back to work early Monday morning, so I had these three all to myself for a few hours before flights were ready to leave.  They're just fun!  You couldn't ask for a more awesome group of people to call family.


Tim is so lucky and SO very blessed to have them as siblings.
And I am so lucky, and so SO very blessed to have them now too!  :)

Come back soon!

PS: Yes, we did sneak in another trip to Dewey's for more pizza, because yes, it is that good!


Tuesday, October 3, 2017

SCHOOL GIRL

Lookie lookie what we got!


Yes, our first official school picture.
Man, is she not the cutest little thing ever?!

And, no surprise here, but she's knocking this whole kindergarten thing clear out of the park.
To say that she loves it is a serious understatement.  She adores school! She comes out that door every afternoon just bursting to tell me all about her day.  I can hardly listen fast enough!  And we never have to fight her to get out the door in the mornings.  She's usually ready to go before we are!

We went to the open house last night at her school and got to see her classroom.  I don't think I've ever seen her more tickled about anything.  She was pleased as punch and SO proud to show us all her stuff, and where she sits, and how she does her work, and what she learns all day.  It was pretty darling.


The reports from her teacher were all big thumbs up.  She said Brinlee tries hard and is eager to learn.  I suppose I could have guessed that.  We see evidence of her "eager" all over the house.  She tries to read everything she can get her hands on, and every scrap of paper we own has some kind of Brinlee handwriting on it.  She just can't help herself!  And I suppose I'm not too bothered by it.  I love to see her learning new things, and I really love seeing her so excited and so proud of learning new things.  I've actually been surprised how much it does for my little Mama's heart, but it really is the best!


I don't necessarily love so much how big she is looking lately though.  My goodness!
I snapped these of her the other day before she headed into school.  Just look at her!


Time, could you please slow down just a little? 



Sunday, October 1, 2017

SEPTEMBER MOMENTS


FUN AND EXHAUSTED

This weekend we went camping with a bunch of our friends.  It was a blast! We had so much fun getting away for a while and running around with our "family" here.

It was also very exhausting. We all came home pretty pooped.

So.  I'll try to give a recap here of all the fun.  You'll just have to forgive the condensed "I'm exhausted" version of the details.  Here goes.


Setting up camp, fun! And probably exhausting.  But only if you're daddy...
because he does all the work, and us girls get into the snacks.


Hammocks, fun! Sister cuddles, SO fun!


Whittling sticks, fun!


Picking wild flowers, super fun!


Sleeping in tents, FUN!


Cold early morning walk down to the lake, fun!
Throwing rocks in the lake, even more fun!


An afternoon at the beach, FUN! And exhausting.


Not feeling so good, exhausting.

Playing at the park, fun! And exhausting.


A wonderful day with friends and family, and friends that are family, FUN!


Campfires, and food, and a little game of football in the street, FUN! And exhausting. 


Spiking a fever and breaking out in a rash, exhausting! And not fun!


The little one throwing up all over the tent, exhausting.
Cleaning all the bedding and frantically packing up the camping trip a day earlier than planned, exhausting. And not fun.


Spending 4 amazing years on an adventure with these incredible people, fun, Fun, FUN!!!


Having these people to lean on and learn from is a tender mercy I will be forever grateful for!

In this Picture: Max and Jeehee Scoville, Us (minus sick, sleeping McKenna), Brennan, Kelli, and Nora Wright, Paul, Kristi, and Brayden Crawford, Wendy, Scott, and Hadley Smith.  (Not in this picture but came later: Brock, Jen, Norah, and Nina Coletti.)

Ok so basically, 
In this Picture: The Dream Team!, and some of the best human beings we'll ever know!  
God gave us some good folks.
We love this med school family!