We decided the fish have been the same size, but the kid just got bigger! Hahahaha.
2025-06-30
Ice cream traditions at the family reunion
It's fun to gather three or four generations for some smiles and snacks❣️ There's enough gaps in that ages between some of cousins that it almost feels like four generations. Technically only three though. Fun times, nice traditions, and great memories regardless!
2025-06-29
Kind of funny that my bike looks like my Jeep most of the time
Mostly a layer of dust and maybe some mud.
A fun, casual breakfast gathering
It was kind of fun to move our chairs around the campsites, chasing the shade. On this day, Dave and Debra were making breakfast so we decided to join them. We enjoyed catching up with everybody the whole weekend.
2025-06-28
Arriving at Indian Lake for our family reunion last weekend
My jeep set up doubles Nicely for the reunion. Sets up quickly and lets the fireside fun begin.
Julie’s Father’s Day present to me
Lets me keep the factory style mirrors even with the doors off. Much easier to make safe lane changes and back up.
2025-06-27
Julie, John and I enjoyed the Austrian festival
Brats, sauerkraut, and strudel went well with the music and dancing.
Cold brew special treat
It sounded weird, but it was sooooooo good. Refreshing, and different. They did it as a special summer trail and it sold out almost immediately!
We enjoyed watching Sophie at her dance recital!
She did a little flowy twirl for us after. They wouldn't allow any photo or video during the performance.
Cool photo op from church
I agree with the sentiment. I miss my dad and my father in-law. They both showed me so much about life, love, gave me spiritual examples to follow.
2025-06-26
I feel called out…
We got these cards to practice thinking about various scenarios that could happen at church. Julie and I enjoyed going through them while we were on duty. Then we came to this one. I feel called out, hahah. 🤪
We shared it with the team, and we mostly joked about everybody better run if this were true. But I liked Kevin's response the best: "As I run against the fleeing crowd. Shouting "Dave, backups on the way. Never leave one of your team alone!" Good answer!
John and Savannah went along for Father’s Day ice cream ❤️
That’s the two of them (with their friend) standing to the left of the jazz band that was performing.
Got some work in on Father’s Day weekend too.
It's a constant battle to keep the pond, paths and other areas trimmed back from all the wild tree and bush growth. I spend some of my spare time from the weekend to try and catch up a bit.
2025-06-25
Unfortunately, I was right…
You might have seen my Facebook post saying I was safely home from Jeep Fest with my rear drive shaft in the back seat and wondered what was up? It turns out, a year of hard wheeling can take a toll on things sometimes. I diagnosed what I thought the problem was, dropped the rear drive shaft, and "limped" it home. My mechanic asked me what I thought was wrong. I told him I thought I'd messed up the ring gear in the rear diff and that the locker wasn't working. He sent me these pics to tell me, "Congrats, you were right". Not sure I'm happy about that, haha. The teeth aren't supposed to have chips out of them, and there aren't supposed to be shards and shavings of metal bouncing around in there…!
Regardless, the good news is the ring gear has a lifetime warranty and they got me back together, and setup to keep wheeling. The gears have a lifetime warranty, challenge accepted. 🤪
Lunches on Father’s Day weekend
I was at the range on Saturday of Father's Day weekend and decided to stop at this nearby food truck I drive past all the time. They had a lot of the same offerings I've had on trips to Mexico over the years. I circled what I had on the menu. Head, Tongue, etc. The only delicacy missing were the eyes. I had those in the late 90's in Guadalajara. Yummy!
Then on Sunday Julie treated me to Roosters. They had a Father's Day promo running. Nothing like traditional Nu-Killer wings to light me up! It was nice to feel loved and appreciated so much.
Then on Saturday morning, the boys show up with THIS
Julie and them were conspiring behind my back. They'd made up some story about being busy and maybe we'd go to Taco Bell. I'd mentioned in the past that Taco Bell wasn't a "real" breakfast, so they fixed me right up with my very own bacon fest. A dozen eggs, and a few pounds of bacon later, we were happy and full.
Even the dogs got in on the Father’s Day weekend fun…
I'm guessing some friends at the range had something to do with this… But it's good to know I'm appreciated by the dogs too. A jeep friend of mine commented last night, "I've seen you and Zoe, you're tight"… I'm not sure what makes him say that? 🤪 She's a fun little buddy for sure.
Treated like a king on Father's Day❣️
My family had a great weekend planned for me for Father's Day. It started with a nice card and book signing with my Mom, then Julie made THIS steak for me on Friday evening. PRIME ribeye cap flame finished and topped with a heap of mushrooms. YUM!!!
2025-06-24
My prescription improved?!
I had my eye exam recently because I thought I could see slightly better without my glasses in certain situations. The doctor confirmed my prescription improved in three out of four of the measures they use. So I celebrated but ordering new glasses that matched my youthful eyes, hahahahaha. I thought these frames, straight out of 1984, would fit the bill!
Just kidding, but I did buy a pair of shades just like this on our eighth grade senior trip! In the end, this year, I decided to just update the lenses in my current frames.
The transition technology has improved to the point where you can get POLARIZED options when the sun glasses kick in, so I am going to try a set of those. Looking forward to seeing how they work.
I got to try some different coffees for Father’s Day.
This one was very interesting. Nice once a year, but wouldn't grab it all the time. They sold out right away!
Andy got a new pipe cutter at work…
So, of course we had to compare…! 🤪 His works at least… hahaha. I keep mine mostly for it's antique nature. 
Out of battery detonation
You can see the forces involved in firing a bullet. In this case, it wasn't quite seated in the chamber and the forces were spend on tearing the casing apart instead of pushing the bullet out… Crazy stuff!
It’s always great to see the lives touched by VBS every year
It's a blessing to be able to help out too!
2025-06-23
The boys worked together to replace John’s water heater
It was fun to see the two of them help each other figure out what was wrong, keep it going long enough to get a replacement, then get it swapped out. Special thanks for Andy for leading the effort!
Some of the fun from Jeep Fest and Stilwell Stompers June Jamboree this past weekend.
I skipped the mud pits (first clip) this year. You can see why… I did the same obstacle course as the black 4-door Jeep. I did it four times with the same ease. I didn’t enter the timed race. The guy in the black Jeep won it. The green Jeep running the barrels is the head of one of the clubs I’m in, he took second place for that event. Then I rode along with some friends for camping and off-roading. I am in the dark green 2-door (follows the yellow Jeep clip) as a passenger. Since I am currently 2WD only, I wouldn’t have done very well in my rig.
Sometimes the weather isn’t what you hoped for
But then you stick with your plan and have a great day of off-roading. It was raining heavily through the night and into hte morning for the second day of the Jamboree. You can see our little camp setup in the field. But we headed out, and had a great second day. Small group, lots of grip on the rock, and minimal mud. The rain cleared up right at the start too so it turned out nicely.
We got the chance to enjoy some fire works too.
For some reason, the folks on the other side of the holler felt the need to celebrate.
Wheelin’ with friends
This guy was partly responsible for getting me into Jeeps… It was fun to spend the weekend with his daughter and him two weeks ago. She's in her element outdoors helping and cheering us all on for sure!
I managed to tear up a gear in my rear-end (a year of hard off-roading will do that) so I rode with them for the two days. What fun! It gave me a chance to both sit back and relax, but also help winch people, etc.
2025-06-22
Me on top of the obstacle course.
I even got to rescue somebody that got stuck. You can't let that go to your head… You might be the one limping home next!
Mom accuses me of abuses Jeeps…
At least I'm not going to THESE extremes… I stay out of the mud pits. It always leads to something broken, plus a BIG mess. I did to the obstacle course (bottom pic) a bunch of times. But I took it slow and easy. Not everyone took that approach as you can see.
Testing out my suspension travel…
I was trying to see if there was any difference between manual and electronic sway bar disconnects, so I tried both and measured. There didn't seem to be any difference. I got the front wheel 44" off the ground and the rear 36" off all while keeping the other three on the ground. This is very effective at keeping you stable while crawling on obstacles along the trails. :)
This amount of travel puts me basically at a perfect score of 1,000 on an RTI ramp, but I need a steeper ramp to really get a good measurement. No wonder I can get up so many crazy rocks with this beastie.
A guy can dream, right…?!
What a crazy way to get around wiht your rig from one Jeep event to the next…! But maybe I could get Julie to go along. Heck, she'd wanna drive!
2025-06-21
Ignore the worm part…
This is a screen grab from a history channel I follow. It was talking about the migration of worms after the Ice Age… Gripping content, I know. Funny thing is it was actually pretty interesting. Her channel has all kinds of much more interesting history of the development of the Midwest, especially Michigan
Regardless, this graph showed how far south the glaciers came during the Ice Age. I started looking around our area and found it interesting that the line seemed to follow what we now have as all the major interstate systems. I can see 70, 75, 71, and the Ohio turnpike roughly outlined in the Ohio and Indiana area. I wonder what the root cause and effect is there? A ridge line? Weather pattern? What made the traveled paths match up to the ancient glacial boundaries?
Johnny captured this great moment perfectly.
The good news is, you made it through all my Lakeside pics. Hopefully it wasn't TOO painful…
Once we got back from our trip, Savanna kept practicing her kendama skills and landed her first swing spike!
Family time at Lakeside! ❤️
Just the perfect week at the lake and the perfect pic to remember it with. I love my family! Even though we forgot to get one before Sophie left, hahaha!
Perfect summary of vacation
This was the pic on my Home Screen the last day of our vacation. I concentrated on having fun and also making sure I got enough rest leading up to and during our trip. It's fun that the alert of my sleep success popped up on this pic.
Enjoying the last moments of Lakeside
What a GREAT trip. We enjoyed so much fun of the lake, relaxation, and time with all of us together! I had my devotions on my rock the last day! Perfect ending!
2025-06-20
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