Tag / Special Days

by Greg

07.07.07

It’s just fun to put that in print! 07.07.07. We are planning to meet with some friends at Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, OH today – an awesome ice cream (but so much more!) place in the land of my birth – and originally, thought it would be fun to meet at 7:07pm on 07.07.07. BUT, alas… they are not able to. We’ll be getting together earlier.

Will have to figure out something else to do on that fun date. We’ll have to wait a year and a month till the next such date. 🙂 What will you be doing on this “special occasion”?

Perhaps something involving sevens?

Let me know in the comments if you have any good ideas. 🙂

by Greg

Food Fest I

FOOD FEST I - July 01, 2007
Yes, I know yesterday was Canada Day (I believe it is “observed” today), but I believe that July 1st may now become the official day of FOOD FEST.

Some have called it Eat Fest, and yesterday I first thought it could be called GlutFest (as in “gluttonous”) but I think I have settled on FOOD FEST.

And, just like the Superbowl, I think we’ll keep track of this (hopefully) annual event with a roman numeral. Thus, yesterday’s soirée was FOOD FEST I.

I can’t believe I am actually eating anything today… 🙂

Our first guests arrived around 11:30 or so, and we planned to eat lunch at 1ish (once the other guests arrived). So… as my mom was always good at doing, I had some goodies ready to snack on sitting on the table when they got there – and snack we did. There was fresh watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries. We had sweet tea, unsweetened tea. We had celery and blue cheese, and added some baby carrots. And all this was just to munch on before lunch!

I fired up the grill at about five till one, and cooked up about 20 hamburgers for 6 adults and 9 children. (Two of those being one-year-olds). Add to that the potato salad, some fantastic apple salad with a hint of lime, a variety of chips, and of course the selection of about a dozen things you could put on your burger… including bacon! Whoohoo!

But… as if that were not enough…

We moved the propane tank from the grill to the fryer once the burgers were done, and I started heating up the oil for CHICKEN WINGS. Now, I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I used to think that I made the best wing sauce in Buffalo… and I’m still pretty good at cookin’ up a batch of wings. In fact, our friend Scott said they were the best I’ve ever made and I think he’s eaten at least 500 of my wings. (Plus, he makes some great wings himself!) 🙂

So, we cooked up about 6 pounds of those (leaving 2 more pounds for fresh wings later) and had those after a couple hamburgers each (and all the other goodies!) … it was a food fest alright!

BUT WE WEREN’T DONE.

Chicken wings were the “specialty” of the day… until we found out it was National ICe Cream Month! So, we decided to make some home made ice cream! Having recently attended a class on making ice cream… I put my newly acquired skills to good use and made the most AMAZING homemade ice cream I have ever made! Maybe the best I’ve ever tasted! It turned out perfect! So we sampled a bit, then threw it in the freezer to “ripen”. (That’s the step where the ice cream hardens.)

We did go for a swim with the kids (at least, me and Dave did…) so we stopped eating for just about an hour, but then it was back to the house for the ice cream, more wings, and general nibbling of all the food that was STILL left.

We ate from around noon till 7:30 or so… with almost no break. Non stop FOOD FEST. Awesome. 🙂

There was quite a bit of food left over. We had some for lunch today. And will for dinner. And might tomorrow. 🙂 But we certainly had our share of food at the innaugural FOOD FEST I.

Check back in a year for the report from FOOD FEST II! 🙂

by Greg

We Have Tickets… Sort Of

Southwest AirlinesSpeaking of “kidless excursions”…

On a bit of a hunch late this afternoon, I checked out Southwest.com, to see if I could book our travel for Oct/Nov this year when we will spend 7-9 days away from our children – JUST ME AND JEN – celebrating our 10th year of marriage. (I CAN NOT WAIT!) Turns out, I can now book flights up till November 2nd! Sweet! Problem is… we might be coming home the 3rd or 4th. 🙂 Doh!

So, I booked the flight there! $99/each from Buffalo to San Jose, CA! Nice!! Get em while they’re hot!!! 🙂

I just had to share cause this has got to be the coolest thing Jen & I have gotten to go together since we had Ian (one year into our marriage…) BIG THANKS to BOTH of our parents for making it possible. (Mine donated the lodging, Jen’s are keeping our kids!!! ALL FOUR!!!)

So. Can’t wait.

It’s kinda funny that I only booked a one-way trip to California so far, isn’t it? 🙂

by Greg

FLAG DAY!

Happy Flag Day!When I was a kid, I thought I had discovered Flag Day – June 14th – when I first saw it on my calendar. Every year since then (I was probably Ian’s age…) I have made a point to celebrate it in some way. We have no official plans, except a little kidless excursion in the evening. Guess that’s pretty much a celebration!!!

Here’s hoping your Flag Day 2007 is Flagtastic!

Or something. 🙂

by Greg

Memorial Day

Memorial Day Flag
(Flags hung on the front of our house… Soon to be unfurled again!)

It’s Memorial Day Weekend! We’re planning to get together with Jen’s family, and my sister and family this Sunday over in Buffalo. It’s the official start of summer! But it’s also a time to remember the people who selflessly have given their lives for our country, and our freedom, and for us.

I wrote a song about Memorial Day a few years back now, and posted it to the blog here. If you’d care to have a listen, and/or read the lyrics, please click here.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

by Greg

Easter Means Chocolate

Esther Price Chocolate Easter Eggs from Dayton, OH
I know, I know. Easter is NOT about the chocolate, or the Bunny, or the eggs and whatever else our society has decided to commercialize. BUT…

I really do like chocoalte. Especially Esther Price chocolate!!!

Ever since I can remember, the Easter Bunny has brought the eggs you see above to my house… hiding some for the children to find and just putting lots more in everyone’s easter baskets. This year was no exception. It’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the Easter season. 🙂

We had a nice day on Sunday. The kids woke up around 9 or so, and we went to see what the EB had left us, and of course had fun scouring our house for eggs. I think we found most of them. 🙂 After that we had (yes, this is for real…) DONUTS for breakfast!!! We found a great deal on them the night before. TOPS has them for $2.75/dozen after 7pm! Bonus!

After donuts, we watched The Miracle Maker. It’s a clay-mation movie from 2000 that was really well done. We haven’t ever watched the whole thing, but it was a great way to remember the Easter story.

The rest of the day is a chocolatey blur, but I do know Jen’s family came over for a short visit. Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Andy and Dylan came to visit. It was nice. 🙂

Hope you had a great Easter, and are enjoying LOTS of chocolate goodies this week!

by Greg

Seventeen Years

The Campbell Family

Tonight is the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game. 9pm on CBS. We’ll be gathered round the TV, probably with a snack or two, watching OSU go for the victory in Championship II vs the Univ of FL. (We’re rooting for the Buckeyes…)

But more than basketball, tonight is a celebration of seventeen years of knowing Jen. My wife, my best friend, my life partner, the mother of my four kids, and the person I most enjoy being with. It all started with an introduction in High School Chorale earlier that year, and then the first time we really hung out was at our friend Adam’s house, watching the Fab Five from the University of Michigan taking on someone for the national championship.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Four kids, a mortgage, various other payments, and various other stresses of life can wear you down, but this day, I can not imagine the past seventeen years without my Jen. I love her completely, flaws and all.

By the way… 17 years is now quite officially more than half of our lives. Crazy!

Here’s hoping the next 17 are fantastically better than the first have been.

(At least I hope maybe we can cut back on the “rough” times… as we approach two decades of life together…) 🙂

by Greg

Six Miles Of Fun

After realizing that life has been going a bit too fast for the Campbells recently, we decided to make sure last weekend was left completely open and free. Me being somewhat subdued by a head cold did help that a bit, but we really did a good job of having nothing scheduled for the entire weekend.

So after sleeping in a bit on Saturday morning, I thought it might be a good day to try something we’d been wanting to do for a long time. We live right near the Erie Canal, and regularly walk to a park about one mile from our house on a path that goes right beside parts of the canal. We call it the waterfall park because there is a man-made waterfall there that is fun and different. And it’s just a fun place to go spend some time playing.

Well, just beyond the waterfall, the trail continues down route 31, right along the canal, toward the next town over, Macedon. Just under 2 miles from the Waterfall Park is our nearest McDonald’s eatery. So, we thought it would be a really fun day to head out one day, via the Waterfall Park all the way to the McDonald’s… about a 3-mile trip one way. Obivously with tiny kids, that takes a looong time… so we just never did make it happen.

Until Saturday.

We left with the notion of just going as far as we could. I didn’t tell Jen my idea because with her it’s sometimes easier to take little steps than to say let’s go walk six miles!! 🙂 I was right. There was a bit of hesitation since (dumb Dad) I forgot the diaper bag with a bottle for the baby. Oops! Well, no worries… we’d figure something out. Julia would be fine.

We had a BLAST! At the very beginning of the trail, there was a guide telling us little facts and history behind the Erie Canal and local plant life and animal life. That was cool. Then, we tosssed the football along the way to the boys as the path widened here and there. We looked at all sorts of different plants and trees… there was some good fall color along the way. We sang songs, we each took a turn saying what we like best about our family… We just had a BLAST!

There are benches along the way, so sometimes we would stop for a quick break. When the path opened up to a BIG grass field… we took a break and played some football. We tossed pebbles in the canal. We met several friendly people (most of them with dogs) along the path. It was GREAT!!!

We splurged at McDonald’s and had a great lunch. Julia got to try their fruit and yogurt cup. She loved it!! All was very well. We were refueled for the trip home.

So, we left somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00am… and didn’t get back home till somewhere around 4pm!!! We were definitely all tired… but it was one of the most fun days we Campbells have had. Can’t wait to do it again!