Star Wars theme for 2009:
Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and Han Solo

Photo courtesy of the Maly’s and their awesome Thriller Party.

After nearly 10 years of adventures, it was time to say goodbye to the Jeep. We’d put our fair share of miles on and there were some costly repairs looming. So, we took advantage of the government’s CARS (aka cash for clunkers) program to buy a new, more fuel efficient car. Before we dropped the Jeep off to be disabled and then crushed (gulp!) we had to take some last photos.

Grandma Emma turned 90 a few weeks ago and we got together in Lancaster to celebrate. As usual, there was lots of food. I had extra helpings of Linda’s potato salad (why did I eat anything else?) and there were yummy desserts all over the place. Unfortunately, it was a little too cold to go swimming, but Lawn Jarts kept Ryan, Brianna, and Faye entertained. We got lots of pictures, here are just a few:

Summer is definitely the best time of year for getting all the family together, and the Tillemas are no exception. There were new additions this year (Jack O. and Jacob Lindert), and we even got to see Glenn’s family. Derk couldn’t make it, and we all missed Melba, but won’t forget her. Of course there was tons of food and Kathy Fanshaw even brought a bunch of pictures, old ones and newer ones. It was a lot of fun looking through them and seeing how people have changed. The kids seemed to have a good time running around and even found Floppy, a huge moth that may or may not have been disabled.

We posted quite a few pictures here, but to give you a taste…

It wouldn’t be the 2nd weekend in July if we didn’t hit up the Woodley Family Reunion. We weren’t able to stay for the whole weekend, but did go up Friday night and left on Saturday afternoon. It was awesome to see everyone, especially how big all the “little” kids had gotten. Megan can legally drink, Billy has a tattoo, Angie’s building a house, and Roy’s kids are all growing like weeds! It all makes me feel old.

It was a lot of fun to see Rosanna and her kids and to catch up with Donna and Pamela too. Max was a pool fiend and it hilarious to watch him and Anthony play. We got to partake of some excellent food and drink and Ed even squeezed in some horseshoes. I think Jack liked meeting the Woodleys and will have even more fun next year when he’s ready to run wild.

A small selection of photos below, go here for even more:

For over the last year we’ve been regular participants in Bad Movie Night (BMN) at Michael and Marissa’s house. Aside from a few months where we took a break to have Jack, we’ve seen a LOT of bad movies. Kudos to Michael for picking out the best of the worst for us to enjoy. In mid-July we had a reunion of sorts… Emily D. was back from California, so we got nearly the whole group together for some bad movies.

I guess I could give some FAQs about bad movies, before I share some pictures from the “reunion”:
Q. What was the best year for bad movies?
A. According to Michael, 1986.
Q. What is the worst bad movie you’ve seen?
A. Opinions vary, but Winterbeast was by far one of the absolute worst. That also happens to be one of the first movies we watched, thereby setting the bar.
Q. What’s the best bad movie you’ve seen?
A. Again, everyone has their favorites. I’m partial to Dead Alive (a zombie movie) and
Q. What’s a typical night like?
A. We start out with a really bad bad movie. At intermission there is usually a re-fueling of drinks and dessert if anyone brought something to share. There are usually chips of some kind (we went through a Doritos phase for a while) for mid-movie snacking. After intermission is a good bad movie. And I must say, Michael’s picks are right on.
Q. What’s it called when you predict what’s going to happen next in the movie?
A. In honor of the person who invented this (at BMN anyway), this is called Dykhuizen-ing.

Anyway, onto the pictures. The whole set is here, but a select few below:

Hi.

A fine Saturday evening matchup between the two closest MLB teams to home: complete with Stadium Sauce on tube meat/meat substitute, waffle fries in Jack-sized helmets, and Pepsi Cola. I looked forward to this game for weeks. And when we got there, everything felt new. Sort of like the first time I went to a pro game, but much closer to the field (many, many thanks to Ryan.) Jack was quite possibly the most popular kid in section 121, likely because he seemed to be the youngest.

As far as things to see at a baseball game, we practically touched them all.

1. An exciting start to the game. 2 runs in the first inning never gets old.
2. Back to back, home team, homeruns (and indoor fireworks to go with them.)
3. The Klements sausage race. Kudos to the Polish for taking that one home.
4. A broken bat on the field.
5. Technical difficulties – the lights were out for about 20 minutes.
6. Disappointed visiting fans. Sorry Chicago fans. You’ll probably have your day. HA!

Here are a couple more pictures from the day, both getting ready and at the game (Extras in the slideshow of the the set):