Crystal Bowersox comes home to Toledo

American Idol finalist and Toledo native came home today for her home town visit. She performed all over Northwest Ohio. Jamey was able to get Emma some really good seats for the sold out Mudhen's game where she sang the National Anthem. Thanks to Papa who was her chaperon for the night. She (Emma) is so spoiled!

Grace's Debu

Carrie Underwood Concert

Last night Emma and Hannah went to see Carrie Underwood at the Toledo's Huntington Center. The tickets were Emma's birthday present from mom and dad. We couldn't decide who would go so we worked it out for the girls to go together. When they got there, they were told that the seats on the the tickets we purchased from Ticketmaster did not exist. They were given other seats but, Jamey purposefully picked these seats on the isle so Emma could see. We are pretty sure that the seat attendant messed up. Other than Emma's view, they had a blast.

Track Season

This spring Hannah has been putting on her spikes for the second year in a row to run for Perrysburg Jr. High. She is running both the 100 & 200 m hurdles. She is generally in the middle of the pack in the 100m but, her times in the 200m continue to improve. She has finished in the top 3 all but one meet this season. In the last two weeks has been recording the top times for Perrysburg. Her long legs are a great asset and we can't wait until she "runs harder". She always seems to be jogging along the track. It's a lot of fun to watch her. I only wish her events were closer together. The first meet we waited 2 1/2 hrs between races.

Ripley's Aquarium Then and Now

While in Mrytle Beach on Saturday we recreated a photo from one of the last times we where at Ripley's Aquarium. What a difference a few years make (2003 - 2010)

Got Crabs!

This week on vacation we spent a lot of our free time crabbing. We used traps and crabbing lines, which are simply a weight with a hook, for the bait, tied to the line. We found rotten, raw chicken and dead fish to work the best. The crabs were most active when the tide was starting to coming in. The water was also the clearest then so it was easy to spot them. The other thing we learned the hard way was that you can drowned a crab. If we store them in too much water over night they we die. We did this twice before figuring it out. In total we caught 15 to 20 crabs and had a wonderful dinner on Thursday night. Next time we need to vacation with people who like seafood. There was way too much for the couple of us who ate them. We have a lot of leftovers to try to freeze. In addition to crabs, we also harvested clams, oysters and whelks (a conch sized looking snail). We have the whelks in the fridge to eat tonight. Bon appetit!

Fun in the Sun

Monday and Tuesday we mostly hung out at the beach house. We rented a kayak for the week and we have spent many hours touring the intercoastal waterway behind our place. The kids continue to spend a lot of time in the water and playing in the sand. Yesterday all the boys and Em

ma spent the morning geocaching around the area. It was a lot of fun.