Hallelujah! Mark had arrived. He was at the Boss house, but he asked if he could spend the morning with us. We were all so happy to see him. Unbelievably, he showed up at 9:00 a.m. to go running with John and Ethan, and Ethan made John promise that they would only do three miles....#YeahRight
I have so many pictures that look like this of the boys through the years, running with John. Leave it to Mark to always strike THE pose ;-)
We had plans though which is why Ethan was being so time-crunchy. A couple of weeks ago, while visiting Cherry Republic with the missionaries, I had noticed that Cherry Republic was hosting a scavenger hunt through the months of July and August. It's not particularly hard, but in the end, if you earn 100 points, you get a free Boom Chugga Lugga pop from the cooler inside the store. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THAT....especially being Kennedys? Competition with food as a reward? Sign us up!
So after everyone was showered, we walked outside...and instantly needed to shower again! Ugh, the humidity is killing us! Oh well, let it be and move on. We drove downtown and headed into the store, grabbed our scavenger hunt sheets and two pens, and headed out. There were lots of things to find, but here's what got us almost 200 points (when we only needed 100...)
20 points: A picture with someone wearing a Michigan shirt (bonus points for each team member in the photo). The guy welcomed us to Michigan ;-)
5 points: a picture with someone in a baseball cap. This guy was reluctant, but I used my wit and charm to convince him to pose with me.
5 points: picture with a fire hydrant. We told the babies over and over not to touch it....
20 points: a selfie by the gum wall. Yes, there is a wall (in graffiti alley) that is completely covered with gum. John told me I should be glad I couldn't smell the urine in the alley which is strange because I know people get engagement photos there....
5 points: something "maize and blue". Well, this wasn't hard (especially looking at Mark's shirt), but we tried to be creative. Mark seriously pressured me to take it quick, because he wasn't keeping those glasses on any longer than he had to. And I would go back for the t-shirt--it's an actual wolverine.
15 points: your team eating ice cream. When we did the scavenger hunt in Denver last year, it was also miserably hot, and we stopped in for smoothies at Jamba Juice. I couldn't resist doing it again...although Brother was NOT happy when Rebecca pulled him away from climbing on the window ledge.
0 points: we walked right by the place where Mark worked for his last year of school...and the place that most helped get him into his MBA program. He would translate articles from Russian into English and then qualify them for research.
5 points: a picture with a cookie. Rebecca is a good woman, posing with one even though she won't eat it.
15 points: a cherry tree. It's a little tricky finding a cherry tree in downtown AA, especially since they aren't in bloom at the moment, but the trees in front of the post office are either cherry or apple trees...and the guy at Cherry Republic wasn't any the wiser ;-)
10 points: the letters C and R (not in the Cherry Republic store). I'm not sure why this was a high point find, because within half a block, we'd found THREE signs like this.
10 points: the Ann Arbor city logo. Again, it's on EVERY trash can in the city, so it wasn't difficult, but we found the clearest one we could.
5 points: the state of Michigan. Believe me, if we'd been in Traverse City, we wouldn't have walked five steps without seeing something with the state of Michigan on it, and normally one in every five cars has a bumper sticker with the state of Michigan, but this was one of our last finds, and it was only thanks to Markie's eagle eyes that he spotted it.
15 points: a bear (not in the Cherry Republic store). I take full credit for this one. I knew we just had to find the right store, and it wouldn't be difficult. And no joke, first store I thought might work, and there it was.
20 points: working in a Main Street business. Again, Sam's came through (they thought we were funny), and they let Poppie and Baby go behind the counter. You'll notice that Baby is even swiping the credit card...and we didn't have to give her any direction in how or what to do!
5 points: an animal (with two points extra for a photo with a team member walking someone's dog). Ethan wouldn't ask the guy to let him walk his dog, especially after we were debating if we could count him as "someone in a baseball cap" as well ;-)
5 points: a cherry. The first top we found was a crop top with spaghetti straps that had cherries in *ahem* rather inappropriate places (we had Baby hold it), but then we found this one outside. Do we get points per cherry??
10 points: a fairy door. We've done a tour before of the fairy doors in downtown Ann Arbor, but I didn't remember where any of them were (except on Peaceable Kingdom which is now closed). However, Rebecca knew right where one was...and Baby had a good look inside...and tried to open the doors.... #tender
10 points: your team in a human pyramid (+15 points extra for all members of the team being in the picture). This wasn't the biggest scoring photo, but it was definitely the most fun. To get everyone in the picture, we figured we would need to take a selfie (because who wants to ask someone else to do it?). Mark came through, once again, with his selfie skills, and although Baby was terrified to climb up on top, she did it and even listened to me when I told she needed to see Uncle Mark's camera for the picture. Props to Ethan for holding the most weight and sporting the biggest smile. And look at Mark's and John's faces--they are seriously LAUGHING!
We hustled back to Cherry Republic, and the guy was seriously impressed with some of our photos (or that we had found certain things). We didn't find a pine cone (although John sure looked), nor something made of birch (who knows what and were that can be found), nor someone riding a scooter. But it was a super fun time, and we all walked away with our favorite flavors of pop.
We then took those over to Kouzina (after stopping in Vault of Midnight just so Mark could relive the glory days) and got gyros (or Kennedy kebabs). After staying up late the night before, Brother just couldn't make it through his serving of pita bread....
We said goodbye to Mark and took short naps again. That night, we had plans to catch a Tigers game. They were playing the Red Sox who are currently doing well...and we aren't....
We got there early enough to get the promotional "patriotic Detroit Tigers baseball caps", and man, they are AWESOME! We rode the Carousel with Baby as well. We had good seats too, and the sky was partly cloudy so we got some relief from the sun.
We made it five innings and had just finished what I swear is the most delicious pizza on the planet (Little Caesars from the ballpark itself) when the heavens opened, and it rained.
And rained some more.
And after an hour, we thought it was stopping, but then it started up again.
We sadly left early, because there was a planned fireworks show that night. Turns out, the game started up again when we were almost in bed back in AA, and didn't finish until after midnight.
I have so many pictures that look like this of the boys through the years, running with John. Leave it to Mark to always strike THE pose ;-)
We had plans though which is why Ethan was being so time-crunchy. A couple of weeks ago, while visiting Cherry Republic with the missionaries, I had noticed that Cherry Republic was hosting a scavenger hunt through the months of July and August. It's not particularly hard, but in the end, if you earn 100 points, you get a free Boom Chugga Lugga pop from the cooler inside the store. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THAT....especially being Kennedys? Competition with food as a reward? Sign us up!So after everyone was showered, we walked outside...and instantly needed to shower again! Ugh, the humidity is killing us! Oh well, let it be and move on. We drove downtown and headed into the store, grabbed our scavenger hunt sheets and two pens, and headed out. There were lots of things to find, but here's what got us almost 200 points (when we only needed 100...)
20 points: A picture with someone wearing a Michigan shirt (bonus points for each team member in the photo). The guy welcomed us to Michigan ;-)
5 points: a picture with someone in a baseball cap. This guy was reluctant, but I used my wit and charm to convince him to pose with me.
5 points: picture with a fire hydrant. We told the babies over and over not to touch it....
20 points: a selfie by the gum wall. Yes, there is a wall (in graffiti alley) that is completely covered with gum. John told me I should be glad I couldn't smell the urine in the alley which is strange because I know people get engagement photos there....
5 points: something "maize and blue". Well, this wasn't hard (especially looking at Mark's shirt), but we tried to be creative. Mark seriously pressured me to take it quick, because he wasn't keeping those glasses on any longer than he had to. And I would go back for the t-shirt--it's an actual wolverine.
15 points: your team eating ice cream. When we did the scavenger hunt in Denver last year, it was also miserably hot, and we stopped in for smoothies at Jamba Juice. I couldn't resist doing it again...although Brother was NOT happy when Rebecca pulled him away from climbing on the window ledge.
0 points: we walked right by the place where Mark worked for his last year of school...and the place that most helped get him into his MBA program. He would translate articles from Russian into English and then qualify them for research.
5 points: a picture with a cookie. Rebecca is a good woman, posing with one even though she won't eat it.
15 points: a cherry tree. It's a little tricky finding a cherry tree in downtown AA, especially since they aren't in bloom at the moment, but the trees in front of the post office are either cherry or apple trees...and the guy at Cherry Republic wasn't any the wiser ;-)
10 points: the letters C and R (not in the Cherry Republic store). I'm not sure why this was a high point find, because within half a block, we'd found THREE signs like this.
10 points: the Ann Arbor city logo. Again, it's on EVERY trash can in the city, so it wasn't difficult, but we found the clearest one we could.
5 points: the state of Michigan. Believe me, if we'd been in Traverse City, we wouldn't have walked five steps without seeing something with the state of Michigan on it, and normally one in every five cars has a bumper sticker with the state of Michigan, but this was one of our last finds, and it was only thanks to Markie's eagle eyes that he spotted it.
15 points: a bear (not in the Cherry Republic store). I take full credit for this one. I knew we just had to find the right store, and it wouldn't be difficult. And no joke, first store I thought might work, and there it was.
20 points: working in a Main Street business. Again, Sam's came through (they thought we were funny), and they let Poppie and Baby go behind the counter. You'll notice that Baby is even swiping the credit card...and we didn't have to give her any direction in how or what to do!
5 points: an animal (with two points extra for a photo with a team member walking someone's dog). Ethan wouldn't ask the guy to let him walk his dog, especially after we were debating if we could count him as "someone in a baseball cap" as well ;-)
5 points: a cherry. The first top we found was a crop top with spaghetti straps that had cherries in *ahem* rather inappropriate places (we had Baby hold it), but then we found this one outside. Do we get points per cherry??
10 points: a fairy door. We've done a tour before of the fairy doors in downtown Ann Arbor, but I didn't remember where any of them were (except on Peaceable Kingdom which is now closed). However, Rebecca knew right where one was...and Baby had a good look inside...and tried to open the doors.... #tender
20 points: what's playing at the State Theater? Now listen, I don't know what ding dong made up this scavenger hunt, but it was kind of crazy that this was worth 20 points...as was getting a photo in front of Michigan Stadium which is a couple of miles away.
10 points: your team in a human pyramid (+15 points extra for all members of the team being in the picture). This wasn't the biggest scoring photo, but it was definitely the most fun. To get everyone in the picture, we figured we would need to take a selfie (because who wants to ask someone else to do it?). Mark came through, once again, with his selfie skills, and although Baby was terrified to climb up on top, she did it and even listened to me when I told she needed to see Uncle Mark's camera for the picture. Props to Ethan for holding the most weight and sporting the biggest smile. And look at Mark's and John's faces--they are seriously LAUGHING!
We hustled back to Cherry Republic, and the guy was seriously impressed with some of our photos (or that we had found certain things). We didn't find a pine cone (although John sure looked), nor something made of birch (who knows what and were that can be found), nor someone riding a scooter. But it was a super fun time, and we all walked away with our favorite flavors of pop.
We then took those over to Kouzina (after stopping in Vault of Midnight just so Mark could relive the glory days) and got gyros (or Kennedy kebabs). After staying up late the night before, Brother just couldn't make it through his serving of pita bread....
We said goodbye to Mark and took short naps again. That night, we had plans to catch a Tigers game. They were playing the Red Sox who are currently doing well...and we aren't....
 |
| Channeling Tante Glo <3 |
And rained some more.
And after an hour, we thought it was stopping, but then it started up again.
We sadly left early, because there was a planned fireworks show that night. Turns out, the game started up again when we were almost in bed back in AA, and didn't finish until after midnight.
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