July Recap

This post is lots of photos and little words. July was spent vacationing. We were barely in Bloomington during the month, instead taking advantage of our last month until school starts on August 7 (today!). The first week of July was spent up north. We visited with my dad, went to Shipshewana, and spent time at Lake George.

Seeger and Nicklas fishing at Papa's...

A rainy day - spent at Shipshewana...

The Polack and Nicklas swam across the Lake one morning. I snapped a quick photo right before I drove them across the Lake to drop them off...

Almost halfway home...

Making progress... See the big house in the middle? We were headed to the house just to the left of that one.

They made it!

Total time... (Distance unknown.)

More fishing...

Enjoying the Lake George Boat Parade. There were over 14 participants this year!

In the middle of the month, we attended the Lafayette Jefferson High School 20 year class reunion. It was a great time. Friday night, people gathered at the Neon Cactus and Saturday was the reunion and after party (again at the Neon Cactus.) The Polack enjoyed catching up with his class mates and I knew several people so it was fun for me too.

The reunion organizer got the Kubatski boys mixed up, thinking Mike was Matt (his brother).

After the reunion, we packed up the car and headed to Washington DC. I had a week long conference and the boys came with me to hang out and visit the nation's capital.

Nicklas has decided he wants to run cross country in middle school this year so we've been doing the Couch to 5K training program. We kept up with it in DC. It's much more fun to run in Memorial Mall than our little neighborhood in Bloomington.

We happened to be there for Screen on the Green when they were showing E.T. (Seeger LOVED the movie!)

My conference was one block away from the White House.

While I was conferencing, the boys visited tons of sights. I would join them in the late afternoon. We took the Metro everywhere. 

My cousin and her partner happened to be in Bethesda the same week as us. So we made the trek over the river to have dinner with them.

More running!

One day, I met up with the boys and we walked around the Tidal Basin, taking in the Jefferson, FDR, and MLK Memorials. We finished with the Washington, Korean, and WWII Memorials. It was a long walk but I'm glad we did it. (Seeger and I were very tired; the Polack and Nicklas could have kept exploring.)

On another day, I met up with the boys and we headed to Arlington Cemetery. I had never been and I'm so glad we went and were able to witness the Changing of the Guard. What a moving ceremony. We also saw JFK and the Eternal Flame.

DC was great and the boys packed in a lot. They did a personal tour of the Capitol Building (complements of our State Representative), visited Ford's Theater, went to the National Zoo, toured National Geographic, went to a Nat's game, and ate at Ben's Chili Bowl. Nicklas loved the visit and was lamenting about not getting to do everything. He's ready to enroll in Georgetown so that he can live in DC.

After that trip, we headed back to Lafayette to drop the kids off for their week at Camp Tecumseh.

Then the Polack and I journeyed to Nashville for our wedding anniversary trip. It was the Polack's year to plan and he did a great job. We visited Third Man Records.

We toured the Belmont Mansion.

We ate some incredible Thai food at the famous Smiling Elephant.

We came across this awesome modern vintage store.

We visited Yazoo Brewery....

And Rodizio (A Brazilian Steakhouse)....

Broadway Street...

Rocket Fizz....

We also did a food tour and pub crawl...

And we visited the Johnny Cash Museum.... (I totally want to rewatch Walk the Line now!)

We finished the Anniversary Trip with a Zip Lining tour (over Barbara Mandrell's former mansion!) and a stop a quilt shop. It was a great getaway with the Polack, celebrating 14 years of wedded wonderfulness. I seriously love this man.

Our official anniversary is today (August 7) and we spent the morning getting the boys off for their first day of school. Tonight will be focused on hearing about their days and drum practice and cross country and other daily routine activities. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

We've built a wonderful life together.