Island Park

Tuesday: Leave after Brielle gets done with cheer choreo and Tim gets done with work. Arrive around 8:30 PM

Wednesday: Rent a boat. Spend the day tubing around the lake. Also grinding rocks into dust, sandbox, and s'mores.

Thursday: Yellowstone. Fountain Paint Pot trail and Gibbon Falls. Not one animal in sight. Dinner and a fire. 

Friday: Slow morning. Rent a side-by-side and cruise around. Take a couple walks. A drive around the island in the back of the truck. The rain makes the trees smell incredible.

Saturday: Pick up some lotto tickets on the way home. This will be the lucky year.

Mason's 16th

 Mason was really hoping to go to some kind of water park for his birthday this year. But that broken ankle is really getting in the way. Instead he woke up to a bunch of cash and spent most of the day hanging around playing video games. He recently bought a new xbox, so that's been his main source of entertainment. He did decide he wanted to do an escape room, so we took his friend Graydon and the family did the Mobster. And we actually made it out! We asked for three hints, but two of them we didn't really need. And we made it out with 7 minutes to spare. Then we went to Texas Roadhouse so he could get a steak. He chose the second most expensive steak and then ended up not liking it nearly as much as mine, which was the cheapest. But it was a fun night!

Mason being 16 is so crazy to me. It feels like he's almost my age! He does so well in school. He pushes himself to get perfect grades. And he is super smart. Sometimes a smart aleck. His smile is so happy and contagious, and so handsome with his braces recently off. He's a responsible, good kid. Can't ask for much more than that!

Mason's Broken Ankle

We got a call on our last night in New York that Mason had done a backflip on the trampoline while wearing Tim's crocs and sprained his ankle. Angie said it was so swollen that it was probably broken. We went back and forth a few times, but decided to have them take him to the hospital. And yes, he broke his fibula. Poor guy was really in a lot of pain when we got home. We scheduled an appointment for a week out and the Orthopedist said that he should start walking on it and that it would probably take about 8 weeks to heal. It took Mason several more days of elevating and icing it to be able to start walking on it, but by his next appointment two weeks later, he was walking around fine. He still isn't supposed to swim or ride the rides at Lagoon or do anyting else too crazy. So it's going to be a long, boring summer for him. He was also supposed to schedule his road test to get his driver's license the week after he broke it, so now he won't be able to get his license for a while.