Bratina Family Reunion in Indiana

We rented a mini-van, backed our bags, and drove to Indiana for the Bratina Family Reunion. In order to make driving bearable, we:
1. Broke up the trip by stopping in Cleveland
2. Packed iPads with a new game called Subway Surfers

As soon as we arrived at Cousin Larry's house, RJ and Doug started playing tennis. Since it was so hot, the kids spent the rest of the day in the pool. Only Allyson's kids spent more time in the pool that RJ and Julia.

Since we were so close to Michigan ... and Julia had not yet set foot on Michigan soil ... we made a detour after dinner at Sassy's. Sassy's was super good for gluten-free folks.

Julia was ready to purchase this land for $10, but she has a lot of negotiating to do to get them down from the $58,000 asking price.

Cleveland on the Way Home

We stopped for a night in Cleveland on the way home. We got to swim in Lake Erie at Edgewater Park. There was some decent waves, but a lot of mulch from all the rain/runoff.

We also walked out onto the pier at Aunt Donna's. Doug and RJ unsuccessfully tried to figure out how to get down to the water.

  

Julia Turns 5

Julia had a grandparents birthday on June 23 and her actual birthday on June 25.

Grandparents Birthday

  

Julia picked Moby Dick's for dinner and Sara made a super cool unicorn cake. Julia got to open presents which included a bike seat for Abby (doll).

Actual Birthday

On her actual birthday (a Tuesday), we got started early since Dad had to go to work. After opening presents, Sara took her to a free movie "Trolls" at the movie theatre.

Garden - first crops

A cool spring with modest rain got the peas off to a good start. We also picked a lot of blueberries this year. So many that several made it to the house.

Bike to Work Night

Kids and I decided that we would bike to my office. In order to avoid a 2 hour ride, we drove to a place along the WO&D trail to begin.

Once we got to the office, we tried out the hover board and visited the phone booth.

  

Then we went to the gym. We were excited to play ping-pong and life-size scrabble, but my key-fob didn't work.

  

After a workout, we got dinner at Chipotle and Potbelly.

Generac 6596 pressure washer

The neighbor's pressure washer would not start, and it seemed like an interesting challenge. Mr. Warren said that it ran for a bit and died. When we sprayed ether in the carburetor it ran for a few seconds and died.

Diagnosis: clogged fuel line.

After disconnecting where the fuel line went into the carburetor, fuel leaked everywhere. Humm. Diagnosis 1 wrong. Patient still not alive. Next I opened up the carburetor and did a superficial cleaning. After doing this, the washer sputtered and ran with the choke half open.

Diagnosis 2: clogged carburetor.

$19.95 later, Walmart was shipping a new carb. Replacing a carburetor was super easy ... about a 10 minute job. This may have been the first thing that was easier than I predicted that it would be. Afterwards the thing cranked and ran great. Now everything in the yard looks like something that needs to be pressure washed.

Power Washer in Action - July 14 update

Mr. Warren let us borrow the working pressure washer ... and we made quick work of removing dirt, algae, grime from the front walk and driveway.