The Kidders

Poor Gracie

2009-08-11T15:30:00.004-04:00

Grace broke her collar bone when she fell off a chair at school yesterday.

When we picked her up from school we noticed that she was favoring her left arm quite a bit. She really didn't complain about it but when we asked she just said her arm was sore. She went to bed easily last night and slept pretty good, but this morning she complained of pain when getting dressed so we went to the doctor first thing and the x-rays showed a broken left clavicle. Here is a picture of her and her x-ray.

She did a great job of helping the doctors today and amazingly doesn't seem to be in hardly any pain! We are going to an orthopod tomorrow for a consultation, but it sounds like she'll just have to wear a sling or for a 4-6 weeks.

South Bend Urban Adventure

2009-07-21T09:51:00.003-04:00

This past weekend, Scott Coryn and I participated in the first annual South Bend Urban Adventure. Here is a shot of us racing to the finish line. It was an awesome race and I highly recommend anyone who is interested to participate next year. It included among many other things... running, biking, rock climbing, rafting, ziplining across the river, solving puzzles, and buying fruit and the farmer's market. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt, we were given a map just before the start with 24 check-points all around South Bend, from Notre Dame to Coveleski Stadium. The goal was to complete them in any order and then head to the finish line. We didn't have a camera with us, but here are some media pictures from the event.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=SB&Dato=20090718&Kategori=News&Lopenr=718009997&Ref=PH

Appalachian Trail Hike 2009 - Max Patch to Hot Springs

2009-06-18T10:03:00.001-04:00

I finally uploaded all of the pictures from this year's appalachian trail hike. It was quite an adventure and I am definitly hooked on hiking now! We started the trip at a place called Max Patch. It is basically a huge grassy area on top of a mountain with almost no trees, it provided great views of the surrounding mountians. Jeff Muzik, Todd Young, Scott Berkel, Brad Smith, John Emard, Scott Kidder, and Scott Coryn

View from Max Patch - yes those other mountains are covered in trees

We hiked just over 5 miles the first day, that night it stormed and rained pretty bad all night long. With the rain pelting the tents we didn't even hear the commotion of the bear raiding the camp just up the trail (not kidding - they had to through bottles at it to get it to leave).

Bear alert sign and our food bag hanging to keep it away the bears away from out camp

Day 2 was the longest day, over 10 miles with a lot of elevation changes. We hiked up Walnut Mountain, then to the top of Bluff Mountain and then back down to our campsite at Roaring Fork Shelter.

Here we are at the top of Bluff Mountain. We're happy to be at the top and at this point had no idea how hard going back down was going to be!

On the third day we made it to Hot Springs, NC and headed straight to a little bar for a hot sandwich and a cold beer. It was a nice day so we took a couple hours for a quick raft trip down the French Broad River. With all the rain we had our first night of camping, the river was much higher and muddier than normal.

That night we headed to the cabin where we chef Emard cooked up his world famous gumbo.

The hike was great, and I already can't wait to do another section of the trail next year. Click here to see all of the pictures from the hike.

Pictures from moving day

2009-06-11T00:09:00.004-04:00

We actually moved in late April, but we just now found the pictures on our other camera so here they are. It was a "smooth move" but never the less, I hope it's the last one in a long long time! Dave Snyder and his crews did a wonderful job and we would definitely recommend him for anyone looking to build a house in the future. These pictures are over a month old now so believe it or not that bare yard needs to be mowed for the first time this week!

Disney World!!!!

2009-06-08T08:46:00.004-04:00

Earlier this year we took Grace down to Florida to spend a few days at Papa and Nanny's Florida house and took a day trip over to Disney. Of course, Disney was wonderful and Grace got to meet all of her favorite princesses...

Look at that smile, could she be any happier?

In addition to the day at Disney, we spent some time at a local beach, visited with the manitees and the hippo at the Homosassa wildlife park and spent lots of time enjoying the pool. See the rest of the pictures here.

Catching up...

2009-06-06T10:47:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy, busy 2009 thus far. Here are some snap shots of what has been keeping us busy...

Sesame Street Live in January

Building Snow Kittens

A 70's Party

Chicago Children's Museum

Grace's Third Birthday

Building a Race Car

2009-03-02T09:07:00.004-05:00

Grace had a great weekend. Saturday morning we attended a build and grow kids workshop at Lowes where she built a race car with her friend Eli and cousins Ty and Kesse. Here are more pictures from the event.

Disney World Here We Come...in 21 days!

2009-02-15T20:41:00.004-05:00

Grace is getting so excited to visit Nanny and Papa at their home in Florida. In just 21 days we will not only be visiting Nanny and Papa, but also Cinderella, Mickey, Ariel, Minnie, Snow White, etc. To help her understand we made a chain representing the days until we leave...let the countdown begin!

So How Much is a Trillion Really?

2009-02-06T09:04:00.006-05:00

As we all know, the government is getting ready to spend one trillion dollars to stimulate the economy. We hear the number thrown around all the time now and it barely raises an eyebrow. This morning I heard an economist on TV say, somewhat frustratedly, that the vast majority of people don't understand and frankly can't comprehend how enormous that number is. I was curious, so I googled it.

Obviously I knew a trillion was a huge number, but I still found myself to be quite interested and even astonished by some of the stats.

A trillion = A thousand billion = A million million

A 1 with 12 zeros (1,000,000,000,000)

Some examples I found used time to explain how big the number is.

A million seconds is about 12 days
A billion seconds is about 32 years
A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years

Some examples use stacks of dollar bills.

A thousand $1 bills stacked, not laid end to end, measures 4.3 inches tall
A million = 358 feet (35 stories)
A billion = 358,500 feet (68 miles - well into the atmosphere)
A trillion = 67,866 MILES (1/4 of the way to the moon)

And what about end-to-end? This Site claims it would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out dollar bills behind it end-to-end, 14 years before it reeled out a trillion dollars.

And finally, here are some of the best examples to help explain a trillion in terms of spending.

If you spent $1 million every day since the birth of Christ, you still wouldn't have spend $1 trillion (You'd be at roughly $725 billion and have some 734 years to go) - AMAZING!
You could pave the entire US interstate highway system in 24 karat gold according to this site.
And how would you raise $1 trillion? If every man, woman, and child in the US (300 million) each chipped in, they would each pay $3,400. For those of you following the new octupulet babies, that would be $51,000 from their mother who now has 14 children.
If just tax payers chipped in (138 million), they would pay $7,300 each or $14,600 per married couple. Better start saving up! I think the bills go out next year.

www.MINT.com - Try it!

2009-02-02T09:30:00.005-05:00

http://www.mint.com/

We've only been using this site for a couple of weeks, but so far it is one of the easiest and best financial management tools we've used and we love it! It literally takes only a few minutes to set up, and is far less involved than Quicken or Money. Essentially you link your online accounts (bank, credit cards, investments, etc...) and mint brings all your details into one location and automatically assigns your purchases to categories based on the place of purchase.

Once your accounts are linked, you can easily trend your spending, your investments, and set up budgets and goals. You can even compare yourself against national, state, or city averages.

And best of all, it's free! They make their money by suggesting ways for you to save (To lower your mortgage, refinance with...)

Thanks to our friends Corey and Wendy for recommending the site!

Global.....What?

2009-01-16T10:04:00.004-05:00

As usual, Micki and I awoke this morning to two hungry dogs eagerly awaiting their trip outside before breakfast. I threw on a sweatshirt and as I stepped outside with the dogs still half asleep, I was smacked in the face with -19 degree temps. As I stood there freezing and pleading with the dogs to hurry up, I wondered what happened to global warming?

Come on Al Gore, where are the milder winters and gloriously longer and warmer summers you promised? Today, every state in the nation will experience below freezing temperatures and many will shatter all time record lows. Clearly all of our efforts to warm the globe are not working!

Now some experts are warning of Global Cooling. What?

I’m no expert, but it seems pretty clear to me that Mother Nature has proven time and time again that we can’t accurately predict what the weather will be like next month, let alone years from now.

A Very Merry Christmas

2008-12-31T12:36:00.004-05:00

We have now returned from Tell City and had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Grace especially enjoyed time spent with Grandma and Pop, Uncle Matthew, Aunt Vanessa, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, John, Trevor, Trent, Grandma Mary, Bob, the Hartz family (especially Mason!), and the LeClere family! We are very thankful for such wonderful family and friends. Here are some photos of the Christmas celebrations. There are lots...but I will post separate pictures of our afternoon with the Hartz family and our Tacky Black-Tie Fondue Night!

We hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and is able to ring in the new year with family and friends!

Grace's Gift for Santa

2008-12-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Everyone! Here are some videos of Grace wrapping and then putting out her gift to Santa.

Wrapping the gift...

Putting out the Gift, Milk, and Cookies...

Tomorrow we'll post a video of her waking up.

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-24T11:38:00.002-05:00

We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas holiday!

Welcome Jackson and Ellie!

2008-12-14T20:09:00.006-05:00

Congratulations to the Nickoloff family!!! They were blessed late Friday evening (birthday of December 12) with the birth of their two beautiful twins...Jackson and Ellie. We visited with them today and all are doing well. Both of the babies are absolutely beautiful, and Sarah and Chris are on cloud 9!! We are so happy for their family and can't wait to share many memories with them in the future. Click here for a few photos of the twins, along with some from the weekend.

We also really enjoyed the rest of the weekend in Chicago. We did a lot of shopping and enjoyed a few nights on the town!! Thanks to Shane, Nicole, Mike, Steve and Becky for a wonderful weekend!!

New Beginnings!!!

2008-12-12T19:23:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since we posted (our apologies...the holiday season seems to have been more hectic than usual!). However, we have exciting news to post today...we are on our way to Chicago to visit with the Nickoloff family! Sarah has been in labor since this morning, and we are hoping for the arrival of the babies this evening. We are so happy for Sarah and Chris and can't wait to meet their little bundles of joy!

Tomorrow Shane, Nicole and Mike will be joining us in Chicago for a fun weekend! We are going to do lots of shopping, eating and enjoying of the holiday season!

Gracie is spending the weekend with Papa Tuff, Grandma Alys, and Buddy. She was SO excited to see them, and will have so much fun! Grace has really been enjoying the holiday season, and especially liked her visit with Santa. She sat on his lap and told him just what she wanted for Christmas. It was too cute!

Another recent and favorite past time has been gymnastics. Grace LOVES it, and it has been a wonderful bonding experience for her and a little friend, Lily. The coach, "Mr. Andy" is fantastic too...here are some additional pictures to enjoy of our little gymnast!

Our Little Princess!!

2008-10-29T22:01:00.006-04:00

Gracie has just recently been interested in princesses and "girly" items. Boy though, now that it's here there is NO stopping her! She just loves dressing up now and playing Cinderella!! Here are a few photos in her dress up clothes...courtesy of Keegan! Very sassy, don't you think?!

Apple Day - Year 27!

2008-10-26T11:08:00.005-04:00

This weekend we gathered for the 27th annual LeClere / Ewing Apple Day! It was by all accounts another huge success! Friday evening we (Scott, Micki and Gracie) shared a fun dinner with Grandma, Pop, Uncle Matthew, Joe and Leanne. We also enjoyed a few nightcaps in the hotel lobby...thanks to some VERY upscale wine glasses courtesy of Leanne :) Saturday morning we were up bright and early...the men all met at 7:00 a.m. to set up the tailgate. The rest of us joined them at 8:00 a.m. to continue the fun! Joe made his famous egg sandwiches, bloody mary's and sausage balls! Grace was ADDICTED to the sausage balls - I guess I'll have to get that recipe! We really enjoyed the rest of the day...it involved lots of friends, family, corn hole, flippy cup, beer pong, food, beverage, and birthday celebration (happy 26th birthday Jenna)! Dad, Matthew and I headed into the game for the second half. It proved to be a lot of fun, and we watched the Hoosiers pull out a big win against # 22 Northwestern! After the football game we watched the Cream/Crimson scrimmage of the basketball team. It was fun to watch them practice and got everyone ready for basketball season!

After a few hours on Kirkwood, we headed to Bw3s to watch the Notre Dame / Washington, Penn State/Ohio State, and Alabama/Tennessee football games. We were all relieved to see the Irish pull out an impressive win, and Penn State prevail in the final minutes versus OSU!

We always enjoy Apple Day and every year are reminded of the wonderful tradition!! It has certainly changed from the days of picking apples, riding mechanical horses, and even picking pumpkins at Huber Winery. I'm anxious to see what the years ahead may bring...future spouses :), children, and who knows what adventures! Regardless, we're guaranteed that it will always result in fun!!! Here are lots of fun pictures from our weekend!

I also would be remissed if I didn't congratulate Matthew and Vanessa. This definitely deserves its own entry (which I will do), but wanted to send them a special congratulations on their engagement!! We are so excited to welcome Vanessa to the family and love her very much!! Congratulations you two!

Fun at the Cabin!

2008-10-23T00:25:00.007-04:00

We spent a great weekend at Kidders Cabin in Baldwin, Michigan. We started our adventure on Friday afternoon with Scott, Micki, Gracie, Sydney and Toby all piled in the truck. After an evening catching up with Tuff, Alys and Buddy, we retired for a wonderful night of sleep (I slept better than I have in MONTHS). Not sure if it was the new mattress, crisp fall air, or silence of the Michigan environment, but I awoke more rested than I have in a very long time! Saturday was filled with long walks around the lake, watching the dogs run and swim, walking through the woods, and observing the beautiful deer. We built a great campfire and played a serious game of scrabble! Gracie also shared her school toys with Papa Tuff and Grandma Alys. The kids take turns washing the toys over the weekend, and it was Gracie's turn this weekend! It was very cute! Sunday we went for a boat ride and explored the Pine River.

It was a wonderful weekend at the cabin, and we hope to go back again very soon! Below are some of my favorite weekend photos, and click here for many, MANY more photos. Enjoy!

Congratulations Sarah and Chris!

2008-10-12T12:51:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we (Micki, Scott, Gracie, Clay and Barbara) traveled to Naperville, IL for a shower in anticipation of the births of the Nickoloff twins! It was so wonderful to visit with Sarah, Chris, and lots of our friends and families! Sarah looks amazing and it was so exciting to hear of the progress the babies are making, and to see and feel them move...independently yet so in sync with each other. We are incredibly happy for them and can't wait to meet little Baby Boy and Baby Girl Nickoloff!

It was great for Gracie to meet and see some of her friends as well...Keegan, Avery, Ethan and Libby! She hopes to see them again soon!

One quick and funny story about the babies...I asked Gracie the other day if her teacher, Ms. Cripe, had a baby insider her (she does). Gracie simply responded, "No Mommy...Cooper has babies inside her!"

Click here to view more pictures from the wonderful shower!

On a separate note, two of our close friends (Heather Glynn and Wendy Angst) are running the Chicago Marathon today. Good luck to both of you - we know you will do great!

New Home Update

2008-09-26T12:40:00.010-04:00

The framing is moving along very quickly, both the first and second floors are almost complete. Here is a picture of the front as well as a picture from the inside looking from the family room to the stairway. Grace was acting up so I sent her to her room and the third picture is her crying in her new room.

We have been very busy making selections for the house. For a color scheme we have chosen a dark greenish siding with a cream colored trim.

For the front door, we selected this craftsman style wood door.

Inside we are going with white trim and this three paneled door.

To keep with the early 20th century craftsman style of the house, we are hoping to incorporate as many vintage features as possible. Here is a sample of the interior door handle we are considering.

Next up we will be working on the kitchen cabinets and hardwood flooring.

Here is a nice video that depicts the type of cabinets and features we are looking for.

The Ryder Cup

2008-09-23T15:46:00.006-04:00

This past weekend, we were fortunate enough to be at the final round of the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville, KY and to see the USA win the cup for the first time in nine years. Micki's Dad secured four tickets and took us along with Matthew. It was truly an awesome experience (thanks again Clay!) and unlike any other event in golf. As Matt put it... where else can you cheer with excitement when a European golfer misses an important put!? The crowd was very loud and rowdy!

The tickets were great and included access to the member's pavilion where we could cool off and grab a drink while continuing to watch on one of the many TVs. Unfortunately there are no cameras or cell phones allowed into the event so we have no pictures to share, but here are a few of the memorable moments and some pictures and videos I found...

Boo Weekly riding his driver like a horse - video
Kim not giving Garcia any gimmies
Sergio Garcia's walk of shame after sinking 2 balls in the water on number 7 - video
Local boy Kenny Perry's dad showed up to watch in overalls - Picture
Meeting Fuzzy Zoeller - What a great guy!
Fans of Boo dressed in all camo
Kim's diamond studded USA belt buckle - Picture
Kim's challenge of Garcia's unplayable lie..."Do what you've gotta do" - Picture
Micheal Jordan
The roar when Mahan sunk his 40 foot birdie put on number 17 (We were standing on the edge of the green) - Picture

Home Construction Update

2008-09-18T10:09:00.011-04:00

The framing of the house is now well under way. They have now completed framing the entire first floor and will begin on the second floor soon. It is great to see it taking shape and to actually be able to walk into the rooms we have until now only seen on paper. I was very concerned about the 11 inches of rain we received over the weekend (The most ever in South Bend), but the drainage tiles they installed around the basement swept all of the water away great and by Monday it wasn't even damp in the basement dispite not having a roof over the house.
We still have to finalize the exterior colors and then we move onto the interterior cabinet design.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-16T16:39:00.007-04:00

Grace's Grandma and Pop came to visit over Labor Day Weekend and we all had a great time. Micki, Scott, Clay and Tuff went Kayaking down the Christiana Creek on Saturday while Barbara and Grace spent the day shopping. Then on Sunday, we spend the day in beautiful St. Joe Michigan enjoying the beach-side playground area. Grace got to meet a parrot for the first time... she didn't like it! Monday we took in the Marshall County Blueberry Festival where Micki met this hunky cowboy.

Click here for more pictures from the weekend.

Pletcher Family Vacation

2008-09-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

The 2008 Pletcher family vacation proved to be another fabulous trip to Kiawah Island. As always, it was great to spend time with family and to see Grace play with all of her cousins. The week was filled with fun times. We played at the beach, we played at the pool, we played sing star at night and even spent one day at a great water park in Charleston. Click on the images below for more pictures of this great week.

2008 Pletcher Family Vacation

Fun at the Water Park

Fun at the Beach

Fun at the Pool