Michiana Festivities

This past weekend was the Venetian Festival in St. Joseph, Michigan (about 35 minutes from South Bend). We had heard good things about it and decided to check it out. We went Saturday evening with the Behling's and ended up parking over a mile away from the beach where it was held. As we were walking to the beach, Kevin spotted some LDS missionaries coming out of a house. He mentioned it in passing to us. One of our friends decided she wanted to talk to the missionaries and turned around-- turns out one of the missionaries was her cousin! Small world! Anyways, the Venetian Festival wasn't all it was talked up to be. The beach was beautiful and looked like it belonged in California rather than Michigan, but the actual festival was mostly food stands and a small carnival. Even worse, they made you purchase food tickets for the stands. We ended up standing in line for food tickets and another hour in the food stand lines to pay $7 for a gyro or small portion of barbecue! It was a total rip-off! By the time we got done eating, the sun had set and we only had an hour before the fireworks started. We wandered around the festival but weren't impressed. But the beach was great. We found a nice spot to view the fireworks, and Kevin dug us out a nice little couch in the sand. The fireworks were fantastic! They lit them off the pier over Lake Michigan and had a half an hour show. Next time, we'll just go for the fireworks.

We had an early celebration of Kevin's birthday on Sunday. The Behling's and Janetski's came over, and we played games and had cake and ice cream. Happy birthday, Kevin!! Also, congratulations to Michael and his fiancee! This week is going to be a very eventful week with lots of visitors. I have a friend from BYU coming with his parents and family to spend the night on their way to Maryland. And Kevin's mom and aunt are coming next week. Yeah for visitors! I thought August would be uneventful, but things keep piling on. Kevin's work is very busy with so many people gone on vacations or calling in "sick." He's decided he'd like to get his MBA while here, so he's gearing up for the GMAT. My work is still keeping me busy 24-7. I'm liking it though. And Riley is as cute as ever. He's still growing as fast as ever and keeps us very busy. Hope everyone enjoys what's left of the summer- it's going fast!