First day of school!

 Evey is a junior, Boyd is a 6th grader -- his first year of Middle School. 

Cheers to Alan from McAllen

 Hello everyone.

Sorry for the long gap between posts. We had a busy, unusual and at times difficult summer. Adrianne lost her dad on July 30th. The kids lost their grandpa. I lost my father-in-law and a good friend. 

He was two weeks shy of his 79th birthday.

Here is a website that pays tribute to Alan, with tons of photos. 

The family was kind enough to ask me to say a few words at the service. Here is my eulogy.

I’m honored that Diana asked me to say a few words about my father-in-law, Alan. Before I speak about Alan… Diana, we’re so sorry for your loss. Thank you for all the hard work you put in taking care of Alan over these difficult months.

 

I’m Seth. About 20 years ago, a beautiful young girl started working in my office, so I changed where I parked, so I had an excuse to walk by her desk four times a day. Now, today, I’m happy to say Adrianne and I have a beautiful family, Evey is 16 and Boyd is 11, and we’ve been part of the Weibel family ever since.

 

I remember the first time I met Alan, was at the Holidome in Lawrence. The Holidome is a fancy way of saying ‘Holiday Inn with an indoor pool.’ I was nervous. Adrianne told me I’d love her dad, but I was intimidated to meet him… his work as a private investigator seemed daunting. This guy was probably going to size me up pretty quick, and did he already do a background check on me and if so, what did he find?

 

Turns out, Adrianne was right. We became friends instantly. How often do we make new friends in everyday life? And I met a friend, a father-in-law, a grandpa and eventually even my dad that day. 

 

I still remember the day I called him to ask for permission to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. I was so nervous! I remember exactly where I was sitting, down to the couch cushion. I knew Alan knew something was up for me to call him, and when I told him the reason for my call, and asked for his blessing, he said, “Well, Seth, haha… I think that sounds wonderful.”

 

How lucky was I to have a man like Alan on the other end of that call? I think any married man in this room knows what I mean … Alan was a great father-in-law. So kind, laid-back. I feel like he started most of his stories to me like that. “Well, Seth… haha…” And buckle up because he was such a great storyteller. He was full of great one-liners. 

 

We found some old letters from him recently… they were long, written on rice paper. I didn’t think I’d read the whole thing… but it sucked me in. I laughed out loud multiple time. he was writing about the small town where he lived. He said the town was so small, they didn’t even have a town drunk… they all had to take turns.

 

Alan lived an amazing life, from his time in the Peace Corps, to his time in the Army, stationed in Germany, to his travels around Mexico. Diana found his paperwork for the Veteran’s cemetery, he filled it out ten years ago. He wrote his own message on his headstone: life’s journey is without a map. Well said.

 

I think about Alan and I think of all the things he did, the things he saw, the various places he lived, the horses he owned. He equal was part Indiana Jones, MacGyver and Magnum, P.I. He was an adventurer. He was on a quest to meet everyone and learn about their stories. That’s a rare thing about a great storyteller … many just want to tell stories. Alan also wanted to hear stories.

 

And I have to tell you that Alan was a tremendous grandfather. He loved Evey and Boyd so much! Once the kids came along, we’d see Alan and Di much more often. We’d visit, they’d visit. Evey gave Boyd the nickname Bubba when he was a baby. That was the only name Alan ever used for Boyd, I think he was both loyal to Evey’s nickname, and liked that he had a nickname for Boyd that no one else was using. It always made me feel good to hear Alan ask, “How is Evey and Bubba doing?”

 

I want to thank Alan for the many bottles of tequila over the years. That was a regular thoughtful gift he’d give me, whenever he traveled to Mexico, he bring me back a bottle of Maestro blue. And whenever we were together, whether we were watching football, the Jayhawks or the NBA playoffs, he was great at sneaking in a tequila shot at halftime. “Seth, if the Jayhawks are winning at halftime, we better do a shot to keep it going.” The Jayhawks are losing at halftime. “Seth, we better do a shot of tequila to rally the Jayhawks!”

 

I told Aaron this the other day… there was a strange coincidence about 15 years ago, we lost my dad, and Adrianne lost both of her grandpas, within about 10 days of each other. I’m so grateful I had Alan as a father figure in my life, to fill that void, over these last 15 years.

 

I hope that after we all move along from here, you’ll raise a shot of tequila and do a cheers to a wonderful man, Alan from McAllen.

The Aquarium

The kids and Grandma had a good time at the Cleveland Aquarium. Evey (with an assist from Grandma) made the call; Bub was still asleep and Adro flew to Texas to see her dad.

Evey made the right call, everyone had fun!

The kids got a lot of good photos there. I'll post more. 

Tuesday in Cleveland seems to have been pretty epic! 

Duck pin bowling in Ohio City

Day one in Cleveland we hit this place called Pins / 16-Bit. Free play vintage arcade games + pinball + duck pin bowling.

We had a really good time there, despite being worn out from the 3 am wake-up call. 

I'll admit I took last place in the bowling game! Adro won by one pin, Evey in second.

I'd go back in a heartbeat, plenty of games I didn't get to play. My work hosted an office party there last Christmas. Great spot. Kids are allowed until 8 pm. 

Royals Vs. Guardians

The family added to its roster of Major League ballparks visited!

Royals

Giants

Mariners

And now Guardians!

Saw a win, too… and a Salvie Perez homer!

Edgewater Beach

In Cleveland! 

DON'T GO IN THE WATER. SEWAGE EVENT. 

Bub's look says "Only in Ohio."

4th of July

It was a HOT ONE in Eudora but we still had a little party… we had Rod + Lupe and their grandkids join us, plus Ben, Cathy for a little while (who coincidentally know Judy.)

The biggest firework of the night misfired. Only half of it went off, and all at once. So I stuffed a punk in there and eventually it caught fire… and eventually the rest of it went off!

We had lots of fruit, plus dogs, some sides, and I grilled a few chickens. 

It was fun! Weird having the 4th on a Tuesday. Work the next day was ROUGH! 

I like your style

Judy, Bub and I all wore the same 2018 shirt to the St. John's Fiesta tonight!

I messed it up… I almost wore black shorts, but elected to wear a favorite pair of shorts that Judy has been repairing for me for at least 10 years (seriously, those shorts have seen at least five Lollapaloozas, and I only went every three to four years.)

Food was good. Temperature was hot. Judy, Adro and Evey volunteered again. Me and Bub showed up late. 

Fiesta is a nice tradition.

Bub and I were even stopped by Father John, and he chit-chatted with us…

But Adro tells us we still have to go to church tomorrow…

Next year Bub will probably wear my shirt, the way he's growing… 

If the hat fits…

Wear it! 

And that hat DOES NOT fit.

Good day today in the RGV. Bub and I got haircuts. Good breakfast, leftover burrito stuff I made the day before. Said goodbye to Alan. Quick (!) stop at What-a-Burger. Short drive to South Padre Island.

Tons of seaweed in the ocean, but good news: there's no one here. Traffic is light. Was able to get a table at South Padre Island Brewery right away and the service was good, food was excellent. 

Kids rode boogie boards for two runs, I just did one. The seaweed does suck, and the waves were weak. Water was warm, though… almost too warm! Spent 2.5 hours on the beach… 

After dinner me, Evey and Adro went for a short walk while Bub showered. We walked down the pier, checked out the lighthouse (they were projecting a movie on the lighthouse, it was cute. Almost 1/3rd of what our projector movies look like…)

There's no cable tv in the room so I walked to Shark Tank Lounge to watch the Nuggets win game one of the NBA finals. Nuggets won but it got a little close in the 4th quarter.

A good day! A very good day. 

We'll be on the beach all day tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I just kinda like the beach, I don't love it. Then we head home Saturday morning.

I am looking forward to the breakfast burrito at Pirate's Landing tomorrow!!! 

Also: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA JUDY!!! We'll celebrate soon, we love you! 

Memorial Day in McAllen

One fine cake maker

 Evey made a deluxe-o cake for the party... it was double-layer and everything!

Funny note about the cake: for the following few days, Judy came over every day around 10 a.m. and had some of the cake with milk. It was her breakfast for a few days. A breakfast of champions!

Celebrating what would have been Virginia’ 96th

At the HOJ! 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Also! Fate would have it… this was our last meal at that old rickety table!

New table now in place at the HOJ and it is FANCY!

***

Mom's day was good. Me and the kids made Mexican food and we ate next door, abnormally cool day, and even ate while it sprinkled outside.

The jukebox was rocking the new National CD! 

Evey got her braces off!

 This photo was taken the morning she was getting them removed (5/4/23)... I'll post an "after" photo soon.

Her smile looks amazing!

Eudora Cardinals 5th/6th soccer, that's a wrap!

That's a wrap on Bub's soccer season. Evey still has a few games to go.

Pictured are 8 of the 12 kids on our team. Clockwise lower left to right: Lucas, Aidan, Boyd, Greyson, Caidence, Leo, Tony (Leo and Tony are brothers) and Lyla. Not pictured: Kaleb, Eli, Owen and Tyler.

We won our first game of the season then lost the next five. We were "in" all but one of the games. Trouble scoring and also a hesitance on defense, once the other team broke through. 

I'm pretty sure I cost us two of those games, based on bad substitutions. But we also lacked soccer common sense at times. The kids that were good were GOOD and then some of the other kids lacked awareness. I'm talking handballs, bad positioning, lack of effort, etc.

We had some highlights, that's for sure. Boyd tied for the Golden Boot, with three goals on the season. Lucas also had three goals on the season.

It was a good team, better than their record reflected. I've got a million excuses why... short-handed at times, slow-starting at times... 

Still I'll say they were a better team in practice than they were in games. I was that same person in my sports career. 

But I'm trying to teach them that it's fun to play, it's good to be competitive, to be teammates. And it's awesome to win while losing sucks.

Boyd LOVES soccer. The best matches we have are between him and Evey, here at the house. They're going to keep making each other better, the more they practice against each other.