Karaoke, Family Style

February 10 2013

When we were in Las Vegas over Christmas break, we gave thought to trying to find a family-friendly karaoke spot, since we had Lisa and Glenn's girls with us.  Although we didn't end up finding a place there, when we went to Lisa's house for a visit, she had scoped out a local place that does karaoke for the whole family on Sunday nights.  We had dinner there at Pineapple Hill Grill, and at about 7 the karaoke DJ started up.  Apparently this was the first Sunday night family karaoke of the year, so word of mouth hadn't much started up.  For at least the first hour our family had the mics to ourselves, with our DJ Miguel and the bartender jumping in every now and then.  Although the food was pretty mediocre, the DJ was very cool and the atmosphere was nice.  I was really impressed that both Devin and Bailey jumped right in, doing a great job of performing for the family.  Of course, Doug and Lisa were great, as always, and I even jumped in with a few songs.  We decided to close out the night with a whole family rendition of "Summer Nights."  It was a lot of fun, and we'll very likely return again in the future.

Homecoming at the Gaetje Household

October 20, 2012

The girls are all grown up and dressed up!  Sophomore year Homecoming Dance for Miss Natalie and Miss Taylor:

 Taylor and her boyfriend, Chris

Last Day in Newport

August 6, 2012

Dangerous Drivers

August 5, 2012

We rented a four person pedal car, and the kids wanted to take turns driving.  Luckily, the young bicyclist that our kids ran over had befriended Bailey a couple of days before, so once he got over the shock of being knocked off his bike by the girls in one of their forays around the RV park, he didn't seem too mad (or hurt, thank goodness).  Looks like it'll still be awhile before we let any of our kids get behind the wheel of a car!

Another Day at the RV Park

August 4, 2012

The kids had such a good time, they wanted to hang out on the inflatables again.  Poor Danielle was so red and blistered that the only way I would allow her to join in was if she wore a t-shirt to cover her shoulders and a big hat to protect her face.  Note the expression on her face.  She is obviously proud of her very fashionable look.  I think she's channeling Gilligan.

Beach Day in Newport

August 3, 2012

We spent the day out at the beach, wave-jumping, laying out, taking pictures, and burying a girl or two in the sand.  Poor Danielle had to contend with me being a bit of a mother hen, since I was so worried about how much sun she'd gotten the previous day.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Lisa had to take off to pick up Riley and Emily so that they could join us for the rest of the trip.  (They had been away at camp for foster kids until then.)  When Lisa got back with the kids, we rolled up the beach towels, shook off the sand, and headed to the nearby Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  I can't say that it was the wisest move Lisa and I made on vacation--taking two rambunctious kids who'd been away for a week and four more over-tired, sun-and-sand weary teenagers (not to mention two harried and sunburned adults!) out to dinner in a restaurant.  It was good food, and we were all very hungry, but it wasn't the most relaxing meal of the vacation.  There are bound to be ups and downs in any vacation, so we just tried to be as flexible as possible.

Victoria Justice Concert

August 2, 2012

For the evening, Lisa had gotten tickets to see Victoria Justice, who was playing at the fairgrounds.  Although I didn't really know much of her music, she was a good entertainer, and the girls--especially Devin, Bailey, and Danielle--really enjoyed the concert.  Nicholas, not being much of a Victoria Justice fan, got to take the opportunity to take in the sites at the fair on his own a bit before meeting up with us after the show.