Ft Wayne Weekend Recap

This past weekend was full but fun!  And yes, I know my update is a day late, but yesterday was a busy day at work, and we were away from home all yesterday evening.

It started with a small group meeting Friday night, which was awesome as always.  We're going through the book of Acts and got into some good discussion on Acts 15:1-35, the Jerusalem Council passage.

Saturday morning and early afternoon I took care of a bunch of stuff around the house - laundry, general cleaning chores, groceries, etc.  After Bill got off work, he packed his things and we headed over to Ft. Wayne, IN.  After arriving at Hall's Guest House there and getting checked in, we met up with the rest of the family for a pizza dinner by the outdoor pool.  While there was a contingency plan for rain, there wasn't one for cold, so we were a bit chilly as it was only in the mid-60's outside!  But we survived, and it went well.  My mom brought brownies and I made buckeye (chocolate/peanut butter) pies, nearly all of which got eaten, along with a whole bunch of pizza.

Besides my grandparents who were the guests of honor, the family that gathered for the weekend was: my parents, my brother and his wife, Bill and I, my aunt and uncle Jean and Mike, my cousin Tim and his son Michael, and my cousin Mark and his wife Chelsie and their 4 kids Olivia, Wesley, Jordan, and Carson.

The hotel left some things to be desired, but it was alright.  The doors had actual physical locks and real keys, which I haven't seen at a hotel for years!  There was supposed to be free wireless internet, but some guest's laptop had overtaken the entire network so nobody else could get on, and they didn't have an IT person there to fix it.  The very simple fix would require somebody resetting the router (i.e., unplug it and plug it back in!) but apparently none of the staff there could do it.  The beds weren't all that comfortable, and they were full size instead of queen, but we made it work.  The indoor hot tub was pretty lame, with no real jets, just little holes in the side with some air bubbling through.  Bill and I had some confusion with getting our meal tickets and when we could use them, but fortunately my aunt got them set straight on that.  (At the Guest House, for $80 you get a room for the night plus coupons for dinner and breakfast included.)

Sunday morning after partaking in the hotel's breakfast brunch, we all headed to church at Holy Cross, where my grandparents have attended for many years.  In my opinion the service was typical for Missouri Synod Lutheran, and the sermon was good, based on Proverbs 29:11.  After church we headed back to the hotel to have our big meal in a private room in the restaurant.  The food was very good, and you got a ton of it too!  I don't think I quite made it through half of my fettuccine alfredo.

Before the meal, it was just us, my parents, and my brother and sister-in-law in the room for a little while, and the waitress brought the cake in, since they have a cake decorating place associated with the restaurant too.  Mom goes over to it to take a picture, and it says something like Happy 80th Birthday Mother!  We figured if my grandparents saw that, they'd be like Been There, Done That!  My dad tracked down someone to get the right cake to us, and fortunately they did find the right one - Happy 70th Anniversary Mel and Louise definitely fit our gathering better! :-)

After the meal and the opening of cards/gifts, we did a few family photos and all departed.  I have pictures on my computer of all this but haven't gotten them uploaded online yet, so I'll post when I do that.

Sunday evening after Bill and I got home, we were finally getting hungry for dinner around 7pm.  For the last week or so (after watching a few episodes of Man v. Food on the Travel Channel) our friend Luke who's been staying with us has been talking about doing the Blazin' Challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings.  The challenge is to eat 12 wings with their hottest sauce in under 6 minutes.  He did it once before, and it only took him 1:30 apparently.  So, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, and he did the challenge - in 2:20 this time, but still completely smashing the store record of 5:44!  He even got the T-shirt to prove it.  If you're on Facebook, check out my photos for before/after pictures of him there.  He did surprisingly well with it and was barely bothered by the hotness, so maybe one night this week we'll go to the Ugly Duckling in Swanton, OH, since we hear their "annihilation" sauce is way hotter than Buffalo Wild Wings' hottest, and I think they have a similar challenge there.

So that rounded out the weekend... another post is coming (at some point) about yesterday!