Tag Archives: Millwood Daze

Summer 2026

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It was a summer for the Reser record books. We covered many miles over the past 2.5 months while also taking time to enjoy the season here at home. Because after all, no one does summer better than the Inland Northwest.

Summer 2026 was incredible! We traveled a lot while still having plenty of fun in Spokane.

In the past, I have gone back-and-forth between recapping our summers in chronological form and summarizing them according to themes. However, this year I thought I would do a hybrid approach. I will do a brief rundown of what we did followed by a condensed smattering of themes (just five) that defined our summer.

Our summer got started right away with a trip to Mexico to celebrate our 10th anniversary. My parents gave Sloan and Beau a terrific start to their summer as well by letting them stay with them.

Sound good? Let’s go…

Our summer started once Sloan and Beau finished the school year on June 12. From there, things started off with a bang. Sid and I traveled to Cancun to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. The next week the kids attended Catholic Summer Camp. June then concluded with Hoopfest weekend as I served as a court monitor for the 10th time while Sid and the kids volunteered with me once again.

For the third straight year, my family worked together to volunteer at one of the 425 Hoopfest courts. The scorecard depicts the year (2026).

July was busy from the beginning as we opened the month by watching an outdoor movie under the Pavilion at Riverfront Park. Our Fourth of July weekend kicked off with a screening of “Independence Day” in my childhood best friend’s backyard. On the actual holiday we attended the American Heroes Parade in Coeur d’Alene followed by a cookout at my parents’ house and then capped with a fireworks show. A trip to Seattle then ensued that allowed me to mix work with pleasure. I presented at EWU’s Alumni Board meeting and once that concluded our family explored the city, took a ferry to Bellevue, gawked at the gum wall, and attended a Seattle Mariners game.

Happy 250th birthday, America! My family posed for this photo on July 4…it was a great day!

The month of August started in Atlanta for us. Sid and I attended the Engaged Encounter National Convention while my in-laws joined us at the conference hotel and watched the kids. When the convention concluded, we caught more Major League Baseball as we visited Truist Stadium to watch the Atlanta Braves play. We then drove to Myrtle Beach where we spent an incredible week with Sid’s family. Back in Spokane, we celebrated all the wedding anniversaries in my family with a special dinner, spent a day at Q’emlin Park, and had loads of fun during a Sunday at Silverwood.

Sidney and the kids pose for a photo inside The Battery in Atlanta prior to the Braves game.

Wow, I just recapped our summer in three measly paragraphs. That’s pretty good for me, right? But that just covered the major trips and events of the past few months. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the little things that really made Summer 2026 special. These five themes will help put it in perspective…

Neighborhood Fun – I was delighted that Sloan and Beau found neighborhood friends this year and spent the long summer nights outside with them. The neighborhood basketball court was a safe and engaging congregating place for the youth of Elk Meadows as my two kids routinely joined the fun. Because Sloan and Beau go to a different school than most children in the neighborhood, it can be natural to not reach out. I was heartened to see them make new friendships and go outside their comfort zone.

Perhaps not the best photo to share with the kid on top of the basketball hoop, but the general scene is what a lot of summer nights looked like this year. Beau would play at the basketball court with his neighbor friends (Beau is to the direct right of the red bush in the photo).

Camp! – Another way Beau and Sloan went outside their comfort zone this summer was by attending camp. In addition to Catholic Summer Camp, the kids spent three weeks at day camp presented by Spokane Valley Parks & Rec. They went on field trips, played at parks, and swam in pools. One of the “opportunities” they cherished the most was riding in a school bus—something they don’t do as Catholic school students. While enjoying all of this excitement, they met lots of new friends and were surrounded by camp counselors who were positive and terrific role models.

This year the theme at St. Mary’s (Spokane Valley) Catholic Summer Camp was “Cool Kingdom Party: Mary Leads Me Closer to Jesus.” I promise Beau was more excited for camp than how he looked in this photo 😂. Beyond Vacation Bible School, the kids also went for three weeks at Spokane Valley Parks & Rec day camp.

Pools – The summer was hot so thank goodness for water! I think Sloan and Beau spent more time in the pool this year than any previous summer. From the hotel pools to the county pools to the camp pools to the private pools, it was a good thing that our kids had more than one swimsuit. The culmination of all this swimming came during our theme park trip when we hit up Silverwood’s water park, Boulder Beach. It was here that Beau swam like a fish and showed what the summer in the pool did for his once-weak swimming skills.

Sidney, Sloan, Beau, and cousins splash in the pool during a humid afternoon during our Myrtle Beach trip.

Faith – Fr. Mike Kwiatkowski once told my kids that “We can’t take a vacation from God during summer because he doesn’t take one from us.” We tried our best to follow this guidance. While on the road this summer we attended mass at two different parishes (St. Cecilia – Bainbridge Island, St. John the Evangelist – Atlanta) and one that we used to call our own (St. Andrew – Myrtle Beach). We also spent plenty of time at our home parish but things looked just a little different. After worshipping at a sunrise mass he presided over and attending a special going-away party in his honor, Fr. Jeff Lewis left for his next assignment at the end of June. Fr. Curtis Seidel then took over pastorship of St. Mary on July 1. The transition has been seamless and we are encouraged and impressed by the talents that Fr. Seidel has brought to the table (or perhaps altar? 😂). 

Members of our Young Adult/Young Family group gather around Fr. Jeff Lewis during a going-away party for him in June.

Events – We tried to venture out into the community as much as possible this summer. Our family attended events such as Unity in the Community, Millwood Daze, Summer on the Ave., Cops & Kids, and YMCA Healthy Kids Day. What became plainly obvious is that Spokane is an awesome place to live and raise a family. Speaking of Spokane, I must mention the four Spokane Indians games we attended throughout the summer as another way that we got to connect with this awesome community.

Beau, Sloan, and I pose in a photo booth at the 2026 Spokane YMCA Healthy Kids Day. The “Get the party started” sign was appropriate as this event kicked off our summer in mid-June.

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What can I say? It was another amazing summer. Thanks to Sidney, Sloan, and Beau for packing it to the brim and creating memories that I will always cherish. Although it is always sad to say goodbye to summer, there is comfort in the fact that autumn in the Inland Northwest is just as spectacular. Stay tuned. Don’t Blink.

High Moon Thursday Rundown

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Although I didn’t write a Thursday Rundown on the first Thursday of August (darn vacation), I am here to write a Thursday Rundown on the last Thursday of August. Dang, I just wrote the word “Thursday” a lot for one sentence. So as we all get in back-to-school mode, let me offer five non-academic topics…

Silverwood Trip – This past Sunday, my family took our annual excursion to Silverwood Theme Park in north Idaho. The end-of-summer tradition allows us to reward Sloan and Beau for meeting reading goals during the previous school year. Let me summarize how much fun we had by saying this: We arrived at the park before it officially opened and left after it closed. We hit up both the theme park and water park as Sloan rode the roller coasters and Beau showed off the swimming skills he has developed over the summer in the wave pool. The highlight was when the four of us piled onto a raft and went down Avalanche Mountain, the largest water slide at Silverwood. Tap here for more pictures.

A family photo from our Summer 2026 Silverwood visit. We had a lot of fun!

Now That’s A Corn Dog – Please allow me to add one final anecdote regarding Silverwood. In between the theme park and water park, we ate lunch. Sidney scouted out a restaurant near the park’s main entrance called the High Moon Saloon. It serves exclusively hot dogs and corn dogs while offering a quirky dinner show of taxidermy animal heads talking to each other. Anyway, I ordered a corn dog that was drizzled in honey and covered in crushed Cheetos. It was a flavorful experience to say the least. By the way, I have written a lot about corn dogs.

This was the High Moon corn dog I ordered at the High Moon Saloon in Silverwood. It was really good.

Last Indians Game of Summer – We attended our fourth and last Spokane Indians game of the summer on Friday. This final game was significant for a few reasons: My brother and niece joined us, the kids got to go down on the field to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” we made the video board, there was a post-game fireworks show, and Beau got to play plenty of wiffle ball on the mini field right outside of the stadium’s concourse. The Spokane Indians organization does an excellent job at making these games ultra family friendly.

We attended our last Spokane Indians game of the summer this past Friday. The kids sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, we watched fireworks, and we made the video board! Best of all, we welcomed special guest…my brother and niece!

College Tips – It was 14 years ago this week that I was feeling old. It had been 7 years since my freshman year at the University of Montana and I felt the need to impart my elderly wisdom on students going off to college. Although my reasoning was beyond corny, I thought the tips I provided were relevant. If you have a son or daughter heading off to college, you might want to send them this post I wrote in 2012 about how to make the most of their freshman year. From embracing school spirit to eating right to getting involved to taking class seriously (and lots more), I tried to offer a pretty comprehensive guide.

This was me on my first day of college at The University of Montana (August 2005).

Picture of the Week – This past Saturday, Beau and I attended an event called Millwood Daze (yep, “Daze” not “Days”). Millwood is a small community in Spokane County and the event is spirited and fun. Not too long after strolling down the residential street that serves as the focal point of Millwood Daze, Beau encountered a lady “wearing” a snake. He proceeded to touch it. That a boy, Beau!

Beau approaches a lady with a snake at the 2026 Millwood Daze event.

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It is the last weekend of the summer for Sloan and Beau before they head back to school on Monday. Verdict is out on whether it will be used to go out on a bang or to rest up. Don’t Blink.

Face Painting Pains

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Our family attends a lot of community events. I love to take the kids out on a Saturday morning to whatever festival or celebration is taking place in beautiful Spokane. If you attend enough of these events, you won’t be surprised to encounter some of the given attractions such as kettle corn, prize spinners, photo booths, and chalk art.

Uh oh, I missed one. Actually, no, I didn’t, I just wanted to save it for last for dramatic effect. After all, it is what this blog post is about.

I am talking about face painting!

A photo of Sloan after she got her face painted at the Spokane County Interstate Fair in 2021.

My kids are crazy about face painting. They will apply the full court press on me to get their faces painted and if it is free, I will usually relent. But daddy, why would you put up any hesitation at all? Well, let me give you a couple reasons…

– The wait can be brutal. A long line plus the love/care that a lot of these artists put forth while doing their craft can be a big time suck.

– It is hard enough for me to keep my hands at my side, let alone my children. They are always touching their faces and if they have face paint applied it seems like the tendency to touch their cheeks increases tenfold. Not a big fan of smeared face paint and stained fingers.

– It is Murphy’s Law at its finest. If Beau doesn’t get his face painted, he most definitely won’t fall asleep in the car on the ride home. IF he does get his face painted, he will fall asleep the second we pull into the driveway. When the latter occurs it creates a dilemma of whether we place him in his bed peacefully so the paint will rub off on his pillow OR attempt to wipe it off while he is sleeping and risk waking him up (which always happens).

– Speaking of wiping off face paint art, sometimes it can be really hard, even if my kid isn’t sleeping while I try to do it.

I mentioned that Sloan and Beau got their faces painted the past two weekends. On Aug. 17, we attended the Unity in the Community event at Riverfront Park. There was a booth sponsored by the Filipino American Northwest Association and they had a professional face painter who was painting the faces of kids for no charge.

Beau getting his face painted at the Unity in the Community event.

Then this past Saturday we encountered another free face painting booth. We attended Millwood Daze and found ourselves at the West Valley High School Senior All-Nighter table. Although the artists weren’t professionals (they were just high school seniors trying to score some donations), they did a wonderful job.

After getting his face painted the prior weekend, he once again got his face painted this past Saturday at the Millwood Daze event.

Although letting my children get their faces painted isn’t my favorite thing in the world, I do appreciate the joy it brings them and the attention they receive from the artists. Now if only Beau wouldn’t fall asleep with a fully painted face. Don’t Blink.