Michigan Part 2

This is the second half of our trip.  After all of Luke's cousins headed home, we were able to stay a few extra days and enjoy being together as a family.  Here we are hanging out on the front porch watching the sunset...one of our favorite pastimes!

Beth loves sidewalk chalk!

A trip down to the bay to watch Jordan kite-surf.  He is amazing!

Papa Dude and Faith Anna cheering him on.

Bright and early on the morning of August 10th...

 
We celebrated a big 4-year old's birthday...complete with streamers and balloons everywhere!

Tag saying Happy Birthday motor-boat style. (The pink bib is compliments of cousin Meg. We forgot to bring a bib...)

Our traditional birthday cinnamon rolls...

Papa Dude and Logan creating homemade crawdad fishing rods.  You think they worked very well?  Read on....

Faith jamming to my iPod while they worked.

The boys napping out on the back lawn...another of our fav pastimes.

Making birthday cupcakes with Granny Boo! Pink frosting, please...

Birthday princess at dinner.

She and Baby Emma got matching pjs.  Cute cute...

Just before sunset, we set out to test those newly-made rods...

And score!  Guess how many of the little critters we caught?!

20!  Yes, 2o.  And then we poured them all out on the dock and watched them race back into the water.  Great idea, Chris!  This was a favorite memory of the kids' this summer.

T-man wants to be the next Crocodile Hunter.  We loved Steve...

He definitely has the wild-man hair for the job.

On one of our last days we went down to Sunset Park with Granny Boo...

I love this pic of Tag and Luke...

We walked out to the lighthouse.  It was mighty windy!

Beth fell asleep on the walk home.  So precious.

Goofing off one night at another of our favorite parks... picnic out on the grass....American Spoon foods for dinner....and Gelato for dessert.  Doesn't get much better than this!

I literally got kicked out of our double bed this night.  Tag came in first....then Faith Anna.  I had about 3 inches to sleep on, so I finally just got up early and started the day.  Ha!  So sweet.

Our last beach day.  It was so beautiful.  We had lots of fun building sandcastles and swimming out to the dock.  That water is fr-fr-freezing!

Can't wait until next summer!  We had a wonderful time, Nanny.  Thanks again for sharing your beautiful home with us for a week.  CYK...

Summer Days

Wow.... Summer has flown by! Since my last blog we have been on several trips, celebrated several birthdays and are now running around the house like crazy chasing our very mobile 10 month old! Hope Summer has been a blast for all of you....full of popsicles, swimming, lazy days, the sound of crickets at night, pjs till noon, donuts for breakfast, running barefoot through the grass, chasing lightning bugs, eating cold, cold ice cream and spending lots of good family time together.

So let me attempt to get you caught up....

Who lets their children run around in the front yard like this?  Oh wait, they're catching bugs...well that's different.  :)

We also had the fun opportunity to get away for a night with my brother, sis-in-law, and their kids to Great Wolf Lodge.  We had such a fabulous time!  It is always special to hang out with them because we all have so much in common....and they are just so dadgum fun to be with!  Logan and Peter have a special relationship since they are the same age and "best friends" as Logan tells it....and the girls just adore Caroline and she is wonderful with them!  So we got away for a night in late July... and here's how it all went down.

Look at our silly boys.  Always making a fart noise, fart face, or armpit fart.  What's the fascination, really?

This hotel has really figured out how to win the hearts of little kids.  When they're not swimming, they can go on this "MagiQuest" treasure hunt with magic wands that light things up all over the hotel.  And then when you're not doing that, well there's always ice cream.  (scroll down a few pics....)

Caroline took the "Princesses of the North" on their treasure hunt...

Beth was very into the unicorn wand...

And the boys were the "Silver Dragons" I think....well they were on their own highly competitive hunt against the girls...although the girls didn't know it was a race. 

Beth loving the ice cream.  She is so funny I can't stand it.

Ready for a full day at the waterpark....

The cousins minus Tag.  Yeah, he's not quite old enough to enjoy the amenities at ol GWL...so he got to have some special time with Papa B, Nana, and a sweet babysitter named Angela.

Beth and Faith Anna really enjoyed this little splash park outside.  I mean really enjoyed it.  Keep scrolling....

Remember the ice cream?  Yes, it was thoroughly enjoyed as well...

...especially by Beth...

...and Logan....

...and Faith Anna.

Fun times!

Then back at home, we sure missed Tag man.  The kids kept asking why he wasn't with us.  We tried to explain that they wouldn't let a 9 month old go on the Howling Tornado water slide....

This is a cute pic of our neighbor Hayley rocking Tag to sleep.  She just adores him...and he adores her!
All for now!  I'll try to post our Michigan pics tomorrow.  Sweet dreams...