Our Michigan Adventure

We made the trek over to Muskegon this weekend for Michigan Adventure. We knew it would be cold and we knew the rain threatened. It did more than threaten. It rained nearly the whole day. After about 4 hours of making due with Tyler, he and mom headed for the car for a nap (which never happened). After another 4 1/2 hours, Jim and Ryan found their way back to the car with a whole tale of adventures including rides on huge rollercoasters and a way cool picture of them on the ride. (Sorry, can't post it...I don't have a scanner.) They were totally posing with thumbs up and big smiles. That's my boy. They are both real troopers.

We stayed the night before in a cheap motel that had a cool pool and Ryan practiced his skills of jumping in and swimming. He is such a fishie. Then we headed over to Grand Haven on a cool, drizzly night to enjoy the beach. It was just beautiful and we are so looking forward to the experience when the weather is hot. Stay tuned. I have more to share when I have time.

Quivering Lip

Ryan had a good time with Granna and Vacatation Bible School. Granna told me at one point he had a quivering lip and said he was scared but she snuggled him up and let him do an activity with her. He wanted to give it another shot today:) Granna was so proud that Ryan memorized his Bible verse. Good job Ry. Let's see how it goes today.

Tyler had an easier time going to school alone today. Yesterday, when I picked him up he was running with other boys his size and didn't even notice me standing there. It was really cute to see. He had a little bit of a grumpy ride home even without Ryan there to pick on him. We made animal noises for nearly 20 minutes and Tyler is really getting good at it. Fun.

Missing School for Bible School

Ryan is spending the day with Granna to soak up some Vacation Bible School. Last night, while I was working and Jimmy was mowing Granna's grass the boys were playing inside and Granna invited Ryan to VBS. I never got a concrete answer from Ryan as to whether or not he wanted to go...but I sure did get the answer at 4:59 a.m. when I woke Ryan to get ready for school and he promptly announced he was going to church today with Granna. I ran around frantically to get us into the car and dropped off at Granna's. I'm really hoping he beahaves well:) It will be good that I won't be there for him to cling to my side. I'm hoping he makes a couple of friends so that he will start doing Sunday school instead of sitting in church with mom.

Tyler waved goodbye this morning and we headed for school. It was a good ride in...but when we arrived, he pointed at Ryan's chair and called out Ryan's name and refused to get out of the car. I had to take him inside kicking and screaming. Miss Char promised she would give him a special attention day:)

We had a very busy/fun weekend of golfing, happy birthdaying for Granna, zooing-it, bowling, footballing, and picnicing with family. Needless to say, we are all very tired and should have spent some more time resting. Oh well, maybe this weekend. Oops, probably not as we are heading to Michigan Adventure!

On Monday, I will be going back to a regular work week and I'm hoping the extra hours of sleep will put us all in a better frame of mind.

Summer Fundays

Top O' the Hamburger Hailee


Fire Chief

Burger King

Jump King
These summer memories are truly royal.

No pics, but good memories:)

We had a good weekend. There was alot less fighting and arguing this weekend. We had made up our minds that there would be no rewards (adventures) for bad behavior and since it was supposed to be a good weather weekend, we planned to stay home and enjoy the lake. Race weekend is always a good time to stay home:) We played with squirt guns and Tyler's new dolpin sprinkler from the Wheaton family. We went on quite a few boatrides and swam at the park and in front of the house. Ryan is really starting to get the swim pattern down (with a lifejacket on). Spent nearly the whole day fishing on Sunday.

We had one of our proudest moments as parents when we stopped by Kahlen's house and saw that she was jumping off her dock in very deep water. Ryan said, "Let's go! I want to do that." So we pulled up and he chickened out a little. I said, "If Mommy puts on a life jacket and gets in...do you promise to jump in my arms?" "Yes," he replies. Ten minutes later and Ryan is still afraid to jump and Kahlen is on jump #54 and is swimming circles around me.

Tyler heads for the dockside and reaches down for me. Jim hurries to put a life jacket on Tyler and soon enough, Ty scoots to the edge a drops into the water. What a nice surprise! Oh, but wait...Tyler looks at me as if to say.."What the heck did I just do?" Mr. Glenn scoops him back up to the dock and by now, Ryan sure is ready....ready to not be outdone by baby brother, that is!

So cautiously, Ryan edges to the water and kerplunks into my arms with a little frantic kicking and squealing (and exporting half the lake back out of his mouth). The look on his face was so priceless. What a great accomplishment!

Tyler decides he's ready for round 2 and drops back in for another try. At the same time, Ryan couldn't contain himself and he jumps into the water with no warning and shoots back up the top with the biggest smiles ever! We continued this pattern for quite some time and I nearly had to pry Ryan out of the water. (The promise of an ice cream cone did the trick:)

We're so proud of this accomplishment. It is a scary world full of scary adventures. So glad to see our little guy be so brave. It was alot of fun and looking forward to more time jumping in the water and making "fireworks."

I need some funny...

...and here it is.

Papa Ralph thought he was so cool stealing the huge squirt gun away from the kids. Well, look what happens while Papa tries to reload:) Thanks for the laugh Ryan...it has been a high stress week and I really enjoyed my conversation with Jim last night after the boys went to bed. Most nights I am the first to bed and it is difficult having real conversations with the boys around who want to do all the talking (read as screaming). I'm looking forward to some down time. I'm working some O/T this morning and them home and off to the beach for some picnic and sun fun. Have a great weekend.

Trip to the Mighty Mighty Tigers

This is old news...but news I wanted to remember...

On our July vacation, Ryan, Jim and I ventured the trip to Detroit to see the Tigers. Tyler stayed for a visit with Granna and we took off with no tickets. Jim checked the internet before we left and there were plenty. All Tiger fans must have had the same strategy b/c after the long 1+1/2 hour drive, we finally arrived and boldly approached the ticket window to be told that all that was left was standing room only. We just stared at the girl behind the glass and said, uh...yeah right...stand for 3+ hours with a 4 year old. What to do?

We stepped back from the window and thought about scalping some tickets but were too afraid. I mean, they have postings up all over stating that scalping is illegal and police offers are patrolling everywhere. With no backup plan, we stand with dull looks upon our faces waiting for the magical baseball ticket fairy to appear. I asked Jim a few questions and we decided to go back to the ticket booth and to buy one single seat and 2 standing rooms just in case Ryan needed to sit. We approached a different window this time and the gentlemen behind the counter truly grew wings and tapped his magic wand against the cash register and found two seats one behind the other along the 3rd base line. The seats ended up being perfect. We enjoyed the angle and Ryan enjoyed moving between mom and dad to have a different view. I'm so thankful for this underpaid employee who took the time to save our evening.

Bonus: the nachos at the stadium are the best and the fireworks were awesome and were set to music in memory of Michael Jackson. Ryan ate a dog, chips, and apple juice. Jim had a dog. And we scarfed on some salty peanuts we bought outside the stadium for a buck. Good times. (Hey Jim, remember that irritating drunk guy that you had to laugh at who was trying to start the wave but got kicked out? Kinda funny.)

Lake Somerset Picnic

I've been promising to talk about our park picninc for the residents on the lake. Ryan loves participating in all of the events including basketball shootouts, golf chipping, and turtle races. This year, Jim bought a turtle off of some kids. He was a dud but the kids liked touching him and releasing him back to the water. Ryan won a golf award. I think it may have been the same 3 kids that won the contest last year too. It was pretty cold that day but it was still a good time.

Miss Riley's Big Day

I finally uploaded some pictures and realized I never captured this memory. What a fun day we had at Miss Riley's 5th Birthday celebration. She must've had a really good wish...look at her sweet face and that determination.

We took a series of silly shots of all the kids. They sure can be hams. Tyler sure did enjoy that cupcake. There is so much fun to be had when you get this group together. Thanks for the birthday memories Miss Riley.

More Birthday Action

Still finding some good shots from the party. Monday, was Tyler's actual birthday and we surprised the boys with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. We ate pizza, had tons of pop, and played lots of games (for the bargain price of 30 bucks...can't beat that). Tyler really loved riding the race horse and dropping coins in the machines that he couldn't reach. He kept hitting the jackpot on some games of luck and we ended up with a pretty sweet soccer ball from the prize area.

Chuck even came out to the game area to see the kids and to shake hands with Tyler. Jim came to rescue after Tyler's screams saturated the 2-acre building. I pretended as if I didn't know the family:) I saw all the parents smiling at each other. Poor traumatized kid finally calmed down when I pointed to his cup which proudly featured the rat and explained that he is really a nice varment. Tyler still stayed clear and the next time Chuck went by he waved his hands in the air asking for peace and scampered for safety.

I can't wait to make a little crafty mini book of the celebrations!

On a more serious note, I got a call yesterday that a very good friend is suffering with a brain tumor and will undergo surgery soon. Her and her family are very much on my mind and I am praying for her speedy recovery.

Celebrated.

Photo Captions: I'm loving how cute Tyler looks in his goggles and wish the wind hadn't blown out the candles as I am sure he would have kept blowing forever and it was so cute. I love seeing the other kids in action...you can see those puckered up lips of those who so dearly want to blow out that candle. I am commiting Tyler's smiley face to my photographic memory after he thinks he is successful at blowing out the candle and claps so proudly at this great accomplishment.

So we had to back track a little. On the day of the scheduled party severe weather threatened and we decided to postpone the party for a day. We had to make quite a few phone calls and regretfully ended up missing some of the players b/c they had previously made other plans. (Thanks for help making calls Ellen.)

Sunday was a hot, humid, sunny day and as we pulled up to the park we knew we were in big trouble as the pavilion was already staked out by another family. We considered a few other options and decided to just set up under the trees and to make due. (I didn't really want to make due, but I wiped away my teary eyes and surrendered to the "it is what it is" mentality.)

I am so relieved that the party turned out nice. The food and games were good and the company was perfect. We handed out swim goggles, sailboats, squirtguns, and waterballoons and they sure were a hit. Tyler really liked the fishing game that we played out of water cooler. It was really handy for filling squirt guns too. Some of the kids went swimming too and I found a surprise in Tyler's diaper. Yuck!

At the end of the day everyone was damp and disheveled. I dove into the lake too. It took a while to pack up the mess, to unpack the mess, and to put everything away. But it turned out to be an enjoyable day. Tyler went to bed for the night early 'cuz he didn't get a nap. (Jim remembered that on Ryan's 2nd birthday, there was no nap..and he fell asleep in Uncle Len's arms just before the ball fell:)

Can't believe my little guy is "2". Two is one of the few words that Ty is speaking and he spits it out so confident. I love to see him try to hold up two fingers on one hand. He gets frustrated and holds up the pointer finger on each hand. Cute.

Looking forward to meeting up with cousins that couldn't make the party, they were surely missed. For now, we're looking forward to the not-so-terrible-two's and hoping the upcoming year is two-riffic!

Turning Two

What a sweet little dirty camper face. I'm eating my pre-parent words that I would never let my kids run around dirty faced. Here's my reality check: 2 kids later=2 kids that run around with dirty faces:)

Going to do some running around tonight in preparation for the big birthday #2. Tyler has been practicing holding up his fingers and blowing out birthday candles. The boys have been singing to me every night when we have a piece of leftover bday cake that my mom made for me. Jim and I cracked up watching Tyler huff and puff for nearly 3 minutes last night. His faces are hilarious. We can't wait to see how he performs at his bday party.

Tyler got his first haircut with Ms. Kelly for the special occasion. I forewarned her that Tyler is not very patient and very well may hollar. He was a perfect angel. He didn't make a peep. When he started squirming I gave him sweetarts. What a sweetheart!

A Good Camper Always....

Laughs at all of Papa's camp stories.

Lends a hand.


Takes time to play.

Begs for more marshmallows.

Seeks shelter when tired.

Ryan, Tyler, Jim, and I had our first camping endeavor together this weekend. We set up camp in Papa Ralph's back yard and it was a fun adventure. The Homer Hogstravaganza was filled with fun things to do and the boys enjoyed horse back riding, dunk tank throwing (Ryan made the stranger splash with all 3 throws), catching candy at the parade, watching the fireman water contest, getting tattoo'ed, and eating a yummy brunch and yummy farmer's market blueberries. You should've seen Tyler tear into those blueberries. He ate nearly a whole pint himself.

The fun continued back at the campsite where Ryan hammered in all of the stakes and everyone lent a hand setting up the tent. When the work was done, we played golf, baseball, bean "bang" toss, and Yahtzee. We had to threaten the rain away a couple of times and after our walk to the lake and feeding the geese, we headed for one of the best firework shows ever. Boy were they loud. My ears are still recovering. Tyler buried his head in my chest the entire time but never complained. Ryan loved the works and all of 6 us snuggled on a blanket and enjoyed the front row view. Papa T. enjoyed the view on his scooter with his helmet on and his hearing aid off. We actually had to lay down to see the show they were so close. At one point, we even got some debris coming our way. After the show the four of us crawled into our home and zipped up the door while the grands slept inside. I think Mom and Dad actually fell asleep while the kids giggled and played pop goes the weasel. I don't know exactly when the playing stop and snoring started:) Of course, the whole town had the same idea and several party goers made quite a bit of noise all night. Poor Jim hardly slept a wink.

We had an awesome camp breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, blueberrries, and pure maple syrup. The family sang Happy Birthday to me while we sat around eating. It was a horrible rendition. (Joke:) We made our rounds to the Homer parks and ate BBQ chicken before we had to run home for naps, chores, and relaxation. It was a really good time and I'm sure a lasting memory.