September Happenings

In a desperate attempt to get caught up on this blog, all of September is getting lumped into one post. On the drive home from our anniversary trip we were able to visit John's nephew Coleman who is serving a mission outside of Detroit. We got to take him and his companions out to lunch and then we went to a park to let the kids play. It was good to get to see how he is doing. A mission is not easy and we are really proud of how hard he is working.

We got home the night before school started, which was less than ideal, but we made it to school on time and I even managed to take pictures before we left. I was pretty proud of myself. EZ started 3rd grade and Netta started 1st. I know they are still little but they look so much older to me in these pictures, especially Netta. Sniff Sniff

Kingston started preschool at the YMCA. I am excited that now it will be much easier to make sure I get to the gym since I am already going there 3 days a week to drop him off. I was worried about how he would do and he did freak out a bit about this new school, but the teacher said he calmed down quickly even after having to be pried off my legs.

With school back up and running, Conrad and I get to spend some quality time just the two of us. We discovered that the Children's Museum has an awesome story/craft time every Wednesday. One week the theme was bubbles and after drinking tons of bubbles and not seeming to be bothered, Conrad finally figured out how to blow them all by himself.

This is "foaminator"one of the seriously sweet crafts they had.

Owing to the lack of stores here, I have discovered a love of garage sale shopping. I would venture to say it is becoming somewhat of an addiction and King is more then happy to go along for the ride if he gets to watch movies in the car and buy toys like this sweet stuffed pineapple. I have no idea why it appealed to him so much, but obviously he loves it.

 The summer was way too short, but I was excited about the start of fall and the leaves changing and all the beauty that comes with it that we never really got to experience in Texas. Apples are huge here and so is apple picking, so my friend Liz and I took our kids to an orchard that also had a sweet kids play area. Of course none of the cool toys were nearly as appealing as the cat that was running around. Here is Conrad being so sweet and gentle . . .

and then pulling the poor things tail. Conrad really harassed the crap out of that cat and the silly things just kept coming back for more.

King on the other hand was nothing but gentle with the kitty, which is impressive since he likes to play pretty rough with everyone at home. The kids spent so much time playing that by the time we wanted to pick apples they were all hungry and melting down, so we ended just buying some from the orchard store. Oh well. They were still delicious.

This summer EZ and Netta participated in a golf program called "First Tee." It is a really great deal on golf lessons and the kids loved them. EZ really got into it and I have a feeling an individual sport like golf is more his speed. We will definitely be pursuing it further with him. In addition to teaching golf, the program really emphasizes healthy living and so they had a special family walking event around the golf course. It was one of those days where we were late and I felt like a crazy person trying to get there, but we made it and the grounds were gorgeous and we all had fun even though Netta is not exactly making the happiest face in this picture.

There is a farmer's market in town every Saturday and we have been trying to go as often as possible. We have bought some produce but admittedly we have spent most of our money on amazing baked goods. At the end of the September there was a special festival in conjunction with the market and they had an amazing petting zoo. All of the kids were in heaven and definitely everyone's favorite part was all of the baby chicks. This picture of EZ is also the only one we have of him in his soccer uniform. Soccer has been a bit painful this year. The poor kid just doesn't know how to run and the way the league is set up it is basically all games and no practice, which just doesn't work well for him. I think that kind of system only works for the kids who are naturally really talented. That and the field is right by the highway and the coach isn't allowed on the field so he can try and yell directions, but no one can hear him. EZ even admitted that he is not having as much fun as he did in Texas. I grew up playing soccer and I assumed my kids would too, so it is weird to say this, but our soccer days could be over.

Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary

Conrad turned 2 in August and I still can't believe he is that old. Probably because he is still the runt of the family. He actually is up to 50th percentile in height, so we are exited about that, but his weight is still around 15th. All my boys have had to wear clothes a size up and Netta has always been true to size, but Conrad can still wear a size down. We still refer to him as "the baby" and I have a feeling we will be calling him that for awhile. The even funnier thing is that he is so tiny, but he talks non-stop and actually really well. I love it when he says "What the heck?" and "Guess what. Chicken butt." Those always catch people off guard. I mean what little 2 year old says that?

Conrad is absolutely obsessed with Team Umizoomi and asks to watch it all day every day. So, it was only natural that we have a Team Umizoomi party. Luckily, King was also Team Umi obsessed when he was 2, so I got to make a repeat "Bot" cake. Hopefully Conrad continues to follow in King's footsteps, so I can repeat the same designs.

Conrad was lucky enough to get to celebrate his birthday once at our house and once at my parents'. Our 10 year anniversary was the day after Conrad's birthday and my parents and sisters were kind enough to work together to watch our kids while John and I went on a cruise, but before we left we had time for Conrad's second celebration. I also have to give my family props for putting the cupcakes together for this one.

 So to celebrate our big 10 year anniversary, John and I went on a Carnival cruise out of Miami that went to Key West, FL, Cozumel, Mexico and Georgetown, Grand Cayman Islands. Holy crap the whole thing was amazing. We have only gotten to go away twice with no kids since EZ was born for quick weekend anniversary trips, but this one was 6 nights and we wish we could do it every year! It was so nice to spend time together and get dressed up and eat nice quiet peaceful meals with a waiter and everything. As an added bonus I called our travel agent when I noticed that the cruise had gone down $200 to get the difference in on board credit thanks to our rate guarantee. Well when I called and he pulled up the reservation he said "Wow this is a huge difference. I see $462. Is that what you see?" and I said "Yep!" He had to fight a little with Carnival, but he got them to give us all of it. I still get giddy just thinking about it ;)

 We both got to go on stage during the juggler's act. He was really funny and I managed to make a complete idiot out of myself, because I couldn't catch a tiny ball in a huge net. John laughed so hard he almost fell off the stage. I blame the bright lights ;)

In Key West we went paddle boarding in the mangroves, which was a bit exhausting and feet numbing, but totally worth it. In Mexico, I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of swimming with the dolphins. I loved every second of it, but unfortunately, I did not love any of the pictures they took or the price they wanted for them, so I will just have to hold on to the memories. In the end though, the best part of the whole trip was Grand Cayman. The beaches were absolutely beautiful and they had the clearest, bluest water. We are already planning how we can one day take our whole family there for a long vacation once everyone is a little older. 

Besides just he amazing beaches, Grand Cayman also had our favorite excursion, swimming with sting rays. There is this sand bar where boats used to always clean their fish and over time it attracted all these sting rays. They became so tame and used to being around people that they are now like puppies. You get in the waist deep water and hundreds of sting rays swim all around you. The best part is that they aren't penned in or caged or anything. They just come of their own free will and it is amazing!

One unfortunate lesson were learned in Grand Cayman was that our sunscreen was not as water-proof as advertised, so I got to sport a styling hat for the rest of the trip.

One other highlight was getting picked on by the comedian on board. We were leery of sitting up close and rightfully so. He really made fun of John for working with appliances, which doesn't sound that funny, but he was. Of course it was all in good fun and in the end he even bought some appliances using John's discount. 

It was hard to leave the ship and it was especially hard for John to give up 2 appetizers, 2 entrees and 2 desserts at every dinner. I loved the food as well, but I am almost embarrassed to admit I will miss the Guy Fieri burgers the most. Holy crap I love a good burger. We know we won't be able to do these kind of trips every year, but hopefully we won't have to wait another 10.

End of Summer Fun

Summer was way too short here. In fact, this summer was really weird and colder than usual. I thought we would be living at the beach, but we actually only went a handful of times. Everyone told me that I would love it here once summer hit, but it never fully came. Luckily, we were able to find other fun activities to do. We had fun exploring all the death trap playgrounds in our area. They are definitely not regulating things in these small towns and we have plenty of huge metal slides that will either burn your skin or flat out kill you. Of course my kids love them, but I made the mistake of going down once with Conrad and I realized how dangerous it was and he got a taste of how fun it was, so we had to leave. 

We also really enjoyed the library's summer reading program. They had some sweet prizes and at the end you got a free ride on the carousal and a free ice cream cone from Kilwan's. Those cones, while delicious, are expensive at $4.50 a pop, which to me is a bit absurd. They also had a drawing at the end and Netta actually won 2 tickets to the Grand Rapids Zoo. We are learning that a perk to living in a small town is that you can actually win when there are contests. I had to include both these pictures of the kids enjoying their ice cream just to show how comically hard it is to get a picture of all of them smiling and looking at the camera. 

We also won some free photography through the guy who took EZ's baseball pictures. I was really excited because we loved his picture, but then we found out his prices for family pictures and we learned that the $200 we won actually didn't get us much. The real kicker was that you have to buy all the prints through him, which are really expensive and if you want a digital copy it will cost you a minimum of $500! All I wanted was one family picture for Christmas cards and sadly it was a struggle to get even one we liked. The kids were being kind of cranky, but then he also did not know how to work well with little kids. We miss our photographer Jessica from Texas :( Anyway, on the bright side he did have a little pond and some ducks in his backyard that we got to play with.

When we found out there was a county fair, we had to hit that up. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy the whole time. The kids didn't mind, but I never would have thought I would be wearing boots and a jacket in August. Of course the crazy unhealthy food was a huge hit as was the free circus. It was definitely free for the reason, but the kids don't know any different ;) The also had a ton of animals to see and a bunch of cows that were about to give birth and if you were lucky you would get to see it. Our entertainment options are definitely way different than in Austin. HaHa

Sharon's Graduation

Our second trip to my parents this summer was for my niece Sharon's graduation. We started out the festivities with some leftover fireworks. We had to make up for the extreme lack of fireworks we had on the 4th. King had a blast even if he doesn't look so sure of it here.

Netta and Lucy had matching jammies that were once actually Grace's and Netta's. I love that we have Lucy to hand down Netta's clothes to. Rachel has been so generous with giving Netta clothes and it feels good to get to pass ours along as well.

Grandpa Steve won grandpa of the year by driving all the kids around the neighborhood on his motorcycle. King was the only hold out. In fact Conrad even took a turn and he would have ridden it over and over again, if the cop who lives in my dad's neighborhood hadn't come home ;) 

We took what it now becoming our traditional trip to the Drive-In for Ellie's birthday. Unfortunately, the only kids movie showing was Planes 2. The kids were fine with it, but me not so much.

Sharon's graduation was earlier in June, but we came for the party of course! My sister did a great job putting together an Asian themed party with great food and the biggest table of weird Asian candy I have ever seen. Luckily there was really amazing candy in the mix and it was a blast, although the thought of my niece graduation high school makes me feel really old. 

Another perk to coming for the party was that my Grandpa Bob and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy also come to town for it. I have been really spoiled by them coming to visit when I come. Hopefully, now that we are closer to NY we can make the drive sometime to see them in Rochester. I have such found memories of my grandparents house that it would be so sad if my kids never got to see it.

Of course my kids loved all their cousin time and we learned that Uncle Jared is a master fort builder, The kids lived in this thing and took some great pictures in it as well.

Netta especially loved all of her girl cousin time. Here she is getting her finger nails and toe nails painted by Carol and Ellie. She is so spoiled. 

Mom Gets Away

It's no secret that this move has not been easy for me, but luckily in July my awesome friend Lara flew up from Austin to meet me in Chicago for a girls weekend and it was amazing!!! We got to live it up in style at the Hilton Garden Inn on the Magnificent Mile thanks to her husband's sweet hotel points. Gotta have some perks to a husband who has to travel a lot. We also got the hook up from one of her friends who got us tickets to see the Cubs play and hats to boot. 

Of course we did all the touristy stuff like the Aquarium, the Field Museum, the John Hancock Tower and the Bean. I almost felt guilty doing all this stuff I know my kids would love without them, but not guilty enough to actually want them there ;)

One thing we didn't know when we planned our trip was that the weekend we picked was Taste of Chicago, a huge food festival. This was a gift from God after how much I have struggled with the lack of restaurants in St. Joe. We ate there 2 of the days and we would have eaten there all 3, but it got rained out one of them.

It was also the weekend of the World Cup and since Lara's mom is German it was a really big deal for her. We didn't know where we wanted to watch it since we didn't want to go to a loud bar, but we just happened to stumble upon an practically empty bar in a fancy hotel that let us hang out and happened to have sweet appetizers for free if you just bought one drink. We really got our money's worth out of our Diet Cokes. 

It was so awesome to spent time with a great friend eating great food. I am proud to say I only cried a little when I got in the car after dropping her off at the airport.