Michigan's Adventure

On our way home from camping in Manistee we stopped at Michigan's Adventure for Mark's company picnic. It's two great parks for the price of one (that their slogan). There's a water park (which was closed today because their temperature was on 60') and an amusement park. With the cold weather in July, there weren't many people at the park so we didn't have to wait in any lines. 

The kids couldn't ride many rides because they weren't tall enough. We did find a few that they could enjoy. They got to ride the cars twice and when we finished our turn Erin promptly asked to go again.

Aunt Krysten was with us too and she and I rode two roller coasters and the Tilt-a-Whirl. I have no idea how I used to ride those rides back in the day. My neck is killing me and I feel like I could throw up. And I only went on three rides! Ugh!

We all had fun and the sun even came out to warm things up. 

We don't have a picture of Will riding the fire truck because he started crying before it started. 

Erin was waiting patiently for her turn. 

And once the ride started Erin freaked out and they stopped the ride so she could get off. 

Will's 2.5 Year Update

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Will loves cars, construction trucks, trains  and anything that goes. Lately, he can be found with a Matchbox car in each hand. Whenever we leave the house he wants to take an armful of cars. He is quick to pick two (one for each hand) and carries them proudly.  

Will likes to line his cars up and play with them.

He loves all things "beball" and the Detroit Tigers. I've read him his Tigers book at least 10 times today. It's fun to be with him right now.

He still sleeps with his mobile and watches the animals (and listens to the music) each night.

Will is a great sleeper (just like Erin). He sleeps from 9pm-8am and takes a 3 hour nap each day. 

He has his blue blankie and always has to have us "find the top" which is the corner with the tags. He still sucks his thumb and snuggles with his blankie. Or he'll chew on the corner of the blanket which causes it to smell terrible. 

Will is silly and makes us laugh all of the time. He says and does the funniest things. He's super cute so that just makes everything he does even cuter. 

Will loves to eat pickles, hot dogs, Goldfish, Taco Rice, brown (chocolate) ice cream from a cone and just about anything. 

For breakfast, Will loves to make and eat waffles. He opens the freezer, gets the waffles out, and wants to put them in the toaster oven. He'll turn it on and sometimes he will watch them or get in his seat and wait for them to cook. He likes them broken in half so he can dip them in syrup. 

"Dis Dat?" (What's that?) is a common phrase heard from Will. 

"Help you." (Help me.) Is what Will says if he needs help. 

 

"Play trains mama." 

"Play cars mama." 

When Will say "yeah" he slurs the word and it sounds like its falling out of his mouth. 

He loves puzzles, figuring out how things work, playing baseball, going down slides, riding on daddy's tractor, farms, playing in the sandbox and being outside.  

He is as sweet as ever. He is very thoughtful too. He will share with Erin and always asks "where Air-ren go?" If he wakes up before her or can't find her. 

Will loves to snuggle with everyone. Right now he's snuggles up next to me watching Old McDonald Mickey (which is an episode they have been waiting to see for weeks). 

He can count to 17 without any help. 

He and Erin can name the colors and love to count forwards and backwards. 

He and Erin love to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the Alphabet Song and Rock-a-By -Baby. 

He refers to himself as "brother". If you ask him what his name is he'll say "brother". "Brother do it" is another common phrase heard in our house. 

He weighs 28 lbs and is full of fun and energy! 

Erin 2.5 year old Update

"That's tasty" for any food she likes to eat. 

She's starting to pretend play with her babies and stuffed animals (the pink bear named Strawberry is this weeks favorite). She feeds, kisses, rocks and puts them to bed. She is making the suckling sound when giving them a bottle or food. 

She likes to carry a purse with a play phone in it. 

I saw her trying to carry a Matchbox car under her arm today. 

She likes to put  her own sandals on (usually the wrong feet) and she proudly announces "I did it!" 

Erin is temperamental. You never know what your going to get from her.  One minute she's sweet and the next she's doing her fake whinny cry (which sounds like nails on the chalkboard to me sometimes). If she doesn't like something she will say "no like it." 

She doesn't like loud noises, going fast (ex. Riding in the Burley behind Mark's bike), campfires, fireworks, daddy's tractor or not being in control (I wonder who she gets that from - me :-/ ). 

She likes to eat salty foods (crackers, pretzels, chips, popcorn). She will eat almost anything except Macaroni and Cheese, PbJ sandwiches. 

When I asked Markj what's the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Erin his answer was "cute and funny." She has a cute little round face and says the funniest things (usually repeating us).

She LOVES to swim and float in the water. Her swimmies help her do this when we are at the beach.

Erin loves to sing songs and has recently learned the words to the ABC Song, Twinkle, Twinke and Rock-a-by-Baby. She is learning Old McDonald Had a Farm. She usually starts singing and then asks "what else" for the animals on the farm. 

She loves to read and takes a book to bed with her each night. For weeks it was a 'Where's Mickey?' Search and find book.  This week it's been a farm picture book. It's cute to listen to her read to her bear at night.

She demands a lot of my attention from me. She wants to be held and doing what I'm doing. Tonight she wanted to learn how to hang a shirt on a hanger (after she saw me do it). She repeated the steps and added one "grab the handles" which was the sides of the hangers.  

Erin is learning to say "no" when I tell her to do something. This new skill allowed her to spend time (it ended up being an hour) in her room yesterday because she would not tell me that she would listen to me. This was after I went in her room every few minutes and gave her a chance to say 'I will listen'. She wouldn't even make eye contact with me. It was quiet in her room so I went outside and looked in her window and she had fallen asleep in front of her door.  After a 30 minute morning nap, she was back to her happy self. 

She loves nap time and will sleep (or lay in her bed for part of it) for 3 hours. If you ask her if she wants to take a nap she will tell you.  She sleeps for 11-12 hours at night too. 

The girl loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She remembers which tools they use to help them solve their problems.  

Erin has an AMAZING memory. She makes the most incredible connections between things we have done or seen. For example, a few weeks ago, I put a yellow outfit on her and she said "go to park, Grandma Pam". I called Mark's mom and sure enough she had put Erin in the same outfit when they went to the park a month ago. So that morning we ended up going to the park because Erinwas insisting on it. 

Visiting Oma

After we left Petoskey we went to Escanaba to visit Oma. We arrived later than I had planned and only got to see her for about a half hour on Monday night.  We went back to see her Tuesday morning for a longer visit. We enjoyed spending time in the courtyard of her home. There is a nice swing out there that we sat in and watched the kids play. Erin wanted to sit with us and Will wanted to push Oma's walker all over the sidewalks. He was really good at it too.  Oma had a smile on her face the whole time we were there.  The kids asked her to sing songs to them. She happily obliged and sang them some German children's songs.  Erin picked flowers and shared them with us. I cried when we left because I wished we lived closer and could visit Oma more than twice a year.  I felt bad that our visit wasn't long enough but Oma reminded me that a short visit is better than no visit. She is right and I am glad they we had that visit together. 

Caves!

There are many awesome things about the house in Munising. One of those is that there are caves in the woods. Mark has memories of going in them as a kid. This year our kids and their cousins had fun exploring the woods and caves. 

July 4

This was our group for the Munising 5k Run/Walk. Kathleen and I ran the 3.1 miles in 29.51 min which was my fastest 5k ever.  Mark ran it in 23:30 min which was a personal record for him too. Grandma and Grandpa walked with the kids and Kari ran/walked. It was a beautiful morning for a run/walk. 

A few family pictures before we went into town for the parade. 

Petoskey

 On our way to the Upper Peninsula, we stayed the night in Petoskey so we could spend time with Mark's family and my friend Leslie.  Unfortunately, I didn't do a good job of taking pictures so there aren't many from this part of our trip.  We had dinner at Aunt Julie's house with cousins and aunts.  Will and Erin had fun playing with their cousins Jack, Katie and baby Maria.  It was interesting to watch Erin stick  
with Katie (who is 3 and 1/2) and Will played with Jack (who is 6).  The kids chased each other around the backyard, played in the loft, and shared many laughs.  While we were visiting, Aunt Julie got a phone call announcing that her nephew Will's wife had given birth to their baby girl.  Her name is Lola Pearl.  It was an exciting moment and one I was glad we got to share with the family.  The kids were tired so we put them in their carseats and let them watch Mickey.  Aunt Maureen and Aunt Pam took turns sitting in the driveway with the kids and watched Mickey.  We left around 10pm and got back to our hotel just in time to witness a beautiful sunset. 

It was our first night sleeping in a hotel together.  Will was pretty funny because he kept standing up in bed and saying 'hi' with a huge smile on his face.  We would tell him to lay down so he would dive in his bed and repeat.  We all feel asleep around 11. 

The next morning we got up and went into Petoskey for breakfast, a  
 

 

walk around the marina and some shopping.  Petoskey is such a cute little town. We were able to see Mark's cousin Megan's new house too.  It is BEAUTIFUL and all that I want in my dream home.  Will and Erin had fun playing with their cousins Owen and Cullen (who are going to be big brothers again in December).  (I totally flaked on taking any pictures of our visit. UGH!)

Peanutbutter sandwiches always taste better poolside!
(Will, Erin and Sage)

From there, we drove down one street and visited with my college friend Leslie. We have a friendship where we haven't seen each other since last summer, but it didn't seem like any time has passed.  I miss Leslie and wish she still lived in Grand Rapids.  Will and Erin loved playing with all of Leslie's kids toys. Will went right to the golf clubs, basketball hoop and cars while Erin found the purses, baby stroller and dolls. Nature vs Nuture at its best.  After Jimmy Johns for lunch, we swam in their beautiful pool.  Unfortunately, our all to short of a visit, had to come to an end.  We need to continue to Escanaba to see Oma.  Everyone had fun during our stopover in Petoskey. I am so glad we made the trip and can't wait to see everyone again soon!