River Wading!

An old hiking friend, Allie, whom we hadn't seen in ages- probably over a year (they don't live anywhere near us and life just got busy...), messaged our group of hiking gals the other day that they would be in the area picnicking and wading in the river at a local park and invited us all to join them. Of course, after the fun we had in the lake on our road trip, this sounded like heaven to the kids! So, we jumped at the chance to get out a little and do something different and the kids. had. a. blast! Oh my goodness...Daniel and Annabel just thought this was the coolest thing to do. (I will say that I don't go in lakes or rivers- I'm perfectly happy to just watch the kids.) If it weren't for Allie, I don't think I would have ever done this, as cool as I can be as a mom, this just wouldn't have occurred to me. But wow, the kids had so much fun and they totally want to go again. In fact, Daniel's first comment as we headed home after over an hour in the river was that he'd like to do that with Cole! I love how he loved wading in the river so much that he immediately thought of his best friend (of course I did the same thing, too- we miss Patricia and her kids SO much), it was just so sweet. So, I think we'll have to put this on the list of things to do again, perhaps? And next time I'll remember their water shoes...the rocky river bed wasn't as friendly as the sandy lake bottom!

Monkeys At the Park!

We spent TWO HOURS at the park one day this week. The kids were suddenly inspired to totally monkey around on the monkey bars at the park near our house. They were having the most fun showing off all their tricks and even surprised us all, themselves included!, with a few new tricks! The delight on their faces when they accomplished the new tricks was just awesome! They were so proud. I loved being there for that very moment that they discovered they could do something new. The kids are both getting so strong. And of course whatever tricks Daniel does, Annabel wants to do and she will practice practice practice until she gets it...and usually she does get it. Anyway, with all the fun we had that day, with how strong the kids are getting, and how excited they were to master a few new tricks...we've been at the park a LOT this week since that day! Check out my little monkeys!

Two Hour Park Adventure!

And the next time we went was just as fun and busy!

Two videos to make you feel like you were there...

Road Trip for Grandma Ann's Memorial Service

This past weekend we went on a road trip to Crystal Falls, Michigan...this time for the bittersweet reason of our dear Grandma Ann's memorial service. Ann had passed away last November, just before Thanksgiving, which hit me hard (my grandparents having passed away years ago, none having met my kids, and also having known Grandma Ann for 20 years, Grandma Ann was Grandma to me for so long). Even though our trip was made specially for the memorial service, the whole weekend was offset by seeing such wonderful family and having a great time visiting with everybody, some whom I haven't seen in years and some I'd never even met! And the kids- they were just in heaven with all the fun they could have up there, not to mention we were finally on a ROAD trip! They really couldn't wait to go. We left much to do on our new house behind us, but the change in scenery did us all good. So it was a good weekend all around really.

We drove up Friday, the memorial service was Saturday, we did more visiting Sunday, and we came home Monday. Of course that was all interspersed with visits to Uncle Mike and Aunt Suzi's house, pizza dinners, K-Bar treats, bubbles and chalk drawings thanks to Aunt Jody's thoughtfulness bringing these fun things, scooter rides down the loooong driveway and dead end street, baseball and other games in the yard, swimming at the hotel pool, splashing in a lake with clothes on (!!!), shopping at Ben Franklin and Wink's Woods, sticker books, invisible ink books, and so on. Oh- and I can't forget our souvenirs- the MANY mosquito bites we got (my poor kids, especially!). We kept pretty busy all weekend long!

First question Annabel asked as we pulled back into town, "When can we move?!" Hopping on that real soon!

  

Bubbles and chalk drawings in Aunt Suzi's yard!

  

Swimming in the hotel pool...this was just the first time that weekend! Annabel is still such a fish- she loves swimming and is so brave in the water, letting go of Daddy to swim all on her own!

  

Scooters down the dead-end street...the kids loved having all this space to ride their scooters!

  

Family photo! The kids loved seeing Aunt Wendy, Uncle Brad, and Aunt Rose on this trip, too!

  

Games in the yard!

Visiting Aunt Jody and Uncle Tom at their cabin by Fortune Lake. Annabel was absolutely tickled that she could go wading in the lake!

First lake steps...

Daniel was happy to watch, at first...because then he saw how much fun Annabel was having splashing and stomping around, and it didn't take him long to join the fun!

  

Dry clothes now, chatting away, tickling away, and enjoying the quiet of cabin and lake grounds.

  

Annabel slept till 8:45 the next morning- this is late for her! We must have worn her out this weekend!