A Wet Day in Kalkaska

We took the kids to the Kalkaska Kaliseum for open swim. Owen was there last year (and I wasn’t) so this year we ALL went. 🙂 Grandma Marsha came to watch and Uncle Rob came with us in the afternoon (as did Papa and Grannie, who happened to be in Kalkaska meeting people for dinner).

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Katie had no fear of the water and kept wanting to go into the 3′ deep section (which is, of course, over her head). She’d hang on to the edge or bounce up and down to keep her head above water. Or Tom would hold her and she’d do this. 🙂

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Owen likes to float (he’s about two inches above the bottom here).

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Back to Grandma Marsha’s for lunch…and a nap before the next open swim time.

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Grannie and Papa were arriving and the kids were excited to see them!

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Len Christmas in July

The family decided to have Christmas in July this year and the Besons hosted. It was a GORGEOUS Michigan summer day on the river spent with our AMAZING family! Timmy supplied about 32 different types of brats (okay, maybe only about 12) and we stuffed ourselves silly on them plus all the other good food everyone brought. A good time was had by all and I think we may officially be moving our holiday celebration to the summer from now on!

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Owen was a bit shy at first, so he and Katie were both in Nick’s room playing by themselves.

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Katie loved the boat. LOVED. LOVED!! She would have sat out there all day if we let her and kept wanting to go back.

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Finally Owen wanted to play!

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Owen is six months younger than Aubrey. I know, right?

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Cousins Katie 2, Owen 5, Aubrey 6, Gracie 8, Nick 10, Alex 12, and Jess 15. We never actually got Owen back-to-back with Nick, but I think they were within a fraction of an inch of each other (with a five-year age difference). And Katie seems to be pretty close to Aubrey, who is four years older. I guess we really DO grow them big. 🙂

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Last year:

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Lisa B. made these AWESOME ladybug cupcakes for Katie’s birthday.

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And these for Greg’s birthday. (I missed a pic of the ones for Aubrey’s birthday, but they were Frozen-themed.)

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We did pretty good keeping track of Katie all day (when there’s so many people around, there’s always someone half watching) and then we failed right at the end. People were running around cleaning up and putting things away…and before I know it, Tom is carrying Katie back from the front yard. Apparently Katie was wandering down the driveway and Greg caught her and brought her back. Phew.

And before we knew it, it was time to head out. Katie didn’t make it to the end of the road before she fell asleep, and Owen lasted about 15 minutes.

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Fish hatchery and fishing!

We wanted to introduce Katie to the fish hatchery—and I wanted to see Owen enjoy it (since I didn’t go last year when Tom and Marsha took him)…so our big group came in and asked if we could all get in on the free family admission coupon my mom had…and the guy joked that we were a circus and I said YOU HAVE NO IDEA. 🙂 He let us all in for free, so we bought five bags of food and planned to take Owen fishing…

Katie was fascinated and REALLY wanted to go in the water—so someone had to keep a hand on her most of the time. Owen had fun, too, but couldn’t wait to go fishing!

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Owen loved fishing—but who wouldn’t, when it only takes a matter of seconds to catch one! We let him catch five (you pay by the inch) and he had fun with each one!

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Katie thought she wanted to see the fish…until she saw them and then that was it.

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Owen thought he wanted to hold one…until Tom held one out. 🙂

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The family—and Owen with his catch!

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Owen’s first fireworks!

We have been wanting to try some low-key fireworks with Owen for awhile now and just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve had sparklers for a year now—planning on using them on July 4th or after a party or something—but again, we just never got around to it. Until now.

We went to the local fireworks outlet and asked for the kiddie section and they were having a B1G1 free sale so we ended up with a bunch of little stuff.

And Owen LOVED it. LOVED IT. And everyone loved watching him! We only used half of the stuff tonight so we have one more night’s worth coming up. (And when I say a night’s worth, I mean about 10-15 minutes max, which includes sparkler time.) We made sure Katie was in bed so we could concentrate fully on Owen and not have to worry about Katie… She’ll be out for the second night.

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The lady said the ones we got would go “telephone pole height” at most. She was right. 🙂

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And I found my pooping dog! I had seen it on Facebook and loved it—and thought the kids would, too. I was thrilled they had it at the store! (And yes, Owen LOVED it.)

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Happy 2nd Birthday, Katie—Part 2

We had planned to have Katie’s birthday party at the hotel like we did last year, but as it turned out, we could have had the party today since everyone was at the house! We will still have the pizza/pool party, but Gramma Jean still made a cake to celebrate her actual birthday!

This is the look we got after I stopped her from picking a chocolate chip off the cake before we all sat down.

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Stripped down because she was covered in chocolate!

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Beach Frisbee

Owen and Anna were bestest buddies!

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Then Kathryn and Izzy were playing frisbee and Owen wanted to join! This is his catching stance.

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His robot stance.

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Look at that form!

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Good catch!

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Proof that his form actually works! He can throw pretty well!

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I told him to write his name in the sand. You can see the normal-ish sized O right behind his feet…and then I told him he could do it a little bigger and so he’s drawing an O about three times his size (he’s finishing up the last of it). That’s as far as he got with his name before he lost interest. 🙂

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Fudpucker’s

I stayed home so Katie could take a real nap (i.e. in total piece and quiet) while everyone else went to Fudpucker’s in Destin.

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The food was taking longer than expected and the gator show was about to start, so they sent the kids off by themselves to the show.

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Then it was back to sign their names—and add some drawings—to the wall…

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And then Owen tried—and liked!—alligator!

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But got pizza for his lunch!

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And then it was time to feed the alligators!

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And a few photo ops:

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Then it was off to get ice cream!

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And a gun that I’m sure he wanted but he did not come home with:

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Tom said Owen had a great time! And Katie had her very best nap all week—just over three hours!

Cousins at the beach!

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I love this picture—it looks like David is the Godfather sending his minions off…

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The wave snuck up on him!

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Katie LOVED the sand…and was COVERED in it.

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Anna and Owen in their hot tub!

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Bubbles!

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Testing out the non-heated pool. It was COLD but Owen stayed in for probably 15 minutes!

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And one year ago…the same cousins on another beach.

Previous Throwback Thursdays

Getting ready for s’mores at our house on Valley Ridge Lane (during Tom’s first deployment in 2005) with Ursula Mitchell.

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One of my favorite pictures from our wedding day—Jessica was our flower girl and she DID NOT want to take a picture with me no matter what.

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In Traverse City at my apartment before heading out camping and to Mackinac Island in September 1997.

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Circa 1991 at Tim Hough (now Nolan)’s graduation party. Who would have guessed we’d someday become cousins?

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Trip to Baltimore in 2005 with our good friends Tom and Karen Trimble.

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A somewhat recent Throwback Thursday (11/25/10)—with Kelly King.

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Just a few years ago (2007—seems like yesterday)…one of my all-time favorite pictures with good friends Nancy and Kelly.

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Camping with cousins Lisa and Lori in high school—I’m guessing ’89 or ’90?

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I had completely forgotten about the trip to Toronto we took with Sue McLaughlin and Pam Williams—maybe 1988? 89?

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He looks at this book every morning and every night.

This Lego Minifigure history book (LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual History) was a Christmas gift from Uncle Doug, Aunt Marie, and cousins Gabrielle and Robert—and he LOVES it! I’ll turn on his monitor in the morning and he’s flipping through pages. At night, that’s the book he wants me to “read” (I say “read” because he really just wants to flip through the pages and look at figures and ask me what their names are). Almost all of the figures he says “I want this for next Christmas.” 🙂

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EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING NIGHTS AS PROOF:

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The second round of presents…

We didn’t take as many pictures this time, as the kids spent more time playing with old and new toys among unwrapping gifts.

Katie liked the wood vegetables from Aunt Marie and Uncle Doug.

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And her new singing bear from Grauntie Marge:

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And Owen LOVED his Mecha-Pede from Grauntie Marge. It really is quite cool—it has pincers and a tail, it lights up, and the eyes glow! And it’s remote-controlled!

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Things about me you might not know.

This game has been going around Facebook whereby you are given a number and you are then required to tell that many unique or fun things about yourself that most people wouldn’t know. I’ve really enjoyed reading the answers from all my friends, and while I didn’t officially get a number I thought it would be fun to play along.

  1. At a very young age I knew I didn’t want children and actually asked my mom if I could get a hysterectomy. Wisely, she assured me I should wait.
  2. I still didn’t want kids until a few years after getting married… But that changed during the few days after finding out my Grandpa Len had died and I was with all my extended family back in Michigan and I realized how much I loved my family and didn’t want it to end with me. It’s a good thing Tom was on board.
  3. From that moment, it took three years to get pregnant and involved both of us being tested (no issues), though one of those years Tom was deployed. 🙂
  4. We are currently on our third deployment: ~9 months, ~13 months, and hopefully this one with kids will be the shortest at ~6 months. When you dream about falling in love with a military man (Oh! Those uniforms!) you never think about the sucky parts.
  5. In college I made a list of the top 25 or so things I was looking for in a partner. The top 5 were CRITICAL. When I met Tom? He had none of the top 5 but I still knew from the first night he was the one. Yes, I knew the very first night that we would get married. It took four years but we did it!
  6. I loved every part of my wedding and would do it all over again in a hot second. I loved all the unique touches (trumpeter, writing our own vows, one of the groomsmen barfing in the bushes during the ceremony, reception on a dinner train, personalized cake topper, and a horse and carriage) and to this day people still tell me how awesome it was.
  7. For someone who is a homebody and doesn’t like change, the military is not really the best thing for me. I always said I would wait to have kids until we were settled so they wouldn’t have to move schools…but life just doesn’t work that way (I got old too fast and Tom had decided to stay in for 20). But, we have met the greatest people and can’t imagine life without having met our best friends Roger & Ursula Mitchell and Tom & Karen Trimble).
  8. I :heart: Amazon. If I never had to leave my house to shop I would be just fine. I have my fingers crossed that someday we move somewhere that Amazon delivers fresh groceries. If you ask me where I got something, chances are probably 90% it was from Amazon, 5% it was from another online source, and 5% it was local. 🙂
  9. If I never had another job again I would be just fine. I am NOT someone who has to work to feel validated.
  10. I don’t consider myself a hoarder, but my pantry has been referred to as Dharma. Yes, I also :heart: Costco and Sam’s Club.
  11. I hate being late. For anything. Even with two kids on a hectic morning, I still make it to Pre-K (with a 15 minute drive) at least five minutes early.
  12. This was the first year since we got married that we didn’t have Chinese for our anniversary dinner (it started as luck then we planned it and even managed during his past deployments). We changed it to steak and shrimp this year so we’d be eating the same thing on the same day!