Category Archives: Owen
Owen finally gets on the swing!
Owen doesn’t have the best balance or coordination—and doesn’t really like swings—so we didn’t have much success getting him on the rope swing. Until Gramma Jean got involved while we weren’t around, apparently.
And that was it. I tried to get him on it again but he’s just a big goofball and immediately falls off.
Lobsters for Gramma’s birthday!
When the kids saw these driftwood lobsters at Marshall’s, they said we had to get them for Gramma Jean! So we have them to her for an early birthday present!
Decorating the box so we didn’t need to wrap it.
Now he has his very own ninja hood.
I was tired of him borrowing my Survivor buffs so I bought him a plain black version of his own.
Showing GJ his new bunting skills
The very last sparkler.
The kids wanted to have one last fire, but it was really hot out and the flies were still biting, so we didn’t last too long. But, Owen had found one single sparkler left in the car so they shared it and that was it for the fire.
The cookie monsters…and more!
We’re on top of the world!
None of us had ever been up Brockway Mountain, so we did that after mini golf.
Owen took a selfie!
Mini golf in Copper Harbor
Unfortunately it was really hot and the biting flies were out so we played a bit quicker than we normally would have…which was a challenge since Katie and Owen have almost zero experience and needed quite a bit of guidance. 🙂
Daddy was the only one to get a hole in one, and daddy was the overall winner (he usually is, so I don’t know why he whines so much about playing LOL).
Some of the holes had “crazy” rules—this one you had to play with the hockey stick!
Grannie has much more patience than I do.
The kids helped Grannie make deviled eggs to surprise daddy for lunch.
Papa and Grannie’s new fire pit!
Hauling it down to the landing!
Yet another trip to the Eagle Harbor beach!
Papa and Grannie took the kids back to the beach (leaving us home to relax and get ready for our dinner out) and Grannie sent these pics.
And added this commentary:
Katie found a puddle and added to it. (I confirmed she added water to it and not pee.) 🙂
Now it is a bubble bath she says.
Handstand Owen
Three fishes!
Tom and Owen fishing next door—you can see them if you look very closely in about the middle of the picture.
Owen caught a fish! Tom told him he had to hold it for a picture. This is him NOT wanting to do that AT ALL.
Still worried about it and refusing to do it. Tom told him he had to otherwise he was done fishing. 🙂
TA DA! With smiles, even!
Katie didn’t have a worm on hers but she didn’t know any better. 🙂
Fish #2!
No arguments this time!
He ended up catching three small fish! Dad cleaned them and we all got one tiny bite!
A siblings on vacation throwback
Owen happened to be wearing the same outfit…and of course Katie had on pink! And we were somewhere we could recreate the pic pretty well!
Stones & Binoculars
Katie loved throwing the walkway stones into the water—and she was really good at it!
Owen found a cannon in Papa’s workshop.
Or maybe a flag pole. 🙂
Katie wrote her name!
Owen wrote Katie at the top and then she wrote the letters herself! And then Owen graded it an A+!
We found them on the beach!
We pulled into Eagle Harbor and immediately saw them on the beach!
Then it was off to dinner! We showed Katie the marks on her forehead from her swim goggles! Grannie Lin and I shared a lobster pizza—yum!
Then it was off to the playground…
…while daddy, Owen, and Papa went hunting Pokemon at the Eagle Harbor lighthouse.
Then they met us back at the playground.
Day 3 with Papa and Grannie
Back at Burger King!
And back at the beach in Eagle Harbor!
We honestly didn’t think either kid would go in because it was too cold…but they both surprised us!!
Day 2 with Papa and Grannie
At Fort Wilkins. Grannie said they zipped through it due to potential approaching weather (and we know how Owen is with storms) but they liked it.
Katie did this twice!
Visiting with Great Grandma Pat, or Pappy. She gave Katie a Cinderella Barbie (which she ADORED) and Owen a mini pillow pet (which he LOVED). [Edited to add: Katie has slept with Cinderella every night since then.]
With Lin’s Aunt Carol.
With Lin’s Aunt Mary Kay and Uncle Bob.
A U.P. sunset at 9:45!
The kids’ trip up north!
Grannie sent me pics all along the way. They stopped at McDonalds twice plus playgrounds…so they had a ball.
Finally at Papa and Grannie’s!
And off they go!
The kids are buckled into Papa and Grannie’s car to head to the UP ahead of us! They were excited!
Rainy day fun in Grayling!
We had hoped to go mini golfing or to Hartwick Pines but it was overcast with the threat of rain…so we lunched at Spikes with Papa and Grannie (Spikeburger!) and then went bowling!
Retrieving a Katie ball that didn’t quite make it to the pins. If we didn’t help her, this is what would happen. It might have happened more than once. 🙂
The kids had a blast—here’s Katie in her slippery shoes and Owen getting a spare!
Tom won both games and Grannie came in second—though, to be fair, she was playing on the kid lanes with the bumpers! 🙂
Bedtime in the basement
Since Filipeks needed the upstairs bedrooms, the kids came down to sleep with us—we were going to try putting each on a couch but opted for the more-familiar aerobed.
Fighting, fireworks, and fire!
Sticks always become fighting instruments:
Owen has been begging us to do the fireworks we have left (really just sparklers) so we finally got them out tonight.
‘Murica!
And we had a pooping dog leftover! Bonus!
And then a fire (with s’mores):
Plan B: A cousin water balloon fight!
When the weather gives you crappy beach days, you improvise at home!
Cousins: Izzy (almost 14), Owen (7.5), Anna (12), and Katie (4)
The best-laid plans…
The plan was to hit the beach at Petoskey State Park for play, rock hunting, and a picnic…but the weather had other ideas. We saw whitecaps as we approached…and it was a measly 72° (so with the wind it was probably about 60-65°) and the sand was painful as it whipped around.
So we were trying to decide what to do instead while sitting in the car. 🙂
We ended up heading inland to Burt Lake State Park (30 minutes away), assuming it wouldn’t be as windy. Ha! It was almost as bad! So we ate a fast picnic lunch (wrapped in towels because no one thought to bring jackets or sweatshirts for a day at the beach!), then got right back in the cars and headed home. We were all bummed.
Papa and Grannie have arrived!
Our annual Kaliseum trip!
This is the look we got when we asked Katie if she wanted to try the waterslide. She wanted nothing to do with it—even though she went down it before and loved it.
And then she up and decided she wanted to do it—and couldn’t get enough! After the first few times down, she didn’t even want Tom there to catch her. She just swam over to the edge all on her own!
Birthday treats!
Dairy Queen (plus I got my Vacation Bucket List Blizzard!), the park, Pokemon hunting for Owen, splashing and throwing rocks in the river, a walk around the neighborhood with Gramma, and then a Gramma cuddle. 🙂
I thought she’d like sticking her feet in the river but she whined that it was TOO COLD! (It felt like bath water to me!)
