We love Paddle Hard Brewery so snuck off for a quick lunch!
Category Archives: Travel
Vacation bucket list item (stones): complete
I found all these in landscaping rock piles at Uncle Rob’s apartment complex. I found them all dry and didn’t get them wet until this morning.
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!
Sandy the penny pony ride!
Owen didn’t ride it but liked playing with it.
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!)
Katie’s second 4th birthday photo shoot!
I didn’t get any pics that were perfect…so I tried again. Still didn’t get a perfect shot but they’re still cute. 🙂
And the four-year collage (with years 1, 2, and 4 at Gramma’s house)!
Brothers, revisited.
The four of us have lost a total of 305 pounds on Naturally Slim!
Rob has lost 80# and is still going, I have lost 135# with a few more to go, Tom has lost 40#, and mom has lost 50# and is still going!
Someone really needed this.
Unfortunately, she did NOT want to get up…and it took us about 20 minutes to wake her up.
Happy 4th Birthday, Katie!
The first photo shoot!
Len Christmas in July, Year 3
This year our celebration was at Rose & Jim’s cottage on Houghton Lake. The weather started out a bit sketchy—chilly and windy—but within an hour it was absolutely gorgeous! It was a perfect day with lots of delicious food, fun watching the kids, a fun gift exchange, and conversation!
I’m only posting this picture because it’s the first “in the wild” picture of me that’s been taken and…I had ZERO idea who it was when I first saw it!
Hitting a box of $5 garage sale golf balls into the canal—well, trying to get them across the canal onto the island but not many made it there. 🙂
This happened quite a bit!
Katie wanted to fish…but only for about 32 seconds at a time and then she was off doing something else.
Alex caught the first fish!
Feeding the ducks off the back of the pontoon!
Going out to hunt for turtles for turtle races!
Apparently the tradition is to kiss the first fish you catch… What a sport!
At first, Katie wanted nothing to do with the boat—she didn’t even want someone to set her on the boat! But after the second trip she was jumping onto the boat herself and loving every minute of it! Owen loved it, too!
They caught a previously-caught-and-tagged turtle—no one here is C.B. 🙂
Owen said fishing was boring—we told him yes, it was. He’s used to fishing at the Fish Hatchery where the fish pretty much jump in your bucket. 🙂
Aubrey tagged her turtle!
I lined the kids up for their annual shot and didn’t even realize until afterward—when Aubrey pointed it out—that I did it wrong! She told me “I’m older than Owen!” And I agreed with her and then realized they had been in the wrong order!
Nick is 12, Owen is 7. Nick had the slight edge on Owen last summer and it looks very similar again this year…though I think Owen gained a very tiny bit on him. We didn’t set them on flat ground so we can’t be 100% sure.
In the right order! Katie (4), Owen (7), Aubrey (8), Gracie (10), and Nick (12).
All of the cousins: Jessica (an upcoming senior), Alex (an upcoming freshman), then Nick, Gracie, Aubrey, Owen, and Katie.
Maggie was FASCINATED with the turtles!
Marge gifted all us girls with one of her ostrich eggs!
Turtle races!
Trying to scoop up the golf balls that rolled in the canal!
It was exciting for everyone when Greg caught this huge dogfish! (Katie is still talking about it days later!)
We celebrated Katie’s birthday a day early!
And Aubrey’s two days early!
Uncle Timmy diving for turtles!!
The second run of turtle races (after they went out on the boat to get more turtles)!
Owen’s turtle winning the second race!
And a Then & Now throwback picture:
The swing that was actually a frisbee.
Grandma Jean bought a swing for the kids and wanted to put it up somewhere in the yard. Unfortunately, there aren’t any good tree branches for it to attach to but we winged it.
Katie was the only one able to swing on it—Grandma Jean and I were going to except it was a little too low and Owen tried but wasn’t serious about it and kept “falling” off.
So the swing wasn’t a huge success…as a swing…but Gramma saw the positive and said “At least I bought them a frisbee on a rope!” 🙂
I can’t remember the last time I had to wait in a line!
I guess that’s what happens when a small town theater gets a big movie on the opening day (Secret Life of Pets) and the weather is questionable (it was supposed to storm and it was getting dark and windy). As a sidenote, Owen completely freaked out about the weather and wanted to go home. We are not sure how or why he has become so freaked out about weather.
Unfortunately, we didn’t actually get to see the movie—there were so many people that by the time we made it in to look for seats there were none available (definitely not six together and pretty much only single seats here and there—people were even sitting in the aisles and on the steps). So we got our money back and decided to go another day.
Knight Owen
He repurposed two Burger King crowns into this…along with his new Ninjago shield.
The last pit stop…and almost home!
This is why she loves the family bathroom.
She loves sitting on the little seat. No, she doesn’t NEED to sit there but she loves it. (It’s to strap a little one in so they don’t run off or get into trouble.)
Who knew Pennsylvania meant pencils?
Driving through Pennsylvania, Owen says “I think I know why it’s called Pennsylvania. All the houses are made out of pencils.” 🙂
It’s fun wearing things for the first time.
That’s fate, folks.
So, as you know, our wedding rings no longer fit. The rings seen here are my mom and dad’s wedding rings from 1970. I’ve had them since (mom, do you remember?) college, maybe? She thought I’d like to have them and she was right…I love them.
Of course I tried hers on over the years but there was never a chance of it fitting. For years now, I’ve actually worn them both on a chain because they fit perfectly inside one another.
But tonight I looked at them and thought “Maybe I should try it on. It’s been awhile.” And it fit perfectly. So I gave Tom my dad’s ring…and it, too, fit perfectly.
That’s fate, folks.❤️
I’m sure we’ll both get our rings resized eventually, but for now, this works. And makes me all smiley. 🙂 🙂 🙂
She loves the tiny chair
We like the turnpike rest areas because they have a family bathroom. Katie has discovered the little flip-down seat…and always had to sit there once she was done.
Packed to the hilt!
We were heading home with just a bit more stuff than we arrived with…and the kids were completely packed in.
Gramma and the kids
Time change + pool time = wiped out
Letting our little fish swim!
After the events of the past few days, we wanted to let the kids have some fun!
And a compilation of slides…
Halloween in Grayling
The kids were super excited about treak-or-treating at Gramma’s house…and we were, too…until the Michigan weather happened. Yeah, it was 38° and rainy. Egads. If you look closely enough you can see Katie’s polka-dot long johns under her white tights (and she also had on pink tights!).
On the front porch where my Halloween picture was taken every year…
Everyone (including Uncle Rob) ready to head out!
There weren’t many houses lit up but the ones that were were handing out TONS of candy! You see how full their bags look? We had only hit maybe six houses at this point!
After about 15 minutes they gave up on the umbrellas and just ran from house to house while we waited at the road. Soon enough we were back at Gramma’s door!!
Home after an hour of being out in the rain—they were soaked but happy!!
Tom gave the kids a hot shower and put them in PJs while I made them hot cocoa!
Eating Mallow cups from daddy and Uncle Rob—they were Grandma Marsha’s favorite treat and someone brought a bag of them for the boys.
LOOKS AT THEIR HAUL!! The weather sure stunk but it was great for quick candy accumulation. They got 9# of candy from less than 20 houses!
They clean up well…
…just wish it was under better circumstances.
Still twins. Purple, not blue. (Marsha’s favorite color was purple.)
UNCLE GROB!!!!
They’ve been waiting desperately to see Uncle Rob!
Taking a wet rest
Dollar store finds
We found a lot of Dollar Store toys while cleaning out the apartment, so brought some of them over for the kids (some are being saved for the future). Owen was excited about these wrist-pull copters, which he had to wait to play with for a few days because the weather was rainy.
