Category Archives: Travel
Katie’s mini fashion show!
The Besons brought four bins of size 4T clothes for Katie…so Grannie Lin and I just had to sort through everything to see what there was (and what might possibly be left for the grandmas to buy!). 🙂 Of course there were some fancy dresses in there, which Katie spied IMMEDIATELY and had to try on. So we got a mini fashion show…
Fish Hatchery 2015
Katie liked to feed the fish one single pellet at a time.
Katie caught a fish! She didn’t want to look at it, and after one she was DONE.
Owen caught three fish…in about 10 minutes. 🙂
Post-Christmas Bratfest
The family came back for lunch today, and Timmy graced us with about 15 different varieties of brats from his store, Beson’s Market (Bay City). Talk about yum. 🙂
The leftovers after 15 people were in a meat coma:
Maggie getting some love from the cousins.
Gramma Jean got out the water balloons and BOY did the kids have fun!
Nick is 11 and Owen is 6—and Nick has maybe a half inch on Owen. This is what they did when we told them to stand next to each other. 🙂
Campfire selfies!
Len Christmas in July, Year 2
This year the party was at my mom’s house! Katie “helped” with the party prep!
Katie loved her Anna dress from Grauntie Rose!
The cousins being silly!
If there’s water, the kids will come.
Bubble wands at the ready!
The annual by-age lineup: Katie (3), Owen (6), Aubrey (7), Gracie (9), and Nick (11). You’ll see a direct Owen/Nick comparison tomorrow. 🙂
Everyone always complains but I think they secretly enjoy the family photo! 🙂
Our little Santas.
Owen was GIDDY with the bazooka Grauntie Rose got him! It’s almost like she knows him exactly like I do. :p
Katie LOVES her Frozen magic music wand from Grauntie Marilyn.
No snow? Grass angels!
Ice cream face!
Overall it was a great day—the kids all had a blast together, the food was abundant and delicious, and everyone had fun relaxing and playing games. I think it was the right decision to move our Christmas to the middle of summer!
Owen’s first Fun Run!
Owen ran his first Fun Run (with daddy!) this morning during the AuSable River Festival! (Sidenote: it will always be Milltown to me…though AuSable River Festival does fit better.)
Katie wanted to run…on daddy’s shoulders. 🙂
We had time to waste before the race started so we wandered around downtown and ran into Papa and Grannie! 🙂
And a pout for good measure.
Pre-race announcements:
Heading to the starting line!
There they go!
Heading a block back to the finish line—it won’t take them long!
Here they come! There was no official time or finish places, but they were in the top 10!
And here’s the start—and finish—all in one video!
Post-race snacks! 🙂
Teaching Owen how to play Sorry!
We taught Owen on the exact game board Gramma Jean taught me to play on 35ish years ago!
Spiderprincess!
Katie and the Christmas Tree
We were getting the house ready for our Len Christmas in July and got out this ceramic tree. It’s old—my mom made it for my Grandma Katie (Len) in the ’70s and I’ve always loved it. Katie was enthralled with it, too…and one of the first things she said was “There’s no star!” My mom said that Grandma Len had said the very same thing and even attached a fake star to it. I don’t think I ever really noticed that it didn’t have a star—or I did, but didn’t think it was any big deal. Amazing how the original Katie AND her namesake both had the same thought. 🙂
Maggie’s new outfit!
Watch out when I go to an arts and crafts show!
A day with Grandma Marsha!
35 years later…
See the tree right next to the stump? I planted it in elementary school with one of the tiny saplings they send home on Arbor Day!
Swimming with the grandparents
Finally jumping into a pool that has a deep end! All the pools we frequent are a max of 5′ deep so he always hits bottom! This was a new experience for him and he loved it!
Showing Grannie Lin that he can really float now!
And this little stinker! Here she is jumping into the shallow end…BUT!…Earlier, she walked down to the deep end where Papa and Owen were, walked right to the edge, and jumped right in! Went completely under and everything—and came up smiling! SHE HAS NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE, even with prompting! It was so unexpected that I didn’t even have time to get a pic of it! She swam over to the ladder, got out, and DID IT AGAIN! I missed it again, too, because I had a brain fart on how to take a video with my real camera. ARGH! Of course, she refused to do it a third time!
She loves her brother!
Strangely enough, her in the pool doesn’t bother me…but her climbing up this ladder scares the crap out of me.
This is a horrible picture but I need to use it as an illustration. You can see I was a bit away from her and she had climbed up there. No biggie. Then she reached up and grabbed the first bar. Still no biggie. Then she leaned out and grabbed the second bar (as seen here) and right as I snapped the picture, she swung her legs off the bar so she was hanging there. I practically dropped the camera and rushed over there—knowing she couldn’t hang there very long on her own and not wanting her to come crashing down. EGADS. I grabbed her and she proceeded to work her way across the bars like no big deal. NO FEAR!
Kid(s) in the window
And Owen in the same spot back in May 2011. 🙂 (As a sidenote, I didn’t think so at the time, but looking back…HOLY WAH does Owen look like Tom at that age.)
An awesome new playground!
Gramma Jean said there was a new playground by the house so on the way home from Kid Fest we stopped to check it out.
HOLY CRAP.
It’s bigger and nicer than the playground at Owen’s school!
Hopefully we’ll make it back at least once before we leave!
Kid Fest!
It’s Milltown week so we took the kids downtown to Kid Fest! They had a blast!
She LOVED the popcorn. The SnoCones…not so much.
Making bracelets and necklaces with Gramma.
Then Owen got to ride in a racing canoe!! Some of the racers were the back seat paddlers and took the kids up and down the river. It was his very first time in a canoe and he loved it!
If you notice, he’s watching what the pro does and copies him to steer the boat!
He said he was a little scared at first but then he was okay! We were SO proud of him!
Owen loved sitting in the big fire truck—and even got to turn on the lights and the siren! Katie wanted NOTHING to do with any of it. 🙂
Getting a ninja turtle mask!
And lastly, our crazy photo booth pictures!
Owen got a yahtzee!
Gramma Jean has been teaching Owen how to play Yahtzee!
Sleep happens on road trips!
The kids had a long, busy, fun-filled weekend with our friend’s kids and the babysitter (while we were at our TiVo events) and didn’t get their normal amounts of sleep…so this happened pretty early into our trip.
Katieisms 5
Wow, flashback time! This was supposed to have been posted on July 16 of 2014! I’m not sure how it got lost, but it’s here now!
Katie was holding Gramma Jean’s travel Yahtzee.
Katie: I want Sophia the First please.
Grandpa David: Katie’s a muppet.
Katie: No I’m Katie.
Katie, to me: Are you Katie?
Katie, to Grandpa David: Are you Katie?
Days after I painted Katie’s toes, she keeps bringing me the bottle of the polish:
Katie: Mama! Katie’s toes!
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was on and Gramma was singing The Hot Dog song.
GJ in a normal voice: Hot dog hot dog hot diggity dog!
Katie: No sing.
GJ in a loud voice: Hot dog hot dog hot diggity dog!
Katie: NO SING!
GJ in a whisper: Hot dog hot dog hot diggity dog!
Katie in a whisper: No sing.
Owen was testing out a new scooter. Katie was running in front of him clearing the path.
Katie: Watch out! Watch out!
Opening her presents:
Katie: Oh my goodness.
March pictures are online!
>>> March pictures are online at Shutterfly!
I think this sums up our vacation nicely.
Except our trip also had nice weather and grandparents!
But seriously, it was fun overall and I’m glad we got the chance to go. That said, it would have obviously been a lot better if Tom hadn’t been sick for most of it. He spent probably the first two full days between the bed and—TMI—bathroom. Neither of us got much sleep, as I woke up every time he got up (the first night there, we were both up from about midnight to 5am). Then he got to sleep all the next day while I had to function with the kids (and deal with the beach and sand and baths, etc.). But the weather was gorgeous, the kids had a great time (which is the most important part), and it was wonderful spending the week with the grandparents!
Someone else’s turn for a nap!
For someone who rarely naps, he had a good nap, too—just under two hours!
Stopping to stretch!
“I have got to stop wearing blue and yellow!” (Grannie Lin had kept teasing him about wearing blue and yellow instead of green and white.)
A little too sunny for him.
DoubleTree Disappointment
Let me just post my Yelp review. 😐
Finally! Someone takes a nap!
This was the first (and only!) time of the whole road trip she napped! But it was a good nap, lasting over two hours!
Goodnight kids!
They do pretty well sleeping together… Katie usually ends up glued to Owen’s side, but at least they start out apart. 🙂
Fun with Atlanta friends!
We stopped to see our good friends in Atlanta. It was actually Bodi’s 6th birthday weekend, so they had a bounce house set up for the party the next day and the kids had fun in that! (It was also a Ninja Turtle-themed party, so that’s what the masks and weapons are for.)
But first, the boys about 4.5 years ago (November 2010):
And today…
Taking a ride!
We had a short first day driving as we stopped in Atlanta to visit with a friend. The kids always enjoy stopping at a hotel!
