More family fun!

We had way too much fun with Lisa, Matt and Luke this summer. They were here for almost 3 weeks, most of which was spent with us, and yet the time still managed to fly by. They've been back in California for a few weeks now, and here I am still playing catch up with pictures and stories. Oh well... now that Micah is crawling and has decided that naps longer than 15-20 minutes are long enough, it's harder to find time to sit down at the computer and update our blog. Thankfully, for the moment, Micah is content in his exer-saucer, and I have a few minutes to myself. :) (Emphasis on "few"... and in light of that, I'll stop rambling and just post some more pictures from our summer fun with cousin Luke and the family)

Fun in the pool ~


Pops looked mighty threatening with that hose! :)


Luke getting in on the fun ~


All together ~

It's amazing how difficult it is to get a decent picture of two boys under the age of two. I think I need a camera with a faster shutter speed because inevitably, someone is always blurry in the pictures. So... after taking a few pictures and realizing this was not working well, I went with the video mode. No one has to sit still for movies! :)

Fun times in the massage chair ~

See what I mean about the blurriness ~

This one's not too bad... keep in mind, I've been up since 3 am, and had just gotten home from work when this picture was taken. Good thing Luke is so cute! :)

Got your nose!

After a fun morning together, we headed to Lamb's Farm for the afternoon.

Playing on the tractor ~

We had fun seeing and petting the animals, and just walking around... but by far the most fun was the train ride! :)

The petting zoo was fun too...

The boys got a big kick out of trying on Pops' hat... Luke had it figured out all on his own, Micah needed a little help. :) I love how both boys have their mouths open in the pictures. :)



We also took a trip to Brookfield Zoo and spent the day walking around looking at the animals. I didn't have my camera handy, but Lisa got a few good pictures ~

Grannie and Pops with their grandsons ~

So cute! :)

Hugs for Uncle Jim on his birthday ~

We definitely had way too much fun with the family this summer! What a blessing to have such a close-knit family! And what a treasure the memories of our time together are!

Rice cereal man!

It's amazing what you remember from your childhood. And even more amazing the things that happen years later that remind you of those memories. When we were kids, my brother randomly decided one night that he didn't like potatoes. Being the stubborn child that he was, and also knowing that mom and dad wouldn't let him leave the table until his plate was clean, he found a loophole and "cleaned" the potatoes off his plate by rubbing them into his pant legs when my parents weren't looking. Once he had been excused from the table, he turned himself into "Mashed Potato Man" (which, as I remember it, was more like Frankenstein with potato pants on) and chased my sister and me around the house with his arms outstretched and yelling, "Mashed Potato Man!" I think once the terrorizing was over and we were getting ready for bed, his pants actually stood up on their own because of all the potatoes mashed into the legs! :) (That might be an exaggeration, but the idea makes me smile)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any pictures from this childhood memory, but I was able to take some of the incident that happened the other day that reminded me of "Mashed Potato Man". As I was giving Micah his rice cereal, apparently some either dropped down onto his pants, or he managed to get a handful... either way, he ended up rubbing the rice cereal into his pant legs. Obviously, being only 6 months old and not yet crawling or having any siblings, he wasn't able to terrorize anyone by chasing them around the house yelling, "Rice Cereal Man"! But I was amused enough to get out the camera and share my memory with you. :)

RICE CEREAL MAN!!!

Doesn't he look intimidating? :)

4th of July weekend in lower Michigan

Aaron and I had some vacation time at the beginning of July and had planned to take a tour of lower Michigan. That got cut short due to the fact that Aaron had been sick for about 3 weeks, and we decided to stay at home and rest, rather than share whatever germs he had with our friends. We were able to get to Grand Rapids to visit my college roommate for one night, and then we spent the rest of the weekend in Coldwater at Aaron's brother-in-law's family's cottage. Even though our vacation turned out different than we'd planned, we had a great week off, and were amazingly well rested to head back to work that Monday. Usually we find ourselves needing a vacation to recover from our vacation... not this time. :) There is definitely something to be said for these "stay-cations" that are becoming so popular these days. :)

Here we are in Grand Rapids with Kellie

And Kellie's cousin, Jennie

At Arby's for lunch... Micah is taking a page out of his Uncle Eric's book by chewing on the straw :)

Thankfully, the car ride from Grand Rapids to Coldwater was very uneventful. Micah slept most of the way and we made it there without too much trouble. :)

Relaxing at the cottage

Micah's first experience with sand ~ he wasn't too sure about it at first, but quickly got excited about putting it in his mouth. :) (Don't worry... we put a stop to that REAL fast)

Chillin' with daddy

"HGB" ... or, Honorary Grandpa Bob :)

"HGV" ... or, Honorary Grandma Vicki :)

Micah's first boat ride! He loved it! The life jacket we got for him was a little on the large size, but it was the smallest one we could find. He'll grow into it quickly, I'd imagine. :)

Family picture on the boat ~

Eric was holding Micah up on the dashboard of the boat, and all I could think of was that scene in "What About Bob?" when Bill Murray's character is tied to the mast of the boat and is yelling, "I'm sailing!" Micah was a little braver than Bill Murray on his first boat ride. :)

Laughing at Uncle Eric

Enjoying the boat ride with Aunt Tracy

Relaxing is what being at the cottage is all about!

Micah took a nap in Aunt Tracy's arms on Sunday, and I think I might be in trouble... if you listen closely, you can hear Micah snoring in this video! Like father, like son, I guess. Thank God for earplugs! :)

Snuggle time ~

One of the favorite places at the cottage ~ the hammock!

You can see the whole world from up here!

Micah's first swimming experience! How fun!!

The life jacket didn't last too long, but we had fun floating on the water

Relaxing with daddy and chewing on an ice cube

Anyone who's ever seen "Home Alone 2" will appreciate this picture... unfortunately, Micah has those ears that can catch the sunlight and cause them to glow. Good thing he's so cute! :)

Micah's first 4th of July means... new bib! :)

This picture was taken the first summer Aaron and I were dating... over the 4th of July weekend too, incidentally. :) We couldn't get enough of relaxing in the hammock, so we took a picture of us in our favorite place at the cottage.

This one was taken this last time at the cottage... amazing what 5 years can do! We think family pictures in the hammock might have to become a tradition. :)

Uncle Eric made Micah his own fishing pole... he seemed to get a kick out of fishing, which will make Pops happy. He's already been talking to Micah about going fishing! :)

Micah's first encounter with a fish ~ (not one he caught himself... Uncle Eric caught this one and showed it to Micah. Emma was pretty interested too)

Later that night, Uncle Eric was entertaining both Micah and Emma... at the same time! Pretty impressive, if you ask me. Micah was very amused by Emma trying to get her toy from Eric and was laughing up a storm! :)

We had a great time at the cottage for the 4th. Micah even did pretty well with the loud fireworks. We stayed in the house, rather than go out on the boat with everyone else, so it was a little quieter, and actually, Micah slept through the entire show. Once it was over, he decided it was party time, but he eventually settled down for the night. :) So thank you, Migrins, for inviting us to enjoy your cottage for the weekend. We look forward to many more fun times together! :)

Roll over, Beethoven!

We've had a lot of fun with Luke in the past couple of days. Grannie and Pops' house is pretty quiet now that the DeBoers are in Michigan for a week, but thankfully it will get noisy once again when they come back. :) Micah is holding his own, keeping the noise level up there, but it's always better with 2 boys making a racket.

One of the ways Luke likes to make noise is on the piano, and my sister thought Micah needed to give it a try. So roll over, Beethoven! These boys have got music in their blood! I see a future in dueling pianos for them! :)