Camping at Gun Lake

This past weekend we braved the nasty weather and camped at Gun Lake along with Cory's parents, his sister and her family and his brother and his family. It definitely wasn't the best weather as it was rainy and cold (highs in the low 60's), but the sun did shine for a few moments here and there and nothing ruined having a good time with family. We would have loved to spend some time on the beach enjoying the water, but since that really wasn't a realistic option this weekend we went fishing, we played games, and the kids played together, did crafts (thanks to grandma) and rode bikes. It was nice and relaxing and both Joshua and Matthew did really well. Joshua loved playing with his cousins and having a sleepover with his cousins Nicholas and Owen (too bad Owen only lasted a little bit) in Grandma's trailer. Glad we were able to have fun and family time! The only unfortunate part of the weekend was that our camera had some "technical issues" so I had to take pictures with my crappy little camera that I keep in my purse all weekend so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but what I did I've created a video with below.

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Bonfire!

Sunday afternoon we used the rocks we got from the farm to create a ring around the fire pit we dug in our yard. Joshua wanted to have a fire Sunday night of course and we just HAD to roast marshmallows and make smores! Apparently the child was so excited about having a bonfire that he invited his little friends in the neighborhood to join in the fun! It's so convenient to have a bonfire right in your backyard; I'm sure there will be tons more in our future!

Bottle Boot Camp Update

Just in case anyone has been wondering, we've won the battle with the bottle! After trying 6 different bottles we ended up sticking with the Born Free that he had taken before this whole fight. We stuck with giving Matthew one bottle a day since he first started having an issue a month ago. He fought it big time for the first few days and we had episodes of screaming and crying for an hour or so a time. After a few days though he realized we weren't going to give up so he was going to have to give in if he wanted to eat. Over the past few weeks he has been eating his bottles, but not really well. This last week however, he has been sucking his bottle a day down and is getting more proficient.I really don't think this whole issue had much to do with the bottle/nipple, but more with our stubborn child who just had to realize that sometimes he needs to take a bottle. We will be doing a bottle daily for the next couple of months just to make sure he doesn't have a lapse again and then it will be onto full time bottle feeding and the start of cereal. At least now I can leave my child knowing he won't starve or scream for hours and I don't have to breastfeed for a year (nothing against breastfeeding, but it's just not my thing)!

Celebrating a Friend's Birthday at the Zoo

The little girl who lives next door to us had a birthday last week and invited Joshua (and us) to her celebrate with her at the zoo on Saturday. Joshua was beyond thrilled to be a part of her birthday and be able to visit the zoo too! The party started off with decorating safari hats with birthday stickers and then we moved over to the barn by the petting zoo to meet a Bantam Chicken, a Ferret and a turtle up close and the kids got to pet them too. Then we had cake and ice cream and watched the birthday girl open her gifts. The last exciting part of the birthday party was going behind the scenes and seeing what they do in the zoo kitchen. We saw the big freezer and refrigerator in which they keep the animals food. The zoo keeper shared lots of interesting tidbits and even showed us some of the "treats" the animals get - like the lions get a rat frozen in a huge chunk of ice on hot days! The kids even got make the food they had to feed the monkeys the next morning. I failed to take pictures in the zoo kitchen as it was a very cramped space. We roamed the rest of the zoo after the party was over and thanks to some coupons from a neighbor friend we got to touch the stingrays and sharks for free too! Just another fun day for a lucky little boy! Video of our day is below.

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A Day at the Air Zoo

Friday was another day trip for us, this time it was a visit to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo and my dad joined us. We arrived at the Air Zoo late morning and upon getting out of the car found that Joshua had totally forgotten shoes! Good thing our GPS took us in a quirky way and we saw an Old Navy. So back in the car and over to Old Navy we went to buy Joshua shoes for the day. Thankfully we found some cute little tennis shoes that will be great for the rest of summer and fall and the bonus was that the were on clearance! Guess this will teach me to check instead of assume that Mr. Independent is actually all set when we leave the house! After our short detour we arrived back at the Air Zoo and spent the day exploring the two buildings and all of the planes. Joshua enjoyed seeing all the planes up close and even going in an old one. He also enjoyed the two rides he was able to go on, but he had to ride with Cory or me because he was too scared. There was even a cool kid's section with little rides (like you have to pay for in the mall) you could ride for free. It was a fun day, but we must say we probably wouldn't have done it had it not been for the free general admission. There is a video below of our time at the Air Zoo.

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The Farm

We have wanted to put a fire pit in our backyard so we can have bonfires and we finally know where were we want to put it and the yard is at a point that we can put it in. We wanted to surround the pit with rocks as a barrier and Erin's dad's farm has plenty of those so we headed out there an evening last week. The boys took a ride in the old Jeep that Farmer Joel (Erin's dad) is restoring and of course the got a ride on one of the tractors too! A bonus for our visit was the sweet corn that Farmer Joel had planted was ready to picked so we picked our own corn and tomatoes and even got to dig up some potatoes he was growing too! Then the neighbors stopped by and brought us cucumbers and green beans from their garden! Fresh veggies galore, yum! What a fun time visiting the farm as usual!

Joshua picks some sweet corn to take home.

Digging up potatoes with Farmer Joel.

Matthew just enjoying being along for the fun.

Farmer Joel, Owen and Joshua taken a ride on the tractor.

A Visit to Cran Hill Ranch

Saturday we went up to Cran Hill Ranch to visit Cory's parents and his sister and her family. We chose not to camp with them this year as I didn't want to be that far from home with an infant who has never camped. We spent all afternoon and evening there enjoying the sun, beach and lake. The cousins had a great time playing together as usual, especially Nicholas. Joshua and Owen who always enjoy being together! We even got to go on a hayride with extended family! Did I mention we got to eat the traditional pizzas over the fire and roast marshmallows?!?! YUM! It was a wonderful day! Below is the video of our visit.

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A Night at the Cottage

Last Friday night we were invited out to my uncle and aunt's cottage to say goodbye to my cousin Matt and his wife Katie. These two crazy kids got married in June and are making their home in San Diego, California! Joshua loves older kids and has become attached to my cousins Rachel, Matt and Katie, especially with all the wedding stuff he got to be involved in. Joshua's having a tough time understanding how Matt is not living at my aunt and uncle's house and how he isn't even going to be living close to us any more. So Friday was one last hurrah with Matt and Katie before they left for California. Joshua had fun riding in the boat watching my Uncle Steve, Matt and my brother Phil ski, wake board and knee board. Joshua was even brave enough to try tubing with Cory! We had a wonderful time with my aunt and uncles' family and were glad to spend one last night with Matt and Katie! We are praying their transition into life out in California is a smooth one and we are praying they get to come back and visit lots too! Enjoy the short video below that captures a few moments of that night.

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Bedtime Stories

It's the same routine every night before bed and there are always stories (well almost always because Joshua sometimes loses this privilege for poor behavior) before bed. We love story time and now Matthew gets to be a part of it too. Love this time with my boys!

Chuba -luba

I'm sure Matthew will appreciate this when he is older, NOT at all! But we just had to document how chubby this little guy really is! This kid has some serious rolls, upon rolls, upon rolls! Joshua was chubby as a baby, but we don't remember him having this many rolls of chub. Matthew has a double chin, chunky cheeks, multiple thigh rolls, wrinkles for wrists and ankles and dimples for elbows - now all nicely captured in pictures for future embarrassment. So have a little chuckle at Matthew's expense - good thing baby rolls are cute and he doesn't read this blog!

A Day Trip To Binder Park Zoo

Since we aren't camping as much as usual this summer (packing for an infant is a pain) we thought we'd do a few day trips with Joshua to make his summer special. Cory took Tuesday off and we traveled down to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. We hit the Wild Africa portion of the zoo first, then the children's zoo and then finally checked out the rest of the zoo. Even though the Wild Africa area involved a lot of walking Joshua loved every minute of it! It was so neat to see the animals all out on the "plains" instead of in cages. He loved the zebras and giraffes espcially and even got to feed some giraffes lettuce! Other highlights from our day included taking a tram ride and a train ride around the zoo as well as a carosoal ride. Matthew was a trooper and did very well being chauffered in the stroller for a majority of the day. It was a great day and we know Joshua will have many fun memories as will we since he keeps talking about his trip to the zoo!

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Ready for a campfire!

Well, maybe not quite ready to be in his own chair at the campfire, but he sure does like Joshua's new chair!

Beating the Heat

With 92 degree temps in store for Sunday I called up my uncle to see if we could spend the afternoon at the cottage cooling off in the water. It was hot and very windy! We took a boat ride & anchored to swim in the deep, but Joshua wanted nothing to do with being in deep water - silly guy! When we got back to the cottage Joshua had a ball playing in the shallow water with my uncle Steve and Cory while Matthew chilled in the shade on the boat and my aunt and I talked. Joshua also had a great time with my cousin Rachel who he loves and adores, but for some odd reason I didn't get any pictures of them together this time! We even got to watch a storm roll across the lake as we finished up dinner which Joshua thought was pretty cool. As usual we had a wonderful day! We were all worn out from the fun, sun and wind and both boys fell asleep on the way home. Thanks Uncle Steve, Aunt Cher and Rachel!

Taking a nap by on the boat by Aunt Cher.



Sleepy baby!

Joshua and Uncle Steve playing ball in the water.

Joshua loves to SPLASH!

Cory took Joshua for a "ride" in the tube.

Matthew was charming Aunt Cher with his smiles.

Joshua and Uncle Steve watch the storm roll across the lake.

Joshua shows Aunt Cher his car and truck book.

Blueberry Picking!

Friday morning Joshua, Matthew and I went blueberry picking with Erin, Owen and Aiden at Beard's Farm out past Dorr. Joshua and Owen were very excited about picking their own blueberries! Erin and I put the babies in front carriers, we got our buckets and directions as to where to pick and we set off picking. We were told it was the end of blueberry season and the blueberries were what they were. The variety we picked were on the smaller size, but were very sweet. Erin and I figured we'd be lucky if the boys lasted a half hour picking, but surprisingly they hung with it for an hour. Matthew wasn't quite so excited about being in the front carrier and not moving very much so he spent a good deal of time letting everyone know he wasn't thrilled with our little picking adventure. Thankfully the bushes were nice a full and had quite a few blueberries on the lower branches for the boys to pick. After an hour of picking all the boys had it and we headed in to weigh and pay for our blueberries. Surprisingly we picked just over 4 pounds and paid all of $5.50! On the way home Joshua declared, "I love picking blueberries!" We have been enjoying our blueberries daily and have even made a fresh blueberry pie to eat. I think this may become a tradition since we had so much fun!

Catching up. . .

Last week some friends from our old neighborhood came over for a visit. Joshua couldn't remember Hannah and Ava's names (guess a year of not seeing them will do that), but had a great time playing with them! While the kids played Sheryl and I were able to catch up, at least a little (we could talk for hours and have been known to back when we lived so close). There isn't much we miss about our old neighborhood, but these friends we definitely miss! Thanks for coming ladies, we must get together again soon!

Happy Birthday Papa!

My dad's birthday was last Monday and in our family growing up there was never a lot of fanfare on our birthdays, just small get togethers. So, for my dad's birthday we had him over for dinner later in the week. For the occasion Joshua and I made him a cake, complete with sprinkles per Joshua's request. Joshua also gave Papa a special gift that he had made - star picture frames picked out and painted by Joshua. So glad we could celebrate together even though we kept things pretty low-key!

Cake - YUM!

What a silly face Matthew!


Joshua was very proud to show Papa the frames he painted for his birthday gift.

Little Dancing Machine

Yesterday was the second wedding we attended this summer - my cousin Whitney got married. Joshua and Matthew went with us and both did very well during the ceremony and the reception. Joshua was looking forward to the reception as we had told him there would be dancing. The poor kid could hardly sit through dinner he was chomping at the bit to get out on the dance floor (thankfully my cousin Bryan and his wife Shannon somehow convinced the child he needed to eat before he could dance and actually got him to eat most of his dinner)! Once the dance floor opened up he was on it for almost every song and danced with anyone he could, but didn't want to dance with Cory or me - he danced with the bride of course, my aunt Cher, my cousin's wife Shannon and my cousin Danielle. He really missed dancing with my cousin Rachel, my cousin Matt and his wife Katie like he had at the last wedding, but Matt got sick and had to leave during the reception. Joshua had a blast dancing the night away and didn't want to leave. It was a fun night!

Joshua didn't even want to sit by us for dinner, but instead happily sat across the table from us with my cousin Bryan and his wife Shannon.

My cousin Danielle and Matthew.

My cousin's wife Shannon dancing with Joshua.


Dancing with the bride!

Joshua dancing with Danielle.

Dancing with aunt Cher.

Uncle Phil with Matthew.