Escanaba in Da Moonlight

We took a trip up to Aunt Sara and Uncle Jim's cabin in the UP this past weekend. The kids got to play on a pier, catch a fish, sleep in bunk beds and drink from a natural spring. Below is a sampling of our adventures.

Unveiling....

Guess you could call this part of my "therapy" to reveal my head in public, but really Mattie has been wanting to see what I look like. Just a little scary ;-)

Also showing Mattie, and others :-), how well the Sycamore tree is doing this year. Must be because the grand kids helped transplant it.

And last, but not least, a view of some of the wildflowers that came up from the seed from Mattie's and Spencer's wedding packets. There are a bunch more coming later in the year. Pretty fun to see what comes up.

Gone Fishin'

We've done a little fishing so far this summer. The first pictures are some that mom took out at Lake Michigan when they were visiting this weekend. The rest are from when the kids caught their first fish about 2 weeks ago.

May Happenings

May has been a great month as Alena has just been so much fun! Her vocabulary and comprehension are expanding like crazy and she LOVES to be outside! The above picture is on Mother's Day. :)
Loves bath time!
Outside in the backyard.
Community garden planting 2011.... I got the little bucket and shovel out for Alena and she was enthralled the whole time. She got upset at the end when we wouldn't let her dig up our newly-planted cucumbers though. Haha!
Hand-me-down sunglasses from her friend Lauren are one of her new favorite things. So funny. :)
Chillin' in the laundry basket wearing her bling-bling of canning rings.... she played with those for well over half-an-hour!
Park day earlier this week... Alena loved the little swing, although she wouldn't look at me for a good picture.

Florida Break

Dad and I just thought you might want to see a couple of pics of our place in FL. We didn't do much, except relax, so they aren't all that interesting, just a record of our peaceful time in some sun....

 Some photos to catch you all up on our western lives.
Spencer let me get a dancing game for our Wii (Just Dance 2). We share it with friends Easter afternoon, I enjoyed it more than he did.

 After many years of relatively healthy ankles, I finally got a good sprain. Not up there with Reuben's college one, but it did make noise.

 We did the best job taking care of it post roll that I've ever done, and I was impressed with how little it swelled, but its still sore and even some discoloring lingering over 2 weeks later.

Dinner on our "porch"

On to the painting adventures:

Patched holes. Pretty similar throughout the place

Living room/entry

 
Bedroom

 bedroom

 bathroom (almost the same color)

 kitchen (same color as bathroom)
Also, our desk/counter we (Spencer) made that we are still finishing up.

living room

 all 3 colors in one picture

Now time for a real couch!

We took a trip to tulip time over here in Holland to see the parade. Lots of marching bands were there and it was fun to see my students outside of the classroom. Jack did pretty well considering it was 85 and sunny.

In order to get Jack to smile, you have to hide the camera and then quickly pull it out and take a picture before he notices it. When he notices the camera, he becomes quizzical and all smiles disappear.
Trying to take a nap while marching bands went by 5 meters away. Didn't work so well.
Also, I think we figured out Jack's superpower. He hasn't mastered it yet by he is working on his hypnosis. Katie and I find ourselves constantly putting in his pipe and feeding him so he must be getting better at it.

And lastly, just wanted to throw up a link to show you how much he likes to eat. Because he really likes to eat.