Up North

Bill and I crammed a bunch of stuff into our two-day anniversary trip. On Friday, we took a two-hour sail on the tall ship Manitou in Traverse City. I highly recommend it!!



On Saturday morning, we went to Castle Farms in Charlevoix. It was built as a showpiece for Sears farm equipment back around World War I. In the past few years, a couple bought it and restored it (for a mere 10 million dollars). It is absolutely beautiful, and would be a wonderful place for a wedding reception! There were 3 weddings and receptions happening the day we visited. The place is so large, the wedding parties won't bump into each other.


We also did some shopping in Petoskey, then went to see The Cross in the Woods, which is really quite amazing. I couldn't get over the fact that the cross has its own lightning rod. Bill really thinks I'm nuts sometimes.Saturday night, we went to the Little Traverse Bay Golf Club for our anniversary dinner. It has an amazing view of the Bay, but it was raining, so I didn't get any good pictures of that. Notice Bill's new shirt. He neglected to pack one, so we hit JC Penney in Petoskey. We got a really good deal on it!!!


Sunday morning, we went to church and leisurely made our way home. Here are a couple pictures of our bed & breakfast, Highland Hideaway.

June 27, 1998

This Saturday, Bill and I will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. In honor of the occasion, I hauled out some antiques:
Here are my thoughts:
1. I don't miss the hair. At all.
2. I will admit, I now prefer Bill with facial hair.
3. I think I look very well-rested, and more than a little naive.

Here's a picture of us at the last family wedding, Amanda and John's:

So many things have changed in the past eleven years, but I think we've weathered it well. We are escaping up to Harbor Springs/Petoskey for the weekend. I'll be sure to post pictures when we get back.

Happy Anniversary, Bill!

The Ool

Growing up, one of my closest friends had a pool. On the shed by the pool was a sign that said, "Welcome to our Ool. Notice there is no "P" in it. Please keep it that way." That sign always cracked me up, and I thought about that tonight because we took our boys to the Bratts to swim.

The Bratts are good friends and former neighbors in Comstock Park. They were putting their pool in two summers ago, just before we moved. For some reason, we were never able to get over there last year to swim, so this was our first experience.

TJ had a ball. He was a little hesitant at first, but went down the slide on his own, and jumped off the diving board. I was his spotter. I had not intended to get my hair wet (I hate chlorine hair), but he totally drenched me on his first trip down the slide. In fact, he got water in my eye and I lost my contact. Thankfully, it was just in the corner of my eye, or this would have been an expensive evening!
Sam refused to swim, but he did splash in the water a little and was fascinated with the 'fountain' Jon rigged in the shallow end.

Nolan splashed and played and had a great time. He is definitely braver than Sam.

We have already promised the boys we will try to get back there soon. Thanks for a great evening, Jon and Lisa!

The Father of My Children

On Sunday night, I had to run some errands. It was a beautiful night, so I encouraged Bill to play on the deck with the boys. He was filling up the water table when I left. When I got home, he reported that the boys had a great time.

The next day, I noticed the camera was sitting by the deck door. I got excited. Bill never takes pictures of the kids, unless I prompt him to. I flipped on the camera to see what adorable pictures he had taken. There was only one picture on the camera:
If you can figure him out, let me know.

He may be able to resist, but I can't. Here's Nolan splashing in the water table:

And here is he watching The Cat running around below the deck. Nolan wanted The Cat to come up, and The Cat badly wanted to come up and see him.

Real-life Rainbow

Monday night was humid and a little stormy. It rained on and off several times. While we were eating dinner, we noticed that the sun was shining brightly to the west, but it was very dark and gloomy off to the east. Bill went down to the boys' room to see if there was a rainbow, and immediately called for the rest of us to join him. Leaving Nolan in his high chair (sorry, Buddy), I got Sam down and we hurried with TJ into their bedroom. We looked out the window and saw a perfect, complete rainbow. In fact, I pointed out that there was a faint double rainbow. TJ's comment? "I didn't know we got rainbows in real life!" I reminded him about Noah and God's promise. TJ said he remembered that, but still didn't think we actually got rainbows. Um, okay.

I decided this was a blog-worthy photo op, so I ran outside and snapped a couple pictures:


If you look carefully, you can see the second rainbow:


I showed them to TJ when I got inside. His comment? "Mommy! You took a picture of A___'s house!" Yep. That was my sole purpose in taking the pictures.

TJ and Bill sat down to finish dinner. I was done, so I started cleaning up. Then I noticed Sam was missing. I called his name, and he wandered down the hall from his room. I asked him if he was still looking at the rainbow. His response? "No, Mommy! The sprinklers are on! I was watching those!!!"

Clothing Issues

Does it come as a surprise to any of you that my children have clothing issues?

Sam INSISTS on wearing socks. Regardless of the weather, he wants socks on his feet. Even at night. I am often cold at night, but the thought of sleeping with socks on my feet drives me batty. Still, I let him wear them, because it's easier than listening to him cry and carry on about it.

Sam also does not like his sandals. Why? Because you typically do not wear socks with sandals! I have occasionally let him wear his socks with his sandals, only to discover that his socks turn blue (from his blue sandals). Nice. The few times I've convinced him to go without socks have been stressful for him, and as soon as he comes inside and removes his shoes (we have a 'no shoe' policy in the house), he's shrieking for me to come put either socks or slippers on him.

Sam is also not fond of shorts. It's been a fairly cool May and June, so I think he's worn shorts all of three times now. It takes him several minutes to adjust to the fact that "My legs are showing! My legs are showing!" I can't convince him that's how it's supposed to be.

If you faithfully read my blog (and you should!) you may remember the story from about a month ago where TJ had some slivers on the bottom of his feet. After I removed them, he said his foot still felt 'tonky'. Anyway, I gave him strict instructions not to take his shoes off outside anymore.

Last week was the end of the school year. Mrs. Tagg sent home a really nice memory book with each child. It was filled with pictures, memories, and artwork from the school year. TJ was featured in each picture in his book (it must have taken her ages to make all of these!)...except for the last picture. The picture showed his class doing some sort of outdoor art project using their feet. She wrote a note above the picture telling me not to look for TJ...that he was sitting against the building, his shoes tightly on. The picture seems to have been taken shortly after the sliver incident. Oops. TJ was obeying Mommy's orders. Guess I should have specified that if his teacher told him to take his shoes off, it was okay.

Here is TJ and Mrs. Tagg last week. He has grown and changed so much! She was a marvelous teacher:

Meijer Gardens

Last Saturday (May 30), we went to Meijer Gardens for the morning. Our Children's Museum membership let us get in to the Gardens for free during the month of May. However, a lack of warm Saturdays and a busy month meant we didn't get there until the very end of the month.

The boys had a great time. They actually let us look around inside for awhile. They were quite interesting in the varieties of cacti, and VERY interested in a large, ugly bug we found inside the tropical room. Of course, their favorite parts were still the walk along the boardwalk (saw lots of turtles!), the 'farm' with its working water pump and dinner bell, and of course, the Children's Garden. We intentionally went there last, as TJ always gets soaked. He did okay this year...only a wet shirt.

Sam is smiling because he sees water!

TJ and the ugly bug:


TJ informed me he is 'not scared' of DaVinci's horse anymore. Good! It's one of my favorite photo ops:

Children's Garden:

The dog sitter

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a puppy visiting us. Puka (pronouced "Poo kah") is a shi-tzu puppy that belongs to a friend and co-worker of mine. The boys really like Toby, my mom's shi-tzu, so I figured they'd enjoy having a dog of their 'own' for the long weekend.

TJ absolutely adored her. He spent lots of time talking to her, petting her, and walking her around the yard on her leash. Sam was indifferent at first, but quickly started talking to her about the sprinklers. Apparently, "Puka" is a hard word for a two-year-old, because he called her "Booga".

Nolan liked Puka, even when she tried licking him to death. Nolan seems to like dogs.

Puka headed home on Memorial Day. TJ thinks she should be coming back anytime now, since he's almost out of school. I have no idea why he thinks there's a connection between those two things, but hopefully someday Puka can come visit again.

When we went to my mom's for dinner that Saturday night, we of course took Puka along (and discovered that Toby was terrified of her). Puka thoroughly enjoyed my mom's flower beds, and TJ helped her dig a big hole.

Puka and Sam's legs (he didn't want to bend down and smile):


Puka and TJ:

How to get Mama out of bed--FAST!

Saturday morning is supposed to be the one morning I sleep in. By sleeping in, I mean I get up after 8:30, instead of much earlier. This past Saturday, I had told Bill I'd get up by 7:30, as we wanted to take the boys to Meijer Gardens that morning.

At 7:15, I heard a small voice in my ear. It was Sam, and he was being annoyingly cheerful. Why do my children not understand that I am NOT a morning person? Anyway, the conversation went like this:

"Hi Mama!" (Silence from me)
"Are you awake?" (I mumbled at him)
"I'm awake!" (Me thinking, 'Where is Bill? Why isn't Sam bothering him?')
"I need my brestfast". (Me still thinking above thought, and also wondering when he's going to learn to say 'breakfast')
"Hey, are these your glass?"

At that last statement, I shot out of bed. He said the word wrong, but I knew what he meant. Sure enough, he had grabbed my glasses off of my nightstand. I have a fairly new pair of glasses, because TJ broke the last pair! I didn't want to repeat that!

So Sam got his 'brestfast', and I'm happy to report my glasses were not harmed. Whew! It just wasn't the way I wanted to start my Saturday.