Birthday Party with Family

The birthday girl a little early but how can we skip a little party when family is around.

Driving and bare feet....bad combination when the brakes are your feet. Andrea was such a brave little girl, I think I would have cried/whined much of the night. She was most happy just to show every one her band aids.

The crew ready for a piece of cake.

How fun-both sets of Grandparents all together for the big 2 year old....although she will tell you she is five if you ask.

A fun purse full of all the necessities including a phone. Andrea has been into playing babies since we arrived here in MI and the purse was a big hit. Becca was most excited about being able to play babies together. Becca has spent a majority of her time here in MI playing with a bunch of barbie dolls, while Andrea spends her time pushing her baby around the house.

A wonderful meal, Andrea loved every bite of her lasagna grandma H made and most of all her kool-aid! She wasn't so big on eating her cake but did actually manage to blow out her candles. Becca and Brayden had no problem finishing their pieces and along with their cousins I think they could have polished off an another entire cake!

HUGE WAVES, LOTS OF FUN

What a day, we went to church seeing clouds and wishing we all had our sweaters and by the afternoon we were actually able to get on the beach without freezing to death. The waves were beyond fun-huge but not too bad of an under toe. We all had lots of fun jumping waves and surfing-the waves were so big I think they tumbled a couple of us, although we all managed to keep our suits!

All the guys kept the jet ski pretty busy today, there were some huge jumps as well as some huge wipe outs.

It was a day for the cousins, we were all together and they had a blast playing together at the beach. Becca enjoyed the shade under the tramp while Brayden alternated from tackling the waves and rolling in the sand. Andrea had fun jumping on the water tramp that was up on the beach. Brayden managed the waves pretty well with a life jacket, Becca wanted nothing to do with the water and Andrea was satisfied just getting her toes wet.

We are missing baby Hazel who was enjoying the comforts of the house, next year she will be added to this crazy crew!

TIME FLYS

We had the big family picture today-this is not it. Ron's Grandparents have been married 70 years and the pictures had over one hundred people in it. This is the light blue team....each family was a different color.

It was our ten year anniversary this year. We were able to get away for a couple days-WONDERFUL. We didn't have any plans, which is something we both needed. I actually read an entire book one afternoon-never left the couch. Ron was in his glory as we were able to watch the tour-do France in the evenings. We did manage to climb a huge sand dune, play some mini golf and spend an enjoyable day at Mackinaw island. The time flew by-we both enjoyed being just a couple again for a few days. I did know it was time to see the kids when the last day we were doing a little browsing at a little art store and came across some beach painting of kids playing in the waves-I left with tears in my eyes/I think Ron thought I was going crazy.

I laughed so hard while we rode this bike. It was just such a funny picture to me after riding our

separate rode bikes and riding hard earlier in the week, although this laid back ride was lots of fun. I do have to say that I am becoming a better back seat rider, we did try Ron in the back......it didn't go so well!

A typical day up North this year-mostly fog but thankfully no rain. The bridge is still an impressive sight to see, even if we about froze riding the ferry across.

Just a quick update seeing as the days seem to be passing by too quickly. The sun

did finally decided to shine this week and we were able to enjoy a beautiful day on the beach. Brayden loved jumping in the waves, Becca loves playing in the sand and jumping on the tramp. It took some convincing to get all the kids on the wave runner-although Andrea was child who showed the least apprehension and didn't even hang on most of the ride. Today the water was 72-warm and wavy, my favorite-even Brayden got in and was able to hold his own against the waves.

BIKING

Ten years ago Ron rode the Holland Hundred bike ride with my brother David. They didn't train and even though they both completed the entire hundred miles neither looked so good. This should have given me a heads up as to what can happen when Ron pushes himself too hard.

Since today was supposed to be another record low for the high temps we both decided to tackle the ride again this year. Since I was tagging along we decided to just shoot for the 100km-around 65miles. We enjoyed a great ride together-a little fast for me at times but lots of fun together. We enjoyed a tasty pancake breakfast around mile 30 and a little ride on a chain pulled ferry boat. With the weather being so cool we both felt pretty good, and no, Ron did not get sick.

Once we arrived home we discovered the kids in the water, the sun had peeked through and with the sand warming up they had a blast running in the water then rolling in the sand to warm up-I chose to just lay and enjoy the little bit of warmth.

Polar Opposite

We made it to Michigan, now if only a little sun and heat would have followed us here.

Becca still full of smiles today after a long car ride yesterday-mostly due to the fact she discovered some left over candy.

Even if the sun doesn't shine you can always play baseball!

What fun, getting to eat and Grandma's house.

Welcome to Michigan. We were sooo ready to leave the excessive heat of Tulsa to enjoy some great time along the shores of Lake MI, and are a little disappointed as we are being greeted by the season of fall...what happened to summer-Average temps? We went from 100 degree temp to barely 70, what a change, good thing we are here for a while. The kids are super excited, even if we have not been in the water today with grandparents and cousins and toys how can you not have fun. The drive went well, even if I did do a little more sleeping than usual, sticking Ron with the much of the driving, althouth this was nice as we drove through some huge rain storms. The kids enjoyed videos and besides for the occasional protest from Andrea they all did great.

TIRED DOG

The city of Tulsa really does have many things to do. The newest on our end of town is the addition of a Dog Park. It is actually at a park pretty close to our house. I have been waiting for the perfect night to try it out....so tonight when it was still close to 100 degree's we decide to head out??? Why??? because we had to let loose our turtle, which Ron again thought would be fun for the kids to have-yeah, right. Thankfully we made it through the week with out salmonella poisoning-okay, call me paranoid but they don't sell small turtles at the pet store for this very reason.

Anyway, they have a huge fenced in area for the dogs, I was a little nervous about Ephie as they had some little dogs mixed in but she did great. Actually, all she was concerned about was where the kids were at. There is a no kid rule in the dog park-for good reason I believe, but Ephie was not happy seeing her kids take off to the park to play. So while all the other dogs were out chasing balls, running crazy-Ephie was staked out by the gate, pacing. I did manage to convince her to walk the parimeter with me-she looked like a big old police dog-trying to find a way out. Well, next time I go it will have to be by myself, maybe then she might let loose a little.

SOME BIG ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Today both Brayden and Becca made some huge strides in their swimming abilities. We made it to the local pool a little late in the afternoon but both the older two were ready to swim. Brayden immediately went to his jumping spot and Becca couldn't wait to get her life jacket on and head to the deep end. Brayden decided to head to the diving board to show off his moves for Ron. They allow him to wear his life-jacket and he just barrels off the end of the diving board, a full sprint to the end. After watching Brayden a couple times with Becca next to me I suggested she try it seeing as she could wear her life-jacket. She shocked me and promptly swam to the side, climbed out and walked over to the diving board. She walked to the end slowly, holding on to the bars, I thought she might turn around but slowly she inched her way out then slowly stepped off. I only saw a look of complete fright while she was in the air falling. She bobbed to the surface, swam to the side, climbed out and then with a huge grin went and did it all over again. By the end our time she was about jumping off the end, no fear just huge smiles-my big three-year old!
Mid-way through our swim Ron convinced Brayden to try the slides. There are two into the deep end and you can't wear life-jackets. I know Brayden can swim but I was a little unsure about him swimming to the surface and then swimming to the side. Well, I don't know why I worry he did great! Thankfully he swims great underwater and I think if he could hold his breath he would swim most of the time under water. He did look pretty strong and actually was able to get his arms out of the water for a couple strokes in between all the dog paddling. The big thing was there was no fear on his face-he is most apprehensive about the deep end and I think he still will be, but it was lots of fun to see him swim somewhat on his own.
Okay, Andrea was also there, no great strides for her. She had her own little picnic in the corner. She was the little girl sitting on her towel with two water bottles and an almost empty package of graham crackers-very happy.

LADYBUGS ANYONE??

I thought we should do something fun on this rainy, hot, muggy day besides enslave my children to cleaning bathrooms....which by the way they do actually think is fun.

Library fun

The kids completed the Librarys Summer Reading Program this week. Brayden was super excited to get his blow-up crayon. They both pretty proud to show off they reward to the librarian when we checked out their book. Brayden also had to give the storytime leader the entire story about his weekend on the waterslides.

The funny thing about today and the library was the coupon book they gave. Becca is unfamilar with the word and for the life of me I couldn't convince her to say it correctly. So, today we went to Wendy's and used our POUPON to get free chicken nuggets. She was so excited to tell Ron about the Poupon book-and yes she says it without cracking a smile.

A FUN WEEKEND

This year was one of the few years we have not headed to MI for the fourth of July. After realizing that we had some extra time with the holiday we decided to take a little mini vacation with the kids. We headed to Kansas City and stayed at a hotel complete with a huge water park. We told the kids a couple days before and after seeing some pictures on the computer Brayden and Becca were supper excited, telling anyone who would listen about their upcoming trip-including the grocery store attendant and Sunday school teachers.


The anticipation was worth the wait and it was a wonderful place for our family. The weekend turned out to be overcast and a little rainy but the fun still was rolling at the hotel!

There was a little kiddie pool with a couple slide-both kids did these at least fifty times over our stay. There was a huge play fort complete with water guns, buckets and at the top two huge slides. I was worried about Brayden going down the first day-turned out even Becca loved them and would come down with a huge grin on her face.

Of course there was a mini-golf course, which Brayden woke up every morning asking to play. Becca got in on the action this year. Neither kids seemed to tire although we did have naps during the afternoon and all kids slept till 9am-a record for this household!

This is the crazy bunch all making wolf faces-Becca just laughs and grins. It was a great place for all of us. We did enjoy a morning at the Kansas city zoo. Very impressive, we were able to see hippo's, cheetahs', gorillas-all up close and with the cooler weather it was a pleasant outing.

This was Brayden, constantly in motion. He litterly ran from one side/pool to another. Becca on the other hand would just prance on her tippy toes when ever she got out of a slide.

This was one slide we could all do together minus Andrea. Turned out they were not too concerned about the height requirements and Brayden actually went down one of the big slides by himself. Becca surprised us and loved the big slides-she is so brave and would just giggle and scream the whole way down.

Andrea would last about an hour then be done with the water. She spent most of her time watching Brayden and Becca come shooting out slides, eating snacks or just being silly. There was a huge outdoor pool as well. It was a lot of fun for the kids even without huge slides. Becca discovered she could swim with a life jacket and would spend an hour just kicking around the pool. Brayden would fun any little boy who liked to jump and then jumped countless times from the side of the pool.

My proud little girl-she would ask to go in the deep pool so she could swim with her life jacket. At one point she decided to just go in the lazy river all by herself. She is such a little independent little thing. Some concerned mother was helping her out when I found her-she on the other hand just has a big grin on her face, "I did it all by myself mommy!" She about melted when I had to reprimand her about not waiting for mommy or daddy.

This is Brayden and Ron waiting for the big water bucket to dump it's load-I think it would about take Brayden's suit off!

The kids loved jumping-even Becca learned it was fun with her life jacket.

Another fun thing was all the basket ball hoops. Brayden needed to be a little taller-kind of hard to shoot when you are about treading water-still he loved trying.

We did get to see some great firework-we were able to get a spot pretty close and if you can believe it, we were actually cold waiting for them to start. Both kids plugged their ears but had a lot of fun-no tears from Becca. Andrea on the other hand decided she need to have a running commentary on the display talking and pointing the entire time. It was a wonderful time away, now it is back to Tulsa.

MY LITTLE TREE CLIMBER

Just another one of Becca, this is what the kids have spent most of their free time doing-that and fighting. I don't have pictures of Brayden today due to the fact he just pushed way too hard today and spend a lot of time on chairs or in his room with a permanent scowl on his face-ahhhhh, frustrating!

Just a couple pictures of Becca. She was so proud of herself today. Brayden is the one I usually find in our little crooked pine tree but today she was the one yelling for me. Some how she had managed to get up in the tree, and yes, she did get down all by herself. I think once she was in the tree she realized how pokey it was and sticky because she had a grimace on her face in between her proud grin.