Luuuuuuv Birds!

Lovey Sisters...

The photo credit goes to my sister, as always, great pictures!

The Kids

Of course, I can't post about us, without posting about the kiddos... So here we go!

So cute in her PJs!The other night I got home from work and after dinner we had ice cream. Emma-Grace LOVES ice cream. Well, I get home really late from work, and Ken and Anna were playing, so I decided that Emma-Grace could just figure out how to eat the ice cream by herself so I could clean up the kitchen mess from dinner and we could get out for our walk. She did perfectly fine getting the ice cream mostly in her mouth... she was thrilled. Our walk was delayed because I ended up having to giver her a bath!Sister Love!

While Nana and Papa were watching Anna, she got her toenails and finger nails painted for the first time. Here is Nana doing a touch up job before we left for home after our weekend getaway!

Apparently, Emma-Grace does a better job walking when her mouth is wide open and she lets loose a high pitched squeal. It must help with her balance!

Notice the lack of pictures of Anna... she is NOT interested in getting her picture taken or being in video... I'll catch up with her in a few hours when the emotional tornado known as Anna changes direction and wants to be in pictures again.

Goooooooo Ken!

For his 33rd birthday and our seventh year anniversary Ken planned a surprise get-away for us. Don't ask me how that one works out! I knew that we were going somewhere, but I didn't know where and did NONE of the planning. Which was the best part... not having to do any of the planning. So we went to Traverse City and I only found out when we were like 40 mins away. We had to take an unplanned detour and Ken needed a navigator!

The weather was cold and rainy, but it was perfect for us because the first day we hopped wineries on Old Mission Peninsula and then on the second day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes, which was nice that it was cool out because it made hiking much easier.

Here we are... the love birds!

I am standing at Two Lads Winery (no free samples here... so we didn't stay long) looking at Chateau Chantal (free samples and ice wine). It is a bed and breakfast and was by far the most beautiful winery and view.

So here we are enjoying some of the wineries. Most have free tastings of 5-8 wine samples and some you pay a few dollars for a "flight" of samples... that is a wine term. We went to Chateau Chantal, Two Lads (boo no free samples), Brys Estates, Black Star, Peninsula Winery, and another one, but I forgot the name. The day consisted of drinking wine and eating a few dry wine crackers to clean our pallet. Me, having the nonexistent alcohol tolerance enjoyed it a lot!This is mean of me, but I couldn't resist getting a picture of the perfection of this mullet... look at the perfect coils! I did some stealth photography to get this one!

We went on several hikes around Old Mission Peninsula as well. Here I am messing around with the macro function on my point and shoot camera... I can't even believe that I got a picture of this monster! Do you see it is eating something! I feel sick and dizzy just looking at this picture!

Ken loves skipping rocks, so whenever we come to big water and there are rocks, I usually have to stand around and wait for awhile... On the second day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We did the scenic drive and stopped at one of the viewing areas on Lake Michigan. There were some (a lot) of crazy people hiking 450' down to Lake Michigan. Here is Ken standing on the first, shallower dune. I am at the top taking his picture... notice how it looks like it just ends behind him...

Well, this is what it looks like once you get to the edge of where Ken is standing...

We did not do this dune climb.

When Ken was little, his family went to Sleeping Bear Dunes. During that time his mom decided to run down one of the dunes. Of course, like everyone does, she fell. Apparently Ken thought it was hilarious because you could see her boob prints in the sand. Well, we just happen to stumble upon where she fell on one of our dune hikes. It even said "Carolyn was here". Amazing that it lasted all this time!

So it was great getting away, but of course we missed the kids! Thanks Grammy, Grampy, Nana and Papa for watching the girls!

Correction...

The picture below of what I say is Anna having an emotional moment is actually a picture of her sleeping... Clearly, the less frequent of the two states of Anna's being.

Frankenstein!!!

Ok, sorry for the red eye, but it is too late in the evening to edit it out... so here we go...

Emma-Grace is walking! Whooo Hooo big girl! She is so cute doing the Frankenstein walk! The theory was, to keep dressing her in dresses so she couldn't crawl.

This is my fault... I can't blame it on her because she can't dress herself, and she is too big for Anna to wrestle down and dress up by herself... I can't believe that I am an active participant in this...

Daddy Love

Not sure who took this picture....

This is from today. This picture is on the camera, so Grammy must have taken it.

She is either sleeping or having an emotional moment... I think it is probably an emotional moment... Drama....

Emma-Grace and Anna love snack time together. Yes, those are Anna's PJs.

Penguin and other funny stuff

Emma-Grace got a penguin from Aunt Sara and Uncle Mike for her birthday. It is a big hit. Here she is loving it up!

Troy had a free block party last week with fun bouncers, slides, free food and Target sponsered gifts. We went and Anna spent more of her time on the slides and bouncers. Here she is sliding down the purple dragon.

In preparation for Ken's fishing week up north at my parents house while I was at a conference he spent some time practicing casting a fishing pole... with Anna's pink princess fishing pole. So Anna and Ken developed this game where Ken tries to catch the Anna-whale. It is a tricky Anna-whale and he never does reel one in!

Good Bye Old Friend!

The Boppy is the greatest invention ever and all new parents should have one whether or not you breastfeed. It holds baby perfectly in your lap or on your bed or on the floor. There were several times when I was feeding Anna where I would fall asleep feeding her, but she wouldn't go anywhere because she was tucked securely around me with Boppy. Well, when I bought mine, it was $20 and was light blue checked. We have used Boppy at least three times a day with both girls from ages 0 to 1 year, and at least once per day with Anna until she was two and up to this July with Emma-Grace. So we finally had to say good bye to our good friend Boppy. It was far past the time to put it out of its misery. So long Boppy! Thanks for all the cuddling time! We bought a new one, and now they are much more expensive and come with all sorts of colors and covers. You can buy Bobby "naked" and then pick your cover too. So here is in memory to our old Boppy! It got so bad that Emma-Grace was getting in the habbit of reaching around and pulling out its guts while we were feeding her!

Birthday Wrap Up and Up north fun!

Big Girl! The one year old!

She is there somewhere!

Emma-Grace's Birthday Cake,t he Wilton Giant Cupcake

The last week of July, I had a week long conference in Mt. Pleasant. Ken ended up having some time at work to take off, so he and the girls came too. But, more fun for them, the stayed at my parent's cottage most of the days and had a lot of fun while I was at the conference. I am a bit jealous... but here are some pics of them, mostly taken by Aunt Sara.

I took this one of Ken, we went fishing at 6:00am the Saturday after the conference. He caught a 16" walleye. I caught nothing. He sure looks cute!

This was not a keeper perch! Emma-Grace trying kayaking!

Anna and Daddy on the kayak.

Ugh... super model Anna.

Bath time Mohawks. Can you see Emma-Grace's? This is a strange thing for a kid to want, especially one who is all about princesses. Ever since the first time she saw the infomercial, Anna has wanted a Topsy Turvey tomato plant grower. After the 100th time we saw the commercial, we got her one, but chose cucumbers instead of tomatoes since her and I don't like them. Well this Topsy Turvy is doing great! It is a fun little planter. Here is Anna showing off her cuke!

The four of us celebrated Emma-Grace's birthday on her birthday, then had a party for her up at my parent's cottage. So here we are wrapping things up. Anna picked out Emma-Grace's birthday present, a pink tea set, which I am pretty sure Anna picked out for her self...

Just a cute Picture of Emma-Grace
Anna helped Ken wash my car a few weeks ago. Of course, she was dressed for the occasion.