Michigan Trip, part II

After visiting with all the families over the weekend we packed up all of our stuff to head up North to the cabin. We tried to leave pretty early to get there around lunch time, but a stop at the grocery store and early morning meant we didn't get out as early as we would have liked. We had set the dvd player up in the van the day before so once we did get on the road for our 3 hour drive the boys watched a movie until Owen passed out. The entire time we were driving, any time Jacob saw a lake either out the window or on the navigation system, he asked "Is that Hubbard Lake?!" It was adorable, until we got to the coast and were driving right by a lake for a good hour and every few minutes he would ask. He was just so excited to get there! We got there a little after lunch time, so after we unloaded and got some lunch, we headed down to the beach to see the lake. Jacob could not wait and practically ran down to the beach with Lindsay. Meanwhile, Owen was obsessed with the rocks. All of the rocks. On the road that is rocky, on the road that has teeny tiny little rocks in it, with the rocks on the shoulder of the road. All in the half a block walk down to the beach. So it took us a bit longer to get down there. Josh eventually had to carry Owen down because he just could not resist the rocks! Once we got to the beach the boys tested out the (VERY cold) water. Jacob loved it and was knee deep before we knew it. He was all about picking up the rocks down there. Owen was more hesitant about the water, but again with the rocks! Those were enough to get him to walk around in it for a bit. Since Jacob could not resist the temptation of the water, we figured we'd better go ahead and get bathing suits on since he was going to end up swimming in his clothes if he didn't. Once we were in our bathing suits, and lifejackets for the boys, we actually got in the (did I mention freezing cold) lake. Jacob was all about it and went with Lindsay out to the raft pretty quickly. It took me a bit to get in and make my way any sort of close to the raft with Owen. And poor Josh, he was freezing just getting in up to his knees! Eventually he made it out to the raft with the rest of us. The boys loved jumping off the raft. Jacob was all about just going right off and it took Owen a few minutes to get into it. He started by sitting and falling in, then just standing and walking right off. Poor Owen was not loving his life jacket though. He looked like he had a back and neck brace on so he couldn't look around by turning his head. We thought it was hilarious though! After we got back to the cabin, we got both boys measured on the wall. That wall has everyone from our family on it, so I was excited to get to add our boys! We also headed down to the candy store that afternoon. It is a fun walk that I remember fondly doing on an almost daily basis when I was little. Jacob had a bit of a harder time with it, but since we had been in the car for 3 hours we made him walk. Although on the way home he had his ring pop and seemed much more motivated to walk then. We got the boys to bed early that night, but Jacob woke up in the middle of the night and somehow got out of bed without Josh or I hearing (we were in the same room) and ended up standing in the doorway crying because it is so dark at the cabin he couldn't find the bathroom. We laughed about it after we got him to the bathroom and back in bed. It was sad but pretty cute too. We spent the next day mostly at the lake. We took a bath down there and did some more jumping in off the raft and then the dock. Jacob absolutely loved the lake. After dinner that day we took a drive up to Mt Maria to look at the lake. It was slightly nerve wracking for me to have the boys up there since there isn't a whole lot of flat and one wrong step would have sent them rolling down the mountain. It was cloudy since a storm was rolling in so we didn't get to see the fabulous sunsets that you normally get up there, but it was still nice. Then we drove around looking for deer, we wanted to walk through the woods, but tour guide Lindsay said ticks have been really bad this year so we opted to just drive to see them. We ended up seeing a ton of them! Jacob got really good at spotting them towards the end. Back at the cabin we got Owen to bed and started getting ready for a bonfire. We let Jacob stay up late that night so he could enjoy one more bonfire and some more s'mores. He was so excited. He helped get sticks and get them in the firepit, then watched Josh work on splitting on logs. Fortunately, Nick had come up that evening, so Josh had some help since these logs were tough! It took both of them to get one split! Jacob was enthralled with the ax and log splitting. Once that was done we got the fire started. The nice warm, toasty fire. It was chilly that night since a cold front had come through so the fire was nice. I likened it to feeling about how Texas does on a summer day when it is 105*. We had good timing because we all had a few s'mores, Jacob got to roast some marshmallows, and we had a nice fire going when it started to thunder and lightning. We hung out for a while since we could see the storm over the trees and it wasn't quite to us yet. But once it started getting closer we could hear the rain falling on the lake first, then on the trees behind us before it finally started raining on us. This rain brought in even cooler weather, which was great for sleeping that night! (No air in the cabin so the cool air through the open windows is amazing.) We got up in the morning and hung out for a few hours, packing and letting the boys play before getting everything packed in the car to head back down to Aunt Gini's house.

Seeing Hubbard Lake FINALLY!

Walking to the lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this picture of our family!

 

 

 

 

We stopped and met Aunt Gini and Grammy in Frankenmuth though, first for some outlet shopping, then for some Bronner's shopping, then for fudge and dinner. Jacob got to pick out a few bulbs at Bronner's to go on our Christmas trees and both boys loved checking out all the fun displays! In Frankenmuth, they got to walk around some and pick out some fudge before heading to see the Glockenspiel and eating dinner. Owen was so tired after he ate his dinner, he passed out. We got back to Aunt Gini's and got the boys to bed pretty quickly. Time at the lake is great for wearing kids out apparently.

 

 

 

We spent our final day hanging out and not doing a whole lot. Jacob went swimming for a bit and a bunch of people came over for dinner and to say goodbye. We attempted to get to bed somewhat early though since we were getting up at 4am to get the van packed, drive back to the airport, return the van, and get all of our stuff and us to the airport. We actually made pretty good time getting all of that done, and it was helpful that we ended up leaving the pack n play in Michigan since we don't need that one anymore. We had about an hour or so to hang out in the airport before we boarded so we all got some breakfast and let the boys run around a bit. The plane ride home was much smoother and both boys slept again, and bonus, no one vomited! It was such a great trip. We had so much fun and while we were so exhausted when we got home (Josh and I went to bed at 8:30 the night we got home and 8:15 the following night!), it was so worth it. The boys had a blast and had so many new and fun experiences! We can't wait to do it again!

 

 

15 month check up

Owen had his 15 month check up a few days after we got home from Michigan. He is getting so big and doing so much, but at the same time doing so many things differently than Jacob did! He really only says Mama, but says lots of ma's and me's and variations on those mean different things. But he signs please, thank you and more still, and has added airplane, hi and bye and no. He made up his own sign for airplane in the past few weeks, but it is very clear and if you ask him he will do it. He is really good at following directions and is like a human version of Pavlov's dogs at dinner, when he hears the timer beep he goes running to his high chair. He is climbing and rough housing with Jacob, but also loves to give his brother hugs and kisses. He still nurses a ton and is back to not sleeping through the night. He has started to open up more and will wave to strangers and is less hesitant to go to others. But if he is tired he will still cling to me and won't let me let him go. He is working on 3 teeth currently (well that we can see!) too, but his lack of teeth hasn't stopped him from eating anything. He has a major sweet tooth and loves ice cream. He can point out many body parts and thinks it fun to point ours out too, mostly by gouging our eyes out. He loves to read and LOVES Frozen and the song Let it go. He dances any time is comes on. It is adorable.

Stats
Height: 32 in   76%
Weight: 25.13lbs 87%
Head:    19.5 in   98%

He is bigger than Jacob at this age, but seems to be built very similarly.

Michigan Trip, Part I

A two part post here because our trip was long and eventful and I have about 600 pictures to sort through! After many weeks of prep and a 10 day countdown chain, we were up very early on the day of our flight. 4am to be exact. We wanted to be out the door by 4:45 to drop off our car and make it to the airport in plenty of time. Of course it was raining that morning and we were a little scared of having a delayed flight because of the impending storms. We got our car dropped off and everything, 3 suitcases, one box with the pack n play in it, 2 carry on's for Josh and I, two carry on's for Jacob, two carry on's for grammy,  one booster seat, one bag of toys, and 2 car seats, unloaded and packed up (carseats were coming with us so we had to put those in bags at the parking lot) and then reloaded onto the shuttle and got to the airport around 6:30. Of course the security checkpoint we were at had a long line and they made us take the carseats (and stuff we packed in the bag with them) out of the bags to put them through. Once we got through all of that and repacked up and reorganized we headed to our gate and only had about 20 min before our flight was to start boarding. The rain had stayed north so there was no rain or storms at the airport at that point so we got lucky there. They let us gate check our carseats early and the nice flight attendants took them down for us and then they preboarded so we could get settled. Jacob got to peek into the cockpit and then one of the pilots got up and put Jacob in his seat! Jacob thought that was really cool. The nice pilot even took a picture of Jacob for me. Once on the plane we got everyone settled in and ate some breakfast before we took off. The ride was pretty bumpy because right as we were leaving the rain and storm that was by us earlier had moved south towards the airport and it started raining there. We had to fly around some storms when we took off. The seat belt sign never turned off. Fortunately, both boys took about an hour long nap. Unfortunately, upon waking up, Jacob threw up his breakfast. That was fun. Being the prepared travelers that we are, we had backup outfits for all of us  in the diaper bag. So he got a quick change of clothes and was fine after that. The boys watched Frozen and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Once we got to Detroit we had a hike to get to the baggage claim and then to the rental car shuttle so we gathered up all of our stuff and about 45 min later got to where we needed to be and an hour after that were in our rental car. It was a long morning so we spent the afternoon relaxing at Aunt Gini's.

 

 

 

Friday was spent again relaxing since we were all tired and the boys didn't sleep well, then Josh, Lindsay and I headed out to do grocery shopping for the family reunion on Saturday. We spent most of the afternoon doing that and the boys hung out and played at Aunt Gini's. Saturday we relaxed in the morning then ate lunch early so Owen could nap before the reunion. We let him sleep a while then eventually had to wake him up to go. We had a ton of people there. I think the final count was around 80. It was great. Jacob quickly made friends with all of his cousins around his age and ran off with them. We were at a big park in the woods so they had plenty of space to run and play. He didn't care that he had never met any of the kids, he just got right in there. After a while Josh took him to the playground and on the way back Jacob found a little frog and found a cup to put it in. After that he had an entire audience of kids followings him around trying to see the frog. He made great friends with his cousin Ainsley. Not surprising since she is about 18 months older than him and older girls are usually what he goes for! Owen wandered all around too looking at everything and trying to eat everything! By the end of the day he was more willing to let other people hold him. Jacob and the other kids gathered up a ton of sticks and wanted to  make a bonfire, right in the middle of the park. It was great visiting with all of our family that could make it. It was much harder to visit this time around while chasing after Owen and at least having some idea of where Jacob had run off to! There were a ton of old photo albums out there so we got to look at old pictures (and take some of them too). We also got pictures of each siblings family, the cousins, 2nd cousins, and the growing group of 3rd cousins! We ended up being out there for 6 hours. The boys were exhausted by the time we got back to Aunt Gini's and thankfully went to bed much quicker than the night before. Of course Josh and I ended up staying up late playing cards, so we didn't catch up on sleep! I love having these family reunions and it is so much fun with the boys now since they get to see their cousins. I love that Jacob had so much fun playing with everyone and I can't wait until the next one when Owen will get to play with all the kids his age!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we had yet another busy day planned. We headed to the Detroit area to have lunch and spend the afternoon with my dad's side of the family. We don't see them much, but it is nice to be able to see them and catch up when we do get up there. Unfortunately I was so busy talking I didn't even get my camera out to take pictures. But Jacob had a blast making everyone there pull him down the street in a wagon and they filled up a small kiddie pool for him to play in for a bit. It was a gorgeous day that day, warm but not so hot we couldn't sit outside and enjoy the breeze from the water. The boys both fell asleep on the way back to Aunt Gini's. The boys got to take a ride on Uncle Al's 4 wheeler and lawnmower. Jacob loved it and even got to drive! So of course Owen wanted a turn! We put Owen down early and let Jacob stay up for a bonfire, s'mores, and catching lightning bugs. He had a blast! He has never had real s'mores before and he caught a ton of lightning bugs and put them in a jar. He went to bed very quickly that night!

 

 

Part II coming soonish.

4th of July

We had a very busy and fun 4th of July this year. We spent the morning at the pool, enjoying some sun and letting the boys get in some swimming before coming home for a nap. Grammy joined us at the pool after Jacob called her and talked her into coming over in the morning. While the boys were resting after lunch Josh and I were busy getting ready for our 3rd annual 4th of July cookout at our house. We had all of our neighborhood friends, plus Grammy, over for dinner and hanging out. This year we made some water balloons for the kids to throw. While they only lasted about a minute, they kept the kids entertained for about 20 while we filled more up so they had another round of balloon throwing. Josh manned the grill and did a great job with burgers and brats for everyone. After dinner and chocolate covered s'mores for dessert we packed up and headed to our city's celebration and fireworks. Unfortunately none of our friends went this year and Jacob was really upset because he was looking forward to watching fireworks with his friends. After a rough time getting into the parking lot this year, we finally got in and Jacob was feeling  much better after getting to enjoy some bounce houses and running around with thousands of other kids. They also had a really cool train ride this year so Josh and Jacob waited in line for that for a while then Owen and I joined them. After the train we got our glow sticks out and got ready for fireworks. Owen wasn't too sure about them at first but then started enjoying them. Jacob loves fireworks and this year was no exception. By the end of the night they were both exhausted and once we eventually got out of the parking lot they both passed out in the car. Fortunately, they both slept really well that night and Jacob even slept in. We were all exhausted the next day though!

 

 

water balloon fight

 

Owen running free

 

 

Entertaining the small one

 

Silly Jacob

 

 

On the train

 

On the train

 

Best family picture we could get

 

Loving the fireworks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June Recap

I realized that I have posted all month. As always we have been busy. We do something almost every day right now. Josh got out of school the second week of June and we have been going since then. Appointments, playing, swimming, running errands, cleaning house. We bought season passes to a  local waterpark this year and have been going there once a week. The boys absolutely love it. They run and run and wear themselves out. It took Owen a couple of times to warm up to it, but now he just takes off. Jacob got to go down the big slides last week. We have also been going to the pool most days if we aren't at the water park. We have been working on Jacob swimming using his arms this year. He is getting better at it but is still working on it. I'm sure he will have it down by the end of the summer though. We have also been working on getting Owen swimming. Right now he will hold his breath and float and sometimes he will kick his feet. But he will jump right off the ledge in the pool and go under water no problem. He likes to throw the Mater dive stick down to the bottom and wave bye to it, then asking us to get it for him. I am so glad they are both loving the water!

We also celebrated Father's Day this month. It was just a low key day hanging out at home and swimming. Then we had steak for dinner. It was a much needed relaxing day.

We are getting ready for our trip to Michigan in a few weeks. Traveling with two kids requires lots of prep! Especially since this is the first time we have flown with kids. It will definitely be a new experience for everyone, but we are all excited! It will be a busy trip with lots of activities already planned. I can't wait to get the boys up north to Hubbard Lake for the first time.