Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Pick'in and U2

This past week has been a fun one for us. We are fully unpacked from our trip to Yogi Bear and we are starting to relax and enjoy our time off work. Last weekend we took the kids strawberry and cherry picking. They had a great time! The toughest part was getting anything into the container to buy and take home. Somehow everything that came off the plants and trees ended up in the trio's mouth! One Sunday Aunt Becca come over with the boys to babysit so Pat and I could got to Spartan Stadium and see U2 in concert. It was AWESOME! We spent the night in East Lansing and came home Monday afternoon. Yesterday the kids ended up covered head to toe in sand. They had just made a delivery of a load of sand at our sub's lake and the kids took full advantage of the giant pile of sand. The even got to play with the granddaughter of one of our neighbor's for a while. Today we're off to pick up a junior set of golf clubs for the kids from a friend of mine at work. Now that should be interesting...


Katie with a strawberry


Seamus picking cherries


Helena with a strawberry


Pat and I at Spartan Stadium with U2's stage in the background.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Yogi Bear and the Great Monsoon of '11



The first Friday of Summer Vacation, we all went on a camping trip to Jelly Stone in Indian River. We went with Grandpa and Grandma Huddas, Uncle Steve, uncle Mike, Aunt Kim, Aunt Becca, Uncle John, Clay and Drew. Uncle John's Nephews Chris and Ben were also with us the first 3 days. On Friday we walked around, looked for Yogi at "Yogi's House" and played at the Playground. On Friday night Aunt Christi and Uncle Wayne got to the campsite. On Saturday all of us went to Fort Michilimackinac to walk around some history. The kids had the most fun at the playground, but also went into the buildings to look at some of the artifacts. We also watched the cannon get fired, and even got to hold and touch a cannon ball. Sunday was Father's Day, and Uncle Mike took Grandpa, Steve, John and I on a Fishing Charter. We all caught a fish, but Mike was the only one to catch a keeper. After the Charter we met up with everyone else at Petoskey State Park where all the kids got to play in the water and look for Petoskey Stones before going out to lunch. After lunch Christi, Wayne, Becca John and his Nephews went home. Clay and Drew stayed with us for the remainder of the week. On Monday we all went on the ferry ride to Mackinac Island. We went for a walk after lunch around the Island and decided to got to Fort Mackinac. The first thing we saw was the rifle fire before checking out all of the buildings and cannons. The kids seemed to enjoy this fort quite a bit, and Seamus eve sat through a movie about the history of the Island. They were all very good, even though Helena had a few instances where she forgot how to listen and just lay down. After the Fort the kids ran around the hill right underneath the fort. After that they were all pretty tuckered out and we went back soon after. We stopped on the way back to get pasties for diner. Mary made the mistake to say we were taking the food "home." All of the kids then said they wanted to got to Yogi. Mary told them she said home on accident. Al three of them asked Mary "Why did you say the wrong word?" for about ten minutes. After dinner, the kids were playing and Seamus was getting whiny. So Grandpa, Steve and Mary took him fishing. Seamus was amazed by the truck driving through the small path to the lake. I was told that Seamus caught three fish by himself. On Monday night, the rain started. Tuesday it rained pretty much all day. We tried to got the beach, but we ended up just going to Cabella's with everyone else before lunch then heading back to the campsite to watch Tangled. It rained for the rest of the night. On Wednesday we went to Cross Village to have lunch at Legs. After lunch we looked out at the water behind the restaurant, we even saw a deer eating some grass right off the side of the road. The time we spend in the car and in the restaurant was one of the only time it did not rain. There was a span of about 45 minutes it was dry, and all of us went fishing and every kid caught a fish (with some help from Mary). It rained the rest of the day. On Thursday, Mary, Grandma, the kids and I went to go walk around Mackinac city, but it rained. We ended up having lunch and shopping at one store. We drove around after the trip to Mackinac because the kids all fell asleep. When we got back, the kids all decided to watch Tangled (again). When the rain finally let up Steve, Melanie (who showed up Wednesday night) Mary and grandpa went fishing. They actually caught some keepers while Grandma, all the children and I went for a walk and to play for a bit. When the fishers got back we cleaned the fish and cooked them up to have with dinner. Unfortunately that night Grandma got sick and Steve and Melanie took her to the Hospital. They were gone until 1:00 in the morning, but she was okay. On Friday the weather was nice, and Becca and John got back at lunchtime. After lunch we left for home. On the way home we stopped at a Rest stop that had a field of Yellow flowers the kids took a few minutes to run through. We stopped at Birch Run to get the kids some shoes and get dinner before we got home. It was a fun trip, even though it rained for most of it, but it was nice to be back at home. In two weeks we do it all again when we head out to Sesame Place.


Drew and Seamus with Yogi


Boo Boo-Katie


Cindy-Helena


Christi, Seamus and I at Fort Michilimackinac


Christi and Katie at Fort Michilimackinac


Helena at at Fort Michilimackinac


Seamus at the Beach


Katie and Helena at the Beach


On the Ferry to Mackinac Island


The Family at the Fort


Katie and Uncle Steve at the fort


Helena and Seamus with the cannons


Katie and Drew with the cannons


Helena's fish


Seamus' fish


Katie's fish

Katie in the flowers


Helena in the flowers


Seamus in the flowers

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Animals and Neurology

The week after the big third birthday party, we had a relaxing week at home. Our excitement of the week was walking around the neighborhood passing out info for the HOA. On Saturday we all went to Wolcott Mill to see the cows get milked, and see all the other farm animals. We had a lot of fun there, but Helena got a little scared of the cat because it started to follow us. After our trip to the farm we packed up a cooler and a basket and had a pic nic lunch at Stoney Creek. The kids were so tired after our lunch we could not stop at the beach, so we went home to nap. After nap we went into our pool for the first time this summer. On Sunday we went to the zoo, and we saw all the animals there too. We even went to the 4-D theatre to see the Dora Rain forest movie. We put on the special glasses and saw 3-D, got sprayed with water and smelled the flowers and bananas. They all liked it, but I think Katie enjoyed it the most. On Monday, Seamus had his appointment with the neuro-surgeon. He looked at Seamus' scans, checked and measured his noggin and told us there was nothing to be worried about. We were all very relieved by the news. Today we were busy getting ready for our garage sale this weekend. After the sale we have Clay's birthday party before starting the last week of school. The pictures are from Saturday in the pool.