happy birthday becky!

Today is Becky's 31st birthday! Sam, Ben and I meet up with her and my parents for dinner. We had a nice quiet dinner and she opened her gifts. Hope you had a great birthday Becky!
Here are some pictures.

yummy ice cream

My parents took Becky and I to Cook's Farm Dairy at LOT when we were younger and I have some great childhood memories eating ice cream here. I just loved the Mint Chocolate Chip (and still do!). I love that this place is still around and I can now take my own kids there. It had been a few years since Jacob has been there and within the first lick of ice cream (mint chocolate chip of course) he remembered how good it is! This was Sam and Ben's first visit. Sam got cotton candy blue ice cream and he was in heaven! Since Ben is still too young for ice cream (and they don't have frozen yogurt) he just had a couple lick of Daddy's. But he got one lick and was eyeing Daddy for another one! He loved it too. (we kinda paid for it later when he got a little sick, thank goodness we only gave him a little bit!) My niece went with us and she said it was awesome ice cream too! We only live about 10 minutes from there, so I hope the kids will have as many memories from there as I do when they get older! Lot of messy ice cream faces pictures here!

brothers for sure!

While on the ferry to Mackinac this past Friday I took a picture of Sam with the wind blowing right in his face. When I loaded the pictures onto the computer I was looking at it more and I remembered that I had a similar picture of Jacob when he was about 4 or 5 years old. I dug out the picture (it was not digital, so this meant digging through some boxes and finding the right photo album - thank goodness for the Internet now and being able to find pictures with just the click of a mouse!). The pictures are exactly the same! There is no doubt that they are brothers for sure!

up north weekend

We went up north to my parents house in Houghton Lake for a long weekend. We were just up there for Fourth of July and the kids loved it, so we thought we could come back again. We rented a boat one day on Houghton Lake. My mom stayed at the house with Ben since I didn't think he would have much fun on the boat. So Ben and Grandma got to spend some time together. Jacob, Sam, Andy and I had a nice time on the boat. Although it took a long time to dock anywhere, including a sandbar, which took us almost an hour to get the boat up to so that the kids could get off and play at the beach. Friday we went up to Mackinac Island. We have not been there for several years and this was Sam and Ben's first time there. Jacob loves Mackinac Island, as do Andy and I. It's just such a pretty place and so relaxed. We had a nice time there. The kids loved throwing rocks in the water and playing around. We had a nice time just walking around and taking in the sights. Jacob loved the little shops and checking everything out inside them. Sam loved all the horses and had to point out every single one. Ben just hung out in the stroller and loved the breeze! And of course I took a ton of pictures (and had the kids wear matching outfits!). Saturday we went over the Higgins Beach South State Park and had a great time just hanging out on the beach. The kids just played in the sand and water. Even Ben played with the sand a little bit this time. We was really nice to get away and we really had a great weekend!


Pictures...
Boatin'
Mackinac Island
Higgins Beach

happy birthday kelsey

We celebrated Kelsey's 13th birthday today (although her birthday was really over a month ago!). I can't believe she is officially a teenager! We went over to Rob and Patti's in the afternoon for a BBQ. The kids had a great time with some water guns and the water hose! It was a pretty hot day, so it was a great way to keep them cool and outside! It was a nice afternoon, thanks guys! Here are some pictures!

happy fourth of july

This weekend we went up north to my parents house in Houghton Lake. We had a really nice time. It was nice to all spend time together and not have to be anywhere at a certain time. To just forget about the daily routine of life for awhile! The kids had a ton of fun at the beaches and we went for lots of walks and bike rides. The weather could not have been more perfect. It rained on the way there and then it was lots of sun and the perfect temperature the entire time we were there. Here are some (okay a lot) of pictures from the weekend.

Happy Father's Day

This morning Jake and Sam gave Andy his Father's Day gifts, which included two new outfits and a coffee mug. They also gave him one of those new singing cards from Hallmark and recorded their voices on it saying Happy Father's Day. (I think those cards are so cute, captures the youngness of their voices to hear over and over again!) Later in the afternoon, Sam, Ben and I went to my Grandparents to visit with my Dad. Andy and Jake went to the movies and saw the new Hulk movie. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ANDY, Dad and Ed! Here are some pictures from my grandparents.

Meeting Great Grandma

Mamwa came over for a short visit this afternoon. We have not seen her for almost a year, so it was a well overdue visit. She also meet Ben for the first time. Ben was very comfortable with her and laughed with her and tried to grab her glasses of course! Sam didn't really remember her, but warmed up to her right away. Jacob of course remembered her and gave her a big hug right away. It was really nice to see Mamwa again and hopefully we will see her again at the end of summer. Here are some more pictures.

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a nice relaxing weekend Memorial weekend. Nothing much was planned and we got to spend a lot of time outside. Today we hung out at home for the morning, then visited the park for a little bit. Sam loved playing in the sandbox and swinging. Ben loved laying on the blanket feeling the breeze on his face and he went in the swing for his first time. Ed and Lynda made some burgers and brats on the grill to finish the weekend off. It was a great weekend! Some pictures from the park are here.

New Biking Style

Today we got the bikes out and the new bike stroller for Sam and Ben. We are leaving some of the bikes at my sister Becky's condo in Downtown Rochester. So we packed up the bikes and picked up some lunch at Subway. We then we to the Rochester Park and had a nice picnic lunch while Sam played on the swings and slides and Ben laid on the blanket trying the catch the breeze. It was perfect weather, mid seventies and sunny, it really couldn't be any nicer. Sam and Ben seemed to be getting a little cranky, so we packed up and headed down the Paint Creek bike trail for a nice bike ride. Sam and Ben fell asleep about half an hour into riding and took a nice long nap. The new stroller is perfect for these two little ones. They can see everything and can also relax and play too. Andy and I biked for over 10 miles and it was really nice finally get the bikes back out again and casually ride them. Afterwards we went back to Becky's and took a nice walk downtown and had dinner. It was a perfect day! More pictures here.