hanging out with the animals

I had today off, since Ed and Lynda are still in Indiana for a family reunion. And I figured since most kids are back to school today that the zoo would be a great place to visit. Sam has not been there at all this year and he just loves the zoo. It was going to be on the warm side, so we got there early in hopes that we would see more of the animals. Becky also came and brought Julia and Joey. Sam just loved having Joey there to run around with! We saw a lot of animals and I think that the kids had a great time! Sam's favorite were the penguins, I even got him a new stuffed animal penguin before we left. I think Joey's favorite was the snakes and Aunt Becky got him a pretend one too! Even Ben got to get out of the stroller at the end and crawl around outside of the butterfly house and check out the salt water fish tank. Of course pictures here!

first day of school

Today is Jake's first day of middle school in the sixth grade. I can't believe he is out of the elementary school and growing up so fast! I can't wait to hear how his first day went!

Today is also Andy's first day starting the nursing program at OCC. He is a full time college student now and he is determined to keep his 4.0 GPA in this program.

Tomorrow is Sam's first day at a new pre-school. And he seems very excited about it!

I hope that everyone first days go great!!!

happy labor day!

We had a nice relaxing morning on this labor day. Jake went back to his mom's around noon. He has at his dad's since last Sunday and Sam and him have just had so much fun together. Andy needed some quiet time to prepare for his first day back to college tomorrow for the fall semester. Sam, Ben and I went to my parent's for a casual dinner. Becky brought Joey and Julie with her and Sam had a ton of fun playing with them in the pool. Doesn't feel like it should be the end of the summer already, but school starts tomorrow so I guess it is. But I fall is my favroite time of the year, so I am looking forward to that! Some pictures from the day here...

fire man sam

Sam got to visit the local fire station today! He is so into fire engines lately.
Check it all out at his blog!

new look and photo books

So, I got bored... well not really bored, just didn't want to be doing what I should be doing! Anyways, I changed the look of the blog around (I didn't realize how many options there were out there or how time consuming this was going to be!). But I think this looks a little cleaner and nicer, and so it's pretty much done. I might make some minor changes as I post more, but that is just normal for me.

And I have discovered online photo books. I knew they were out there, but never really looked into them very much until someone brought one that they made into work. I was hooked! I made my first album from a recent trip to Mackinac Island and can't wait for it's arrival in the mail. I have also started several other books. What I love most about these is that I can ditch all that scrap booking stuff... the paper, scissors, stickers, templates, cutters, page protectors, and more. Best of all I can make a book while in bed watching a movie! I made a small sidebar for these photo books so everyone can view them online.

So enjoy the new blog and let me know what you think!

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!