Home at last

Well, I was going to write about my trip, but Elli won't let me right now. I will try to get down here later while she is napping. I do have time to say that it was a really nice trip, the weather was awesome. We had a great time, missed Daddy, but had a really good time. Elli loved the beach, as you can see in this first picture...I'll post other ones later. :) She was pretty cute!

Here's one of the two of us that turned out okay:

I'll get back about the trip later. We're home!

My last day at Pier 1 is Thursday! Woohoo!!!!

Vacay #2

I'm going to the beach today! Woohoo! I think it will be a lot of fun. :)
I don't know if I'll have internet access, so don't get irritated at me (mom) if I don't update this thing regularly. I'll be spending most of my time lounging on the beach, reading a good book, sipping lemonade, getting a nice golden tan. Wait a minute...that was my dream last night. Reality is that I'll be watching Elli the whole time worried that I'll have a sand eater while burning my skin off because I forgot to put sundblock on myself after putting it on my child and then get stuck in a house with no cable because who has cable when they have a perfectly good beach to look at, chasing run-away buckets from the incoming tide, talking until my voice is hoarse, telling Elli you can't drink ocean water, collecting anything and everything she picks up on the shoreline, making sure she doesn't fall into the pool..... sounds like a good time.
The long road trip should be fun too....
I'll update if I can! Catch you later!

Towner Look-alike Meter

Bummer....

My celebrity look- alikes

I bet Mike didn't realize he was marrying an Alan Alda look-alike.....

Home again

Well, we've made it home! I've been busy since I've been back just with grocery shopping, working and catching up on stuff. I haven't blogged - my mom likes to remind me. I haven't had the chance!
So I have a lot to do today because I leave for the beach tomorrow! Woohoo!! I am excited about it. It's a little close to my last vacation, but who cares! I have to do laundry, make sure Mike has food, find my camera (I've not seen it since vacation either), and pack again. That is no fun to me. There's a lot of stuff that I need to remember. I should get to work!
Speaking of work, I need to write up my notice to turn in today or right when I get back. I need to do something different. I'm really going to do it this time! Ha!

The cutest baby ever

I mean.....come on.....are there any cuter? Seriously....

We're coming home tomorrow! We are sad to be leaving, but glad for E to be sleeping in her own bed again instead of a pac-n-play. We've really enjoyed this time with family in one of the most beautiful places on Earth! Should be home by 8.

Last night as the whole family

This last evening together as the whole family, we all played together outside a little while this evening. We found a little red wagon that was buried back in the 'second' garage. E just LOVED it! I think that this is something that we need to look into getting for this little girl. She ditched the red car and seriously enjoyed the wagon. As you can tell in these pictures:

She's been teething this week - can you tell?

Then we played a little wiffle ball. Since my legs don't look too gelatinous in this picture, I decided to post myself in it. She did pretty well just playing with the kids, swinging the bat, throwing the ball. She knew what to do! She's so smart. :)

More pictures

We've just been doing the same 'ol stuff lately.

Went out for ice cream:
Looking at the moon:Elli's favorite stretch: She likes Uncle Dave now...he's reading their favorite book to her "Goodnight Moon" :
All the kids reading. Elli put herself up there on Josh's lap. She LOVES Josh:

We went out on the boat for lunch today - it was a lot of fun. I had an incredible hamburger...mmmmmmmm. But, I had some bad hair. Short, wet hair + windy boat ride = awesome bangs:


Maybe somethine exciting later. I am done for the day. Too much sun and swimming makes me sleepy. That's right - I went swimming today and it was stinkin' freezing. I didn't last long. :)

My Mike

- What a hunk -

Yo-Ho!

Yesterday was kindof a fun, relaxing day. I wish I wasn't so afraid of hurting myself since the accident, because I would have gone water skiing...it was beautiful.

Elli after a shower with straight hair:

How I started my afternoon - I am actually replacing one that I knocked off of the wall and broke the frame of earlier this week. This is punishment :) I am not crazy about it, but it is just the beginning (in case you can't tell - it's 2 black bears, well, it will be):

Then I headed to the dock and laid around for a while with Joy and Amanda while the boys played on the water in the innertube:

Saw a pirate ship -which Elli just LOVED to wave at and say "Hi boat!" & "Bye boat!"

Then yesterday evening we went to a Lumberjack show. It was impressive. I don't think any one of the "lumberjacks" were over 24 years old. They did all sort of stuff- log rolling, axe throwing, chainsaw races, 60 foot high tree climbs, and other things. We learned that the lumberjack greeting of old is/was Yo-ho! So we said that a lot last night. It was fun.

Now, the guy on the left has won gold medals in the Superjack competitions on ESPN. He raced this other guy up to the top of these 60 foot poles with just the ropes and spikes on their shoes. Guy on the left gave the guy on the right a half-tree-head-start and still climbed the pole and was half-way down before the guy on the right even started coming down. It took lefty like 10 seconds...if that. It was pretty crazy.

Elli ofcourse stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa and was a perfect angel...which she is ofcourse when I am not around. They had a good time too.

And as I type this, there is a bald eagle fishing in the lake, skimming the water....how cool is that?!

Today we swim

Well, I haven't blogged because I've not taken pictures - and what fun is a vacation update without pictures? Not much fun at all, that's what I thought.

Let's see - Oh yeah...I went swimming! It was so hot and humid I couldn't do anything else. The other day Joy, the kids, and myself decided to swim to "the point". It was okay except that it was cloudy (it cleared when when we got out - ofcourse) and very windy, so there were a lot of waves which made it a little harder to swim. It's about twice the length of Jackson Pool to the point, so we had a good workout. I wore my wetsuit ofcourse.

Yesterday, we went to church (made me appreciate mine) and went out for brunch...my favorite meal. I had thick slices of french toast....mmmmm.......Elli enjoyed all the syrup and pancakes and all that as well. Mike shared his hash browns...so sweet :) Then we pretty much just played around the house. Elli didn't nap until late, so she was up really late, thus today - I am sleepy.
But I got in the water anyway. I tried to get Elli in again, and she did better than the last time...but it still was really cold, so we got out right away. We went for a little boat ride while Joy skiied. Elli was not crazy about that at all. She was sleepy (she wouldn't nap again) and the noise of the boat kindof scared her a little. We came back, she cried when Mike jumped in to swim with the kids, I brought her up and rocked her to sleep.
Here she is, not so excited to be in the life jacket:
Us in the boat:
I meant to post a video of Elli dancing with Amanda - but I uploaded this one instead. I couldn't see what I was posting and just guessed....oh well. Here we are in the airport in Detroit. They had a tunnel that takes you from one part of the airport to the other and we spent a lot of time in it because Elli LOVED it. We were playing and wasting time...it was pretty fun.

More 4th pics

Here are some more pictures from yesterday. Mike played out on the water - I rested. I thought it was still too cold, so I stayed in...and I was okay with that.

Mike and Josh out on the tube:

Mike knee boarding and wake boarding:

Independance Day

I love that we have a day called Independence Day. I think it is awesome. It makes me proud to be an American and it chokes me up a little thinking of all of the people fighting for our country and protecting me and my family so that we can live in a place that is free and we can be independent. It also makes me mad at our politicians and how they argue over the stupidest things and how ridiculous they act. So stupid.

Anyways, on this day I don't feel like moving to Canada.

We had a pretty good day. They all went to the parade down main street, but Elli, Katie, Emily, and myself stayed home. The parade was conflicting with her lunch and nap time, so we stayed and I needed company so the other girls stayed. But we had to work...we had to clean off the deck for dinner that night. Ick-yuck-bleh-eeeeeeew & creepy-crawly dance. It was spider country. We went through 3 cans of spider spray (they were already mostly gone). The girls wiped the chairs off with a (long) broom, sprayed the spider corners, Elli put soap on the chairs and I hosed and scrubbed them. We ended up feeling comfortable out there. It's probably covered again. We had a good "bonding" experience. :)

After the family picture, Elli slept, the boys played in the water, some of the girls went to a craft show, and Joy and I stayed home and watched television. There was a What Not To Wear marathon on. Cool.

So I didn't spend a lot of time outside, but it was still a nice day. E enjoyed the toys they brought home from the parade and the baked beans for dinner...she had a great day :)

Here's some pics :

The goings on

Yesterday was another restful day. Here's the lovely view from my bedroom window...isn't it awesome?
We really just hung around the house. It was warm - but not too warm, so I laid around the dock with my jacket on some of the time. Joy and I enjoyed a few free moments and sat on the dock and read and watched the crazy people out on the lake. They were crazy because the water was close to freezing into a giant ice cube- it was so cold - and they were still in it. Take my husband for example, one of the crazies - he did eventually get out and dry:Here I am, dry, and not realizing I am frying my shins and knees. I found out later. What's vacation without a sunburn?
We had s'mores last night, and ofcourse I had to let Elli try one - well, a marshmallow anyways. I think she enjoyed it. It could have been a little too sweet. She only ate part of one - that's all she wanted.

Here's my niece Amanda and I enjoying our s'mores:

Today is the 4th, so there is a parade- I won't be going because it is interfering with E's lunch and nap time. Oh well. I won't really be missing standing in the sun and over heating. It is a good time to hang out with the family and all that, though. Maybe next year :) We haven't decided if we are going out on the boat to watch fireworks or not. I probably won't...well, I might. We'll see.

It's supposed to be a beautiful day! So maybe I'll swim - HA!