"Our Lake House"

We went to Michigan a couple of times this weekend for beach vacations. The first was for a weekend at our friends, the Tostos, lake house and the second was for our annual family vacation in South Haven. We also took a quick one day trip to the West Beach at Indiana Dunes with friends. Anytime he told people where we were going for either of the longer trips, Miles would say we were going to "our" lake house. I think because so many people/people's families around here have lake houses that he just thought that's what you say.

There were 13 kids and 10 adults at the Tostos, so there was a lot of activity, but also a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful and we spent the whole day Saturday on the lake.

Matt was the official wave runner chauffeur.

The kids also enjoyed tubing.

The Wednesday after the weekend at the Tostos, we headed up to South Haven. This year, the Westra joined us. We stayed at different rentals, which ended up working out fine.

We took a walk out to the lighthouse on one of our beach days.

We ate lots of ice cream.

We even went out to dinner a couple of times and it wasn't a complete disaster (Athough there was a couple that we saw in Saugatuk that recognized us from South Haven the night before. I guess 4 adults and 8 kids under eight is a pretty memorable crew.)

We grilled out at Blake and Amy's rental one night.

These two are destined to be the most adaptable kids ever.

We did the Indiana Dunes ride in Saugatuk one day. Titus and Paige were both pretty terrified initially, but ended up having a blast.

Our only pic of the whole crew.

We had lots of beach time. The kids are at pretty good ages to be able to enjoy the beach for awhile.

I just can't. Dream baby.

They kept asking various parents to help them dig/build, and we finally convinced them that they should work as a team to do it. I think it bought us an hour or so.

I think Amy was running to keep Tye in the picture here, but I'm not totally sure. Regardless, for some reason it cracks me up.

We also had a good amount of pool time at the pool at our condo.

These two were both such characters that we joked that they could have their own reality show.

End of vacation blues.

I only got a couple of shots from our trip to West Beach. I'll just say that we were promised an idyllic setting and that was not the case, so I was busy carrying things and making sure the kids were safe in the water, therefore I sadly did not get many pictures.

Yay for summer getaways!

Graham is One!

Our sweet little Graham-bo turned one last week and I'm not sure how to feel about it. It's obviously wonderful to see him develop into a little person, but he's such an awesome little baby that I'd love to freeze time for a little while. Since that's not an option, I'll fill you in on Graham on his first birthday.

He's usually a pretty good eater of all solid foods. He's had a little rash around his mouth for about a month and we thought that might've been due to bananas, but I've eliminated those and the rash is still there. We'll ask about it again at his one-year checkup. He's also doing well with a sippy cup. Up until about a week ago, he was nursing in the morning and having a bottle of formula before nap and bed. He was less and less interested in nursing, so we mutually agreed to end that. Since he's been drinking milk from a sippy, I'm also getting rid of those bottles.

He continues to be an incredibly happy little guy, and loves to be around people. He says, "dada," "byebye," "nana" (Mama) and we think he's saying "baba" (bottle) and "ni-ni" (night-night). He goes out of his way to wave hi or bye to anyone that makes eye contact with him. No matter how upset he is, it's almost impossible for him to not return a smile. 

 

He'll get into a normal crawling, or even a downward-dog position, but he still prefers to army crawl everywhere. I've seen him pull up to his knees a couple of times, but he's following in his siblings footsteps (no pun intended) of not being in a hurry to walk.

He adores all of his siblings and will light up and laugh for them more than anyone else.  He also loves to throw or catch anything he's playing with - especially balls.

He's still taking a morning nap, and would probably sleep for close to two hours if I let him, but we always have somewhere to be in the morning. The afternoon nap is usually between 1 1/2- 2 1/2 hours, depending on his morning nap. He goes down for the night around 7 and usually wakes up around 6:30. And when he wakes up, he gets hangry if he has to wait for more than 30 minutes or so to eat. He sleeps best with a binky, but I think he could sleep without it (I'm not in a hurry on that one).

On his actual birthday, he flew with me down to St. Louis to see my Grandma who'd been in a serious car accident (she's doing well now, thankfully). He was literally perfect on the flight down. He flirted with the ladies in our row before sitting down in my lap to look out the window and fall asleep until landing.

 

Aunt Krissi generously offered to watch him for the afternoon while I was at the hospital and of course he got a little cupcake to celebrate.

The flight home wasn't as ideal as the flight down, but he still wasn't bad by any stretch. He and I shared a sandwich at the airport before boarding the plane.

We did his official celebration with our family the next day and he enjoyed his bundtlett after we showed him what to do with it.

Happy birthday, sweet, smiley Graham! You are such a gift to us and we couldn't love you more. Thank you for your special place in our family!

Summer Living

The weather's been all over the place this summer, and on the days that aren't warms enough for the pool, we've been able to spend some time at nearby playgrounds. A lot of times we meet friends, but sometimes it's just us, and it's fun to see the kids interacting.

Such a great big brother.

Graham is at such a fun age. I just want to freeze him. He's able to move when I put him down on his tummy, but hasn't quite put together that he can go from sitting to crawling. It's kind of perfect.

Miss Independent likes to be the one doing the pushing of the swings.

Brooke and her buddy, Finley.

Have I mentioned what a great baby he is?

We've had LOTS of pool time this summer. Brooke has swim team practice three times a week and we try to make all of them if we're around.

Brooke has been very helpful this summer. Maybe she's finally realizing that this big sister gig is permanent?

We've had our share of sweet treats this summer (and, not coincidentally, our first dental visit with NO cavities!!!). Another item on our summer bucket list was making snow cones. We tried unsuccessfully with the Snoopy maker, so I resorted to using the Ninja. They were, in Brooke's words, "Not bad, but not the best."

We also gave in and let them choose something from the ice cream truck. I think the other parents on our cul-de-sac did not like us that evening.

We've gotten to see Grandma Audie every few weeks, too. I have to imagine our visits are a bit like a tornado with the chaos that we bring, but we're so thankful for her hospitality and to get to spend time with her.

Another one of Graham, because, why not?

Miles and Paige built their own "arch" one morning.

Paige wanted to play Heads Up after she saw me and Brooke playing. It went about how you would imagine.

I would say it's 50/50 of them playing well together and fighting, but the times that they play well together are legitimately heart-warming.

(Don't mind Paige's W-sitting. We're working on it!)

Paige is also usually a really good big sister.

Graham in the waiting room at Paige's speech therapy.

Waiting out a lightening delay and eventual cancellation at Brooke's swim meet. She's had 4 of 5 meets cancelled this summer, poor thing!

Softball was over at the end of June. Matt did a great job coaching again and Brooke continues to enjoy it.

With all of our activity, we've had a lot of afternoons like this. Here's to soaking up the second half of summer!

Trips

For our anniversary, Matt and I got away for a night to see "Dear Evan Hansen" on Broadway. (It lived up to the hype.) We were just going to go into the city, but decided to be as spontaneous as we get and plan a quick trip a couple of weeks ahead of time. We were only away for about 36 hours, but it was a really great time. The kids were with our amazing babysitter, Grace, and they had a great time, too.

A couple of weeks before that, we checked "Train to Willis Tower" off of our summer bucket list. We went right after Brooke's last softball game.

Paige was super-excited to ride the train.

Matt has the rest of the pics from the top of the tower so I'll try to post those later. It wasn't our best family outing as each of the kids took turns being miserable, but overall I think we all had fun and were glad we did it.