ROADTRIP!!!

Monday, we all piled into the car and took a drive down to Interlochen where Jed and Mandy are both teaching for a few weeks. John was SO excited to see his BUBBY, and even started saying "Owen" (which sounds more like Onin) while we were there. Its always fun to watch the boys together, they feed off one another, getting louder as they go. We had to separate them at lunch because they were trying out-shreik eachother, laughing all the time!


Strolling with PopPop in the new(ish) double stroller- such fun!


Holding hands with Gramma Queen.


Sometimes we have a little power struggle (especially over cool things like tractors)


But mostly we have a good time...


Aw, Baby J :)

Beach Bum

Today, driving around Harbor Springs to check on the boat, we turned down Zoll street. John, in the back seat pipes up "BEACH!"
um... yeah.
In three blocks. How does he know these things? John never ceases to amaze me.



The cool shades are Julbo brand and come highly recommended by this local mommie We love them- when we can keep them on John's face :)

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Last weekend Jeff's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Goff, came up to visit. John was so excited to have someone new to play with and constantly was grabbing one of their hands saying "come!" meaning 'come play with me!'
We had an action packed weekend, and sadly I didn't get any pictures! I'll have to get some from them and add them later.

Saturday, Jeff, John and I went down to Harbor Springs to the 'Whale of a Sale' which was a big warehouse full of boat stuff- proceeds to benifit the 'top of the mitt water counsil' which is an enviornmental group keeping the Great Lakes clean. The sale was right up our alley too and Jeff found some great deals! Saturday night one of my oldest friends, Katelyn (whom I haven't seen since Jed's wedding!) was in town and she and some of her friends came up for dinner. We had such a blast playing and eating and catching up on old times! Sunday was Katelyn's birthday, John helped her blow out her candles, since he's a pro now!



Sunday was the Good Heart Mini-Fair. We had seen signs all over for this and had no idea how large the 'mini' fair would be! We spent all morning playing in the kids tent, discovering hot dogs (which John, who hadn't been too keen on meat for 2 months, LOVES- who knew?) getting baloon hats, sitting in a real fire truck, and most importantly- the bounce house.






John took a long nap Sunday! In the afternoon he got to take a special trip to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa, and he climbed all the steps by himself- both ways!

Monday we took Grandpa for a sail over to Petoskey where Grandma met us with the van. John played on the playground and had lunch before Grandma and Grandpa had to leave to drive back to Holland. We had a really nice weekend and look forward to the next visit!

You can never have too many people who love you!

For Tashi, My Sister....

Tashi is one of my Bhutaneese 'sisters'. When I met her it was 1994 and she was a cute little 5 year old! Now Tashi is 20 and attending Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.



Whew.
Time flies.

We had the pleasure of having Tashi stay with us from John's birthday in June until after the 4th of July weekend. We miss you terribly Tashi, but I think John missed you the MOST!
TaaTee as he calls her.... She gets 5 kisses at bedtime, numerous cuddles during the day, books on her lap, chase around the house with huge giggles....the list goes on. John is truly smitten.











But the circle continues, when she was 5 and I was 14 I played for hours with her and Chimi, Tashi's older sister. Now Tashi is playing with my child, someday John will play with Tashi's children? Time will tell....

Tashi, you are a beautiful person inside and out and I am so glad I got to know you better this summer. I'm so lucky to be able to call you sister, and I have so much to learn from your eternal optimism. I miss our talks over tea each night, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. You are so talented and I am so confident that you will do well in whatever path you take in life.

Trains AND Boats?

Tuesday before swimming lessons we went for a nice afternoon sail on '42' our Catalina 25 that we launched last weekend in Harbor Springs. John, being John, couldn't leave the house without ALL of his trains. So we loaded up his very own backpack and he got to carry them!


It was a beautiful afternoon for a sail. When we got there the LTYC Juniors were still sailing around the harbor so we went out into the bay to stay out of their way. John was great about wearing his life jacket, and keeping the beloved trains in the cockpit!

Tradition

My mom will tell you that growing up, if we did something more than once, it became a 'tradition' in my mind. What can I say, I like routine I guess! Well, since John has swimming every Tuesday night, we have started a little 'tradition' of going to the local ice cream parlor "YUMMIES" afterwards. We've done it twice. Its a tradition!



This week at swimming John did amazingly well. Unfortunately his teacher Megan (who he calls 'mama teacher') was rear-ended on her way to class. She is reportedly ok, but was unable to make class. We decided to take the pool time anyways and just work on some of the skills we've learned so far. John's life jacket was in the car so we decided it was a good time for him to practice being in the water with it on too!





You see the barbell under John's armpits? Well, he got so good with it that I could stand in front of him, not touching him at all, and he'd swim to me! I'm telling ya- the boy is a natural. Another achievement is being able to go under water (uh-nooo ah-tehr! in John-speak), sometimes he even remembers to close his mouth so he doesn't swallow too much chlorine water!

Painting Fun

My John. He plunges into life with his eyes wide open and a smile on his face. Although it is tiring on us, his parents, we embrace his spirit because we know what a gift it is.
Owen, John's cousin and 'birthday buddy' has a more calculated approach to life. He watches what is going on and makes an informed decision. The boys have totally opposite styles of learning, and therefore learn a lot from one another. This was clearly shown over the week they spent together. Both John and Owen have finger painted before, but never together. We set out the paints and covered the table with newspaper and let the boys have at it. Owen carefully dipped one finger in and set it slowly on the paper. John on the other hand...

He just digs in and ends up with blue hair. Watching closely, I could see Owen thinking "you can DO that??" and soon Owen was joining in!

Pretty soon this is what we had!


The best part of this was when Mandy called last night and said to check out their BLOG- I highly recommend you look and see how Owen now uses John's mischievous ways to get away with things himself! I can see that Owen will no longer be finger painting unsupervised!

When John saw Owen's blog this morning he immediately said "Bubby paint, John paint!!" so after breakfast (waffles, yummy!!) I covered the table and brought out the paints (which are stored in a cabinet on the top shelf, with John around you can never be too careful!)

Here are a few pictures of my gorgeous boy and his art.









He is as enthusiastic about life as he is about his finger painting!

Chaos Explained

In the previous post I mentioned CHAOS, so I thought I'd explain. Over the 4th weekend we had 11 adults, 4 children (age 3 and under) and 4 dogs. OY.

We managed to fit a lot into a few days~

A trip to Pond Hill
Piggies! (I heard the babies were born since we were there, we'll have to go back!)

Rides on the tire in the barn

Popcorn with "Bubby" Owen

Squash Rocket! Yes, you pay money to 'launch' rotting produce into the fields to feed the animals- the boys were trying to hit the poor sheep.


A little fire-play (great for 2-year-olds!)


We rode with PopPop in the Cross Village Parade on July 5th. The car is PopPops 1953 Morgan, cool huh?


The people who couldn't fit in the Morgan sat in the trunk of Binda's car and watched the parade.


John got to sit in the brand new fire truck!


We went to Leggs Inn for dinner and Unca D and Unca Jed played hockey


By the end of the week, this was the place John and Owen wanted to be- in bed watching Thomas movies with Binda Queen


Oh yeah, and I turned 30 this week- WHEW!

Silence in the Chaos

A quiet evening with John on the beach...











Watching my boy explore the world around him brings me more joy than I can put into words.