July

The very beginning of July, we set out for a repeat of last year's hit camping trip with our good friends.  It was an awesome time of fun and relaxation with people we love.

Sometimes we had so much fun, we got a little exhausted.

One couple has a teenage (or close to teenage) daughter.  While I'm sure it is sometimes difficult to be surrounded by little kids for an entire week, she often jumped in to entertain them.  One way was through, what I called, "C's game time."  She started many an impromptu game.  Pictured below are the kids playing "Telephone" at her direction.

One of our children (we're almost positive it is Ryan, but our memories are fuzzy already) had a tendency to just change the word or phrase to whatever they wanted it to be.  So the game had a tendency to stop here...

We were there over the 4th of July, and the campground had a bike parade in the morning in which the kids could participate.  First we went and decorated the bikes with all kinds of streamers and beaded necklaces and flags and pinwheels.

They were so thrilled with their beautiful creations.

Many of the kids in our group also added streamers to their helmets.  Ryan STILL has his streamers on his.  Not just patriotic on the 4th :)

Then we rode all through the campground.  The kids rang the bells on their bicycles, and waved.  They had a blast and are still telling people about being in the parade.

After the parade, we had some downtime at the campground.  C had promised the girls that if they slept really well, she would braid their hair for the 4th.  Allie's head popped off the pillow that morning and the first words out of her mouth were, "I slept all night!  I'm going to get my hair braided!"  C kept her promise, and here she is with the three girls and their matching hair - one of the most sacred bonds of girlhood.

For fireworks, we went to Mackinaw City.  Now, I'm not 100% sure where or when Ryan's fascination with Mackinac Bridge started, but by the time we went camping he was completely obsessed.  He had been drawing the bridge and building it with blocks and constantly asking to see pictures.  He somehow knew all of these random facts about the bridge (things I didn't even know, and had to check to see if they were true - they all were true).  He was desperate to drive over the bridge.  Since we were so close, we took the opportunity and drove over.  He was in heaven.  Until he realized that we were driving back right away (to meet up with our group before the fireworks) rather than waiting to drive over at night.  He cried because he wouldn't get to see the rainbow lights.  Someday, little guy.

Once back we found a spot where we could see 3 sets of fireworks.  Ironically, we could see the fireworks from far away the best, and the fireworks closest to us were behind a water tower.  Oops.  Perhaps we should have stayed across the bridge for the fireworks...

The whole gang.  I even got to be in this year's picture!

We got home and had about a week before we set off for the summer's most epic roadtrip. The trip started earlier than we anticipated as one of my great aunts passed away, and we left early to make it for the funeral.  I was so thankful that we were already planning to head that way so I could not only attend the funeral, but see all of the extended family that had traveled from near and far - family I would never have seen otherwise.  After a few whirlwind days in Nebraska we left for Texas.  The purpose of the trip was to attend Aunt Rosey's wedding.  Since it was in Houston, and Ryan continues to be astronaut crazy, we decided to take the opportunity to visit the Space Center.  For their birthday, Papa gave the twinners lunch with an astronaut at the Space Center.  So we got to meet a real, live astronaut (he's walked in space, people!).  Turns out he has a set of boy/girl twins as well!
Our astronaut.

We took the tram tour and got to see some places around the massive Space Center (there is the museum, and then an entire NASA campus - literally designed to be like a college campus to give a sense of community).   We also got to see various space vehicles.

During our slightly more than 48 hours in Texas we also managed to meet up with several college friends and dance the night away at the wedding

 and hamming it up in the photo booth.

The next thing we knew, we were back on the road to Nebraska for a one day stay-over before driving back to Michigan.  We pretty much didn't want to get back in the van for days.

We spent the rest of the month having adventures at home.  Like  spending time with our neighbor going to a local town festival to enjoy free carnival games, bouncy castles, and snacks.

Cotton Candy!

Having water fights (which mostly turned into "Try to Soak Lucas" time.

Setting up a water slide in our fort.

 We also got to have a cousin sleepover with the Beauties.  Literally the first event of the sleepover was a Cousin Concert on the piano (the twins proceeded to pull out our bin of instruments - there was much music and dancing throughout the rest of the evening!).

 The next day, I took the Twinners and Beauties to the zoo to meet up with our cousin who was working there as a Junior Zookeeper this summer!  Uncle Duck took him every day, so we got to spend our time at the zoo with him, and then meet up with cousin R during his breaks.

We spotted R in action!

 We saw all kinds of great animals, but the favorite part of the day (that they are still talking about) was riding the train.   Amazing things about this train: music played inside their train car as they drove, they got to sit in their own car, and they got to ride without any grown ups (it went in a relatively small circle and Uncle Duck and I were happy to sit in the shade and just watch).

 My favorite of the zoo's exhibits is the Wings Down Under exhibit where they can feed the birds.  D was the only of the Beauties who wanted to go in, and the 3 cousins who went in were super into feeding the birds.  So much so that I couldn't get them to leave!  They were shoving empty sticks at birds in hopes they would be tricked into coming closer (many were...).

 At the very end of our day, one of the zookeepers who was working with R invited us to go behind-the-scenes to meet the zoo's baby moose, Willow.  The barn was dark, and I was busy trying to keep D from smothering the moose with hugs, so I wasn't able to get pictures.  But it was a pretty cool experience.

Our group at the zoo.

The last day of July we squeezed in one final evening with the cousins.  First was kids' night at Texas Roadhouse (face painting, prizes, and a giant armadillo walking around - oh my!)

And then one final evening playing with the cousins in their driveway.  These 4 will never ride together in this driveway again (if you didn't gather, the Beauties are moving far away.  We're really, really sad).

Another month full of amazing and bittersweet moments.  We ended July feeling completely unprepared for the month ahead and the giant milestone it would contain...

June

Literally the day after we got back from NE, less than 24 hours after we drove into our driveway, we were repacked and on our way to the Lake House up North.  We were looking forward to this week away, if nothing else to replace some of the negative memories from last year.  However, we walked into the house to find it exceptionally sauna-like.  After some investigating, I found this:

I'm not sure if you can tell that the rug is floating, but it was.  Their whole basement was full of scalding hot water.  After figuring out the problem and stopping the water (with the help of a neighbor), Lucas and I were up to the wee hours of the morning attempting to clean out their basement.  We dried out all of the standing water, left some fans to dry it all out more, and went up to take showers before crawling into bed...only to discover that, in the process of turning off the scalding hot water flowing out of their pipes, we had turned off the hot water heater.  Long story short, neither we nor the homeowners could figure out how to turn the water heater back on.  So there were no hot showers during our week there (we boiled water to add to the cold to do baths for the twins).  We also had let a million mosquitoes into the house in the process of removing their soaked carpet, and while we slept the mosquitoes bit us like crazy.  So 48 hours after arrival we left for a short trip to Nana & Poppy's tired, needing baths, covered in mosquito bites, and wondering if the lake house was rejecting us, yet again.

At Nana's we met up with ALL the cousins!  And got a few pictures of the whole gang together.

 We were there to celebrate H's birthday.

 They had light-up balloons and I took the kids all to the basement to get some fun pictures in the dark.

We ended up spending a couple days at Nana & Poppy's hanging out with the cousins before we went back to the Lake House.  It was exactly what was needed to reset the trip.  When we returned, the mosquitoes had all died, the basement was still dry, and we were well-rested and ready to try again.  The rest of our time there was practically perfect.  It would have been perfectly perfect if there had been hot water.

We went into town one morning and saw a parade of these.  They drove on the railroad.  They were amazing.  Does anyone know what they are?

 We took the kids to the park to get our annual pictures.  They were somewhat less cooperative this year...These were the best I could get!

 In addition to our usual swimming, hiking, and playing we did a few extra things this year.  Like fishing.

 We caught tons of fish.  Even I caught one!  Next year, the twins want to have a night where we eat what we catch.

 We also had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

 A few days after we returned, Ryan had surgery to put tubes in his ears and remove his adenoids.  Since the fall, I had been noticing that he wasn't hearing things.  It never was a problem at school since everything they did with teachers was one-on-one and everything else was independent.  The teachers told me he had remarkable focus and was never distracted by noisy students in other parts of the classroom.  Then I realized it was because he didn't hear them!  After months of doctor appointments and treatment for an incessant ear infection, we were referred to an ENT, who immediately confirmed that 1) he DID have marked hearing impairment in both ears 2) his ears were full of fluid but it wasn't infected 3) his adenoids needed to be removed (he had been snoring, loudly).  We got it on the books, and showed up for the surgery bright and early.

Seeing him in his surgery gown, with his hospital bracelet, in the hospital bed almost makes me cry every time.

He was very brave.  Just as they were taking us back, they were also wheeling a screaming toddler to the O.R.  The sight was a little jarring, and when we were alone in the bathroom (changing into the hospital gown), he started to cry because he was scared.  This, of course, made me cry.  We stayed in there and I held him until he had calmed down.  After that, he didn't cry again.  I might have.  Something about watching them wheel my baby away just made me choke up.  I waited until he couldn't see me though.  If you asked him now, it was an amazing adventure that was kind of fun.  Maybe because he got all kinds of cool get well presents.

The "recovery" set up in our living room.  A cozy place to rest, unlimited Popsicles, and a constant source of fluids.

 Once it was over (the surgery went perfectly), I was looking forward to the recovery.  They said he would recover quickly, but I was still imagining a few days of snuggling and watching movies.  Instead I got about an hour before he was begging to be up and playing.  I never really got him to snuggle with me again, and people who stopped by all remarked that he looked as though nothing had happened.

Which was great because it wasn't long before we were off again.  This time to Chicago!

While we were there, we went with my family (my entire family except Lucas) to the Brookfield Zoo.

 My brother and his wife know one of the dolphin trainers there, so it was a must to see the dolphin show.  Sadly, their friend didn't do the show we saw, but we were able to go back and visit with him after his show.  My kids thought that was pretty amazing.  Allie is also obsessed with the fact that one of the dolphins was also named Allie.

While in Chicago, we also had a ball (dance) at Nic & Ariel's apartment.  I wish I had videos - especially of the new hit dance "The Dolphin!" 

The main reason we went was for Ariel's grad school graduation.  My children are fairly convinced that a graduation and wedding are pretty much the same thing...maybe because of the number of pictures we took...

We spent the rest of June resting up and getting ready for the rest of our summer travels in July!

May

In May I took a lot more pictures.  Partially because there were more special events that prompted me.  Partly because all of the events prompted me to charge my camera battery/remember to bring my camera places.

Having learned about the Leaning Tower of Pisa in school, they decided to make one of their own with couch cushions and throw pillows!

Have I mentioned that, at the twins' preschool, they also have a bit of a farm?  They have a barn, 7 sheep (more now because the sheep had babies - 2 of whom the kids got to go out and see minutes after they had been born), some goats, chickens, ducks.  It is amazing.  AMAZING.  I love their preschool.  Anyway...at the end of the year they had these special sheep days.  They got to actively participate in the process from shearing the sheep to knitting with the yarn - washing and drying the wool, carding the wool, spinning it into yarn (with a real spinning wheel), the whole process.  It was awesome.  And I got to go and take pictures.  Here is the only picture I got of the twinners outside with the preschool director explaining to them how to wash the wool (the barn and pasture are behind them).

We had to celebrate our last day of carpooling with C.  He has traveled with us to and from preschool many a day this past year - and spent many an afternoon in town with us when we had to wait for Lucas.  He has become the twinners' best friend, practically family, and we are sad to not spend so many days with him.  Our last afternoon together was spent eating pizza at a nearby park and going out for special ice cream.

Sadly, May meant their last day of school.  Remember the first day?  It went so fast.  Sigh.

They were in a super hammy mood when we were taking these pictures.  Partly because they were all excited about the end of school picnic.  Partly because they were all excited about the road trip we were starting the minute we left the end of school picnic.  Mostly because they didn't realize the last day of school meant no more school.  They were pretty bummed when they realized that.  They loved their preschool too.

As previously mentioned, we (the twins and I) literally left for Nebraska from their school parking lot.  We spent the night with a cousin in Iowa, and then met up with my parents at the Strategic Air & Space Museum

We had a blast looking at all of the different air and space craft they have there - even though my weary road-travelers started to fade at the end (we knew they were tired when Allie suddenly wanted to watch the same WWII movie over and over and over...just because she could sit on the bench and not move!).

The only way to get Allie to, kind of, look normal was for me to hold her.  It's a goofy picture age, my friends.

Doesn't it look real?  I think I might have it framed for his astronaut graduation someday (or whatever the astronaut equivalent is of a graduation).

We also had many other fun adventures at Papa & Gigi's.  

Like making chocolate chip cookies with Gigi,

Flying kites with Papa,

 Getting the most amazing face painting dinosaurs at Uncle Matt's church (yes, at church!)

 Going to a nearby dinosaur museum.  The dinosaur museum also had the most amazing mirror maze I have ever been inside.  I literally ran into a mirror more than once.  Once we conquered it once, we went through dozens of times.  It was amazing.  But, somehow I didn't remember to send the picture of the maze from my mom's phone...so you'll just have to imagine.

 Visiting Papa's work and driving their newest giant vehicle.

 with uncle Matt!

 Visiting the park I played in as a kid, but with brand new (absolutely awesome) playground equipment.  For the record, the infamous Hike & Bike was one of the fundraisers behind this new park.  It was great to see and enjoy the community's gain from my pain :)

Allie and I in the view from the top.

 Papa and Gigi bravely climbed to the top (I was up there for about 5 seconds before I found an excuse to go down).  They took a picture to commemorate the moment.

 And ending our days with story times with Papa.

As you can see, our May was bittersweet - the end of our time at a school that we LOVED, but filled with so many adventures.  And it was just the beginning of a summer full of adventures!