July 10, 2010
Aiden's First Birthday Party

Today we got to attend my nephew Aiden's 1st birthday party. He actually had his birthday on the 4th of July when we were camping in Cadillac, so we got to have birthday cake then and now. Aren't we lucky! Today was the day for his big birthday bash with both sides of the family invited including 12 kids under the age of 8. You can only imagine the noise can't you?

We received an e-mail earlier in the week that Owen wanted his cousins to remember to wear their "babe-ing" suits. Our kids were more than happy to comply and had a great time enjoying their swimming pool. It was a lot of kids in a little pool - but they all got along very well and we heard many laughs and giggles.

The birthday boy in his new Mighty Ducks hockey jersey -
a gift from his big brother Owen.

Owen checks out the new cars and trucks that we purchased for him.

He also takes a look at the portable play set that goes with the new cars and trucks.

Aiden was very excited to see the birthday cake on it's way to his plate.

This kid loves his cake!

July 1-6, 2010
Mitchell State Park

It was a busy weekend filled with family fun up at Mitchell State Park this weekend.
We arrived on Thursday night, but had to park on a different site for the night. We were grateful to have the driving portion of our trip out of the way and didn't mind moving the trailer over a site on Friday morning. We were nice and settled into our site, when my parents arrived and a couple hours later my brothers started arriving. The campsites were a flurry of activity.
We happily watched all the cousins play while there parents were able to set up camp unhindered.
While we were watching the kids - I caught this great picture of Aiden and Grandma.
Doesn't it just make you want to melt?

We had been talking to Nicholas all week about the possibility that his younger cousins may not be as interested in Star Wars as his is.... however, he was pleasantly surprised to have them asking to play lightsabers with him.

The small lightsaber from Nicholas' dual blade lightsaber was very popular with the little boys this trip. They really felt like they were part of the gang.

Fishing anyone?

The kids watching Uncle Shawn put the boat in the water.
Hey look...6 kids all sitting still!!!!

One of the highlights of the weekend was tubing behind the boat.
All the kids tried it - and we were very proud of them all.

Joshua and Allison walking back to the trailers from the beach.
Saturday night - the park hosted a GLOW DANCE PARTY.
I had found out about it Thursday night when we arrived, so I quickly called Grandma who was still at home to see if she could stop at a dollar store and pick some things up for the party.
The fireworks over Lake Cadillac were a bit of a disappointment - fortunately, the GLOW PARTY was a lot of fun, and that is what they will remember about this 4th of July.

Sunday afternoon we took a walk through the Nature Preserve. It was hot and sticky and we didn't end up walking the entire thing - but we saw a lot of these pretty flowers along the trail.
Don't know what kind they are, but I thought they were pretty just the same.

Taking a short rest along the trail.

Uncle Shawn promised the kids they could have a boat ride through the tunnel that connects Lake Cadillac and Lake Mitchell. We folded the seats of the boat down so they could all go together.

While we were there, Aiden turned 1.
He loved his cake and had us all laughing so hard as he dug into the cake and kept coming up smiling and grinning. What a riot!

Because Aiden's Birthday Party is planned for next weekend - he didn't open many gifts.
However, he did get this car a little before the party so he could enjoy it while we were camping.

Saturday night was the Glow Dance Party and fireworks,
so Sunday night we did Sparklers with the kids.

My brothers and their families left on Monday. Unfortunately, it was after that left that we heard about a nearby playground. So, Tuesday morning before we left we went to check it out.
It was a very nice park and the kids had fun for a little while before we finished packing up to head home.

June 30, 2010
I've told you once, I'm telling you again
These kids are crazy

So not that long ago, I posted a picture of Allison and Sam where they were each wearing one of their own shoes and one of the other one's shoes. Well, tonight they went upstairs to put their pajamas on - and came down looking like this.....

at least both pair of pajamas were The Incredibles, they match right?

Sam is going to be lost next year, when Allison is at school all day like the other kids.

June 25-27, 2010
Ionia State Park

The more we progressed into the summer, we were starting to lose hope of camping with the Peters's until fall. However, when we returned from camping last weekend, Paul said to me that he really would like to go again the next weekend. We just seem to be having a really hard time staying home this year, we are having so much fun. After having decided that we would probably head out again, and a quick chat on facebook it was a pleasant surprise to find out that we could actually sneak in a quick weekend with the Peters. Then the search for a campsite began. Fortunately, we were able to get 2 sites across the street from each other at Ionia State Park. The weather forecast was questionable for rain 40-60% chance of rain and thunderstorms all weekend, but in the words of Kevin Peters "when has the weather ever stopped us?"
We are so glad that we didn't let the weather forecast scare us away - it was a beautiful weekend, warm and sunny. We didn't have any rain until Sunday morning after we were already awake. It stopped and dried up a little while we packed up, rained a bit on the drive home, and then conveniently stopped in time for our unpacking.

Lightsaber wielding witches - you've heard of them before right?

We took a short drive to the other end of Ionia State Recreation Area to check out the oldest standing cobblestone schoolhouse in Michigan. Lyn read the information they had posted and shared it with us - so I hope I am getting this right. My understanding is that the man who built the schoolhouse was from the east side of the country. He didn't understand that cobblestone was not the appropriate choice for building in Michigan due to the freeze/thaw conditions we experience.

Because the cobblestone didn't hold up as expected, the school was later moved across the street to this brick building which is now owned by the Ionia County Sheriff. The short hill directly behind this building is covered in tires - which we are assuming is for target practice.

The big hit of the weekend was 2 trips down to the lake. One Friday night and one on Saturday. The water was wonderful and the kids had a great time playing in the water together.

Nicholas - still hestitant on learning to swim got brave enough to let Uncle Kevin throw him with his tube on. Saturday afternoon, Nicholas put his tube away and headed out with just his "water wings". He made it all the way out to the swim buoys by himself and was so proud. I predict he will be swimming by the end of the summer, if not sooner.

Gabrielle, on the other hand, became a full fledged water rat last year - teaching herself how to swim underwater in our small pool in the backyard. She started off with water wings and a swim ring for Uncle Kevin's wonderful launches into the air. But by the end of the weekend, she was free of all floatation devices and only armed with a pair of goggles and a hand to plug her nose. She absolutely loved it and is swimming very well. Being thrown in the water by Uncle Kevin was her self-proclaimed favorite part of the weekend.

Sam decided to lay around in a shallow puddle of water and get filthy dirty.

Leaning tower of swim rings.

You should have heard all the giggles while the two girls gave themselves mud baths. They would cover each other with mud, run into the water to clean themselves off, and then return to their puddle to start the mud all over again.

Knowing how much Aunt Lyn loves horses, a trip to Ionia would not be complete without a walk through the Equestrian Campground. We saw several horses, but were blessed to come across this elementary teacher from Indiana who was more than eager to let the kids touch and talk to her horse.

June 24, 2010
A miracle before our Eyes

Nicholas has been catching caterpillars all spring. One of them he caught over Memorial Day Weekend, turned into a cacoon overnight, but then nothing happened over the next few weeks.

Then the following weekend at Channel Park in Muskegon we spotted a Monarch caterpillar on some milk week near the dump station as we were leaving.
We quickly located Nicholas' bug house and captured the caterpillar with some milk week leaves.

The next day after returning home we found that it had turned into a chrysallis.
We patiently waited and kept checking on it. Paul had checked on it the day before and it was still the same. Then, as I packed for our next trip I was reminded that we needed to take the bug house with us. I went out to get it and found that a new butterfly had emerged.
Now that it was a butterfly we realized that the bug house was way to small for it to continue to inhabit our humble accommodations. We had to remove the actual screen of the bug house in order to get it out.

It quickly flew across the street, but landed on someone's driveway - not a very good place to prepare for it's new life. Nicholas gave it another nudge and it flew a small distance and landed in a nice bush near the neighbors porch.
A much better place for it to spread it's wings and learn to fly .