The Whole Vacation Story Whether You Want it or Not

   

               

We spent plenty of time on the beach.  Jack absolutely loved the water.  Which was a bit nerve-wracking for me, because out of nowhere he’d take off like a bat out of hell toward the water.  Mad man. 

Andrea and Gavin came up from Chicago to visit their family last week, so they were able to come out to Grammy and Grampy Phil’s beach for some fun in the sun with Jack and I.  It was great to see them, as usual and the boys had a blast playing together.

         

Jack’s cousin Noel turned two while we were home!  His Elmo birthday party was a hit and the kids had a great time.  Noel was especially interested in my good friend Jessica’s four month old Alyx (who is painfully cute, by the way).  I’ve never seen a little boy so in love with a baby before.  He didn’t leave her side for hours.  Adorable. 

                 

                 

My sister-in-law and I took the kiddies to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens.  We braved the heat searching for the Thinker.  Which turned out to be much smaller and not nearly as exciting as we thought it would be.  I love taking the kids there and one of us always seems to walk away with the perfect photo.

   

We managed to get over to the other side of the state for a quick visit with my dad (who is recovering from having his appendix removed) and my Aunt Amy, Aunt Nancy and cousin Kim.  Fun fun fun.  Jack had a ball racing around my dad’s house pushing every button he could find and taking as many of his 50 bazillion DVD’s off the shelves.  Jack loves my Aunt Amy and her computer.  Which he tried to “check his email” on several times, while no one was looking.  Oh, and her air vents.  Mesmerizing.

   

Ladies Night!  Woo Hoo!  Tons of fun.  I got a tiny bit hammered and completely embarrassed myself and everyone with me.  But, hey, what’s new?  AND get this!  I met a blog buddy!  haha!  How weird does that sound?!  I stumbled across Sarah, from Your Mom… last year at another site, started reading and somehow we randomly discovered that she lives very close to my home town.  So we decided to catch up.  Oh, and she’s so fun.  And totally normal, in a good way.  Such a bummer that we don’t live closer because we have so much in common and I’m sure we’d be great friends.  We had a playdate the following day (after Ladies Night) and the kiddos were able to meet in person.  Totally funny to meet Lucy and Tommy in person.  What a couple of cuties!  Unfortunately, my camera flaked out and stopped working.  Something having to do with sand, I’m told.  No idea how that happened.

        

                                

We celebrated my Mom’s birthday (which is this week) on Sunday with my brother’s family, my Mom and Phil, and Phil’s two girls and their families.  Mom made this ridiculously de-lish dinner for all of us (nine adults and four kids)… cooking for her own birthday party, what’s up with that?  Anyway, it was very good and we followed it up with a Mountain Berry Crumble pie and a Chocolate Cream pie from our favorite pie place nearby.  Yummy! 

               

Here is a great picture of my brother and I outside our favorite tapas joint in GR… after six (or so) too many glasses of sangria. 

Last night I spent several hours getting caught up on three (yes, three) US magazines, an In Style magazine, and about 256 catalogues.  It was painful.  Almost as painful as a massage, pedicure and a day sans child would be right about now.