Our Boat Vacation

Last Thursday we headed up north for a little vacation. My parents are staying on the boat for two weeks and they graciously gave up the boat for us to stay there for a couple of days! We had a great time!!

Family picture in front of the Au Sable Lighthouse north of Ludington.
Kaden and Emmy enjoying their ice cream sundaes after dinner.
The kids watching the SS Badger leave for Wisconsin at night. The boat was slipped very close to where the SS Badger docked, so we definetly heard when it arrived every morning at 5:30 and blew its horn.
One of the many sculptures that was at the park right next to where the boat was slipped. The kids spent a lot of time at the park and had fun taking pictures at each of the sculptures (there were just too many to share).
Kaden and Chris enjoying the pool at the marina.

Mini Scrapbook

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Perry is 3 months!

Perry will be 3 months on Friday so I took the pictures a little early since we will be up north. Although everyone tells me that the fussiness will stop at 3 months, we have not seen any changes yet. He is all smiles after he eats for about 20 minutes. After that we spend most of our time pacing around the house and bouncing him. I am breaking all the rules that I had with the other kids. He takes his naps either in our arms, his swing, or when we are in the car (but only if the car is moving, if we stop the screaming starts). He spends about half of the night in bed with me. I start out by putting him in his bassinet but usually about 4 or 5am he ends up staying in bed with us because I am just to tired to get up and put him back. Although I am breaking all of my own rules, I am not worried about it because it just survival right now. Even with all of this, I am really enjoying him being a baby!

Little Fish

I was experimenting with a new website for online scrapbooking and this page is what I came up with. It is tons of fun to use and much easier than actually getting out my scrapbook. Although, I don't want to give up scrapbooking with paper this site is all I really have time for these days with a colicky little guy. These pictures are from when we went to Cascade Country Club last week with my Grandma and Char and her kids.

World Cup Soccer~ Tiny Tots Style

Kaden joined his first soccer team a couple of weeks ago. It is definitely a work in progress. So far, we are just working on making sure that the ball is moving towards the right goal and not using hands.

On Kaden's first day of practice, we found out that they didn't have a coach for his team yet. Chris volunteered and is now the coach for "Team Royal".

The hardest part of going to Kaden's games and practices has been keeping Emmy on the sidelines. She so badly wants to get out there and play (especially when Daddy is coaching). It would be nice if there was a separate field for all of the 2 year old siblings that want to play. This is a picture of Emmy stretching on the sidelines, just like the "big" kids.

Kaden had his first game tonight. He wasn't really too excited about playing, since he had a busy day of camp at farm school and swimming the rest of the afternoon. He voluntarily took himself out of the game numerous times to rest!

A Busy Week

We had a really busy week full of fun summer activities (which meant no naps and early bedtimes for everyone)! Although it is tiring, I am so thankful that I am able to stay home with the kids and experience all of these fun things with them. The days are sometimes long but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

For playgroup this week, we went to the "sprinkler park" (also known as the downstairs park), Emerson and her friend Campbell had more fun in the mud puddle outside the fountains than in the fountains themselves.

On Wednesday, we went to the pool at Blythfield with Grama. We spent the afternoon going between the big pool, baby pool, and playground. Emmy is doing a lot better in the water. She is still very fearful but since we have been spending so much time in the pool lately she gets a little more brave each time.

The kids and I got to spend two days with Grama this week, which was an extra special treat. Today we made our way to Grand Haven State Park. It is a lot of work to take 3 young kids to the beach but it was well worth it because we had a great time. The waves were huge and Kaden and Emerson had a great time playing in the water. Make sure you check out the video below!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great holiday weekend full of activities. Although the kids and I are really tired, we had a lot of fun. We started the holiday weekend by going to Centennial with the Soets (minus Steve b/c he was busy making hot dogs) on Thursday. The kids had a great time in the kiddy pool even though it was pretty chilly. That night we went to see REO Speedwagon in Muskegon. It was a great show and the kids had fun dancing and singing the night away. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot of the concert, Emmy said "I'm ready to sing and dance!" We spent the rest of the weekend at Grandpap's in Spring Lake. We went to two more concerts, a parade, a boat ride up to Muskegon for lunch, a carnival, and fireworks. In between all of those activities we managed to find time to swim and go fishing.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Seven of my favorite flowers for seven years of marriage

For our anniversary yesterday Chris took me took me for a trip down memory lane. We started out at Charley's Crab for crab and drinks on the deck. Seven years ago we were on our honeymoon in Seattle and Vancover Island where we enjoyed crab on the deck there. After Charley's Crab we went to the Boardwalk where we checked out our first apartment. Then we drove past both mine and Chris' college houses. It was really fun to see our old stomping ground and talk about where our relationship started. Then we went to a nice dinner at Naya. I had a great time, thanks to my wonderful husband who planned it all!