{mini-break}

The day after Paige's birthday, we headed over to Michigan's west coast for a 3-day vacation. It was FULL of FUN. And I do mean full. We did not have one moment that wasn't filled with something to do.



Day One: Pere Marquette Beach. Water so clear and surprisingly warm. And the sand bars....I had forgotten all about those. So cool. Not missing the ocean and it's sticky salt spray AT ALL.

The water was quite calm when we arrived, but by the time we were about to leave, it did get quite wavy.





I don't know why, because we have never had this problem before, but Paige was SO not into the water or sand. She kept getting upset because her feet were getting all sandy. I finally had to get her a bucket of water to have by her chair so she could wash off her feet every time she wanted to sit. After a few hours, she forgot all about the yucky feeling she was having and had fun.


Day Two: Little Sable Lighthouse, Silver Lake Sand Dunes, Mac Woods Sand Buggy ride and Tubing down a little river thingy that emptied out into Lake Michigan.

First up, the lighthouse. Paige BARELY made the height requirement. Both girls were troopers, making it up all those stairs (132, I think). Going up was A LOT easier than going down. Gorgeous view.





Then, the sand dunes. All I can say is WOW. They were awe inspiring. We had the most beautiful weather. I thought it was going to be treacherous walking in all that sand....but it was quite the opposite. The sand was packed down in most parts. We walked up the dunes, we ran down the dunes. Emily did fall on her face on the way down the BIG dune...but she brushed herself off and did it again. Paige loved it as well.







Then, and we are still on day two people, we did our sand buggy ride. Oh, that was so much FUN. Our driver's name was Weezie. Need I say more? If you are ever in that area, it is a MUST.



Then, we drove about 15 minutes down the road to get our tubes for the lazy river...as you can see, Paige was WAY excited. She woke up about a minute before I set her in her tube. Yeah, she was not a happy camper for the first 15 minutes. Can't say I blame her.


The little gas station that rents the tubes was out of them, but we were not out of luck...we passed a store on the way there that sold water stuff. And they just happened to have the EXACT number of tubes that we needed.

This is the only picture I have. Taking pictures in the middle of the river without a waterproof camera is probably not a good idea.

The float lasted about 45 minutes and was fairly relaxing. There were a few parts where we had to rescue each other from tree branches sticking out of the water, or big rocks. We also met a group of people floating down with a couple extra rafts for their beer cooler and their empties. They were having a GOOD time.



It was so much fun, that this is what Emily looked like on the ride back to the hotel.


Day Three: Michigan's Adventure. An amusement/water park. We spent the first two hours doing all the dry rides. Emily even rode the small roller coaster. You can't really see her in the picture, but she's there, right next to Eric.


Unfortunately, this is what Paige did for a good portion of the day. She's got a few more years before she's big enough to go on a lot of the rides. She seems to be very interested in going on roller coasters, which is good...I need someone to ride with me!


And fortunately for Paige, her sister is not the thrill seeking kind, and is more than happy to ride the less thrilling rides with her little sister.


And that, my friends is all. We were going to go to Meijer Gardens on the way home, but there were some big storms in the area and we decided not to chance it. It was a good thing too, the rain on the ride home was really heavy.

We probably need a vacation from our vacation.

{turning three}

Wow. This is LATE. Paige has been three for almost a week now. I can barely remember what happened....we have been a little busy since all of this has gone down.

Okay - here's what I can recall - first up - birthday pancakes. Paige's request.




She was very excited to blow out those candles.

Then - we got all gussied up for the party...

Still working on that three thing...



Even Miss Emily wore a pretty dress.


Opening presents in her "3" shirt, new tutu and crown.




Born to be WILD! Check out Miss Paige's new ride - a DORA BIG WHEEL from Grandma and Auntie.




Then, it's CAKE time!!


Again, I was stuck in the kitchen for 96% of the party. Of course, no one else volunteered to take pictures...so at least I have pictures of the birthday girl. We had quite a large crowd. You'll just have to take my word for it.

{almost three}

rust pictures later this week...i swear.



at almost three she: can now say "Emily", not "El-low-lee" or "Ellie"...and sounds quite cute doing so. is potty trained (see yesterdays post). stills loves to drink apple juice, but has ventured out into lemonade, water with lots of ice, arnold palmers, and cranberry juice. is willing to try just about any food. can ride her tricycle with wild abandon. has no plans to give up her pacifier any time soon. now sleeps with three blankies and one stuffed animal - which changes day to day. is constantly scratching at any and all scabs - which equals me doing a lot of sheet washing. loves her big sister and wants anything and everything she has. knows almost all the alphabet. knows all her shapes and colors - although gets blue and green mixed up a lot. can count up to 12...sometimes even to 20. loves to dance. can do a 24 piece puzzle all by herself. loves to play with little figurines, my scrapbook flower collection and bag clips. yes, I said bag clips. will choose a dress over just about anything else. says her favorite color is pink. loves books. loves the library. loves to help me out around the house. does not like sharing with her sister, loud noises, spiders, water in her face, cantaloupe, and looking at the camera.

and her favorite Tiger is Brennan Boesch. (i don't even know how she knows who he is.....)

and we: love her.

{chapter closed}

I would like to announce that Paige has conquered the potty - insert cheers, applause and whoops here!!

It has been a long road that started back this past March. Which, really, isn't all that long...but, it feels like FOREVER to me.

About a month ago she finally started to go to the bathroom all on her own. She saw a friend of hers do it, and I guess she figured that she might as well give it a try. I truly tried to put the whole notion that she was near the finish line out of my head. We didn't speak about it. We didn't even exchange big smiles when she trotted off to the bathroom to go - all on her own. It's not that I wasn't happy - I was screaming happy, joyous things in my head - I was just so afraid that it was all some sort of dream, and my screaming would make it all go away.

Well, after one month of going all on her own, conquering the whole #2 thing, and nighttime dryness, I think it's time to shout from the rooftop. Skywrite it. Do the dance. whatever.

She. is. done.

And, yes, I said nighttime dryness....she wakes up in the middle of the night, gets out of bed, and goes all on her own....I can't believe it myself. It took Emily 1.5 years to do that!

Baby girl, your Momma is SO PROUD!

Now let's just have a bit of a break before the next hurdle please.....

{have a....}

great weekend....



from the lack of ANY commentary for weeks on end, i am guessing y'all are sick of really super-awesome pictures of my kids. so next week i will be featuring pictures of rust. try to contain your excitement.

{genetics}

So, if you know me, you know that I am not a sporty girl. When I was about Emily's age, I was asked to leave the softball team after getting hit repeatedly in the head with the ball. (yes, I know, it explains a lot!) And I was totally FINE with that - the leaving, NOT the head hitting. I only played one year of soccer - getting yelled at by my teammates for running the wrong way down the field with the ball was not exactly fun. At least I was way too uncoordinted to actually kick the ball in our own goal......

However, I was in marching bad. And before you tell me that this involves no coordination, YOU try playing an instrument in time with a bunch of other people playing their instruments WHILE moving around a football field in formation. Heel-toe baby!! My calves never looked better.

But that didn't involve a ball. Thank goodness!

Fast forward a few years, and I would like to present you with Allison 3.0 - a.k.a Paige Elizabeth. Allison 2.0 - a.k.a. Emily is partially afflicted with this same disease.

It's not for lack of trying....but my sweet little princess cannot catch or throw.



But she looks quite determined.



And maybe a bit scared of the ball.



Perhaps it the tongue.



We played catch with both girls after dinner last night. If you would like to call it that.

Eric and I practiced catching pop-ups in preparation for this summer's annual Bat Ball game on August 7th. I am determined to shed my uncoordinated self and catch at least ONE pop up.

Let me just say, Eric has his work cut out for him!

{more swimming}

In this heatwave that has hit our state, it seems like the only outside activity that is fun is swimming! That is, until Emily stubbed her toe running through the raindrops Wednesday night......but, she's all recovered now, and they hit the pool again yesterday afternoon.

{fourth of july 2010}

Just a small gathering to celebrate the fourth at our house.



But there were snaps. They were just as big of a hit this year as they were last year.





This year Eric bought some of those snake thingies. They stunk. Didn't work at all.



So we stuck with the classic sparklers.





And some legal fountain stuff.



That's HOT.



My poor husband. He did such a nice job setting things up, and setting them off. BUT, because all of the people around us have the big expensive stuff, we were a little distracted....he actually had to tell us to pay attention to our own stuff.

Next year, just sparklers and snaps and we'll watch everyone else's stuff.