John and Anne and their family came to visit for a week over 4th of July.  Along with them came a heatwave and some rain storms. What else is new?  I think every time they come we have some bit of crazy weather :) So to beat the heat we spent a day in the city at the Field Museum followed by UNO's deep dish pizza (yum, says I, but apparently our family to the north prefers regular crust pizza... wink).  Another hot day was spent shopping... Michael is just stretching and stretching up, up, up!  So is John and Anne's food bill as he eats more and more to satisfy this teenage growth spurt :)

The other days were more low key, spent splashing around the backyard with water, water guns, and water sprinklers.  What cheap fun!  I love to see the laughter and fun.  Cousins are great for all of us.  James, Lucas, and Peter had such a great time keeping up with their cousins.  We missed them the moment they left and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Cooling off in the pool

Colouring on the concrete.

Water painting the walls... thanks Rachel :)

During the month of June James went for swimming lessons; 2 half hour sessions a week.  This wasn't his favourite pastime, but he went and was as brave as he could be.  I think the water was a little chilly for him... tummy sucked in and ribs sticking out :)  He did everything they wanted him too, except to put his head in the water... unless it was unavoidable.  (He stumbled once, and he would inadvertently get his head wet when he jumped in at the end of the session)

So, on the last day of John and Anne's visit to our house, we went to the beach.  At first James did NOT want to wear his life jacket and did NOT want to go in the water.  But after about 5 minutes of watching his cousins have fun he ran to get his life jacket and told me he wanted to go in.  He was great!!  Suddenly he was splashing and "swimming" the best he could... using all the skills he had learned in swim lessons.  What a proud day for him and for me.  So sweet,  "look mom!  I'm swimming!"

I know I've chatted to many about our new garden fence, but now is the time to show off my hubby's handiwork :)

Here's the completed fence.  The slats are too far apart to keep out the critters,  so we need to line it with wire fencing.  Feeling too busy at the moment, we decided to spray coyote pee instead.  So far, so good.   I can't wait for the garden to take off.  It's starting to look greener and greener!  I'll show you when it's at it's peak.

Measuring and cutting.

The work was done in a day by Jerry and a good friend from church, Jeff.  Good job men!  You just made me a happy woman :)

Last weekend was a busy weekend for us.  Saturday was Jerry's 34th birthday... Happy Birthday Darling!!  Unfortunately we didn't snap any photos of his day, but we did celebrate with coconut cream pie :)  And on Friday evening, we got ourselves a babysitter and went out for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant - Ciao Bella.  It was lovely.  Then we went to Toys R Us to get a gift for Lucas.  So it goes when you're married with children :)

 Sunday was Lucas' 3rd birthday.  After church we came home and Jerry grilled some hotdogs while the boys played with balloons.  I have never seen little ones have so much fun playing with and popping balloons!  

Cheers to my birthday boys!

Our Trip to Gun Lake, Michigan

Because Jerry took a day off to come to our new babe's ultrasound, we decided to take the long weekend and camp.  It was Easter weekend and the weather was beautiful!!

And we're off!  This was our first time taking the motor home with the Blazer in tow.  It was a fun ride and the boys all did well.  Mostly they stayed in their seats and napped.  It was about a 3-4 hour drive up to Gun Lake, MI where we were staying.

 

One of our first stops was Walmart.  We bought James and Lucas each a fishing pole, which was great.  Our site backed up to a finger of the lake and so, every chance they got, they were casting their rubber fishes into the lake.  Lucas was good at getting everything tangled, but James really got the hang of it in a hurry.  Next time we'll have to get a hook and lures and send him out to catch our dinner.  :)

Our site.  The crumby thing about camping in highly populated areas is that you have neighbours.  At least it wasn't too busy when we went (the park wasn't officially opened) and the neighbours we did have were nice.

See the man in the waders in the photo on the left?  James accidentally "caught" him when he was casting out. Good thing it was just a rubber fish and not a hook!

Because it was Easter weekend, we had to decorate some eggs.   I forgot the vinegar so the colours weren't too vibrant, but the boys were amused still.  Besides, they just decorated them with stickers.

Check out the swan!!

A Visit From Mom and Dad Hanemaayer

My parents came to visit the end of March and so we took a trip into the city.  Our first stop was the Field Museum, it was pretty neat!  I want to try and get back before the mummy display moves on.  The main draw this time was Sue the T-Rex.  She's the largest dinosaur skeleton around that's so well intact.  Pretty impressive!  The museum also had a children's area that was more hands on which was fun for the boys.
After we had enough browsing (quite exhausting, you know) we went for a driving tour of downtown Chicago.  Jerry has certainly improved his city driving habits and my stomach was left in the lurch.  :)  But we made it safe and sound to UNO's Pizzeria, home of the original Chicago Style Pizza.  I've had a couple different variations on deep dish pizza, as has Jerry, but UNO's is definitely the best of them all!!  Very fun and yummy.  And even though the wait was about 2 hours, no worries... we went shopping :)  Bloomingdales was right across the street so that was fun, and the Harley Davidson store was just a block away.  Good times!
Too bad Jerry had the camera... no photos of him :(

We found some old photos and I thought I'd share them with you...

At the auto show.  We went to see what would be a good car for our growing family and decided on a buick enclave.  Unfortunately, that may remain a dream as Jerry found a neat jumper seat we can fit into the Tahoe to get by for a bit.  James also found his dream vehicle: the Suburban.  Why?  Because it has TWO TVs :)  The above photo is in front of a  wheel of an army truck that was on display.  Anything bigger than normal is worth a photo... the only photo we took!

Darling giggles.

It was a cuter moment when he didn't realize I was going to take a photo and he was actually looking at what Jerry was doing.  Great little helpers... sort of.

Getting to work on clean-up.

Checking out the insides.

Thought you might wonder where Lucas was.  I have no idea, but thought this photo was a good excuse. ;)