Michigan trip

We just got back home after a week visiting my family in Michigan. We had a great time with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and grandma. Ben and his cousin Gwen had a lot of fun chasing each other around and giggling hysterically. Here are a few pictures from my first skim through all the ones we took.

Four generations

Ben playing catch with Great-Grandma. He later convinced her to try hula hooping.

Elizabeth checking out flowers in Grammie's garden

Gwen & Elizabeth in the adorable Sesame Street dresses that Jen's mom Dena made. We tried to get a picture of the girls in an armchair by themselves but there were major tears!

Trying out the hula hoop

 

Yummy, Yucky got read approximately 50 times during the week. It was hilarious to all of the kids. 

Elizabeth convinced Papa to read it again later.

Elizabeth in the rocker her Great-Grandma had as a small girl. She also recommends Good Night, Gorilla for a good laugh.

Ben & Papa playing baseball.

Not pictured: the three minutes between the time that Buddy's Pizza arrived at the table and the time it was cool enough to be eaten, during which she screamed and pointed at the pizza in fury that it was not immediately placed in her mouth.

Relaxing at the Ranch

We spent Memorial Day down in Texas with some of Dave's college friends and their families. We had unusually gorgeous weather, much cooler than the last few trips to the ranch. The kids did pretty well on the drive, other than a brief episode of possible carsickness from Elizabeth. We had a great weekend relaxing, catching up, and eating way more than we should have!


Elizabeth decided this weekend was a great time to start taking multiple independent steps. She still crawls a lot, but can walk several steps when she feels like it. She liked walking around the hotel room and the ranch patio.

The older kids enjoyed looking for roly-polies and crickets. Several crickets imprisoned in a plastic container with air holes and a bottlecap of water miraculously made it alive through the weekend before they were set free as we were leaving. (Ben, unsurprisingly, is the one in the Hosmer baseball shirt in the photo below.)

Elizabeth comes face to face with a real cow. She was unsure what to think.

Ben spotted this group of cows in the meadow during our drive around the ranch.

Ben went fishing at the regular lake (roost lake) once and the small lake just down from the cabins once. He caught a fish at the roost lake and was very proud!

Heading down to the little lake with Elizabeth in our new baby carrier

Ben's fish:

Ben posing with the fish Calvin caught:

One of the other kids got out the chalk and Elizabeth was fascinated! She scribbled with it for almost an hour and got mad when we took her away so we could have dinner! Since we got home, she has been enjoying drawing on the driveway.

Magna Doodles are some of the best kids' toys! Both Ben & Elizabeth love spending time scribbling (E) & writing/drawing (B) on them. Elizabeth also loved that there were chairs just her size.

Our weekend

We had a pretty low-key weekend, which was nice. Ben had soccer on Saturday morning and enjoyed himself and talked to some of the other kids. He balked a little when it came time to scrimmage, but with Dave's encouragement, he joined in and was so proud that his team "won." Elizabeth enjoyed walking around the grass, picking dandelions, tearing up helicopter leaves, and making faces at the baby sitting nearby.

Elizabeth is now able to climb up onto Rocking Panda and one of our armchairs independently and is so proud of herself!

Last month the babywearing group I belong to had a spring picnic. We won the raffle prize of an orange doll wrap for kids to wear (can also double as a wonderfully soft scarf!). Ben has seen me wrap Elizabeth on my back so he wanted me to help him use the doll wrap today. Elephant got a piggy back ride and hung around with Ben as he read books for a while this morning.

Dave was mowing the lawn around lunchtime today and called us out to see a turtle who had camped out in our front lawn! He had a unusually long tail compared to the turtles we've seen before. Dave carried him over to the field behind the neighbor's house and set him free there. The kids thought it was really cool. Elizabeth really wanted me to let her down to grab it!

Mother's Day

We had a delicious Mother's Day breakfast at Ingredient and then enjoyed the great weather in the green space outside. Elizabeth was a little confused that the Astro-Turf didn't feel like grass. She liked checking out the Adirondack chair, crawling around, chatting with Great-Grandma and conning her out of her necklace for a while. Ben had a ball running around and passing an imaginary football to Dave, Uncle Jeff & Opa.

Elizabeth had lots of stories to tell Great-Grandma:

Football/soccer/tag/wrestling or whatever Ben chose to call it at the moment you were enlisted to play:

Elizabeth practicing her standing and walking:

One of Elizabeth's favorite pastimes is investigating and/or borrowing jewelry. She is always fascinated when people have necklaces or earrings.

Investigating Great-Grandma's necklace...

...and wearing Great-Grandma's necklace!

Cuddling with Grandma & examining her necklace

Time for nap: