on....the....move.....

K is certainly starting to hit his stride.  He is very good at crawling and now very interested in climbing the stairs.  He thinks he is a very good climber and does not need our help....hmmm. I think this may spell disaster!  Guess is it is a good thing we put the baby gate back up a few weeks ago.

pool side fun

We took advantage of a beautiful summer day and spent some time "poolside" in the backyard.  R and K had a great time cooling off in the deck pools today.  R was practicing putting her face in and blowing bubbles.  I really do think K is going to be our little fish - he loves the water.

haircuts for the girls

As it turns out, all of the girls in the house are going to the beauty salon this week.  And, by all girls, we mean - R, Mama and Molly.  Molly went first -- she had some serious matting in her coat and needed a trip to the groomer.  Well, we were very surprised when we brought her home.  She was shaved from her shoulders to her tail.  Only her head and tail had her trademark pouffy hair.  It was really funny - I tried to take some pictures of her sleek look.  R wakes up each day surprised to see that her hair is still short.  R wanted to know a couple of things - 1. did Ms. Christine cut Molly's hair? (this is who cuts R and Mama's hair) 2. did i bring fruit chews for Molly to eat during her haircut (this is R's snack of choice during her visit to the salon).  I anticipate that R's cut and my cut will not be as severe.

Vacation

It has been a fun vacation – Michigan is nice, far enough away that it feels like you are really gone but close enough to drive.  We chose a small town outside of Grand Rapids for our destination this year.  While we were there, we went to the Meijer Sculpture Park, John Ball Zoo and Meyer Lake.  We actually had some really good food on the trip (seems like our food choices are always mediocre).  R tested out about half a dozen playgrounds.  We rented a house on Lake Meyer, which worked out great.  It was fun to see all of the summer lake activity and R enjoyed playing at her own private beach.  When we did get over to big Lake Meyer, she got to swim in the lake rather than a pool – a different experience for sure.

The Sculpture Park was very cool and something we would definitely recommend to others, especially those with kids – a whole area of the gardens were dedicated to kid stuff. 

The Zoo was small, but a great time – the whole thing was up hill though, didn’t realize Michigan was so hilly!  Andrew definitely got a work out pushing the stroller for 2 hours.  The highlight of the zoo trip was the camel ride – that’s right, R and I rode a camel!  Not something you see every day. 

Friday we had visitors – Uncle Bill and his wife Barb came down see us for the evening. 

Mostly, it was nice to spend some quality time with the family after the last couple of weeks.  Although I was certainly glad to come home.

sibling rough housing?

K and R were messing around at the beach house.  I assume this is just the beginning..... (no children were harmed in the taking of this photo).

K 10 months

K had a fun month!  He can crawl really fast and has started to cruise the furniture with great skill. In the past few days, he is even starting to let go and try to balance on his own.  I'm sure he will be walking before we know it.  We spent some time with the grandparents, and made some new friends at the park.  We discovered that K really enjoys the water - starting off in the baby pools and even spending some time in a big pool.  I think he will be our little fish.  He is making small steps in the "solid food" department, but we will continue to work on this skill.  He still loves to eat shoes and is obsessed with anything that he is not supposed to play with.  Unfortunately, the little man has spent more time in his pack-in-play then we would like, due to all of the unforeseen traveling, but he has done very well adjusting to each new setting.  K is a happy little guy and likes to make lots of noises to make sure everyone remembers he is there.  Oh yeah, he also sprouted another tooth!

powerless

It has been an interesting week.  Friday night I came home from a work conference in Denver, CO.  I picked up the kids and urged R to hurry because it was going to rain!  A made it home about 10 minutes after us.  Around 5:30 a storm came through and knocked out our power.  We decided to go out to find some dinner food, as the power had not come back on by 6:30.  We ended up at Grinders and it took 40 minutes to get a sandwich! Ridiculous!!!  I was tired from traveling all day and just wanted to go home.  Well, we did go home to a hot house.  On Saturday we went to the lake with our friends, as already planned.  My parents urged us to stay in Medina, as our power had not come back.  No, we said, it will come back on - we will be fine.  The power did not come back and we figured out that there had been a very serious accident on the main road - Hamilton Road - during the 20 minute storm on Friday night.  Lightening struck and hit one pole that created a domino affect to 13 other poles and the road was closed between old 161 and Thompson.  Many drivers were actually trapped on the road because of the downed power lines.  Scarily, this could have been A or me - as this is the main road that we travel.

Saturday night we slept at our house, but it was really warm.  By mid morning Sunday, we determined that we needed a new plan.  We could not "wait it out" in a house with no AC and no working fridge.  The AEP website said power would hopefully be restored by Sunday, July 8.  That would be 9.5 days without power - no way was that going to happen.....right?  I packed up the kids and headed to Medina to stay with the grandparents, it was going to be a weird work week with the holiday mid-week so I could work from home for a couple of days.  Certainly the power would be back by the time we returned on Wednesday, right????  Nope.  On Wednesday we headed back to Columbus, even though we had no power.  Meanwhile, A had been sleeping at the hot house, taking cold showers, eating alone and going to work.

Wednesday and Thursday night the kids and I continued our nomad ways, and camped out at a friend's house.  The three of us shared one room, R and I shared one bed.  It was GREAT (not really).  When the power STILL had not returned on Friday, we moved our party to yet another friend's house.  On Saturday night, after the kids went to bed - the power finally came back!!  We were supposed to go on vacation on Saturday, but we had a hard time leaving with the situation uncertain at home.  We ended up leaving on Sunday, thankful that the power had returned but with plenty of work to be done at the house when we returned.

To add insult to injury, the weather this week was unbearably hot -- 100+ degrees.  Andrew stayed at the house and I came to the house occasionally to pack for the next day - it was awful.  Each day we would pull into our development hoping for power - but we were always disappointed, hearing the hum of generators as we approached the house.  The kids did a great job adjusting to each new location.  It wasn't all bad, as Riley did get to go swimming, see her uncle Jordan, attend a parade, eat dinner and play 4 nights in a row with friends.  Although she did ask when we would be coming home to sleep in our own beds.  Trust me, I wondered the same thing.  This is definitely something I do not want to repeat anytime soon.