Silver Lake Ski Show

Tonight we met Auntie Jaime, Uncle Jeff, Uncle Jeff's cousin Eric, and Eric's wife Laura up at the Silver Lake Park for the Silver Lake Ski Show. We thought we were going to be rained out. When we got to Fenton, it was pouring rain, but the rain passed quickly and the show went on. It was a good show. The MCs this year are a guy named Austin and his dad. Austin is the scholarship recipient of the Jason Amy Memorial Scholarship (the scholarship that the ski team established in my cousin's name last year) and the show is based around him being a ski bum and his parents fearing he'll lose his scholarship, especially when he gains a belly that looks pregnant and a big ol' booty. We always enjoy the ski shows and hope that Carson will want to join the ski team in just a few years (they have the little kids ski in the pre-show). Carson liked watching the jumpers, which he called "dump kees" (jump skis). Maybe he'll be a jumper one day like Mama's cousins. :) There are more pics in the albums if you're interested.

Farewell, Jaime and Jeff!

On Sunday, we went over to Auntie Jaime's dad's house on Lobdell Lake for a going away party for Jaime and Jeff. Jaime is Sara's best friend from high school and she and her husband, Jeff, will be moving to Phoenix soon. Jeff will be pursuing his PhD at ASU and Jaime will be working as a P.A. in the cardiology field again. Its perfect timing in their lives to do something like this and with the terrible economic times we're facing in Michigan, they're probably very lucky to be getting away from it all. I know they'll have the time of their lives out in Arizona, but that doesn't mean we won't all be back here in Michigan missing them terribly! Hopefully they won't forget about us! ;-P

So we went over to Jaime's dad's house for one of their many going away parties. We had lots of fun just hanging out and visiting. Carson enjoyed playing with Jaime's step-brother, Evan, who is three years old. Evan really liked playing with Carson, too, until Carson spilled Evan's plate during our "picnic" dinner on the deck. :) Evan and his older brother, Tyler, both got to try skiing on the platform ski that Kevin bought Carson when I first found out I was pregnant. Carson's legs need to grow about an inch more so he's a little more comfortable on it, but it was perfect for Tyler (who is 7) and Evan. They had tons of fun skiing on it and Carson enjoyed watching them and pointing. Kevin was also very happy at the day's end, since he finally got to slalom ski - his first time this season! We're missing our boat so badly this summer...

It was a great day, even with the lingering thought in the back of my mind that we'll soon have to say goodbye to Jaime and Jeff. That will be tough, but we do wish the two of them all the best! We hope they love Phoenix (but not so much that they don't come back to Michigan someday!) and make tons of great memories out there! We can't wait to hear about all of their new adventures as they start this new chapter in their lives! We'll miss them terribly, but we'll hopefully be able to visit next year and we'll see them when they come home for visits, too. Jeff and Jaim, congrats on all you've accomplished and best wishes in all you pursue in Phoenix! We love you guys!

Physician's Park with Aunt Julie, Anna, and Joel

On Friday morning, Sara and Carson met Aunt Julie, Anna, and Joel at Physician's Park in Grand Blanc. The kids were very excited to see one another and had tons of fun playing on all of the equipment - climbing, going down the slides, and swinging. Anna was very protective of Carson while on the playground, asking other more-rowdy kids to please be careful when they passed by Carson and even asking one little girl why she had to hover. :) It was so cute! And Carson loved every minute of it! We played for about an hour and a half, then Sara and Carson headed down to Ikea to meet Kevin for lunch and to look at a few things. After that, we stopped by Novi's Twelve Oaks mall to run into the Origins makeup store so Sara could pick up some safer and natural makeup products. Then we headed home. Sara had to check in with the local police department that afternoon, as she was the first eye witness to call in a terrible house fire on Grand Blanc Road on her way to the park that morning. It was Sara's cousin Greg's cousin's home that burned. Hopefully the investigator will be able to determine what really happened. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the park... the rest are in the photo albums.

Bordines!

Just had to share a few pictures from our trip to the local nursery (Bordines) on Friday afternoon. We went to just browse around at the different perennials and trees and to see what they had in stock for fruit trees at this point in the season. Carson had tons of fun playing on the playset they have up. This was his first ride on a tire swing - he LOVED it! He also loved the slide and kept climbing up to go back down the slide again.

Rodeo!

Last night, we took Carson to his first rodeo - the annual Flying Star Rodeo in Gaines, MI (where Sara grew up). It is held in the park behind one (of the three she attended) of Sara's elementary schools - Gaines Elementary. It was quite chilly - cold really - and it rained lightly for a bit, but the turn out was still great and we still had lots of fun! Carson really liked seeing the "neigh-neighs" (what he calls horses) and "buhs" (bulls). He liked clapping with the crowd, too. And running up and down the hillside everyone was sitting on. Carson got to see a clown - he thought her blue hair was pretty funny! The clown made him a monkey out of balloons that he loves! He thought he was pretty cool, having a balloon animal like all the big kids.

Despite this crazy weather we're having in mid-July, we still had a great time at the rodeo and look forward to taking Carson every year. Hopefully we'll be able to make it to the Spartan Stampede this winter, too. Sara and Kevin used to go to that one every year, but have missed it the last two years.

Tonight, Carson got to spend some extra time with Nana and Papa Moore while Mama went to Lansing for a Girls' Night Out in honor of Aunt Julie's baby that's due in October and Daddy went to Big Star Lake with Grandpa Holleboom and Uncle Danny to put Great Grandpa and Great Grandma's pontoon in the water. The neighbors were riding on their moto-x track while Carson was at Nana and Papa's and he loved listening to the dirt bikes. He now will make the "brraappp" sound of a dirt bike and twist his fist like he's on the throttle. Let's hope he keeps this interest in dirt bikes because we do still have plans to turn our property behind the creek into a moto-x track for him in a couple of years. :)

Be sure to check out all the pictures from the rodeo in our Shutterfly albums!

17 months old!

Carson turned 17 months on Monday. Its hard to believe he'll be 18 months in less than a month now! Our baby really is a little man now - he's just growing and developing so much still everyday. It is truly amazing to watch him grow and learn and test his limits.

It seems that Carson loves the feeling of being dizzy. He has been spinning around in circles now for four or five months, but just this last month he is really starting to spin pretty fast and much more often. So far, he's remained pretty safe while doing this and we hope this continues! Sara used to love spinning, too (I think just about every child does), but she will forever have a scar on her cheek where she fell on the corner of a coffee table. So we try to keep Carson as safe as possible when he's spinning - and try to discourage it, but that seems pretty useless these days. :)

Carson still loves to be outside. At my Aunt Jeri's, he loves to swim in the lake and play on their beach and swing in their kiddie swing. At Kevin's parents' house, he loves exploring the yard, riding his trike, and taking walks with Grandma. At my parents' house, he loves swimming in their kiddie pool, riding his trike, swinging on their kiddie swing and bench swings, and just running around exploring. At home, he loves just running around the yard, going back to the garden and the orchard (he knows just where to go if you tell him that's where you're going... he'll lead the way), riding his trike/tractor/cars, swimming in his kiddie pool, playing in his playhouse or sandbox, and swinging on one of our swings. He loves going in the "bahn" (barn) with Kevin and watching Kevin on the tractors. He loves to look at bugs and point them out - and is already annoyed with all of the "kee-toes" (mosquitos) at our house. He got to see his first earthworm last week and loved talking about the "wohm" for awhile. He also is really loving "ow-uhs" (owls) right now and always asks about them when we're outside... I guess we'll have to make a trip to the zoo soon so he can see an owl in person.

Carson really just loves doing most things physical - be it building with his blocks, climbing, spinning, jumping, etc. It is so fun to play blocks with him right now - he is so good at building towers and other things. He still loves to knock them over once they've been built, but he will stand on his tippy toes and lean the towers towards him to get them just that much taller with one more block. He still LOVES to climb anything and everything that he can. His latest thing is climbing up and standing on the back of the couch in the family room to look out the window. He's actually very cautious about it, so that's a good thing, I guess. We'll soon be investing in a twin size mattress, as well. Carson can get his toes within about an inch of the top of his crib rail. It won't be long before he figures out how to climb out. We think toddler beds are a waste and still too high off the ground, so we're just going to get a twin mattress to put on the floor for a few months. Once he gets used to that, we'll add the box spring and put up his bed with a rail.

Carson has recently started showing interest in the television. He hasn't really had any interest in watching tv until now - which we've been thankful for. But just this last month, he's started loving Sesame Street. He will sit or stand and watch a good part of the show, all the while giggling or talking about Elmo or dancing or imitating what they're doing. This last weekend, he saw his first Barney show... and much to Kevin's and my dismay... he LOVED it! He walked around all day talking about "Bahn-bee" and "Bay-bee-BOP" (or sometimes just "Bee-Bop") (Barney and BabyBop). We'll have to see how he likes his VeggieTales DVDs at some point. We'll still continue to limit the time he watches tv, but I do think he can learn a lot by watching some shows, but no more than one a day at this point.

Tomorrow, we'll be going to the Post Office to apply for Carson's passport. Kevin found out just this week that he will be making a trip to Pamplona, Spain in the next month for work and we're considering going as a family and taking a week or 10 days to see Spain. Why we would consider taking a 1-year old on such a long flight... I'm still not sure... but we are. :) Even if we decide not to tag along, it'll still be nice to have the passport so we can go to Canada when we want to - there are always fun things going on in Windsor and we're not able to go because Carson doesn't have a passport. So I don't think it'll be a waste of time or money to get one for him. It sure would be fun to go to Spain, though... but we'll have to see how it works out... and how much it will cost. We'll be doing a lot of traveling in the next few months, Spain or no Spain. We're planning to spend a week in August at Kevin's grandparents' trailer up in Baldwin, MI on Big Star Lake. We'll do day-trips to Ludington, Traverse City, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes while we're there. In September, we're considering going to either Mackinac Island or Tawas for a weekend (we have 2 free nights at a Holiday Inn that we need to use). And in October, if Sara's travel is approved, we'll all be going to Burlington, Vermont for a week (Sara will be in meetings 2 days while we're there). So it will be a busy few months if everything goes through.

We had really been hoping we'd be able to fit in a trip to Colorado this fall, but if everything goes as planned, we won't be able to. If we don't end up going to Vermont, I think we'll be seriously looking at going to Denver. I'm sure Auntie Sara is reading this and crossing her fingers the Vermont trip doesn't go through! :) She has been wanting us to visit for quite a while now. If we don't make it this fall, we'll probably have to postpone till next summer - we don't really want to go in the winter yet (eventually we hope to make annual ski trips out there, but Carson is too young yet) and we might be going to Boston in April next year... so maybe we could aim for June to go to Denver... and we also really hope to visit Auntie Jaime and Uncle Jeff in Phoenix at some point next year, too! Let's hope we can fit all the trips in... and afford them!!

That's it for now. We'll keep you posted!

Future Scientist in the Making

Or something like that... :) We signed up for some Toddler Science Days at the Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing. These classes are specifically aimed at 1 and 2 year olds, so they are perfect for Carson right now. They limit the class to 12 kids and we went to our first class this past Friday. They've had a few already, but we hadn't signed up for those. And at the moment, we're just signed up for one more in August focusing on dinosaurs, but I might look into signing up for a couple more since they were so cool.

Friday's class was called "Make a Splash!" and focused on water science. Well, it was as focused on water science as you can get for a bunch of 1 and 2 year olds. :) They started out the class by singing some songs. Carson really loved the fishy song:

I'm a little fishy
Watch me swim,
Here is my tail,
Here is my fin!
When I want to have fun
with my friends,
I wiggle my tail and
dive right in!

After that, they explained the different stations set up around the room and let us go around at our own pace. We got to make a rainbow in a water density experiment - I think we'll do this one at home later on when he's a little older, too. Basically just fill four small cups with 4 Tablespoons of water in each cup. Then stir sugar into each cup - 1 Tablespoon into the first cup, 2 Tablespoons into the second cup, 3 Tablespoons into the third cup, and 4 Tablespoons into the fourth cup. After that, you start adding some food coloring to each - 3 drops of red into the first cup, 3 drops of yellow into the second cup, 6 drops of blue into the third cup, and 3 drops of green into the fourth cup. Then you get a larger cup with straight sides. Pour the green in first. Then, use a spoon right at the surface of the green and pressed up against the edge to slowly pour in the blue - you need the spoon so as not to break the seal on the green so your colors don't run together. After the blue, you do the same thing with the yellow, and finally with the red. The colors all remain separated in the cup and it looks like a rainbow! It was pretty cool.

Carson got to make a rain stick, too. They had some paper towel tubes with nails pounded into them and covered with duct tape ready for us. We taped a piece of wax paper onto one end and then Carson poured in some dry beans. We sealed up the other end with another piece of wax paper and then got to decorate the exterior with stickers. When you turn it over, it sounds like rain! After that, we got to make a butterfly. Carson had tons of fun coloring with markers on a coffee filter. After he colored on it with several different colors, we dipped it into a shallow dish of water and let it dry. The colors all separate and you get to see what colors are used to make up each color. Once it dried a little, we tied a ribbon in the middle to make a butterfly. It turned out quite pretty and cute! I'll be taking it to work to hang up in my cube - I'm excited to finally have some artwork to hang up! :) After the crafts, we went over to play in the water at the water tables. Carson had so much fun doing that! After the water tables, everyone got to make their own sno-cones! What a treat on a hot day!

Overall, this was a great class! It was really good for Carson to get out and be around kids his own age in a new setting. He was quite shy at first, sitting on my lap for the first 5 minutes or so, but once we started singing the songs, he warmed up quickly. He met some new friends, too, all right around his own age - Vivian, Alexander, Nolen, and Bailea seemed to be his favorites. Vivian and Alexander have birthdays within 3 days of Carson's, Nolen is a little older, and Bailea has the same birthday as Carson's cousin, Rebecca! They're all signed up for the dinosaurs class and some other classes, too, so hopefully we'll be able to see them again this summer!

We headed over to MDOT when we left i5 so Carson could see some of the people Mama works with again. They haven't seen him since he was almost 6 weeks old at our work shower! So he's changed quite a bit since then! Everyone loved seeing him and watching him run and play and jabber. He got a really fun balloon and Winnie the Pooh pen from Sara's friend, Mohammed! Carson has loved playing with the balloon and the pen all weekend! After spending a couple hours at MDOT, we headed home. It was a long, but really fun morning for Carson and Mama!

Best Buddies

There's something to be said about little boys and their dogs...

Happy Birthday, America!

We celebrated our nation's freedom by going out to Sara's Aunt Sharon's house on Silver Lake yesterday. The weather was much cooler than it normally is on the 4th of July, but we all still had a great time. Its always a good time with the family, considering all of the jokers we have! :) We spent lots of time visiting, the guys playing bocce ball, some went on a boat ride, and we ate lots of great food. Carson got to go swimming again, which he loved. He also had fun playing ball with Mackenzey. She is just fascinated by Carson - watching his every move. Carson hasn't really shown a lot of interest in her until yesterday afternoon when we were inside for a bit. He wanted to lie on the floor by her and play ball with her. Carson likes to throw the ball now, though, rather than roll it, but he was getting the hang of rolling it nicely to her. Luckily Greg (Mackenzey's dad) is a soccer goalie, so he had great reaction times to fend off the flying soccer ball at Mackenzey's head every so often. :) It will be fun to see Mackenzey and Carson grow up together and play with one another more and more as they grow. And it will be even more fun to get another cousin on this side of Sara's family! Sara's cousin, Megan, is expecting a little one in January! Congrats again to Megan and Marty!! Here are just a few pics, the rest are in the Shutterfly albums (link on the right).







Here is a picture of Carson with Great Grandpa last year - look how much he's grown up since last year!