An evening in Lansing and East Lansing

Yesterday, we headed out to Lansing and East Lansing for the evening. We stopped for dinner at Smokey Bones and then headed to Impression 5 (I5) Science Center for a quick visit. We purchased a membership at I5 just before our trip to Chicago in April so that we could get into the museums in Chicago for free. And while Carson and Sara have been to I5 for a couple different Toddler Science Days, they'd never really been able to check out the center. So we went to play last night. We all had a lot of fun. Carson doesn't understand the science behind most of the exhibits yet, but he'll pick it up if we continue to go there (which we will since we've already bought a renewal membership when they were on sale a couple weeks ago). He still was able to have a ton of fun, even though he didn't get the science behind them. His favorite exhibit was probably one of the light exhibits - he got to dim and turn red, blue, and green lights on and off. He is just fascinated with lights, so he spent quite a while playing there and watching the lights dim and change colors.

After I5, we headed to East Lansing to Sara's old boss, Polly's, house. She and her husband, Paul, both work for MDOT, so it was a Policy/Environmental party. There are several people in the Policy group that all had babies around the same time Carson was born and many of them were there, so it was a lot of fun to watch them all play together. Carson got to see Vayla ("Vay-dah") again. They played really well together. They had tons of fun running back and forth between the bean bag toss game and climbing up and down, just following one another and jabbering. And at the end of the night, after they were in their PJs for the trips home, they even gave each other a big hug! So cute!

Be sure to check out more pictures from our night out in the Shutterfly albums if you're interested!

Big Star Lake, Traverse City, Ludington - Summer Vacation 2009

We headed up to Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van's trailer on Big Star Lake for a few days this week. We arrived early Sunday afternoon and after some cleaning in the trailer (it hasn't been used all summer, so the critters have been having the time of their life in there :)), we headed down to the lake for a couple of hours. The water was fabulous - great temp., awesome sandy bottom, and you can walk out forever. All four of us had a lot of fun. Jet loved bounding through the water and Carson loved watching Jet and swimming on his back in his life jacket - he's doing very well keeping balanced and kicking his feet, he'll be swimming on his own in no time! After swimming, we headed up to the trailer to get changed and headed into town for dinner at Pompeii's Pizzeria (very good!) and some grocery shopping for the vacation necessities that we hadn't brought with us (beer, hand soap, bottled water). We ended the night just relaxing at the trailer... its amazing how quiet it is in the woods... we'd forgotten how quiet it could actually get... it was so peaceful... and we weren't even bothered by mosquitoes, even without our Burts Bees bug spray! It was great!

On Monday, we decided to head north to Traverse City since the forecast for Lake County looked like it'd be pretty rainy. The weather in Traverse City was great for most of the day. We went to the (free) Children's Gardens downtown first. Carson had a blast running around, climbing in and out and all over the wooden train, smelling flowers, and watching the waterfall into the fish pond. Then we had lunch at a local place on the main drag in town and headed north up the Old Mission Peninsula for a scenic drive, some wine tasting, some light hiking on some trails and on the beach, and to see the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula.. We picked up some really good cherry festival wine, some cherry sangria, and some late harvest riesling wines at one of the wineries we stopped at. Half-way up the peninsula, our check engine light came on. Figures, huh? We stopped at Auto Zone once we got back into Traverse City and it coded as something being wrong with the supercharger. Again, figures, huh? Kevin wasn't too concerned about it doing harm to the engine, though he was pretty bummed to have to drive with no boost for the rest of the trip. :) After that, we headed back to Big Star Lake. We stopped at an MDOT Roadside Park on our way back for a stretch - we climbed 144 steps down and 144 steps up... and Carson did every one of them with us! We waded in the lake (actually a reservoir on the Manistee River, so it was COLD!) after making our way down, then we headed on up the stairs to the car for the rest of the trip back to the trailer. We stopped on the north side of Baldwin at the Government Lake Lodge for a late dinner (another very good place to eat if you're in the area!).

We stayed at the trailer on Tuesday. Just relaxed and went on a walk in the morning. Then headed up to Mel's for lunch and ice cream. And then spent the afternoon on the pontoon out on the lake. It was so great to just sit out there, getting some sun, swimming, relaxing, and just having some great family time! We took a drive in the evening and were very happy to see that the check engine light was off! Danny had done some internet research for us and said that was a possibility, so we were very thankful it went off!




On Wednesday, we took a drive out to Ludington. Sara's parents were also on vacation this week and were staying in Ludington, so we met up with them. Carson was very excited to see Nana and Papa! We went to Stearns Beach on Lake Michigan for a few hours. Carson had a great time! The waves crashing on the shore scared him a little at first, but soon enough he was running into Lake Michigan and having a great time. He had tons of fun building a sand castle with Daddy and Papa. The beach was busy, but it was very relaxing and beautiful! After the beach, we headed downtown to House of Flavors for lunch and their famous ice cream. (Kyle, you were right, it was sooooo good!!!). After lunch, we headed down to Waterfront Park to play on their enormous playground and check out all of the sculptures. What a beautiful park! We spent a couple of hours there and had a lot of fun running around, playing on the playground, and watching the boats come in to the marina.










After the park, we headed back to Big Star Lake for one last swim in the lake and to start packing up our stuff. We decided to leave sooner than planned because rain and chilly temperatures were in the forecast for the next few days. Rather than pack and load everything in the rain in the morning, we packed up and headed home on Wednesday evening. While we were sad to cut our trip short, we were glad to get home to sleep in our own beds and shower in our own shower (the water at the trailer is quite hard on your hair... I think I'll need to do a deep conditioning treatment on my hair to make up for it...). :)

All in all, this was a wonderful family trip! It was nice to lose touch with reality (very limited cell phone coverage and absolutely no TV or laptops) for a few days, just spending time out in the middle of no where. It was so relaxing just to enjoy the quiet and peacefulness of the wilderness. We saw deer every day and night we were up there. They'd greet us in the mornings right outside the trailer patio (at 6am on the dot) and would wander through at dusk, too. It drove Jet crazy, of course, but the rest of us thought it was pretty cool. Carson has enjoyed telling everyone that deer have antlers ("dee-ah ant-nahs") after seeing the deer at the trailer and seeing the antlers used in the decor at many of the places we went. :)

We look forward to many more trips up to Big Star Lake in years to come. Next year, we'll have to take Carson canoeing on the Pere Marquette river! We thought about it this year, but figure he'll do better with it next year. And once we get Carson riding and we have some nice bikes and quads, we'll definitely enjoy all of the ATV/ORV trails in the area!

If you're interested in seeing all of our vacation pictures, be sure to check out the Shutterfly photo albums (link in the right sidebar)... I'll have them all up at some point today. Enjoy!

Farewell, Megan and Marty!

Last Saturday, we headed over to Sara's cousins', Megan's and Marty's, house for their going away party. They are soon moving to the Williamsburg, Virginia area. Marty worked for GM here in Flint and found this new job (totally unrelated to the automotive industry) in anticipation of being laid off in the near future with the very dull auto industry outlook. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity for them! And what a great place to move to! It will be completely different than Michigan (I guess there is only a 3.5% unemployment rate there!). Marty leaves Labor Day weekend and Megan will be heading down at the end of October. We wish them all the best as they begin this new road in life and hope they love their new home! And hopefully they'll be making a trip home to visit sometime after the baby is born in January! :) Here are just a few pics, the rest will be up in the albums shortly. As you can see, Maggie had her wading pools taken over by all the kids. :) It was quite hot that day, so the kids just couldn't resist them, even with the ice cold fresh-out-of-the-hose water in them! They didn't mind the cold water at all!

18 months!

Its hard to believe its been 18 months since our little man joined our family. In some ways, it seems like he's been around forever, but in others, it seems like he was just an infant a few days ago. He just keeps getting more and more fun everyday. He brings us such joy and still continues to amaze us all the time. We just love watching him learn and explore and grow!

Carson has been getting his knees up to the edge of the crib rail the last few weeks, so we finally took down the crib last weekend and Carson is now sleeping in a toddler bed. Its a race car bed! Sara's friend Jaime's step-mom, Jennifer, gave it to us as her son has outgrown it. We weren't going to do a toddler bed since they seem like a waste, but this was free and it is the coolest little bed for a little guy! The transition went great! He did wake up the first night, but I really think he would have regardless... the way the thunder was booming so loudly and shaking the house. But other than that night of storms, he's slept perfectly every night!

Carson has also been trying hard to figure out his carseat lately. He has always watched what we're doing closely and always tries to push the red button (luckily it takes a lot of finger strength to get it to release). But recently, he has started moving his chest clip down to his belly while he's riding in his carseat. This worries me, and I try to explain to him why he shouldn't move it down. But its still usually down across his belly when I go to get him out anyway. We still have him rear-facing, but are wondering if he might leave his chest clip in place if we switched him to face forward... if its something he just does because he's bored or
something. Yet, if he doesn't then he's even more unsafe facing forward... so we haven't decided what to do yet.

We got the Play-Doh out a couple of weeks ago finally. I've had it sitting around for awhile, just had forgotten about it. Carson loves it! He will sit there for quite some time playing in it - patting it down, cutting out shapes with the cutters, taking it in and out of the the containers, and tasting it. :) He has wanted to play with the Play-Doh at least once a day every day since we started it. I'm glad he is enjoying it and it will be fun to see him learn all the different ways to manipulate it and make fun things from it. I think Kevin and I have just as much fun playing with it as Carson does!

Carson is still a decent eater. He has his days where he's very picky, but for the most part he still likes to try new things and eat most everything. He really enjoys all the fresh fruit right now - blueberries, grapes, peaches, nectarines, plums, and blackberries. He still isn't crazy about raspberries or strawberries, though he loves those flavors, just not the raw fruit. And he does pretty well with veggies right now, too. He loves green/yellow beans the best, I think. He'll eat them in all sorts of ways. He really likes "goo-kee-nee" (zucchini), too... especially when its baked as zuke fries! I really hope he continues to love the seasonal veggies from the garden and farmers' markets. He still loves to help cook and do things in the kitchen... I hope that continues, too.

Carson has been whispering things a lot lately. He will just walk around whispering different things, whether he's talking to himself, to Jet, or to one of us. He'll even sing in whispers sometimes.

Speaking of singing... Carson really enjoys singing. Especially the "pooooop-pee" and "peeeee-pee" songs that he made up. :) He will walk around singing those songs both before and after he does the deed. He also likes to sing other songs, too. One of his favorites the last few days has been "ro-zee, ro-zee, asses, asses, we down" (ring around the rosy... ashes, ashes, we all fall down).

Carson is a pro at opening and closing all of our interior doors now. He is also very good at twisting the tops off of things - jars, bottles, etc. And he is such a chatterbox. He rarely just jabbers sounds anymore, he's using so many words in many different types of combinations. Most of his words are very clear, but some of them are hard to understand sometimes. He is doing well with some opposites - open/closed, down/up, in/out, on/off. We're working on left/right at the moment. He still just will say all the numbers and is visually recognizing some of them - 1, 4, 8. He'll count with you, but not on his own yet. He's just so focused on physical things, even though he is very smart, too.... but he's also very stubborn and will resist things if he knows you're trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to do.

We had Carson's 18-month check-up with Dr. Akrawi on Friday afternoon. He is still ahead of all of his milestones and is growing well. He is barely 23 pounds (it kept going between 22 lbs, 15 oz and 23 lbs even), which puts him in the 10th percentile for weight. And he is 33.75 inches tall, which puts him in the 90th percentile for height. He eats well, but just burns it all off quickly, as active as he is. Being 18 months old now, its time to visit the dentist... I knew it was coming and know its recommended at the 1-year mark by many, but Dr. Akrawi suggests it at 18-months, or whenever all of the first year teeth are in (which Carson's are all either entirely in or protruding through the gums still). So we'll be making an appointment for Carson's first visit to the dentist soon. Fun, fun...

We'll be leaving Sunday for vacation. We'll be staying at Kevin's grandparents' trailer in Baldwin, MI up on Big Star Lake. We'll take some day trips to Ludington, Traverse City, and maybe to Pentwater or the Sleeping Bear Dunes. We're looking forward to it! It'll be nice to get away and spend some time in a boat on the lake again... I'm sure we'll return wanting a boat of our own even more than we do already! :)

Also, I updated the dino post below with a recipe for slime for those of you that are interested.

Carson's First Moto-X

This afternoon, we took a ride out to the Shiawassee County Fair. It was soooo hot, but it was somewhat bearable with a nice breeze, at least. We walked around for an hour or so, looking at all of the animals. Carson thought it was pretty funny that the horses got baths and then went into their stalls to go "nigh-nigh" (night-night). We were able to see a few horses ("nay-nays") with either their stall doors open or standing in the open space outside their stalls, which Carson thought was pretty cool, too. He would quickly reach out with his little finger and touch the tips of their nose. He thought it was funny when some of them would flap their lips at him, thinking he had food for them.

After we got our fill of horses, dairy and beef cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, and chickens, we headed over to the grandstand for the motocross races. We got there as they were practicing and as soon as Carson saw them, he started twisting his wrist and saying "braaap, braaaap" without any prompting at all. He got to sit on a little 50cc bike and thought that was pretty cool. He reached right for the throttle and started ripping on it. It doesn't seem like we'll have any problems getting him to ride in the coming years... he seems like he'll be all about it!

Carson really liked watching the dirt bikes and quads out on the track. He did plenty of running around and climbing, but would stop quite often just to watch or do his "braaap, braaap." We'll have to take him to more moto-x events in the future, for sure!

It's a Dino Dig!

This past Friday, I took Carson to another of the Toddler Science Days at Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing. This one was focused on dinosaurs. We learned about paleontologists and got to dig for dinos and fossils in the sand, in the tar pit (slime), and in play-dough. We got to look at real fossils and we got to sing a fun song that Carson has been singing ever since... "diddy dum diddy do."

The Dino Ditty:

Here he comes just a stomping all around
Singing Dino-ditty ditty-dum ditty-do!
Searching all around for something to eat!
Singing Dino-ditty ditty-dum ditty-do!

He’s huge (he’s huge)
He’s strong (he’s strong)
He’s HUGE! He’s STRONG!
Won’t be hungry very long!

Dino-ditty ditty-dum ditty-do!
Yeah! Dino-ditty ditty-dum ditty-do!

They sent us home with the recipe to make our own slime at home. Here's how you do it if you're interested. You will need: Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVOH), Saturated Borax Solution, Food Coloring (optional). Put ¼ cup PVOH into a plastic sealable bag. Add food coloring to PVOH. Add 1 teaspoon of Borax solution to the mixture. Seal bag up, tight! Rub outside of bag like you are washing your hands until the liquid has a Jell-o consistency.

We also got to make dino feet with flip flops and poster board and put on dinosaur tattoos. Carson didn't care for the tattoos at first, but after awhile he thought he was pretty cool with them and would show everyone and go on and on about his "da-doo." :) We met my friend, Lina, and her daugther, Vayla, there. This was the first time Carson and Vayla had met. They seemed to like each other ok. I think Carson would enjoy playing with her even more in a less chaotic environment and in a better mood (his teeth have been bothering him again and he wasn't in the greatest of moods on Friday morning). But it was good for them to meet. And Carson remembers her. We saw Nana and Papa over the weekend and when they asked about the dinosaur class, Carson told them about "vay-a," so she must have made an impression on him somehow. :)

Catching up on a couple things...

I don't know if its possible yet, but it sure seems as though Carson is already an adrenaline junkie. :) He LOVES to ride the four-wheeler with us... and the faster we go, the bigger his smile gets and the more he giggles! He also still likes to do tricks on his little electric four-wheeler - standing up on the seat while he's driving it around and hanging over the side like he's going into an aggressive turn. Maybe he'll really be ready for a mini gas-powered snowmobile this winter afterall! As long as the weather is good, we'll be taking Carson to his first moto-x event at the Shiawassee County Fair this Sunday, so we'll see how he enjoys that. He loves hearing the dirt bikes at my parents' neighbors' track and will walk around twisting his wrist like he's on the throttle while making a "brraaap" sound.

In much more laid-back happenings... Carson loves to sing Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam... and will tell you he is an "uhn-beem" (sunbeam) quite often. He enjoys all of the songs in his musical bible songs book, but that one he almost always tries to sing along to.

Carson is also really into asking for "hep" (help) right now. He is always pointing at something or running over to you now, saying "hep, hep" with whatever it is he's playing with or doing. Whether it's turning a page in a book that the pages are stuck together, pushing open a door (he's an expert at pulling the doors closed or pulling them open, but has some troubles pushing them open sometimes... luckily he's not strong enough for the doors that lead outside... yet... ).

Carson is cutting more teeth right now. It looks like he's going to take after his Mama and his Aunt Lindsay and have an extra tooth. :) He's always had quite a gap of space between his upper front right teeth (between the center-right one and the second right one). Well, he has an extra tooth that is just breaking through the gums right now... right between those two teeth. Extra teeth run in Sara's family, so it's not too odd, we guess. Sara had six wisdom teeth (4 on top... 2 stacked on top of one another on each side) and Aunt Lindsay had an extra tooth right about where Carson's is coming in right now. Hopefully this will be the only extra tooth for Carson.

Just wanted to post a few quick things that I always forget about when I have a true reason to post... I've wanted to post some of this stuff for the last month now, but keep forgetting about it. I'll update with some pictures later on.

Future Fireman?

Carson, Nana, and Mama took a trip to the Grand Blanc Farmers' Market this afternoon. It was kids' day at the market, so they had lots of extra fun stuff. They had one of the Grand Blanc fire trucks there for kids to check out. Carson LOVED it! He wouldn't get out! He pointed at every gadget and light in the back of the cab and kept asking the fireman to turn the lights "on." Good thing he didn't turn them all on... I think Carson would have been terrified with the loud siren that close! :) But he thought he was pretty cool sitting up there in the seat for quite a while. Carson also got to pet and sit on a pony. He wasn't too crazy about riding the pony yet, though. But he did love petting it and kept running back to it to say "hey."

West Side Tour

Yesterday, we took a trip to the west side of the state. We'd planned to visit Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van Heukelum in the afternoon; Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca in the late afternoon; and then head to the Saugatuck for dinner and beach time in the evening. But we got a call early in the morning that Great Grandma was sick in bed and wasn't up for visitors. We decided to head out to the lakeshore anyway since we really didn't feel like working around the house. We went to Saugatuck first and were pretty disappointed with it. We'll go back again sometime, but probably without Carson or when he is much older. Its not the place for kids, that's for sure. We barely saw any kids at all. There were tons of people out and about... and absolutely no place to park. So we left Saugatuck and headed to Holland State Park. It had started to rain pretty well when we were just leaving Saugatuck and it continued to rain while we drove through Holland and into the state park. We didn't get out, just looked around, it was just raining too much.

Just when we had made the decision to head home since it didn't seem like the rain was going to let up, we got a call from Great Grandpa asking us if we'd stop by. Great Grandma had heard we were in the area and decided to get up and wanted us to stop by. So we headed over there right about 4:00 or so. Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel were on the west side visiting their friends, so they also stopped in to the farm while we were there. We all had a nice visit for a couple of hours. Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, and Rebecca were headed to a local baseball game in the evening, so we didn't get a chance to see them, unfortunately. Instead, we went to dinner at Russ' with Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, and Joel. After Russ', we headed over to an elementary school playground in Jenison for a little bit until we started getting rained on again. On our ride from the restaurant to the playground, Carson was in the backseat yelling "Do-el" (Joel) every few seconds... for the entire 10 minute ride. He was just so excited to get some extra playtime in with his cousins!

Even though our beach trip was a bust, the overall trip was a nice one. It was very nice to see everyone and get some good, quality visiting and playtime in. :)