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!

The JAM 2009

Yesterday was the first (annual?) Jason Amy Memorial (JAM) Water Ski Tournament out at my Uncle Dave's lake (Bass Lake). Carson and I went out in the afternoon to meet up with most of my family and Kevin was actually able to join us out there once he got home from Mexico, so that was great! He was really bummed he thought he'd miss it all, but they skied way longer than anticipated. Carson had a blast running around, playing with everyone, and going in the water... in his clothes... why is it always so much more fun that way?? :) It was great to see everyone again - all of the Amys were there and they're always tons of fun, as well as all of Jason's old buddies and the Tuffy guys showed up later on after work, too. We might actually have a new dog lined up now, too! We'll see how it works out - whether Kendra was serious or not, and whether Jet likes Lola or not, too.

I'm sure the party went on into the wee hours of the morning this morning, but we left around 6pm to head over to my Aunt Sharon's house to swim for a bit before heading home. A professional skier from California, Jodi Fisher, will be having a slalom clinic at my uncle's lake today. We didn't know about it till yesterday, else that would have been how we spent Father's Day... Kevin in the clinic and Carson and me watching. We could have still signed up yesterday, but we had already committed to going over to Kevin's parents' house early-afternoon and then over to my aunt's house mid-afternoon. So maybe next year if they do the clinic again, anyway. It sounds like the JAM will become an annual thing now! Very cool! I'll be uploading our pictures into the photo albums, so check back soon!

A fish in the water!

Last Sunday afternoon, Kevin, Carson, and I made a last-minute decision to make a quick trip out to my Aunt Sharon's house to swim in the lake. We spent a couple hours there swimming and just enjoying the breeze and the view. Carson LOVED it! He is totally a fish! He loved walking out into the deep water (with his water shoes on, don't worry!). He is starting to learn to float around in his life jacket (which you may notice is a different one again... yes, this will be his third life jacket... :) - though he's still a little uneasy about being out of reach of one of us. But he loved floating around holding on to us. He also had a ton of fun jumping off the dock (while holding our hands) and splashing into the water. He swallowed the lake a couple of times with water up his nose, but he handled it great and was giggling again in no time! Here are just a few pictures..

16 months old!

Carson is growing up so fast! He'll be 16 months old tomorrow! He's learning so much everyday still and turning more and more into a little boy and leaving the baby stage behind. We finally dropped the daytime bottles about 3 weeks ago, which wasn't a big deal to Carson at all. He switched to drinking his milk from a sippy cup with no complaints at all. We still give him a bottle just before he goes to bed at night, though. I think he'd probably do well dropping that one, too, but I think we'll wait a little longer before we try that one.

Our little man is learning about all kinds of different animals. He can say many of them, too... "goak" (goat), "puh-pee" (puppy), "kee" (kitty), "nay" (horse - he won't say horse for some reason, just the sound it makes), "eep" (sheep), "gi-guh" (tiger), "kuhk" (skunk), "bay-uh" (bear), "der" (deer), "ow-uh" (owl), "raff" (giraffe), "i-no" (rhino), "uh-bruh" (zebra). I know you all may not care about how he says the words, but I share them in this way more for my benefit to look back on, so please bear with me. :)

Carson is doing well with matching things lately. He has a color matching game that he does very well at. The two pieces with the same color objects on them fit together like puzzle pieces. He matches up the colors, though he is still learning their names. He'll say "ging" (green), "boo" (blue), "egg" (red), "orj" (orange), but he hasn't really put it together that that is the name of the color. Though he did know his shorts were "orj" the other day, so maybe it clicks more than I think it does.

Carson is also doing well with his numbers. He can say the numbers 1-10. We're working on the visual recognition of the numbers themselves, which will be a long process I think. He does recognize the number 8, though. He will count with you, too, though he only really chimes in on some numbers (3, 5, 8, 9) on a regular basis. He'll get some others in there at times, too.

We have quite the little monkey on our hands. Carson LOVES to climb. Anything and everything. He climbs all over the furniture and recently figured out that its way more fun to step on the handle on the recliners and climb up over the side of the recliner than it is to climb up in the seat. He climbs up on the railing in Aunt Jeri's gazebo to climb up on the table now, too. He's quite determined and fearless when it comes to climbing.

Carson absolutely loves his books. He'll disappear at times and everything will be very quiet. I'll find him sitting somewhere looking through some of his books. He will sit with his children's bible songs book for a good 15-20 minutes, just flipping pages, finding the matching button for the song, pushing it, and listening and bouncing to the songs. Carson loves to sing and dance still, too. He is really shakin' his little booty a lot lately. We were considering putting him in a music class this summer, but we've decided to forego that until fall, most likely. Summertime is just too busy as it is.

Carson is a great little helper these days. He always wants to know what I am doing in the kitchen. I've started letting him climb up on one of our step stools so he can see what I'm doing and help out a little. He likes to help stir things and pour things in. Carson also loves to help Mama in the veggie garden. He has been helping me plant veggies and marigolds. He likes to help dig the hole and help put the dirt in around the plant. It takes much longer to do things when he's helping, but we both enjoy it too much to care. :)

Carson is also learning some manners. He will cover his mouth when he coughs (when he remembers) and he likes to cover your mouth when you cough, too. We're still working on other manners, though. He still thinks its quite hilarious when he burps or farts, but we're trying to get him to say excuse me, rather than laugh.

Carson still just loves playing outside. He really loves his swing - you have to make him get out sometimes. He still really enjoys his playhouse and his sandbox, too. His favorite thing to do outside, though, is picking up sticks - but he's not too happy when Jet steals them away from him. :)

For the last week or so, Carson has been obsessed with "buh-bose" (bubbles). He finds bubbles everywhere. He also thinks that all of the cotton from the cottonwoods that is floating through the air everywhere are bubbles. He will look out the window or run outside and point, with a huge smile on his face, exclaiming "buh-bose!"

Carson continues to be a great eater - let's hope it continues! Right now his favorite veggie is probably asparagus, but he likes to take bites off the stalk, not have it cut up for him. His second favorite veggie is probably broccoli and/or cauliflower. His favorite overall food is definitely pizza, though. Followed by fried eggs over hard and quiche. He loves chicken and he recently had ham (the real stuff, not the deli meat) for the first time and he loved that so much, too. He's still not a huge beef eater, though he does like to take a few bites off your cheeseburger now.

That's probably a long enough update for now - I realize I've written quite the novel (sorry!). Can you tell we're so excited about everything our little guy is doing these days? :) It's just so much fun - and the best thing is that it keeps getting even more fun as he grows and changes!

Potter Park Zoo

I'm doing a little catch-up on my blog posting today. Its been very busy lately for us between things going on at work and having to work later than normal; planting the veggie garden, berry patches, and annual flowers; getting our yard cleaned up a bit; and just the normal day-to-day things we do.

We're also keeping busy doing fun things, too. Last Saturday, we met most of the Hollebooms in Lansing at the Potter Park Zoo for the afternoon. Carson wasn't too interested in the animals like he was at the Lincoln Park Zoo, but he still had a great time just running around and exploring things. After a couple hours at the zoo, we all had a picnic dinner in the park and then played on the playground a little. Carson had fun playing with his cousins and was talking about "Do-el," "A-na," and "Buh-cah" (Joel, Anna, and Rebecca) on Sunday morning when we were talking about the zoo the day before. It amazes us everyday how he thinks of things to say that are totally in context without any prompting. He can be quite the conversationalist when he wants to be. His latest thing is saying things/animals/people are good or bad. He runs around telling Jet he's bad ("Dedt baaah"), mostly when Jet gets excited and is running around or when Jet tries to steal Carson's snacks. The other day, I asked Carson if he was good or bad. He looked at me with a big grin on his face and said "baaah" then giggled and shook his head no and said "goog" while pointing at himself. :)

Carson is cutting another molar and an eye tooth this week. So far the molars have been coming through quickly, but the eye tooth is taking its time... Let's hope it pops through soon, though, those things are painful for the little man. His appetite and sleeping are a little off due to the teeth, but nothing too terrible, thankfully.

We're hoping things might slow down a bit around here for a day or two, but the outlook doesn't look too great for that to actually happen. :) We thought maybe this weekend we'd have time to relax, but Kevin is leaving for Ohio on Sunday now. Luckily, it'll be a quick trip - he'll be back Monday night. And it doesn't look like work will be slowing down for either of us right now. It looks like I'll (this is Sara talking, by the way) be leaving my position as the International Border Crossing and Trade Policy Specialist and will actually be getting a new position at work. Details are still being worked out, but it'll be a wonderful opportunity for me... sort of an offer that I can't really refuse. A new office is being created basically to handle the biggest projects MDOT has ever had, so it will be a great experience... and a great challenge for me. I'm excited for the change, though a little uncertain, too. But I'm confident that it's the right move for me at this point in my career.

I should have all of the May and zoo pictures up in our albums soon, so be sure to check them out.

Hometown Days

Kevin and I took Carson downtown on Friday night for Swartz Creek's Hometown Days. Its basically the annual town fair. I had hoped to go with Jaime earlier in the day on Friday, but found out there wasn't much going on during the day while kids were in school. Things didn't really get going until 4pm. Kevin was able to leave work a little early so he was home by 5:00. We had decided we'd take Carson out to eat to Burger King for a treat. He thought he was hot stuff drinking out of a juice box from his kids' chicken tenders meal. After eating, we headed downtown for a walk through the fair. We got to see lots of animals and Carson liked feeding the goats carrots slices. After visiting the animals, Carson had fun watching all the rides. He really loved watching the ferris wheel. He was too small for even the smaller kiddie rides this year, though. Maybe next year... After Hometown Days, we made a quick stop by Great Grandma Moore's for a visit. She was very surprised to see us and said it just made her day! Pics will be up soon in the albums.

Memorial Weekend

We had a very fun, very busy, very productive Memorial Day weekend. We started our weekend off with an afternoon in East Lansing (see post below) on Friday. Saturday we spent the day at home getting things done. Kevin's friend, Jeff, came over mid-morning followed by my dad early afternoon to help Kevin chop up the Bonneville that was still sitting in our garage. Good news! Its not in there anymore!! :) I got some cleaning and some planting done on Saturday, too. Sunday, we headed out to my Aunt Sharon's house on the lake for a family party. Then on Monday, we did yard and garden work in the morning, then headed over to Julie and Jason's house for a BBQ lunch and to visit Kevin's grandparents and aunt and uncle who were visiting from the Grand Rapids area. We returned home for more yard, garden, and garage work.

Carson got to have his first dip in the lake and his first boat ride of the season on Sunday. He LOVES the water! We have a fish on our hands - he did not want to get out! He loved being on the boat, too. Although, the entire time he was trying to figure out how to open the doors so he could jump in the water. We'll need to get on those swimming lessons ASAP again, I think. :) We'll definitely be spending most Fridays this summer at the lake - it's going to be so much fun! Here are just a few pictures from Sunday, more are up in our Shutterfly albums.