Vacation 2007

It has been FOREVER since I've done a post on Drew's blog. We went on vacation for a week, from which I have many pictures, and our family has been busy. This post will be big because there is a lot for me to catch you up on!



Our vacation started with camping in Wilderness State Park up in the Straits of Mackinac by the Mackinac Bridge. It was our first time camping this year with Drew, and it was an adventure! We camped with Jana's parents and her sister, Christina. Pictured below is one of Drew's favorite parts of the trip, which was pushing his stroller all over the campground. He pushed it on asphalt, he pushed it on grass, he pushed it on dirt, he pushed in our campsite, and he pushed it onto other people's campsites to say hello. If Drew could have said it, his one word for camping would have been "FREEDOM!" Without walls or fences to limit him, the whole campground was his to explore, and he tried! We're all smiling in this picture below, but our first night in the tent was memorable. Drew was so excited by the tent, the sleeping bags, the flashlights, the electric lantern, and the air mattress, that it was not easy to get him calmed down and asleep. Also, it was a chilly first night with temperatures in the low 50s. We brought with lots of blankets and flannel pajamas for Drew, so he was ready for the cold. We got him calmed down and he finally fell asleep. Jana and I were both lying in our sleeping bags with baiting breath . . . was Drew asleep? Would Drew stay asleep? We got our answer about ten minutes later when we heard a violent retching noise coming from Drew's little bed. Uh, oh!



It was amazing how fast we moved to get the light on to check on Drew. He was COVERED in vomit. It was all over him, it was all over his blankets (all the warm ones we brought with), it was all over his pajamas (the warm ones we brought with), and it was all over the floor of the tent. What a mess! In one fell swoop Drew made every warm thing we had brought for him unusable. Grrrrrrrrreat. Jana and I looked at each other like "What do we do?" and then we started laughing. Drew was covered in vomit, our tent smelled absolutely awful (a tent doesn't ventilate all that well), and all we could think to do was laugh. We are both incredible planners, but this was a situation we hadn't planned on!



I ended up going to the car and getting a trash bag, some rags, and some baby wipes, and we cleaned up Drew and the tent as best we could. Everything touched by vomit went into the trash bag. We found the warmest clothes Drew had left, and in my move for "Dad of the year" I volunteered to take him into my sleeping bag with me. The poor kid REEKED of vomit as I pulled him close (I was literally gagging every time I took in a breath). Eventually, everything calmed down and Drew and I fell into a restless sleep. The smell got better as the night went on, and we even managed to get some rest. The next day Jana went to the laundromat and we got everything cleaned up. Our second night in the tent went much more smoothly!! What an experience! We'll never forget that night in the tent.

Drew did lots of riding on my shoulders over our vacation. He LOVES to get up there and it's really handy for moving him around. He likes to grip onto my head now too, so I don't have to worry so much about him falling off.

This is the beach at our campground. In the evening we would take a walk down to the beach to watch the sunset. In this picture Aunt Christina is leading Drew down the beach.

After a couple of fun days camping we joined my parents at a cottage on Little Platte Lake near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The day after we arrived great grandma and great grandpa Vryhof joined us as well. While camping, Drew got clean by taking a shower with me. He was pretty excited to get into the bathtub at the cottage (he was a DIRTY boy from camping!).

I don't get to spend that much time with Drew usually, just the evenings and weekends, so being on vacation with both Jana and Drew and seeing them every day was a special treat. Drew and I spent lots of time together! Here we are getting ready to go for a swim.

Drew loves hats. He will find my hats in our house and bring them to me to put on. Then he takes the hat off my head and wants to put it on his head. You'll notice that my hat has switched heads from the previous picture.

What does a typical day in Drew's vacation look like? Well, he basically had at least five and usually all six adults watching his every move. It's not easy being the center of attention! The owner of the cottage we rent made a little sand area for Drew to play in and we are all watching him check it out.

The water in Little Platte Lake was pretty warm and we were able to get Drew in for a bit. I still would not say that Drew loves the water, but he definitely is starting to tolerate it more. I think he's even close to a smile in this picture!

Jana and I did some kayaking on the lake and Drew wanted to get in on the action too. He was so pleased with himself sitting in the kayak and he loved holding on to the paddle. We figured that he was ready for his first boating experience, so . . .

We put the kayak in the water and I gave him a ride! I pushed Drew around in the shallow area for a little while and he liked it. You can see my pursed lips as I made my motorboat noise for Drew. The soft swishing of the kayak wasn't entertaining enough for us :)

I tried taking Drew into a little deeper water, but he wasn't too thrilled with that. We still likes shallow water the best and he likes to be able to walk in and out of the water.

Grandpa Bill brought with some sparklers for Drew, and one night before he went to bed we had a sparklers show. Drew thought they were pretty cool, but he didn't quite know what to make of them. We warned him that they were HOT, so he could not touch them.
Here is Drew's crazy hair before going to the beach. He still doesn't have the thickest mane in the world, so we load up his little scalp with SPF 50 and try to keep his hat on as much as possible. All that sunscreen makes his hair pretty wild!

Jana took this great action shot of Drew at Lake Michigan. You can see the sandy water dribbling from Drew's hand. He picked up everything he could find and threw it into Lake Michigan . . . sand, toys, rocks, trash (that was fun).

Drew even ventured into Lake Michigan! The water was quite cool, as you might guess from his bunched shoulders, but Drew walked around in it a bit (to get more rocks, of course).

Another Aupperlee family photo! We tried to get as many of these as possible because we don't always think to take pictures of the three of us. We found a beautiful stretch of beach in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that wasn't very busy. My whole family visited the beach several days and enjoyed the relatively empty beach and other families with kids that visited. We told our friend Sandra, who lives in the area, about the beach and how nice it was and her mouth dropped open . . . "that's the NUDE beach!!!!" she said. Oh my! No wonder it wasn't very busy and there were all those signs everywhere about keeping your bathing suit on! (Apparently, nude bathing in Michigan is illegal) Just let me know if you need directions to that particular beach (wink, wink :)

Jana dug out a hole in the sand for Drew and he immediately plopped right down in it to play. He had a great time in water that filled in it and he was splashing and generally trying to put sand onto every surface of his body. That little boy got VERY sandy every time we took him to the beach.

Jana and I have finally learned to smile for the camera, but Drew isn't quite catching on for the group photos yet. This is about the best we can hope for with him looking at the camera. Drew's used to having Jana or me behind the camera taking the picture!

Jana and Drew had a great time together on vacation too. It was fun for the grandparents, the great-grandparents, Aunt Christina, and Jana and me to spend time with Drew. What a cute mom and little boy!!!!

While we were in the area we saw our friends Dan and Sandra one evening. When we met them, they rode up on Dan's motorcycle! Drew thought the motorcycle was the coolest thing. I told him not to get any ideas :) Drew and I got on the motorcycle and Drew made his "vroom, vroom" noise.

Drew also reached over to push the horn on Dan's motorcycle. If you look closely you can see the button just below his finger.

Drew is back at the beach here doing his favorite beach activity . . . throwing rocks! Drew cleaned up the beaches taking every rock he could find and throwing it into the water. We had fun making piles of rocks and them having him "clean up" the area for us. We weren't sure about the wisdom of teaching him to throw rocks, but I still like throwing rocks into the water as an adult, so instead we're working on throwing rocks when no people are around and in a direction that won't hit anyone (and the rocks ONLY may be thrown into the water).

Look, Drew is back in the water! He did great this day with wandering all over in the water. We had a wonderful relaxing time on our vacation, but it was also kind of fun to get back to Lansing. We missed going to our church and being with our Lansing friends, so it was nice to be home!

This is Drew sitting on our couch after we got home. Pay special attention to his hair because we gave him his first significant haircut right after this picture.

Can you see how much shorter Drew's hair is in the picture? I took a bunch off the top and I trimmed the sides a bit. I love short hair and I've convinced Jana that Drew looks good with shorter hair too!

Here's another picture of Drew's hair. Drew was happy to be home!

the fair

Last week we went to Drew's first fair! Some of our friends here in Lansing go to the fairs every year to see the animals, which is a new experience for the Aupperlees. They have animals at fairs? :)

We went to the fair with our friends Jeremy, Kristin, and Lindsay. Our first animal experience at the fair was the sad little ponies trudging around in a circle. Drew saw them and thought they were dogs! He pointed, said "dog," and then started panting like a dog. He and I looked at the ponies for a little while, and I tried to explain to him that they are small horses. Our friend Lindsay (and her husband Jayme) are going to have a baby in September! Here is Lindsay showing Drew a horse in the petting zoo. Drew preferred to hang on to his cup and stay away.

In this picture Kristin is showing Drew a sheep. Drew was so excited by all the people and things to see that he had a hard time staying focused on what we were trying to show him.

Here are the beginning of the llama pictures. Jana LOVES llamas. She wants one to go jogging with her (they advertise llamas as great running partners). If it's a female, she will name it Llola. If it is a male, she will name it Lloyd.

All those animals and what does Drew go for? . . . a balloon.

Drew finally got into the animals a little with this goat. You'll notice that once he finally started to touch the animals his sippy cup magically disappeared.

Our friend Jeremy got a tiny chick to show to Drew. Drew did a great job of touching it softly (we've been working on soft touches).

Here's Jana with her llama friends. I'm not sure if these were Lloyd or Llola llamas.

Next, we took Drew to see the sheep. Look at the coat on this gal!

Here are the sheep that were freshly shorn. Drew loved the sheep! They were going "baaaaaah" while Drew was around, and he responded with some "baaaaaaahs" of his own.

Whoa, this sheep had some serious wool on him. He even had his own fan to keep cool. Drew and I both stared at this guy for a while.Drew did NOT like the pigs. It was feeding time and they were noisy and screeching. It was a pretty annoying noise and we couldn't leave the pig area fast enough for Drew.

This little girl was kind enough to bring her goat over to show Drew. Drew had fun petting it and saying "hello" to it.

They had LOTS of different animals at the fair like pigeons, chickens, and rabbits. This is an Angora rabbit. It looked like a fur ball!

Drew thought the mom and baby goat were really neat (so did the adults). We were all oooohing and aaaaahing over the baby.

Check out the size of that cow next to Jana and Drew! Can you see the udder? Drew was looking over for a little milk snack :)

Did I mention that Jana likes the llamas? Here she is in another llama section.

The draft horses were huge! Look at the size of that draft horse that Kristin is petting. Drew is checking out the hooves that were the size of dinner plates. We finished with the draft horses, and we were amazed by their size.

Back at home this past weekend Drew walked up to the TV and kept on saying "car, car, car." Can you see why?

I took out the camera to take a picture of Drew and he immediately plopped down on the floor and "posed" for me. This kid has been around the camera a lot!

One of Drew's new favorite toys is a balloon! In this picture Drew is working on shooting it like a basketball.

Jana likes to get down on the floor with Drew and they put their hands and feet in the air while bouncing the balloon around. Doesn't it look like fun?

A few Drew stories

Drew loves to climb up on chairs and sit in them. Last night he was playing in the living room and I was half watching him and half watching TV when he crawled up on the couch, sat down next to me, and then proceeded to glance back and forth between me and the TV as if to say "What are we watching, Dad?" Needless to say, I got the message and turned off the TV to give him my full attention!

Drew has also gotten quite adept at climbing up and sitting in our kitchen chairs. He always looks very proud upon making it up onto the chair. Drew loves to sit here and look out our front door. He looks for squirrels and birds (two of the words he knows). The other day while I was mowing the front lawn he sat here the whole time and watched me. As I would finish a row and look up at him, I got a little wave and a hello!

Last week Drew discovered that from his crib he could reach the light switch. We learned this one night when his bedroom lights kept going on and off. You could see the light coming out from under the door to his bedroom as it went off and on. Each time he turned it on, Drew would say "on." We were sitting in the living room cracking up! Eventually Drew got tired and fell asleep, so when we went in to turn his light off (he left it on) I just had to take a picture. We could have stood there for a long time watching him sleep. It is so cool!

Drew got some new shoes! Jana found a pair of baby Croc-style shoes for Drew. Aren't they cute? Drew loves to walk around with his new shoes. An added bonus for us is that he can't get them off! Finally, a shoe that's easy for us to put on Drew and hard for him to get off.

Drew loves to touch our faces and to learn the names to parts of his body. In this video Jana is chatting with him about eyes and nose as Drew plays with her face. I love watching them together!!
Drew also loves to dance. In this video he grabbed some clothes while I was folding laundry and started to dance, which is basically spinning until you fall down. He has a great time spinning!

eating utensils

Drew continues to get more adept with his spoon. In this picture we gave him a teaspoon to eat his bedtime yogurt. He likes to take huge bites, so he spills on himself, but notice how clean his tray is!

I bragged about how neat Drew was in the picture above. Drew IS neat, but not when I distract him. In getting Drew to look up at us for this picture he wasn't paying attention to his spoon, so a big chunk of yogurt fell off the spoon. Unless we distract him Drew is very focused on his eating and if something falls off his spoon or fork he immediately tries to pick it up or clean it up.

We do LOTS of reading at our house. Drew is very good at sitting and interacting with us and the book while we read to him. He points to things on the page and is starting to get down the words for different animals and shapes and he even started correctly identifying the color yellow!I caught Drew in the midst of helping Jana read this book. Part of Drew's bedtime routine is to sit on the couch with us and read for a little while. We love it when he sits with us and reads!

We love it even more when he gives us hugs and kisses before going to bed. It's so sweet!

You might not think the spoon use by Drew is all that fascinating, but Jana and I enthralled by it. After seeing Drew eat with his hands for so long, the whole eating utensil thing is so novel. Here Drew is eating his rice cereal before bed with his spoon. He sometimes uses his hands to help a little, but notice again how clean his tray is! We find it hilarious how neatly Drew eats.

As you might be able to tell, we enjoy meal times with Drew. Jana gives me the privilege of sitting next to Drew and three of us have a great time chatting about our days. All three of us are happy to eat together. Eating macaroni and cheese is so much fun! We're still teaching Drew to talk and laugh without a full mouth :)

In this video you can see Drew in action with his spoon eating the macaroni and cheese. He has finished everything on his plate but his crackers (his appetizer) and his macaroni and cheese (his main course).

I don't know where Drew picked this up :) I guess Drew's parents must occasionally drink their cereal milk this way! Drew is always watching us!

Drew loves chocolate chip cookies. The last time he ate one he used his fingers to pry out the chocolate chips to eat them from the cookie. I think he learned that one from Jana!

Last week we went to court! Some friends of ours got married in a civil ceremony, and Jana and I had the privilege of being the two witnesses. Drew came with to witness it as well. In this picture Drew is playing in the back of the courtroom on the "pews." The benches at the back of the courtroom were exactly like church pews. Drew loved playing on and around them.

Drew had fun exploring the courtroom while we waited for the judge to come in. He's squirming away here, but we had to get a picture with that sign!

Drew did stay still for this picture. We both dressed in our blue shirts for court!

Here Jana is reading to Drew again. We have LOTS of pictures of Drew reading with us!

Drew smiles so much with us that it sometimes makes the back of my head hurt! Last night Drew and I had a great time playing in the living room and Drew gave me some great smiles. I quickly grabbed the camera to share one of them with you!

This is what Drew does to our usually neat living room. It took him about thirty minutes to spread his toys all over. We've been working on getting Drew to help us clean up and he sings along with us when we sing the clean up song. I'll try to get some video of Drew singing in the near future. It is very cute!

While we were playing in the living room, Drew grabbed his cell phone to make some calls. In this video I "called" Drew on the phone and you can hear him answer.

We've been working on Drew ending his meals when we say it is time to stop, so last night we had Drew play with some toys before getting out of his chair. He dropped his cell phone, and he responded by saying "uh oh" and saying "uh oh" and saying "uh oh" . . . you get the idea :)