Vacation 2010, Part 1

This year for a family vacation we again rented a cottage on Lake Michigan just south of Pentwater. It was a fabulous time! We took so many pictures that I'm splitting them into two installments to make the whole phlog thing a little more manageable for me.

The week before we were due to leave on vacation the owners of the cottage called us and offered that we could come a day early (for no charge). Um . . . .yeah! That was a no brainer, especially as Jana and I sat down on Friday evening after putting the kids to bed and looked out to this: The next day we went into the "big city," Ludington, to get groceries and check out one of the kids' favorite playgrounds. They especially loved this "bumpy slide," as they called it, which consisted of rollers that formed the slide. You can tell it was early in the trip because Kate was allowing someone to hold her hand. Our independent little girl didn't want or need that help for long.

Tons of cool things to climb up and slide on and run over and yet these simple toys that go back and forth remain highly popular. I think they should have these for adults and you could have fun and get a workout on it! :)

We did a lot of messing around enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the cottage. While we were having lunch Drew and Kate got a little silly.

Kate started to show off her muscles. She flexes like this and says, "Muscles! Muscles!"

The next day Grandma Lynn and Grandpa John visited. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the greatest, so we spent some time in Pentwater and indoors. We finally got to the beach in the afternoon. Kate was quite hesitant about the sand at first. It's fascinating how that texture takes a little getting used to. After some coaxing and patience from grandma though, she started to venture out.

After a little while, Kate was having great fun in the sand!

The next day was beautiful in the morning and that morning Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill arrived for a visit. We walked along the channel in Pentwater and Drew helped point out the incoming boats to grandma.

A rare Aupperlee family photo! We have all together too few of these, so we used my parents to get a picture where we're all looking at the camera and look reasonably sane.

At the end of the pier Grandma Sue made sure to hang on tight to Kate. It was a tough job to hold her, but someone had to do it.

Drew pointed Grandpa Bill back toward the shore and gulls flying around.

Another rare photo . . . just me and Jana. Who even cares about the parents?

Back to Drew and Kate now (I promise). Drew and Kate loved this slide in Charles Mears State Park in Pentwater. It's one of those old metal slides that used to be in playgrounds. I camped here when I was little, so I may gone on this slide when I was Drew's age. The slide was super-fast and both kids could hardly get enough of it.

The three Aupperlee women walking along the channel in Pentwater.

Kate also enjoyed the swings. She's looking pretty sweet in those sunglasses, isn't she?

Drew started walking on the wall next to the channel walk and had great fun on the "balance beam."

What big brother does, Kate must do also, so she also got in on the act.

Again, we were able to make it to the beach in the afternoon and despite it being a little cool (as evidenced by the hooded sweatshirts), it was still a nice afternoon at the beach. Drew and Kate were very busy with their buckets. Grandma Sue filled them with water, then Drew and Kate filled the watery bucket with sand.

For some reason we got lots of pictures of Grandma Sue and Kate. I think they were the only ones looking at the camera and smiling! :)

The next day we went back to Ludington again for lunch. While driving through town we saw this fire truck, which was incredibly exciting. It was parked in front of the firehouse with the ladder fully extended. We parked across the street from it and the kids gawked from the backseat for several minutes.

That's it for this post. We're about halfway through the vacation. When I get a chance, I'll get more photos and stories up.

Just like you

We just got back from a week-long vacation at a cottage on Lake Michigan and before getting to those pictures, I thought I'd post some pictures and stories updating what was going on before our trip.

Both Drew and Kate continue to adore doing things that Jana and I are doing. The other day Jana was with Kate on the driveway while I was mowing our lawn. Each time I turned the lawn mower to start a new row, Kate would closely watch me and do the same with her toy lawn mower. The thing they've been clamoring to do with Jana is yoga, so one night the three of them put out the yoga mat in our living room and they did some poses. Here are Drew and Kate in downward dog. Nice going! Drew liked this pose, warrior II. He's still working a little on his form :)

Jana and Drew worked on child's pose. Kate decided it was a good time to take a break for a bite of banana. Kate has her priorities right!

Kate has been growing like crazy and continues to thin out. She's still surprisingly average though for her age in both height and weight (a large contrast with Drew). Lest we think she's getting growing up and getting too big, pictures like this remind us of her size. She's still so little!

I think Kate is working on tree pose, but your guess is as good as mine. She showed great enthusiasm for the different simple poses Jana was teaching her and Drew, but sometimes it's hard to figure out what she was doing from the pictures!

Kate also loves helping in the kitchen. As soon as Jana heads into the kitchen, Kate scurries in and pulls up a chair so she can help. In this picture, Kate is helping to cut some orange slices (don't worry, grandmas, with a butter knife!).

Kate loves having her hair done at day care. Jana and I are still learning to do things with her hair. It's completely foreign territory for me. I was fascinated by this hairstyle that Kate came home with one day, although in getting a cute picture I think I missed out on the fact there there are two ponytails back there. It was quite the look. Trust me.

Every night, mom, Drew and Kate climb into Drew's bed for nightly prayers. For the past year or so, it's been Jana or me modeling a prayer for them. Within the past month though, the torch has been passed and Drew leads us each evening in a prayer. He does a fantastic job and we love to hear the things he comes up with from his day that he is thankful for (not always the things we would have said!).

Warm weather has meant lots of work in the yard. Drew and Kate both love gardening tools, with Drew's favorite being his shovel (below). He's got a miniature shovel from Home Depot that's a real shovel (wooden handle, metal end). Drew has been watching how I use it and he's been getting his form down. He looks pretty good, doesn't he?

Kate always finds that gardening is best done in a dress. I might have to work a little on getting her into grubbier clothes.

Jana took this picture when I wasn't looking and loves the symmetry of the two Aupperlee men digging in the backyard. There's certainly a minor resemblance there.

Kate got a trowel and did a nice job digging for me as well. Her favorite was to lift the trowel up and shower herself with dirt. Our bathtub got a workout that night!

Drew took a break in the shade to cool off and "hide" in the plants. It was one of the few times he stopped working and actually looked at the camera.

What big brother Drew does, Kate likes to do too. She also plopped down in the shade for a rest.

After preparing the yard, I had a few yards of bark mulch delivered to our house. The huge pile of mulch elicited wide eyes from Drew and Kate and much excitement at the prospect of helping. Kate, of course, had on her skirt for the project and paired it with her rainboots. Great workwear.

Drew had on his workgloves, his workboots, and was much more appropriately dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. If he was in jeans, he looks like he'd be ready to help much a stall at the farm, doesn't he? Both kids were again fantastically dirty after a little while of helping with mulch. Helping dad with yardwork is lots of fun and lots of DIRTY.

This past Christmas we got a sand and water table from Grandpa John and Grandma Lynn. Having cleared a space in the yard for it, we recently set it up and Drew and Kate have been playing with it almost every day since. I think the idea is to have one half sand and the other water, but it has quickly turned into moving as much sand into the water area as possible, while also taking water and putting it into the sand area. I've taken to calling it the "sandy water" table. Oh yeah, Drew's hat in this picture . . . is my old hat from high school. These sort of hats were in for a brief period of time in high school and the kids just discovered them. Drew loves to wear one. It's not often we get good pictures of Drew where he's doing a semi-nice smile and looking in the direction of the camera, so I have to include this one. While Kate is average in size, Drew continues to be off the charts. He routinely gets mistaken for a six-year-old when we're around town. Drew just finished his first year of preschool and during the school year he grew 2 1/2 inches. He's the tallest person in his class. When watching him with his peers you wonder, "who put that older kid in with those little kids?" Lately, Drew has turned a corner with shyness and has gotten much better about talking to new people and speaking up in large groups. It's been fun to see him open up and let others see what a fascinating little guy he is.

Mom's gone . . . let's go to the fire station

A weekend or two ago, Jana went out of the town and I was home on my own with Drew and Kate. For me, that means trying to find things to do that keep us busy while mom is gone. A top priority for us while Jana was gone was a visit to the fire station to see Uncle Todd. Drew was very excited about going to the fire station again. Kate, on the other hand, was missing mom a little and didn't immediately get enthused about our visit.

What amazing thing was Todd showing us at this point? A hose that he was going to use for washing the fire engine.

After visiting the station several times now, we were due to chip in a little and help wash the fire engine. Kate wasn't into cleaning, but Drew was all about wiping down the fire engine to make it shine.

Drew did a surprisingly good job with his cloth getting the fire engine clean. I may have to put him to work on our cars!

Finally, I was able to coax a smile from my girl. She liked crawling around and "operating" the pump.

Drew got up front and had a turn driving the fire engine.

This was one of Drew and Kate's favorite parts of the visit, sitting on the bench in front of the fire station!

Jana called to check in at this point, and I had to tell her I couldn't talk long because Kate was busy operating the deck gun.

The three Aupperlee firefighters by BC Engine 5. As always, we had a FUN visit to the fire station!

finished bathroom and a newly two-year-old girl

I'm starting this post with a bathroom update. As you may recall, at one point during the height of demolition, it looked like this: Since then, I have completely finished the project, but here are some more pictures of the progress. For the tub surround, I called in a professional with more experience (and better tools) to give me a hand. The two of us worked together to install the tub surround. The most gratifying part of doing it with him was that he did EXACTLY what I would have done at each stage, he just did it a lot better and more efficiently :)

In the picture below, the tub surround is installed and the caulk seals are drying. You can see that there are no bathtub fixtures and still no bathroom sink.

Here is the finished product. In total, I put in a new bathroom medicine cabinet, new bathroom cabinet (on the wall), new bathtub, new tub surround, new sink and vanity, re-installed the toilet, and put in a new subfloor and tile floor. Phew! It was a lot of work, but we're very happy with the results. In case you can't tell on the picture, the walls are a cream color with white trim, the cabinets are black, and the shower curtain is some shade of green (I don't know color names).

I had to get a shot of the toilet as I was pretty proud of taking it out and re-installing it. That was one part of this job that was a piece of cake and went exactly how I planned it. Actually, all the original things I was planning on doing (everything except the bathtub and tub surround), went very smoothly.

The final stamp of approval comes from Drew and Kate enjoying baths in the new tub!!

Lately, there has been a lot of excitement in Spartan country following the Spartans progress through the NCAA tournament. Drew and Kate have frequently been seen in their Spartan apparel. Kate enjoys this jersey that is still oversized at the moment and wears it well with some black tights.

Kate is our crazy sleeper and we love to go into her bedroom at night to see what position she's in. The other night we found her little legs poking right out of her crib. We're wondering how she's going to do in a big girl bed as she is quite the wanderer!

Kate has continued to get more interested in books and just like her brother, she loves to pull out a book and read. I believe this one is Richard Scarry's "What do people do all day."

Today is Kate's 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday Kate!! This past weekend Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill came to Lansing for a visit and the start of some birthday celebrating. Kate loved her new boots and has been wearing them everywhere.

Drew hasn't been featured much in this post, but he's been doing well. He's not showing off for the camera as much as Kate, so we only get occassional pictures of Drew.

Kate got in on the action too with wearing her firefighter outfit. Drew and Kate love wearing their firefighter stuff all the time. They are quite the firefighters!

These last few pictures were taken today of our official two-year-old Kate. We went out tonight to celebrate her birthday and had a family birthday celebration afterward at home. Kate has been a total joy to parent and we're extremely grateful for her.