Elk Rapids

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend up in Elk Rapids with some friends. We forgot our camera (highly unusual for us, I know), but our friends took some pictures for us. We were up in Elk Rapids for their Harbor Days Festival. On Saturday morning we set up our chairs for the running race and for the parade later in the day. Drew staked out a good spot for us. For a picture of me, Drew, and Kate, this one actually turned out pretty well. Weird smile from Drew and no smile from Kate . . . typical.

Jana ran in the 10k road race and finished third in her age group! Way to go Jana! Jana has been running a little bit more lately and is getting into some longer distances. Our friend Mike also ran in the race and completed it. Drew, Kate, and I played on playground during the race :)

Kate was pretty excited to see her mom after the race!

In the evening we went to a fair and these pictures below were taken by our friends who were up on a ferris wheel. If you've ever seen paparazzi shots of celebrities in a magazine or something, that's what these pictures make me think about! You can just see the caption "Mark and Jana Aupperlee stroll through the fair at Harbor Days in Elk Rapids, MI. Jana is carrying Kate (1 yr) while Mark pushes Drew (3 yrs) in the stroller."

These last two pictures are from us waiting for the fireworks to start. Drew and Kate were great throughout a long day, but just before the fireworks started they both fell asleep! Jana and I watched the fireworks with our friends and we all had sleeping kids in our arms. What a great way to watch fireworks!

at the lake

In July we spent some time at a cottage with my family. Drew and Kate were both fascinated by this ab roller. It was the favorite toy of our time there! Kate discovered the joys of sliding doors with their glass (we don't have any at home). I've got some great pictures of her with her face pressed against the glass. This is one of the pictures that she probably won't mind as much when she's sixteen. The rest I'm keeping to show her first boyfriend :) She also loved standing up on the convenient tackle box "step stool." She loved to stand up with her face against the glass.

On the scenic drive in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park there is a 450 foot sand dune. Here is the view from the top looking down to the water (you can see a boat for scale). I've wanted to climb the dune for years, so this time I convinced Todd to go down with me and make the climb back up. It would be an understatement to say it was pretty intense, but we made it!

Drew put on his life jacket and was all over the dock. He liked looking into the water for fish.

Kate also had her life jacket on and was always closely guarded by someone with a hand on the strap of her life jacket.

Here's Drew in action on the dock. After getting used to it, Drew was all over the dock.

Look at that little girl in her diaper! She's been shooting up lately and is starting to thin out. She's still a great size for holding though, and we have lots of fun cuddling with her.

Kate's especially cuddly after a bath. This is the best time to hold Drew or Kate!

Kate is like a little fish in the water. She loves the water and enjoyed the shallow water at the edge of the small lake the cottage was located on. What she didn't enjoy as much was the little leech that made it's way onto her foot. Yuck! Grandma Sue did a great job of removing it for her.

Kate went for a kayak ride with Grandma. Who enjoyed it more, Kate or Grandma??

Kate does a great job of keeping her hat on and protecting her little bald head from the sun. We continue to wait patiently for her hair to get a little longer . . . and we continue to dress her in pink so people know she's a girl! :)

Drew's still working on that smile!

Kate doesn't need to work on the smile yet, she busts it out whenever the camera comes out!

We tied the kayak up to the dock and then Drew enjoyed paddling it and sitting in it.

Kate climbs up just about anything on the playground and does most things independently. Jana does lots of hovering with her hands close as our little adventurer clambers all over the play structure.

Yes, this is our boy Drew. Jana and I have been chuckling at this picture because it so accurately captures Drew in his little boyness. He loves these diggers at playgrounds.

Hooray! A family picture with all four of us looking somewhere near the camera. We can't be picky about these photos at this point, so we're thrilled with this one.

We loved watching Drew climb on this structure and we enjoy the way it looks to see him climbing on it in the picture. Nice picture Jana!

I scooped Kate up to look out at Lake Michigan. I think in this picture we were looking at a freighter off in the distance.

Even though she's a State girl, Kate can still rock the U of M hat.

Kate's like a lemming around water. We always need to have a hand on her.

Drew was looking for more rocks to throw in the water. Drew and I had great fun throwing rocks into the water.

Back at home, Kate is still enjoying shoes. She loves to put her feet in them and walk around the house. Maybe she's going to be a runner like her mom? I have to give a plug for Jana here in that she recently completed her first 10k race. . . and medaled in her age division! Way to go Jana!

This empty box of diapers made for a great airplane. Both Drew and Kate scampered in and were entertained for a long time. Boxes are great!

lounging

We've been keeping busy at the Aupperlee house this summer, so I'm a little behind again on posts. Here is the first one that will help me get caught up. Drew and Kate are eating and drinking and growing like crazy. We put some of Drew's pants on the other day and were surprised to see how short they were . . . time to go shopping!

Kate's a big fan of anything messy to eat. In the picture below you can see Kate enjoying her spaghetti, both eating it and wearing it! Back at the end of June, Jana and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a night without the kids and went out for dinner at a fancy restaurant. It was fun! We can't believe it's already been nine years and that we've got two wonderful kids. We're excited about what the future has in store for us.

One of the highlights of the week is trash day, Thursday. Thursday morning Drew and Kate get up and spend the morning at the front door waiting for the garbage truck and the recycling truck to come by and collect our trash and recycling. Both trucks come down on our street, do a U-turn just past our house, and then go down the other side of the street. Drew and Kate both love it and wave away to the trucks and their drivers.

Drew and Kate are amazing on the playground. Jana has been taking them to the playground throughout the summer. They have both gotten more and more brave and adventurous on the playground. This picture is of Drew on a playground in Grand Rapids. He was all over the place!

Wherever Drew is, Kate is not far behind. Grandma Lynn got on the seesaw with Drew and he loved going up in the air. Kate's favorite thing at the playground was the merry-go-round, which she went on over and over. Drew's a climber, whereas Kate enjoys the spinning stuff more than he does.

Kate loves sunglasses. If she can get her hands on some sunglasses, she'll put them on and her face will light up like this. What fun!

One day Jana walked out of the living room and when she walked back in Kate was relaxing in her shopping cart. Apparently, Kate climbed up in the cart on her own and was lounging here pretty pleased with herself. This picture cracks Jana and me up!!

When she noticed Jana taking pictures, Kate started to do some posing. She's quite the show off!

We've been working with Drew on having his picture taken and we've had some signs of him getting better with pictures. Here he is in the picture below working on his smile. He's got a great smile that he loves to hide from the camera. Usually we have to surprise him with a picture, but now we're getting better at having Drew pose for a picture with a smile.

Cottage Vacation 2009

A few weeks ago we went on a family vacation for a week at a cottage on Lake Michigan. It was wonderful! We had excellent weather for the week and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together as a family.

Grandma Lynn and Grandpa John were a huge help in getting Jana and the kids up to the cottage because I was in Washington D.C. while they settled into the cottage. I showed up later that night. Grandma Lynn made sure that Kate had plenty of kisses (the grandmas do a good job with that).


Grandpa John gave Kate her evening cup of milk. We've got a fair number of pictures of Drew, but Kate was much easier to get in a picture.

The next morning Drew and Kate were thrilled to explore the cottage and to find that I was at the cottage with them. Everywhere I turned, Drew and Kate were right there next to me. They were holding each other cutely as they looked out the window of the cottage, but they never looked cute at the same time!!

I coaxed a smile from Drew and managed to capture it on camera. Yay!

Jana captured one of our best photos yet of Kate. Kate has a great smile and Jana captured it well in this photo.

For our first trip down to the beach (we were right on Lake Michigan), Kate decided to rock the bikini. It loses a little of its effect with the diaper sticking out, but she still wears it well. Jana found that this was a very convenient outfit for diaper changes, although not one we'll have Kate wear regularly!

I like how in this picture you can see that Jana and Kate have on sweatshirts, while Drew is shirtless. Drew and I were both sans shirts and were plenty warm. It's going to be interesting regulating temperature for our family in the future!

Last year Drew threw sand into the water overhand, but this year underhand was the method of choice. Either way, lots of sand got returned to the lake!

Initially, Kate did NOT like the feel of the sand, so she was decked out in shoes, socks, and all her clothes. Once fully clothed, she roamed the beach with confidence.

You can see her looking down at the sand wondering about it and not quite sure if its a good surface to be walking on. For the first day or two her most common expression on the beach was dubious.

Drew and Kate had lots of fun getting buckets of water and then dropping sand into the bucket, splashing in the bucket, or dumping the water out.

Big brother Drew got big laughs from sticking his face in the bucket of water a few times.

Kate is slowly growing some hair, but it's a lengthy process for her to get some hair. I have to be careful to label pictures like this because without an outfit on, we have trouble telling which child is in the picture.

Drew and I built a large sand castle . . . that Drew started destroying as soon as we were finished. We spent quite a while working on it together though, and we had fun mixing water into our "cement" (sand). Drew helped me smooth it out, move sand around, and build it higher and higher. We were both covered with sand by the end.

Drew doing some demolition work. Kate came over to help as well.

Kate didn't have much desire to go in the water, so most often she was at the beach in a sun dress and her shoes. Can't touch the sand with bare feet!!!

Drew was in and out of the water a lot, especially to retrieve all the sticks he threw into the water. In general, the water was very cold while we were there, so Drew and I were the only ones swimming.

As the week went on Kate ventured into the water, but at the beginning she was happiest being held. These are my two favorite women!

Jana dipped Kate's toes down in the water . . . and Kate tolerated it all right. In her defense, the water was very cold.

Drew, on the other hand, got nice and wet going in and out of the water. Who would have thought that playing fetch with yourself could be so much fun? :)

Another day at the beach, another dress and hat outfit for Kate.

With a little coaxing, Kate braved the water. Once we got her going into the water she was constantly in and out of it.

Jana is sharing her dessert with Drew. They were both enjoying it!

Kate poses like this a lot. That girl is going to be flirt someday. She's pretty good at the chin dip and eyelash batting smile. The teenage years are going to be fun.

Grandma Sue grabbed Kate for her bedtime story. My family came up for a day at the cottage as well. It was fun to share our cottage experience with our families.

There was a wonderful municipal park in Ludington that we visited a couple times. Drew and Kate loved it. Kate is absolutely fearless and climbs ladders and stairs all over the structure. It's so weird to see a relatively small 15-month-old clambering all over a play structure. Here she is on her way up the structure.

Once Kate gets to the top, she flops onto her stomach and goes down the slide on her own. It's quite the sight!

At the bottom, Kate gets onto the ground, walks around to the stairs and goes back up again. She's very independent!

Drew is a climbing machine and he was all over the place. He can climb anything with ease and he's very sure-footed.

Kate is totally fearless and has no regard for heights. We need to keep an eye on her! A very close eye.

Drew and Kate enjoyed riding on this toy together. Drew was a little forceful with moving it back and forth, so Jana helped Kate hang on for dear life.

We enjoyed taking walks on the beach as a family after supper. Most of our evenings were gorgeous!

Drew loved walking around the beach in his pants and bare feet.

Kate usually got a ride from either me or Jana because she'd get distracted by stomping in the water. The goal was to actually walk at least a little bit.

Drew made sure the beach was clean by throwing things into the water. Throwing things into the water never gets old!

Drew moved a LOT on our walks. He was a constant blur of motion moving from one area to the next. He especially loved splashing through shallow water and getting his clothes soaking wet. There's something very satisfying about that, isn't there?

Occasionally, we let Kate down for a little walking. She loved walking with mom along this little stream that fed into Lake Michigan.

Where Drew went, Kate was not far behind. She loves to follow her big brother around. As she walks along, she says, "Drew! Drew! Drew!"

Our annual footprints in the sand photo now including Kate. Her little foot doesn't really press into the sand, so we had to help out a little by scratching the sand where her foot was.

It was not very busy on the beach and we often had large stretches to ourselves. It was beautiful!

Kate enjoyed climbing in and out of this bin. She was so tremendously pleased with herself the first time she stepped into it and plunked herself down.

Kate has also been enjoying reading, just like her big brother, and she'll sit and read to herself for extended periods of time. We appreciated how independent both Kate and Drew were on our trip. Jana and I had plenty of time to relax without having to always interact with the kids.

We had some beautiful sunsets and we also had some evenings when the whole sky was purplish-pink. It was fun to have the kids in bed and for Jana and I to read and watch the sun set each evening.

Before leaving we had to take a couple more photos with Lake Michigan in the background. Drew was a rock star on these pictures and smiled nicely. It was a treat!

We couldn't be too picky using the self-timer on the camera, but we were happy to get a shot of all four of us when we were at least looking at the camera. Not a great picture, but we'll call it a success.

It was tough to go back to reality after a week of relaxing fun! We've done several more things since our vacation, so I'll be posting those pictures when I get the chance.