Dutch Day

We ended up mostly celebrating Jon's birthday on Saturday which ended up being what we called our Dutch Day.  We started with an early breakfast at deBoer's Dutch Brothers Bakery and then to Dutch Village.  We had a free family pass that we wanted to take advantage of.  Lots of great photo ops over there including their new (at least new to us) cute little pigs.

33 What

Jon turns 33 today. Happy Birthday Jon!

What do you get a 33 year old daddy?  We don't need a thing.  I ended up getting him 33 different beers from all over the country even some international brews.  A cute birthday card actually inspired the idea.  "People who say you're hard to shop for, maybe don't know where to buy beer."  So I took that idea and ran with it.  I even had some beer snots at Butch's pick out all the brews. 

 

 

Happy Birthday Jon/Daddy!

Grand Haven Gathering

We had good times in Grand Haven with the Walcott clan last night to celebrate a couple birthdays.  We did Pronto Pups for dinner and ice-cream for dessert.  It seems to be an annual tradition.  Yes, not the healthiest of meals, but it's just once a year.  We walk along the boardwalk in Grand Haven.  We also stopped at the splash pad this year.  West Michigan is a great place to live, ya know?

 

 

 

Good Times Golfing

Mini-golfing is one of those things we've wanted to do in quite some time, so we finally gave it a try this weekend. It was a first for Brighton, and I wasn't sure if we were going to make it through.  18 holes sounded like a lot, but it actually went quite quickly.  Brighton was howling with excitement at every turn.  He did constantly pick up his ball and move it closer to the hole...oh well.  Lots of confusion for a four year old with the numbers and scoring too, but we told him he won.  Overall a success, and we'll tackle those rules the next time...or maybe we won't.

 "Hey mom, remember when we went golfing?  That was really fun."

Bicycle Buggy Built for Two

Tilden has been doing pretty well sitting up, so we tried her in the Burley tonight.  Just a very short trip to the local convenience store, but they had a ball.  

Sorta Skiing

We have this pretty cool ski trainer that we've been tempting Brighton with for a couple years now already.  He likes playing on it ad being pulled around on it, but he prefers to stay closer to shore.  When we talk about putting it behind the boat he is just simply unsure, and he'll tell you so.  Or you can see it if for yourself if you look at him here. 

This weekend we decided to give a try, and I didn't think we were going to pull it off.  There was some excitement and then some tears, and we almost threw in the towel, but we just kept encouraging him, so he decided to try.  Now look at that face!

He was having so much fun (and gaining so much confidence) he thought he'd try some tricks like his Daddy. 

Speaking of his Daddy.  Guess where he was?  You can't see him, but he is hanging off the back of the ski trainer.  Yes, we weren't going that fast.  Jon said he guessed half the lake's seaweed was wrapped around him at one point.  What a trooper!  Now if only next time we can get Brighton to try it without Jon hanging off the back.

Cousins and Crazy Bounce

Smiling and Sweating

Jon and I don't have many pictures taken of just to two of us, but on this night we got all dressed up, and we had somewhere to go, so I thought it was a good opportunity.  And no, we didn't run a few miles before this picture.  We're at a wedding.  It was a really beautiful outdoor wedding of one of Jon's cousins.  It just happened to be wicked hot on this night too.  We were among lots of happy family and folks all dressed up, looking good, and sweating...lots of sweating. 

Congrats to Eric & Kristen!

Six Month Lil' Til'

Cottage-cation: Elk Edition

We went to an Amber Elk Ranch in Ludington again.  This time we waited until the weekend, and we took the whole family.  We knew what we were in for, but they didn't.  My parents were in the back of the tour wagon, and I could see right away they were kinda in shock when they saw the elk approach the wagon. 
After a couple stops, I thought they had the hang of it; we even fed some elk, but then we went to go see the mamas and their babies.  One of our tour guides stayed outside the gate because he had to do some watering, but then he didn't join us because "If you get between a mama and her baby she'll stomp you." 
Nice.  Well, not shortly after that an elk starts walking up the back steps of the wagon.  There was a large bucket of food by our feet.  My family FREAKED OUT.  We didn't simply because we had done this before, and the same thing happened on our last tour.  I heard a stressed voice from the back yell, "Mam!  Mam!  He's coming up here.  Mam!  Mam!"
Everyone panicked. I tried to push the elk back off the wagon, but then my family yelled at me because I was holding Tilden.
The young lady giving our tour calmly walked to the back of the wagon and gently touched the elk, and she backed off the wagon.
Oh.  Nice.  My dad says, "Well, I didn't realize it was that easy."
My mom then says, "We're sorry mam.  We're from the city."

Yup!  That's my family, and this is story I'll laugh at for many more years to come.

Cottage-cation: Sand and Water Edition

Lots of sand and water up north where we lake to play, and we took in lots of both. Tilden dipped her toes in Lake Michigan for the first time. Jon and Brighton went on Mac Woods Dune rides for the first time. I finally went in the dune buggy with the boys after a hiatus of many years. I sent Brighton and Jon in the lake with their clothes on one night because they were so sandy; I didn't even want them to come inside to change into their bathing suits.  We even gave Brighton a bath once in the lake...sudsy washcloth and all.  Even so, there was sand in all of our beds which in me brought out slight annoyance, but also the certainty that we were all playing hard and having a great time.