Michigan Vacation

 It was impossible to keeps the boys clean this week.  They would be filthy within a few minutes after their baths and always found new places to play.

Parker and Timmy stayed cool with the cooler ice.

Both Henry & Oliver got haircuts from Aunt Donna while on vacation.  They were rewarded with ice cream bars and Dora on the Kindle Fire.

Parker's turn for a haircut- he actually loves getting them and was asking for one when he say the others getting them.

Beach time!  The boys loved playing at the beach- it was a wonderful beach, calm water, shallow and lots of sand to play in.

Out in the water.  Oliver loved the water on this trip.  He kept asking Eric to take him out further and further.  He swam out to the swimming dock with Eric.

Late nights and some skipped naps made it so Parker feel asleep while Aunt Kathy was holding him in the lake.  He actually napped for quite awhile in the water.

Uncle Chris, Henry & Oliver building sand castles.

Superman boys!

One of the really hot days, a big crew went rafting.  Parker and myself, Kara, Henry & Timmy, Renee & George and my mom all went to a local children's museum instead.  It had air conditioning :)  Here are the three older boys in the truck.

Parker on the pretend ship.

George & Parker had lots of fun opening up cages and getting stuffed animals out.  They spent lots of time playing there.

Parker picking vegetables at the garden.

Coco & Chris' cabin had air conditioning so we spent some time over there.  Oliver, Parker, and Timmy spent some time in Bella's kennel.  They went in there on their own and had lots of fun.

A view from our first lighthouse visit.

Sophia, Henry, & Oliver climbing the lighthouse

Parker wanted to join in on the fun and Aunt Donna helped him.

Oliver with a life saver outside of the lighthouse.

Celebrating George's first birthday- he had a Curious George cake and his smash cake was the yellow hat.

George got a few new books for his birthday and Oliver, Henry, and Timmy loved having Uncle Joe read them- George was crawling in and checking out his loot.

Oliver went fishing with Eric and caught a blue gill.  He was pretty exciting about it.

Eric and Parker kayaking and Alex canoeing in the background.  I was hoping to go out to, but the rain came shortly after so I didn't make it out. 

Kara, Randy, Parker, Oliver and Sophia out in the canoe.

Eric and Henry kayaking.

We left on Friday morning to head out and made a few stops.  We went to the sand dunes and did a dune ride and then we went to another lighthouse and Oliver and Eric climbed up.

Parker was a little unsure of the dune ride once we got going.  He loved it on the road, but through the sand, he was pretty nervous.

Oliver was very similar to Parker and was pretty nervous and holding on very tight while on the ride.  Since getting home though, he has been talking about it every day so I am pretty sure he has had a good time.

We stopped while on the ride and were able to get out and snap a few pictures.  The boys had lots of fun playing in the endless amounts of sand.

Eric and the boys in front of our dune scooter.

Our last lighthouse visit.  Oliver was very excited to climb up.

A dark picture of Oliver in the lighthouse. 

Parker was too short to climb the lighthouse so we played in the sand while Eric and Oliver climbed.  Eric took this picture from the top of the lighthouse.

We had a great time on vacation with lots of family.  We spent some of our time talking about where we might go next year.  I definitely didn't get pictures of everything we did, but we stayed busy and had lots of fun!

Catch Up

Life has been pretty busy and crazy for the last month or so.  We found out on May 11th that our baby had a potential abdominal wall defect and on May 21st we had a level 2 ultrasound and appointment with maternal fetal medicine to determine that the baby does has an abdominal wall defect.  I have had doctor appointments and ultrasounds every 2 weeks.  We have found out a lot of information and are trying to absorb it and all of the things the various doctors we have talked have told us.  We are starting a separate blog for this baby to share more of the details that we find out (babyshookv3.blogspot.com - it isn't fully ready yet, but it is a work in progress).  Hopefully this will help to keep people updated and also help us to keep a record of everything we are going through.

We have also had some exciting stuff going on in the last month too- we spent a week in Virginia Beach with Eric's immediate family.  I am posting a bunch of pictures from that trip.  We all had a lot of fun- swimming in the pool and ocean, playing in the sand, watching movies in the theater room, going to Busch Gardens and an aquarium, a boat ride to see dolphins, a trip to the boardwalk, and lots of other fun things.

I went to Iowa on June 8th with the boys and my friend Val.  The boys and I spent the whole week there seeing lots of family and friends.  I helped throw a baby shower for my niece Kayla while we were back.  I also went to a McGarvey women's weekend which was a lot of fun.  Eric's cousin Kristin got married on the 17th so we were able to share in her and Tyler's special day.  Eric came and joined us Friday afternoon which all 3 of us were very happy to see him.  Eric and the boys went Friday night to let off a lantern at a suicide awareness event.  They also went and cheered on my sister Coco in a 5K the next morning.  We celebrated Father's Day with a few gifts to Eric- Oliver picked out a Superman T-shirt and a flashlight set for Eric.

Here are pictures from our Virginia Beach vacation.

Oliver and Braden playing in the pool at our beachhouse

Parker in the sand

Oliver and Grandma walking toward to ocean

The boys playing in the sand

Oliver looking for dolphins on a boat ride- the poor kid enjoyed the beginning, but got sick about halfway through.  Luckily he recovered quickly and didn't miss any vacation fun.

Sandy Parker

Parker hunting for crabs- there were lots of crabs all over in the sand.

Eric made a sand turtle :)

Oliver and Braden in their pajamas playing on Kindle Fires.

Parker and Oliver at the aquarium on a dolphin

Boys in a shark

Beginning of Busch Gardens pictures- ride number 1

Parker's first ride :)

A climbing area that Parker loved- they played Sesame Street music and Parker did a lot of dancing.

Eric and Parker wandering around the Forest of Fun.  It was a drizzly day, but was nice that it wasn't miserably hot and we never had to wait in line for a ride.

Dining with Elmo!

Oliver got an autograph book and had a lot of fun asking the characters to sign his book.

Parker liked all of the characters coming over to our table.

Oliver took his cookie over to show Cookie Monster!

Parker and Eric getting a hug from Cookie Monster

Oliver and Kaydence on a ride- Oliver's favorite ride was Grover's roller coaster, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  I think they went on it 7 or 8 times.

Savannah, Kaydence, Braden, Eric, and Oliver on a ride together.

Eric and Parker on a ride

Kaydence, Savannah, Braden, and Oliver on a swing ride- it was a little disappointing and they all kept asking for it to go faster.

Oliver, Braden, Savannah, Kaydence, and Parker in the dinosaur eggs.

Eric and the boys playing in the sand- we had to use buckets to bring water to the dry sand because the boys were too scared to be in the wet sand.

A view of our beachhouse from the beach.

A silly Parker

King Neptune statue- Eric is off to the left (with Parker on his back) and Oliver is standing in front of the statue.

We took a bike ride on the board walk.  It was a lot of fun- too bad we don't have a bike like this at home :)

The boys sitting on a wall at the boardwalk.

There was an air show while we were in town and the boardwalk had lots of vendors and booths.  The Navy had a trailer with a tank on it and a diver inside who played tic-tac-toe with Oliver.  He thought that was pretty cool :)

Braden and Oliver got quite a few tattoos

Our last morning on the beach :)

Parker's First Buzz

I buzzed Parker's hair for the first time tonight.  He actually did really well.  He did not like getting the cape put on (the first 2 pictures), but once I started cutting, he was fine and didn't fight at all.  

Parker with his newly trimmed hair.  He looks pretty proud of himself.

Oliver also got a haircut tonight.  He was very excited that "Parker was getting his first buzz."

Parker hanging upside down, he wasn't too into pictures after his bath, I think he was ready for bed :)

Ring-Around-The-Rosie

Last night the boys were playing ring-around-the-rosie.  Oliver likes to go fast and Parker likes to, but has a little bit of a hard time going fast- but luckily, he doesn't mind falling/being pulled down.

 Parker is a busy boy and into everything, but full of smiles and hugs.  He loves Thomas the train and spends lots of time playing in our Thomas tent and playing with trains.  He will go through books on our bookshelf until he finds a Thomas one and then bring it over to me to read.

 Here is a picture of Oliver in his new Superman shirt.  He loves super heroes right now.  As of today, his favorites seem to be Superman and Captain America, but it changes from day to day.  And I think we also hit the phase of doing laundry more often then I'd like because he wants to wear this shirt everyday.

 Here is a picture of me.  Yesterday marked 20 weeks for this pregnancy- it is hard to believe I am halfway through.