Our annual trip to the U.P.

Good Morning from the beautiful U.P of Michigan!!! Keegyn was up bright and early and ready to greet the world!

(or chipmunks,squirrels,and woodpeckers on our deck!)

The only people up this early were me, Keegyn, and Chief! Here they are talking to the little chipmunk who was munching on all the peanunts we left for him the nite before.
.. Keegyn is looking at Chief thinking, "Are you seriously talking to a chipmunk??."

Keegyn and great grandpa Chief...hand-in-hand

(the pic is a bit blurry...I took it thru a screened window)

The long deck was perfect for Keegyn's morning laps! I kid you not! She ran back and forth like she was in training!

Taking a quick break from "training" to pose for another pic with Chief!

Whoa!!! What's this??? Another person finally arises from a deep slumber! It's Cale!!!! Time to get in on the pics with Chief before he leaves us to go fishing!

Every day was super hot and super humid
We tried to keep cool as best we could!

Even it it meant jumping in the pool at all hours of the day!
Fully clothed!!!

....and sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures! Standing buck naked in front of the cyclone fan will also do the trick!

Time for our crayfish expedition!

But not before a photo with mom...Don't you just love his patronizing smirk??!!??

Now on to swimming with Dad and having some awesome water gun fights@! (Notice how I am taking all these pics and not stepping foot in that lake water....Thank God Jason was there to pull this one off...with all them crayfish, I wasn't stepping foot anywhere near it! )

How high can it go????!!!

Just after taking this pic, Jason tells me "I just felt something scurry over my foot!" (I about lost it!)I just love Cale's facial expression in this one...so determined to get Jason wet! I think he actually got him smack in the eardrum with this shot too, if I remember right!

Day 2 of crayfish hunting...No lie, this kid caught at least 100 crayfish, if not more. His magic bait....KFC!!

Pontoon Time!!!

Despite the relentless heat, it was a beautiful day to go for a boat ride...Keegyn was a little sleepy from all the fresh air!

Now she's perking up!

Mr Serious...for two reasons:

1) First time as Captain of a boat

2) Not his boat

No matter the swing...my kids will flock to it!

Keegyn found a new love for Grandpa T's powdered sugar donuts!

Beautiful view from our deck...right after a downpour, which cooled down our cabin by about 20 degrees...AHHHHH

My one and only

The sky just kept getting redder and redder...Never seen anything like it! Awesome!

Our day of shopping in Eagle River. Found the CUTEST purse EVER!!!! Soooooo glad we went!

The kids and Jason basically came to appease me...but what the heck...they should!!!

Cale's first fish!!! Quite the accomplishment! And quite the priceless story as well. Cale loved this fish,...a Rock Bass, to be exact. He didn't want to let it go. He wanted to keep it as a pet. We told him we had to let it go, just like we let the crayfish go. He started getting tearful and cried. He said he didn't want to let it go becuz "this was so much more special than getting the crayfish." So we all felt bad for him and decided to keep th fish in a bucket up by the cabin for just a "little bit." Turned out that our "little bit" was juast a "bit" too long, as the poor guy croaked anyway!

Here's a better pic of Cale's Rock Bass...You could barely see it in Jason's hand in the other picture. Funny though, for as much as Cale claimed to have loved that little guy..he refused to even touch it!

(oops...got this one on here twice)

On our way to a park for the morning while the guys are out golfing!

Back at the crayfish hunting with his little buddy,

Keri

Enjoying our last morning in Michigan...off for a walk to the boat landing

Another day to just enjoy being wet!!!

Keegyn found so many pretty rocks

She could have sat and tossed rocks all day long if we would have let her

Seems as though that sign was put there strictly for our little Keegyn...she tried to jump off that dock one too many times....she is completely fearless!!

Ahhhhh...to be young again....

...with not a care in the world....

Not only did Cale catch over 100 crayfish, a Rock Bass and multiple spiders...he also caught a toad! Yes, a giant, jumping, toad!! And OK, he wouldn't touch the Rock Bass, but he was all over that toad! Go figure!

Goodbye beautiful U.P.!! See you next year!!!

The kids had an absolute blast a few weeks ago when Mikayla came over to play for a few hours...Cale especially! He has a soft spot in his heart for his little cousin, Mikayla...everytime we mention her name he face just lights up and he gets a HUGE smile on his face. Sure, he loves his little sister too, but there is just something about that little Mikayla that Cale just adores! He will definately be protective of both of them in the years to come...I can see it already!

Keegyn now sports this facial expression when taking pictures...we say "Cheeeeese!!!" and she closes her eyes and says "AWWWWW!!!"

....well, at least the eyes are open in this one....but still with the "AWWW!"

Mikayla playing hide-and-seek....Found you!!!

Now Mikayla has the "awww!" down!

Keegyn has taught her well!!!

Bedtime snack...Goldfish (never mind the fact that they had just demolished a whole carton of cheese puffs between the two of them about 3o minutes before this)

Watching a favorite....Bubble Guppies. Shhhhhh....noone must talk during Bubble Guppies

....unless it's to say "AWWWW!"....

Cale's first attempt at the infamous Slip-N-Slide...courtesy of Auntie A and Uncle D!!

No commentary is necessary for these pics...just enjoy!!!

Our Day At The Beach!

We finally decided to head to the beach this summer...it was on my "to do" since last summer when Cale and I talked about it incessantly, yet somehow never tackled it. So one hot, July morning, me, Cale and my little munchkin headed out to "tackle" the beach...without Dad. Both the kids had a blast (and Cale made me promise that we would come back soon) but because I was alone to keep tabs on my little ones, we hit the road after just two hours...it was all I could handle! They both were getting a little too fearless and I quickly realized this was not a solo outing!

Surprisingly, there were actually two other families at the beach at the early hour of 9am! Yes, 9am...that was when we got there!

...Testing out the waters....

It doesn't take Keegyn long to make friends!

Filling, dumping....filling, dumping.....

...just doesn't get old...

I have to admit that I was more impressed with my little man...he was out in that water in no time, trying to catch the array of fish that were swimming around his little feet. Kept him busy for over an hour! I didn't have the heart to tell him that there was no way he was gonna catch a fish with his bucket...that it was more of a "net" project!

...Still dumping and filling....

(eventually, it did get old)

No fish, but ALL smiles!

Lunch break!

Unfortunately, our time at the beach had to come to an end WAY before Cale was ready to call it a day....

Rainy Day at MOA and Rainforest Cafe

Last week we were seriously starting to cramp each other's style...so I decided to shake it up a bit and get out of the house.

Off to MOA we went!!

Didn't quite know what we would do once there.

Just NEEDED to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!

We spent the majority of our time at Nickolodeon (I never know how to spell that word, by the way) Park, of course. Surprisingly, Cale didn't ask to go on any rides. Quite the shocker! Instead, we (and be we, I mean Cale) built Legos and dreamed about all the fun Lego City packages that would be "so cool to have someday" while walking around Lego Land. It was hard to get out of that place without purchasing anything...I do have quite the little negotiator on my hands!

Once the tour of Lega Land was completed (about 30 minutes past an acceptable time frame) we headed to Cale and Keegyn's favorite toy store at the Park.
We (and by we, I still mean Cale) continued to dream about all the "really cool toys that would be really cool to have someday."

At least Keegyn doesn't talk too much yet...and her negotiating skills are slim to none...so she spent her time going from stuffed animal to stuffed animal and hugging them up to her cheek and then putting them down. When I told her it was time to go, it was no big deal, cuz she didn't even think twice about trying to negotiate something out of me.

We (and by we, I mean ME!) did, however, walk out of that toystore with yet another dinosaur to add to Cale's collection, because as he's said..."Wouldn't it be really cool to have a dinosaur like that someday, Mom?"

...and I thought...

"Yeah, I guess it would."



Finally.....moving on from the toy store, we all worked up an appetite and headed over to Rainforest Cafe for some good grub!

Although Cale has really improved on his negotiating skills, I still can hold my ground on some things.

For instance, sitting next to those fish all through lunch, Cale had a lot of time to wonder and dream about Dory and Nemo and all their friends swimming by.

BUT

this time when he said "Mom, wouldn't it be cool to have a fish like that someday?", I completely held my ground...we DID NOT leave the Rainforest Cafe with any sort of fish!

See, I've STILL got it!