::9 years::

"mmmm it's always better when we're together."

-Jack Johnson

We celebrated our 9 year anniversary yesterday.

Dinner. A drive.

I love him.

So much.

::our trip::

We went on vacation last week to Michigan. I know, Michigan?? Believe it or not, it's beautiful and lots of fun. My grandparents on both sides live there, so we got to see lots of family too.

Our flight left at 6am. We had to leave our house at 3:30!! Which means we had to get up at about 2...which means I didn't sleep at all that night. Which made for a really, really long day! We had an hour flight, a 3 hour layover, then a 2 1/2 hour flight, and then a 4 hour drive. The kids did AWESOME! Matt and I were kind of holding our breath the whole time hoping we'd make it to MI without everybody on the plane wanting to throw us off. They did so good! There was an older couple sitting kind of behind us who told us how well behaved our kids were and that we were obviously very good parents. That's always nice to hear :)

The kids were SO excited about riding on an airplane! Before we took off, Portie kept saying how he wanted to float. They were talking about the wings (we sat right over the wing) and what they do and how they move. Bubb asked about a billion times during all of our flights "who's drivin' dis plane?" I got a little nervous during some of the turbulence. Chloe laughed at me and said "Mom! Don't be scared! This guy is a professional flyer!"


The first part of our trip was spent up North in Oscoda. My grandma on my mom's side lives up there-right on the beach of Lake Huron. We stayed in her little cottage and pretty much played at the beach every day we were there.

This is the view from her backyard. Can you imagine waking up to that everyday?

(A little photo of the lake that I took while the Mr.
and I were taking a walk along the beach.. Isn't it beautiful?)

There's a really nice park and playground right on the beach too. We played there a lot. The kids loved that! The park was so close and they never even had to wear shoes. There's sugar-sand everywhere.



We went to the beach, but only a few of us got in. Baby Ava, Bubb, and I weren't too into the cold water. She mostly stayed in her seat at the beach, Bubb kind of just sat on me and whined about the wind and the cold water. Matt and the 2 big kids were the brave ones who went in the water. Chloe was a little fish...she didn't even notice the water was cold.



Cozy cottage.


More playin' on the beach.




Chloe and Portie made friends with some neighbors who we're somehow related to, Chris and Kathleen. They played together for hours!



We played with the seagulls too. Sounds weird, I know. We took some bread and threw it to see how many seagulls would come after it. About a million came! It got kinda scary (like the Alfred Hitchcock movies). I'm sure everybody watching thought we were nuts, but it was kinda funny.




The second half of the trip was spent in Grand Blanc. My dad's family lives there. We got to see all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and have some of my Grandma's famous spaghetti. We spent some time just kind of talking and hangin' around my grandparents' house. It was fun to catch up.

(Grampa Bill & Baby Ava-3 months old)

Portie and Chloe caught a few z's.


We stayed in a hotel ('cause 6 house guests is a lot). It had a pool which was lots of fun.

(Our last night in MI. Matt was trying to get the kids to settle down 'cause we had to get up early.)

Michigan is really beautiful! It's so green, and there are trees everywhere! We had pretty good weather while we were there-we even had a couple of thunderstorms (which we love). We hadn't been there for 4 years, so it was really nice to see all the family and catch up. We're so thankful for family! They were all so sweet to us. We appreciate all their efforts in making us feel welcome. I didn't take near enough pictures. Hopefully it won't be another 4 years before we go again.

::a sad day::

We got back from our trip to Michigan on Thursday (more on that later). It was fun and also a LOT of work! It's not easy taking 4 little kids on vacation! But it was a fun little trip.

On Wednesday night, we were getting the kids all settled in to bed, and Chloe says "where's my blankie?" I told her I didn't know. Matt took the 3 bigger kids swimming and I stayed up in the room and packed us up since we were leaving for the airport early the next morning. I noticed that her blankie wasn't around while I was packing. We hoped it was in the car-it wasn't. We hoped it got left at the restaurant that we ate at earlier that day-it didn't. We hoped we'd left it at my grandparents' house that we'd been at all day-we hadn't. Our last hope was that it got packed in one of our bags. Matt and I dumped all of them out looking for it, but it wasn't there either. A lot of tears were shed. Bubb even offered her his mummah-but it's just not the same.

On the plane ride home, she drew this picture...

We both cried. Again.

Her picture makes me cry. I watched her drawing it, and didn't know what it was. I saw her writing the letters and didn't put it together until she moved her little hands and I saw that it said "missing" on the top. Then she put her head down on her tray table and sobbed. I stroked her hair and cried a little too.

Anybody who knows our kids knows they are VERY attached to their blankies. Chloe's was a kind of a rag, and actually ripped into 2 pieces. She has the second piece now, which is good, but it's not the same. It's smaller and doesn't have the silky edge. We miss blankie. I hope it's hiding at my grandparents' house-they said if they find it they'd mail it to us. I really hope they find it.

::the old ball game::

Chloe's playing machine pitch softball, and Port's playing t-ball. So, we've been in a baseball-ish mood lately. Lots of catch in the backyard, lots of batting to each other, running bases, etc. It's been pretty fun. It reminds me of when I was little and we used to play with my dad. I remember ALWAYS playing catch in the backyard-my dad, my brother, and me. We would spend forever outside just throwing the ball back and forth to each other. I loved it.

They both had their first games last week (Monday for Chloe, Thursday for Port). I forgot my camera at Chloe's game. She did really great! The machine is a new thing...it comes pretty fast. She was SO nervous before her game. She'd only had one practice with her team and was just really scared. "Mom what if I don't hit the ball??" I just told her to do her best and have fun. She got up to bat, and hit it!! She was a little surprised, and stood there for a sec, and we yelled "Go, Chloe, go!!" and she ran to first base. She got out, but at least she hit it and ran. Her second at bat (they only batted twice), she hit it again and got on base, and eventually scored! We were so proud and excited. So since she did so well, she says she wants to play every single sport there is.

Port's t-ball game was just cute. Matt isn't coaching this year, but we know his coach, and he's pretty great. They held a little practice right before the game just to sort of make sure the kids know which direction to run and all that kind of stuff. At this age, that's all you can do. His game was so funny! The kids were running all over the place, some didn't even touch the bases, they just ran in a small circle in the field and then to home, one kid ran to 3rd base after he hit the ball, and another just ran out into the middle of the field after he hit and everyone was yelling from the bleachers telling him where to go. When somebody hit the ball, all the outfielders would run to get it--it looked more like a football game.

Portie did good too! He scored twice and he got to be catcher once. He's not much of a fan of playing outfield. He gets bored and starts playing with the dirt and writing things in it with his shoes. I don't blame him.



I'm excited to go to more games and watch 'em play.
We're glad they love it so much :)


In other news...
Everyone's FINALLY feeling better! That was a rough couple of weeks! And "BeeAva" never got sick, so that's good.

::sister babies::

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.

~Isadora James

Chloe (age 7 1/2) and Ava (3 months)

Chloe is so happy to have a sister. She's always concerned about her, always wanting to hold her, talk to her, play with her. The love she shows her baby sister is beyond words. She's genuinely, completely happy to finally have a sister. She wants to help with her in any ways she can. She gets very upset when Ava cries I hope they will always be close, and always love each other. I don't have a sister in my life so I can't speak from experience, but I do see the preciousness and value of the relationship of sisters. I hope theirs will be strong and everlasting.

::sick::

Our whole house is sick!
(well almost the whole house)

4 stuffy noses.2 sore throats.1 earache.1 sinus infection.3 fevers.
4 headaches.3 sick eyes.3 prescriptions.2 trips to the pharmacy.
1 dr. visit.2 absences from school.2 thrower uppers.
4 coughs.2 achey bodies.

...and a partridge in a pear tree.

(the sickies)

(the (mostly) wellies)