We wrapped up our first day of vacation with dinner at Teacher’s brother’s house. We hadn’t seen Brian’s family for a couple of years so we were looking forward to it.

It had been so long since we’d seen them that we’d never met their youngest yet. Jaden is almost 3 and potty-trained already. I wish my kids trained that easily!

Jo-Bear and cousin Cameron got along like a house on fire. What the heck does that mean anyway? I mean, what would an on-fire house get along with? Water? Wind? What a stupid phrase anyway. I guess it’s no surprise the boys get along considering they both have a love of video games and annoying their sisters.

The oldest, Maddie, is growing up so quickly. I know she’s not much younger than Angel Face but I was surprised to see the little girl I remember replaced by a “tween” – complete with giggles.

This is Teacher’s brother, Brian – a real smartass. You can tell by the look on his face he thought I wouldn’t take his picture if he flipped me off. Wrong! He shoulda known better.

Every time we see Brian he looks more and more like his dad. He talks and acts like him too… except for the finger thing; that’s 100% Brian.

Here’s a photo of Grandpa – can you can the resemblance? It’s especially strong around the eyes and when they laugh.

Kris and Jaden started the badminton tourney going. It was a blast – teams were in a constant state of change as people jumped in and out of games and changed sides at the drop of a hat.

Who’s winning?

Jo-Bear and Angel-Face set their feuding aside to be a team for a while. It was nice to see them working together instead of sniping at each other. College Boy and Princess went through this phase at the same age, then Princess and Angel Face did too. They came out of it eventually so now I’m waiting for Angel Face and Jo-Bear to get through it… and waiting… and waiting… still waiting…

Z-Man and Jaden were soooo cute trying to play too. I don’t think they hit the birdie more than once, but they had tons of fun trying.

Of course Little Guy had to be in the middle of things…

He’s sooooo cute!

Whew, badminton is hard work! Teacher joined in while Jaden and Z-Man take a break. When do we get S’mores??

Time for a break! Princess always smiles for photos. She’s learned that I won’t give up until I get a photo of her.

Angel Face usually avoids the camera but this time she surprised me with a beautiful smile. Wow, she’s growing up pretty… look out boys, you won’t know what hit you!

Teacher’s playing around with his camera, which used to be mine. We’d planned to get him one, but instead he made me get a new one and he took my old one. He’s sweet that way.

At the end of a long day there’s nothing better than relaxing by a fire and eating S’mores. Life is good!

More vacation on the way…

Pardon the pun, but I’m soooo excited about my new necklace from Little Gems! Karen was fantastic to work with too – very patient with my pickiness. Sorry for being such a pain in the butt, Karen!

This is the original necklace Karen stocked at our last Lily Pad Landing stocking. It caught my eye right away except for the ribbon charm. I’m more than willing to support various causes but I’m not into ribbon jewelry. After peeking at it a couple of times OK, I was obsessively checking on it several times a day I finally emailed Karen to ask if she could change out that charm. She replied with four different charms I could choose from! After replacing the ribbon with the heart Karen emailed me a photo of the necklace to be sure it was what I wanted.

It was perfect! Almost. Um, Karen? Don’t hate me, I don’t want to be a pain, but… I wasn’t thrilled with the big stone at the bottom. Karen very sweetly offered to replace the stone with a smaller one probably muttering under her breath the whole time then emailed me another photo once the change was done. Now it was exactly what I wanted!

I got the shipping notice and started watching the mailbox obsessively. Why is it whenever I’m expecting a package the mailman comes around 5:30 but when I’m sending one he comes before 9?! That is just SO wrong.

After what felt like forever it arrived! Of course I had to put it on right away… isn’t it gorgeous?!! Disclaimer – that green and purple thing in the background is NOT my earring, it’s the bottom of a cross Angel Face made that’s hanging off the cupboard knob. Just wanted to make that clear in case you were wondering.

Now I think I NEED the matching earrings… Do you think she’d add a couple of the other colored stones to make them longer? Sorry Karen!

Little Guy loves my camera – LOVES it. No matter where I hide it he finds it. And being the smart boy he is, he knows how to turn it on. What he hasn’t learned yet is that he can’t touch the lens. And what I haven’t learned yet is to check the lens before taking any photos.

Case in point: these two photos. They’d be a wonderful record of Princess, Jo-Bear and Z-Man enjoying Grandma and Grandpa’s pool… IF Little Guy hadn’t had his little fingers all over the lens.

What am I supposed to do with photos like this? They’re the only ones I have of the kids in the pool – Angel Face was in there too but she hightailed it out as soon as she saw the camera. She’s going through a terrible “Don’t take my picture” phase that is a real pain in the butt. Someday she’s going to look back and regret not having any pictures of herself from this stage in her life… Thunk – fell off my soapbox, blush. Guess I got a little carried away… Sorry about that! Back to topic… Since I don’t have any other kids-in-pool photos from this trip I guess I keep them to help us remember how much fun they had in the pool – and how much fun Little Guy has with my camera. As my grandma would say, “Worse things can happen…” Like, he could have thrown the camera INTO the pool!

Still on the way… dinner at the brother-in-law’s…

Last week I posted some photos from the first day of our vacation. Here’s a couple more I wanted to share with you…

First off is another view from the picnic tables where we ate our Pronto Pups. The big hill in the background is Dewey Hill – home of the world famous Musical Fountain and where they shoot off fireworks every Fourth of July. When Teacher’s dad was a firefighter he was often stationed on Dewey Hill to put out any fires started by the fireworks.

Here’s a taste of the Musical Fountain… I didn’t tape this – I found it on You Tube – but it’s exactly the way I remember it from years ago when Teacher took me. The Fountain starts waaaay past the kids’ bedtime so we didn’t go this year – we’ll go when Little Guy and Z-Man are old enough to stay up late without being monsters the next day.

I snapped the next two photos from the passenger side of the van as we drove back home after our big day. I thought about having Teacher stop but we were all tired and ready to veg out for a while before dinner at Teacher’s brother’s house. Isn’t it gorgeous? Sigh, I miss the beach soooo much.

Next up… dinner at the brother-in-law’s!

Why is it I can never get anything done on Tuesdays? What is it about Tuesdays that has me walking around in a fog and being distracted by the littlest thing?

On Mondays I can start a load of laundry, vacuum the main floor, clean off the cupboard, unload the dishwasher and help the kids get ready for school – all in the half hour between coming downstairs and leaving for school.

Today is Tuesday. Today I vacuumed the floor before I took the kids to school. Yeah, that’s all I got done. I don’t know what happened; one minute I was getting out the vacuum cleaner and the next thing I knew it was time to go. I was in such a fog I had to double-check that I was actually dressed and not running around in my pajamas. Wait… be right back…. Oh whew, I did do makeup today. Funny, I don’t remember doing it this morning. Talk about easily distracted – I’m blogging when I should be folding laundry.

What is it about Tuesdays? I think I need more coffee…

I am in love! No, I’m not talking about Teacher although I am in love with him. And I’m not talking about the kids although I love them too. Right now I’m talking about the Auto Bin in our van. I know it’s a silly thing to get all excited about, but thanks to that bin my van is finally trash-free, and that’s almost a miracle. No wait – that is a miracle! If you have kids you know that they make trash like mama and daddy bunnies make baby bunnies. I don’t know how they do it, but they sure do.

We used to have a dinky little can that barely held anything. It was always tipping over, then it would roll around under the driver’s feet spewing used tissues, soda cans, sucker sticks, and other junk all over the place. You haven’t felt adrenaline until you’ve come up to a stop sign and realized you can’t brake because there was a water bottle jammed under the pedal! Plus the old can was soooo small I was constantly emptying it; one afternoon of errands would fill it up. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to replace it before, I guess I just didn’t think about it much.

Then the other day a friend linked me to the Auto Bin. He was like “You’ve got a bunch of kids trashing your car – you NEED one of these.” I can’t wait until he’s got kids and he’ll be dealing with minivans and dirty diapers and kid mess. Bwa-ha-ha!

He had a point though and at only $20 (free shipping!) I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I ordered. Unbelievably it came in the mail the next day! Sure the company is located in Wisconsin, but that’s still pretty fast delivery time. I ran right out and put it in the van – it fit perfectly between the front seats with a space in front for the tissue box. After using it for a week the van is totally trash-free and I’m so happy I grin like an idiot whenever I’m in the van. I’m getting one for the white car, and College Boy’s car, and maybe even for the sick van in the garage.

Oh my sweet little Auto Bin where have you been all my life?!
Let’s not tell Teacher about this though, k?

Teacher was lucky enough to grow up in Grand Haven. College Boy, Princess, Angel Face and I were lucky enough to live there for four years before moving here. We enjoyed everything the small touristy town had to offer, like a gazillion different pizza and ice cream places, several gorgeous public beaches, and my favorite – glimpses of Lake Michigan while driving through town. Sigh, sooo pretty! Although I’m very glad we moved to my home town I really, really miss living in Teacher’s home town too.

Friday night we had the van all packed and the kids ready so we could take off right after I was done with work. The drive only took 7 hours this time, instead of the hellish 8-9+ hour trips we’d had occasionally. For the most part it was pretty uneventful, although while driving through southern Wisconsin we were excited to see that Wisconsin Energy’s windmill “farm” was bigger than the last time we’d seen it. Go wind power!

Another bit of excitement was when Teacher tried to take photos of the Chicago skyline by balancing the camera on the steering wheel while driving at 65-70 mph. Yikes!! I wasn’t thrilled with that stunt, to put it mildly. I can’t show you the photos cuz they’re on his camera and he’s not sharing. Besides, I don’t want to encourage him.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house around 1am Grand Haven time, and fell right into bed. Z-Man and Little Guy were overwhelmed by their first long car trip, the grandparents they didn’t know well, and the unfamiliar house so they both had to sleep with Teacher and I. Good thing Teacher’s parents gave us their king size bed! It made me want to sing “Ten in the Bed” but I refrained and enjoyed cuddling with Teacher and the boys instead. Little Guy’s favorite sleeping position is with his head on my neck and his feet in Teacher’s face, so poor Z-Man ended up squished in the middle. He didn’t wake up all night so I guess it didn’t bother him too much! I wish I’d thought to take a photo but I was to wiped out to think of it at the time.

Saturday we decided to visit some of our favorite Grand Haven places, hitting the downtown sidewalk sales and boardwalk along the way. Our very favorite toy store ever, Mackinaw Kite Co. was our first stop. It’s packed with Brio trains, toys and games that foster creativity, and about a gizillion amazing kites and gorgeous banners. Teacher bought me two new banners: a Welcome one with flowers and one with the Grand Haven and Holland lighthouses on it. Here it is at our house – the top one is the Grand Haven lighthouse. I can almost smell the lake just looking at it.

We browsed our way down Main street, “splurging” on a pair of $4.00 Croc knock-offs for the little boys. Z-Man had wanted a blue pair for his birthday but we couldn’t find anything but black in his size around home. He was thrilled with this pair, and of course anything Z-Man has Little Guy wants too.

Main Street dead ends at the channel so we turned left and headed for one of our favorite places in Grand Haven – Pronto Pups. Pronto Pups has the BEST corn dogs in the world: light and fluffy batter fried to a sweet crunchiness around a juicy hot dog. Yummmmmm! You can count on standing in line at Pronto Pups, the only question is how long the line will be. Today wasn’t too bad; I’ve seen it muuuuch longer.

Teacher and Jo-Bear know that the wait is well worth it, no question. Princess doesn’t eat hot dogs but she’s such a sweetie she didn’t mind waiting either.

Z-Man has a Playmobile giraffe and person to keep him occupied while he waits for his first Pronto Pup ever. I’m getting hungry for Prontos just thinking about them.

Little Guy is content to sit back in the stroller with the last of Teacher’s smoothie. He likes watching cars go by, pointing each one out to us.

After getting our Pups we walked behind the stand to sit at one of the picnic tables on the hill. It’s so peaceful with the fresh breeze coming off the lake and the sound of the seagulls and water in the background. The views are gorgeous too – can you see the light house way out on the horizon?

Jo-Bear isn’t happy that he has to smile for a photo instead of eating his Pup. Z-Man wishes he brought his sunglasses. Life is soooo rough when you’re a kid!

Little Guy loves his Pronto Pup, he’s just sick of me taking his picture. Too bad for him – he’s too cute to resist.

After Pronto Pups we headed back to the car, walking by Dairy Treat on the way. Of course we couldn’t just pass by without getting a legendary Rockpile shake. The Rockpile was a back-door treat invented by Dairy Treat workers when Teacher was in High School. At that time the only way to get one was to go to the back door and know someone who was working. Now anyone can get one from the menu, which is less fun but still delicious. The Rockpile has so much stuff in it I can’t remember everything: ice cream of course, pineapple, strawberries, chocolate sauce, peanuts, banana… I’ll have to ask Teacher the rest – he’ll know. I whould’ve taken a photo of the Rockpile so you could see all its yummy goodness, but I was too busy slurping it down.

We finished off the Rockpile on the way to the car, then headed back to Grandma and Grandpa’s to regroup. Little Guy had such a big day so far that he crashed before the car had even gone a block. Good thing too, because it was only mid-afternoon and we still had the rest of the day ahead of us.

To be continued…