Camping: round 2

We decided to go camping again last weekend. Same spot, right next to the lake.


Nothing like a late night swim.



We woke up to this beautiful, peaceful scene. Photos courtesy of Pete. He's the artistic one in the family. Seriously.


An early morning swim. Dan's our little fish. He loves to bathe in the lake.


It was another camping success until about 30 minutes before we left. We had started a fire that morning so that Dan could roast a hot dog (yes, for breakfast) and had been stirring the hot coals around with a stick. When the tip of this stick was out of the fire Dan walked right into it, missing his eye by a sliver. As far as we can tell the burn hasn't affected his vision, but Dan was not a happy camper for the next couple of days. He couldn't even open it for the rest of the day because of the pain. Poor guy. We're just glad the stick hadn't been over a half inch. I'm pretty sure he would be blind.

Daniel's beautiful voice

John has always liked to sing and can sing surprisingly well, hitting most notes and remembering most of the words. Then Daniel came along. Listen for yourself.

Our house

I think I can finally say we are done unpacking. Yay! So here are some pictures of the house: (note: let's be honest, our house doesn't normally look this... you're going to have to imagine toys and books spread all over the floor if you want a more realistic view)



Living room:



Kitchen:


Dining room:


Laundry room:


Main floor bath:


The master bedroom:


Master bath:


John and Dan's room:



Joe/guest room:


And then we also have an unfinished basement which I absolutely love. We stuck our TV and a couch down there and a bunch of the toys. This house isn't a lot bigger than our last, but it sure feels bigger with the basement. Now I have a place to send the kids when they're roudiness is driving me crazy :)

Independence Lake

For those of you who keep up with my blog, you're going to get tired of all the pictures I post of us at lakes. There are so many to go to, that's been our favorite thing to do when we have a few spare hours. We're still on the search for a kayak or canoe to purchase. This last weekend we went to Independence Lake, a beautiful lake with a sandy beach, a splash pad, park, and climbing rock, all about 20 minutes from our house. With the crowds you feel more like you're at the ocean. So fun!

Linda's Vintage... check it out!

My sister-in-law Jess recently opened up a store online called Linda's Vintage. She sells very cute, stylish accessories that are all handmade. I love them all! Check it out!

4th of July weekend

We had a SWEET 4th of July weekend. Pete just happened to start residency with what people have said is the easiest rotation (Neurology) and we are living it up. He was given Friday and Monday off! Maybe this residency thing isn't so bad ( haha... I say that, but I'm preparing for the worst). So we took advantage of the time off and went camping. We found the sweetest little campsite, right on a lake. This campground is supposed to be a 3-mile hike in, but we found a road to get to it that is a quarter mile away. There isn't any parking on that road, so we parked our car there just temporarily, carried all our stuff in, then Pete re-parked the car and rode his mountain bike the 3 miles to the campground. And wow, we arrogantly thought that there wouldn't be any mountain biking in Michigan (no mountains=no mountain biking, right?), but boy were we wrong! The state park we were camping at has miles and miles of hilly single track trail that goes through the forest, over rivers and next to lakes. Absolutely beautiful! We are already planning to take advantage of our parents coming out in a couple months and sneak over there together to try out more of the trails.

So we found this great site and spent the day swimming, playing in the sand, resting, eating, hiking, and exploring. And just when we thought our camping experience was complete, this man who lives on the lake and had stopped to talk to us as he was hiking through, paddles over to us in his double kayak. He then unloads a few loads of firewood for us to use, then leaves his kayak with a couple life jackets and tells us it's ours to use and that he'll pick it up in the morning. Seriously?! We were blown away by the generosity of this man. He then swims back to his home on the other side of the small lake. So we took turns taking the kids out for rides and it totally made our day!




As we were hiking around Dan picked this up and said, "Look! A big wock!" and was going to then take it down to the lake and throw it in. But upon closer observation, we found that this "rock" was a turtle with very sharp claws that was hiding in its shell. When Pete came to inspect, Dan said, "I fot it was a wock!" He thought it was pretty cool that he had picked up a turtle.



Joe was actually really good almost the whole time, I just put this picture in because I thought it was funny. He sported a white onesie the entire time. Pointless to have him wear anything more when he's constantly wet and dirty.



No camping trip is complete without smores.


One last kayak ride before bed.

Saturday night we went to a ward barbeque, complete with a hay ride and all (a lot of our ward lives out on farming land). We took the day off Sunday. We needed a day to recover from camping. Even though it was SO much fun, camping with 3 little kids is a ton of work and we were seriously exhausted. As were the kids. Then on Monday morning we went rollerblading around a nearby Metropark that has a great biking trail all through it. Rollerblading together is one thing that I love to do... Pete pushes a couple kids in the double stroller, and I push the single. It works great! Then that night we joined the crowds down at Willow Metropark for a barbeque and to watch the fireworks. Happy 4th!

Joe showing us his hand after eating about a half a bag of Doritos.


This picture is compliments of John. Not bad.

The Animal Game

A favorite game to play while driving in the car is the Animal Game. We take turns thinking of an animal and everyone else asks yes or no questions until we guess the right animal. Daniel has just recently started taking a turn, although we aren't quite sure if he is really grasping the game yet. We'll ask a lot questions and he'll reply with yes or no, until we finally guess an animal and he says, "Yeah, that's it." But we're suspicious of the fact that he might not really be thinking of an animal from the beginning. So yesterday on the way home from church we were playing this game, and it was Daniel's turn. Here's how it went:
"Can this animal fly?"
"No."
"Does this animal swim?"
"No."
"Does this animal walk on four legs?"
"No."
"Does this animal have legs?"
"No."
"Is it a snake?"
"No."
"Is it a snail?"
"No."
"Is it a worm?"
"No." (At this point I thought we were going to have him trapped, he wasn't really thinking of an animal, just saying yes or no.)
"We need a clue."
"It starts wif a 'B'."
"Hmmm.... we give up. What is it?"
In a monotone voice, "A bis----."
"A bicycle?"
Again in a low, monotone voice, "A bison."
"Oh, a bison! Of course!"

Birthday boy!

John turned 5 this week! For all you mom's with older kids this probably doesn't sound old at all, but for me I can't believe I have a 5-year old who will be starting Kindergarten soon! We celebrated his birthday by going to the bakery for doughnuts in the morning, making armor, attending a karate class, eating his favorite for dinner (mac and cheese, watermelon and apples), decorating cupcakes, then finishing it off with a camp out in the backyard. What a day! John is such a sweet boy and is a great example to his younger brothers. He's a pleaser and a peacemaker, is quick to do what we ask him to do (most of the time), loves to help with whatever we're doing, and loves to be read to. John likes anything that has to do with karate or fighting, likes jumping on the tramp, going to the lake, to the park, and likes riding his bike. We love you so much John!


I surprised John with an introductory karate class that him and Dan got to do. He was hesitant and a little intimidated at the beginning but quickly became intensely focused on what the instructor told him to do and by the end absolutely loved it! He even punched a piece of wood in half at the end of the class, and when class was over his first words were, "Can I do another class?" So sure enough we got sucked into it and signed him up for more.


John was all smiles in his little Jeep!



Our attempt at making Spiderman cupcakes.


Happy Birthday John!

The Karate Kid

John continues to like anything that has to do with fighting: swords, bows and arrows, shields, kicking, punching, karate... Kung Fu Panda has quickly become one of his favorite movies (and I must confess, one of mine too!) We recently rented the movie Mulan and John began doing his karate dance to the music. Enjoy.

Rivers and Lakes

We are surrounded by lakes and rivers here in Michigan. The kids pretty much love anywhere they can get wet and dirty, so they are enjoying them.

Pickerel Lake






I found this fun trail a couple miles away from our house on a run one morning. I guess I used to think that in order to hike you had to have mountains, but I was wrong! You can't climb to the top of a peak, but the trails here are beautiful and green, long and short. This one is a small loop that takes you out to the river, a perfect one for the kids.

Exploring Michigan

We are loving exploring a new place! We ended up choosing to rent a house in Dexter, a small town about 10 minutes west of Ann Arbor and are only finding more and more things we like about it. Dexter is surrounded by farming land: corn fields, raspberry, strawberry, peach, apple farms, you name it and has a charming little downtown. It has 3 Metroparks within 5 minutes, the Huron River running through it, fun hiking trails along the river, and beautiful roads to bike on.

Pete's friend Romney and his wife Ashley live about an hour away in Lansing and invited us up to their place the first weekend we were here. We went to a lake, had a barbeque and then stayed for a concert in the park. Our kids had fun playing with their 2 sweet girls.





The next day we decided to try out one of the parks nearby that runs along the river. The kids found a small patch of sand and were happy there the entire night. Nothing like playing in the dirt!

From Utah to Michigan

After 2 very long days and a ton a help, we finally finished packing the moving truck and cleaning our house. Holy smokes, moving is so much work! Thanks to all who helped, there's no way we could have done it without everyone! After saying some goodbyes and shedding a few tears, we headed up to Bear Lake for a mid-move vacation with Pete's family. A piece of heaven on earth.


Yep, Dan still likes those two middle fingers.




A ride on the sailboat.


Joe with Papa John.


Our sweet sand castle.

After 5 wonderful days at Bear Lake, we finally started the 3 day drive to Michigan. The kids did surprisingly really well, and the drive went by really fast. Pete's mom drove out with us and was ever so helpful. We couldn't have done it without her!




Dan got bored and thought it would be fun to draw all over his face.


Our one detour was Nauvoo. It was fun to see the temple. Unfortunately we were only able to stay there a few hours, but it felt good to take a break from driving.


The kids were so happy to get out of the car and run around.


Joe with his Grandma Annie.


We finally arrived!