Labor Day 2016

I love looking through all my friends feeds and all the blogs I follow and see the little kiddos just smiling and cooperating for the cameras.  It completely makes me believe that they are chill little kids that listen to their parents when told to do something without pitching a fit or running away.  But I'm a parent, and I know better. I know that behind the scenes, those kids are just as crazy as mine.. or at least I hope they are.

 

Conner pushes the energy to the next ten levels beyond how I see most kids interact.  And Linden tries to follow suit.  I also have a 9 month old that was finally sleep trained but doesn't do well outside of his regimented night routine. 

 

You may be wondering why I'm even talking about this. It because despite how these boys are, we decided to go tent camping for Labor Day weekend.  Take a moment.  Soak that in. 2 year old + 9 month + tent camping. yeah, that happened.

 

First off, I have to fully admit, it was fun! We had a blast hanging out with Joe's family. Conner even did great without a much needed nap.  A huge part of camping with Conner being a success was because he had his cousins there to play and wrestle and a lake for him to swim all day in.

 

See Exhibit A:

 

Most of the day was spent doing just that. Swimming. Walks. Eating! Watching the boys wrestle.  It was so much fun!!

 

 

 

Nighttime... not fun. After trying for two hours to get Linden to fall asleep, he finally caved and drifted off.  That lasted a whopping 2 hours and then he was back to crying until I gave in and laid down with him for the night.  Moments where you have time to talk with other adults sans kiddos is rare, so I was a little bummed that I had to throw in the towel early instead of chatting around a campfire.  Then 3am rolled around, and we were back to crying. I gave it 2 hours and finally called it quits, so me and Linden headed home at 5am for a morning nap.

 

Best hour of sleep ever!

 

We rejoined the group the next day for more swimming, walks, food, fishing and missed naps.  I left to pick up lunch, and while I was gone I receive this picture:

 

 

Conner caught his first fish!!

 

All in all, it was such an awesome weekend with family and our first camping experience as a family of four.  It was definitely an adventure.  And of course we rounded out our last summer weekend with a trip to the beach!

 



mother's day | 2016

To all the women out there of children that are little, grown, or those no longer here

Happy Mother's Day!!

 

This day is always special for us to celebrate our mamas, but when we have the privilege of having babies of our own, this day just becomes 200% even more special.

 

This household of boys this mama feel extra special all day long. From flowers and sleeping in to being woken up by a two year climbing into my bed to give me the sweetest little hug, it was a perfect start.

 

 

We loaded up the boys and met up with Joe's family for breakfast which proved to be a little stressful and then on to a quick stop at Menards where that stress level just peaked.  Why haven't we figured out that we should never let Conner have a donut at breakfast and then try to run errands.  It never ever works out.

 

Since we were pretty stressed and starting to reflect that in our attitudes, we decided to hit the reset button and get our day back on track.  Totally worked too.

 

We loaded the boys back up and headed down to the river to spend some special time with Joe's mom and leave some bright yellow mums for her.  We've been practicing with Conner to say "Happy Mommy's Day" so he made sure to say it to his Nana.  Possibly the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  But then he got down low to kiss her headstone and that, dear friends, became the sweetest thing I ever did see.

 

 

Back home for naps (sort-a) and then right back in the car for one last round of out-and-about. (The weather was too pretty to spend it around the house!)  We hit up Culvers and took a drive up Old Mission Peninsula.  We were already past Linden's bedtime, and Conner was tired of being in a car for so much of the day, but those two little boys were troopers to let their mama enjoy a ride through the vineyards and the view of the bays.

 

 

I'm outnumbered in this household, but these boys of mine, they sure do know how to make this mama feel so loved and belonged.

 



WEEKEND WRAP UP | FISHTOWN

We crossed one more item off our "summertime" bucket list this weekend.  We're cheating since technically it's fall now, but close enough.  When the weather on a Saturday is sunny and warm at the end of September, you take advantage and make a drive out to Leland the historic fishtown.  I don't see too many more days in the 70s so we were happy to get out and enjoy it with Conner.

 

I haven't been up the Leelanau coast since Joe and I got married, so again, we took advantage of it and drove up the coast to Northport and down the other side of the peninsula to Leland.  This is well known M-22 for anyone outside the state.  It's an awesome drive, and it's probably one of the best drives to make during the fall color tour.  So now you know what to do if you're looking for ideas for a fall vacation.  I'll even give you a quick itinerary:  Fall color tour, wine tasting along Leelanau or Old Mission, Leland, pumpkin and apple picking, all the foodie restaurants.  I digress.

 

This was Conner's first trip out to Leland so we let him explore the marina's docks and the main shopping dock with all the historic wooden buildings turned into shops.  Conner was all about the docks and nothing about the shops.  Typical boy I guess.  I was a little curious to see how he'd do on the docks since the water is pretty deep in the marina and there's nothing to stop this little waterbug from jumping in like he does whenever he sees water.  He did great though! No attempts at jumping but toward the end he wanted to just run and not watch how close he was coming to the edge.  That's when I suggested we get this little boy back on land.

 

 

 

And since we were out there we had to pick up sandwiches, Havarti cheese and smoked whitefish.  I mean com'mon, if you're going to make the trip all the way out there, you have to splurge on some of the most delicious foods. Plus there was a Havarti craving that needed to be satisfied so I checked that off my list.

 

 

 

We managed to get back home before 1pm which is always awesome with a little kid.  Just enough time to run around at home for a little bit and crashing for a long afternoon nap.  I admit, I also participated in a nice afternoon nap that I didn't wake up from until 7pm!  I have a love/hate relationship with naps.  I love them (especially nowadays) but I always spend the rest of the evening feeling more tired and like I completely wasted the day. 

 

 

 

Sunday wasn't too much out of the normal for a low key Sunday.  I pretty much soaked up as much relaxation as possible while I did some meal planning.  Joe on the other hand has been Captain Productive this weekend with yard work, roofing the shed, cleaning/organizing the garage, giving Conner countless golf cart rides and probably a lot more than I even realize.  Yeah, he made me look like a lazy bum this weekend without even trying. :)

 

Here's a Sunday afternoon walk that ended up in Conner deciding it'd be fun to roll down the ditch into the woods. The boys finished the walk through the woods while I walked the empty stroller back.



WEEKEND WRAP UP | FAMILY VACATION

It feels so good to be back home and back to normalcy.  This past weekend Joe and I packed up and went on our first family vacation together.  Any trips that we have taken have been to visit family, but this was our first trip getting to go and do what we have been wanting to do for a long time - go to the Upper Peninsula.  We took off Thursday and got home yesterday and filled those days in between with as much as we could.

 

We may have underestimated how an almost 2 year old would handle all this driving, hotel stays and camping.  Joe and I really questioned if we were ready for this after a 6 hour drive to Marquette  on Thursday with Conner in the backseat having epic meltdowns for 4 of those hours.  We had to finally stop about an hour outside of Marquette just to let him run and blow off steam.

 

Joe's birthday was also that Thursday, and I already felt like a terrible wife before we even left the house.  He already knew I got him a new pair of shoes, but I didn't even have time to wrap them or get him a card or anything.  Then you add in an exhausting car ride and zero energy to go out to eat for his birthday once we checked in... I felt like I really dropped the ball.  But, Joe being the awesome guy he is just ordered food from the restaurant next door and happily ate in the hotel room with us.

 

Thursday pics:

 

A stop in Munising just to let Conner run and be free.

 

Anyone with a toddler gets this picture.

 

Joe was fixing his shoe so he could go back to climbing and jumping.

 

...and more jumping



 

Friday

We made plans to hike up Sugarloaf Mountain but knowing how much of a flight risk Conner can be when he gets inside the woods convinced us that we needed to see if Walmart or Target sold those toddler leashes.  That's right.  I said toddler leashes.  You know, the ones that you see parents have their kids hooked up to at theme parks or airports and you think to yourself "I will never be one of those parents".  Well, we became those parents.  What's worse is that we couldn't find the legit leases that are made for toddlers so Joe and I were convinced that the next best thing would be a retractable dog leash.  Let's face it, the dog leash serves the same purpose but also allows us to use it for our dog.  Folks, that is a win-win situation.

 

Conner did amazing on the hike up Sugarloaf.  Of course the boys wanted to take the difficult route as opposed to the easy path so my belly and I got an extra workout on the steep climb.  Conner went up the entire path without being held (until the last few set of staircases - then it was my responsibility to play a pack mule and carry him).  We played, jumped and ran at the top and that little boy was so worn out that he needed to be carried the entire way back down.

 

After that, we had to get lunch at Main St Pizza.  I wanted to see how 1 slice would affect my blood glucose so I went for it and enjoyed every bite of that slice.  Two hours later and a glucose reading of 144, I decided that was a bad choice.  Oh well, back to salads I guess.  Thank you, pregnancy.

 

The rest of the late afternoon we spent on the beach at Picnic Rocks.  We had perfect beach weather so we took advantage.  We ended the evening eating out at one of Joe's old regular go-to places, Vengos.  We sat in a booth and at one point we still managed to almost lose that little boy.  Side note - we always get booths because Conner loves climbing up on the seat and then hide under the table, but he stays confined that way.  Conner made another descent under that table where I thought he was playing with his truck. I was wrong.  Joe started to feel around for him and after no luck, looked at me and said, "I think we're missing a boy". I start searching and scanning the restaurant wondering how he escaped before I realized the booths were open underneath giving him the opportunity to belly crawl his way to the booth next to us.  I grabbed his little feet before he could get to the next table diners and pulled while he fought back.  From now on I check to make sure booths are blocked off from each other.

 

Friday Pics: 

 

A boy and his dad.

This picture.  I could just ball my eyes out watching these two with their bond.  Makes me so happy.

 

 

Saturday:

I am amazed at how many times we went to the store over this extended weekend vacation.  Once again, we were back at Walmart Saturday morning.  This time, Joe and I were convinced that we needed to cave in and buy a portable dvd player for the car.  We made plans to make a 2.5 hour drive up to the Keewanau Peninsula to visit "Uncle" Phil at his cabin.  After the car ride on Thursday, we just needed a mental break to get us through the car trip, and I admit, watching episodes of Curious George over and over did the trick for us.

 

We were fortunate to be able to spend a few hours at Phil and Lori's cabin and finally get to see it.  It feels like to perfect getaway spot being right on the lake.  Conner played hard and after lunch we got back in the truck and made our way back to Marquette.  Conner protested being back in a carseat until he remembered Curious George.  That little boy watched 1 episode before passing out cold for the rest of the trip back.

 

Once we got back to Marquette we went straight for a walk out on Presque Isle and Black Rocks.  In Conner's mind, rocks = jumping.  And there was lots of jumping.  Joe and I couldn't believe how busy the place was.  On a typical day, there may be 2 to 4 other people out on Black Rocks, but that day there was no shortage of college students out there cliff jumping into Superior.  I told Joe we couldn't go too close to them.  I had an honest fear of Conner seeing all those college kids jumping off the cliffs and him thinking he could do the same.

 

We finally were able to celebrate Joe's birthday at his favorite restaurant in Marquette called the Vierling.  He loves getting the whitefish there.  The restaurant overlooks Lake Superior where they catch and bring the fish in fresh daily.  No wonder Joe loves it so much.  They brought us out a piece of peanut butter pie at the end of the meal complete with a birthday candle for Joe.  After that filling meal, we spent the rest of the evening down at the hotel pool.  Conner is such a waterbug.  He barely let Joe get into the water before he jumped in.

 

Saturday Pics:

Quietly eating breakfast while watching Curious George or as Conner calls it "Moo-Baa".  I don't know how he thinks that sounds remotely close.

Conner tried to hide the fact that he was tired, but he kept rubbing those little eyes.

This was a completely unexpected bear hug from little cub out on Black Rocks.

Happy Birthday Dad!

 

Sunday

By far the most challenging of the days.  We checked out of the hotel at 10:30 and headed to Walmart (yet again) to buy food for our last night that we were planning to spend camping.  You know the day is going to be challenging when you have a toddler just melting down in the store and it's not even 11am.  We seriously went back and forth if we should just skip camping and head home a day early, but we didn't want to regret it later on, so we stayed.

 

Since we couldn't get into the campground until 3pm, we spent the entire afternoon at the park in town.  After Conner was showing some desperate signs of a nap, we tried putting him in the stroller and see if he'd sleep on a walk.  Not so much.  We walked a couple miles down to another park with no luck.  So we ate lunch, played on the playground and swam at the beach and by then it was 2pm and we just decided to see if we could check in early at the campground.  Lukcy us, we were able to get in early!

 

The rest of the evening went a lot like our last camping expedition.  Challenging.  Joe took him down to the beach and then for a walk which finally resulted in that little boy taking the nap he needed.  The rest of the evening was a little easier and slightly more relaxing.  It still took close to 2 hours to get Conner asleep (I ended up passing out first because I was just laying there waiting on him to sleep).

 

Sunday Pics:

Sunsets and rock tossing down at the water.

By the way, shorts became overrated for the evening at the campground. 

 

Monday

Joe got up early to make sure breakfast was ready when Conner and I got up.  (He's awesome like that.)  That allowed us to pack up quickly and get on the road back home.  We changed our gameplan for the ride home.  Instead of only stopping for gas and diapers, we planned to stop every hour or two to let Conner run and play.  It made the trip a lot longer, but we made it without ever needing to use the dvd player.  That made Joe and I really happy.

 

Our first stop was about an hour into the trip in Munising at Pictured Rocks.  Conner really enjoyed the short hike to Miners Castle and I really enjoyed some time behind the camera.  We made one more stop once we got back across the bridge in Mackinaw City for lunch and some play time at the beach.  The last two hours were the hardest.  That little boy made me so proud though.  We made it until the last 30 minutes before he started really breaking down and crying from being in the truck for so long.  He kept crying out that he wanted "Ma-Na" (our dog Mia).  It's amazing that a child so young would miss his dog that much.

 

Arriving back in the driveway was such a great feeling.  We had some highs and lows on our first family vacation, but overall it was an awesome trip.  Still, nothing feels better than coming home.

 

Monday Pics: