Good-bye Summer

The garage sale was a success. Not a shout it from the rooftops, raging success, but hey, if I can make money off of stuff that was destined for the thrift store anyways, I call it a success. I planned to use the money to redecorate the entry/laundry room and buy a few clothes for Adrian who is in dire need. I have money for both. Yay!
Now the fun part starts: prepping the entry for paint. That was sarcasm. I should have started a long time ago. I'm hoping to be able to paint within a week, but judging by all the paint I have to scrape off the windows, it might be longer than that. [insert very sad face.] The previous owners took great care of the house for the most part but their painting skills leave something to be desired. Anyways, I decided I won't even buy paint until the room is totally ready to paint, taped up and all. That way I won't have the huge disappointment of my "quick" stairs project...the brand new paintbrushes are still sitting on top of the fridge, unopened.

Today I'm just trying to catch up with all that was neglected in the 4 days of planning/running a sale.

Like posting pictures of our camping weekend, a week late.

Adrian was so excited to get a Tonka Truck from Grandma and Grandpa L for his birthday. This trip may have been a lot different without it. He played with it the entire weekend and was covered in dirt all day, every day. Despite the unexplained puke (singular) on the way there and the couple accidents we dealt with over the weekend, he was a great.

And Isaac was perfect. What a happy camper!

Our car was so full I didn't think we would be able to bring any kind of stroller, but luckily I remembered the umbrella stroller at the last minute and it just fit--in fact, on the way home it was tied to the bike rack. I wasn't sure how he would do in it and if he was even big enough but it worked perfectly.

Adrian loved pushing him around and running back and forth between the 2 campsites.
Check out those toes!

There were some really great hiking trails at the campground. The guys fished for a good part of the weekend and Adrian got to go too. The girls plus Isaac went on a hike one afternoon. It was gorgeous. Another day Jeff and I ran these same trails together, it was so fun that I decided we need more running dates, there are TONS of running/mountain bike trails in our area. Plus, I never would have ran 4 miles by myself!

After 2.5 miles of walking, we were met with this scene:

I'm sure people say this throughout the country, but we live in a really beautiful state.

Jeff also got a birthday present from his mom and dad. It took me a while to catch on, but all it took was this one piece for him to figure out what was in the box. As you can see, he is thrilled. We both are actually.

If you have talked to Jeff anytime in the last 6 months you know exactly what he's into obsessed with right now.

I think we're both still a bit blown away that they gave him a beehive! That's only 1 of the 5 boxes. It came in kit form and he assembled the entire thing as soon as we got home. I'm not even sure if the rest of the car was unloaded. And somehow we did manage to fit it in the car (disassembled in the box).

We also hit the beach a few times, of course. The weather was perfect and so was the water. We spent a good deal of time searching for Petoskey Stones.

Isaac found the sand. It's so fun to watch him discovering new things!

Note to self: Take pictures of more than my own little family.

The only cloud hanging over the trip was my in-laws oldest dog, Toby, getting sick. He's an old dog and after our hike he started coughing/gagging a lot. My poor mother-in-law felt like she had a newborn again with the sleepless nights that weekend. We weren't sure if he would make it through the those few days, but he did.

This was our first year going to the Petoskey State Park. We usually go to Traverse City but decided to switch it up this year. I think everyone agreed that it was a nice park and we'll go again next year. It should be a completely different experience with a newly walking toddler...we'll see how that goes. ;)

With that, summer is officially over, but I'm still holding out for a couple more hot days.

a-camping we have gone

I have decided to post again to avoid being reported for blog neglect.

If my crabby toddler will allow it, I would like to share some pictures for our latest camping trip with Jeff's family.


There were a lot of firsts for Adrian during this trip: first piece of corn on the cob, (ha! And he loved it!) first real mohawk (thanks to sunscreen hair), first boat ride, first time tubing, first time driving a boat...okay so maybe not but he has certainly never been on a boat before! I think he loved all of the above except for the part where I put a lifejacket on him. When I took him tubing he was so tired but I wanted to get him on the water before he went to sleep or we would miss our chance. Jeff was pulling the boat, going pretty slow and Adrian wasn't making any reaction. We went a little faster, still basically crawling, and he still wasn't doing much. I think he was smiling but then after a minute or so he starting closing his eyes! Jeff and I both thought he'd be bawling for sure (aren't we nice parents?!) and here he was falling asleep! So much for that.


There must be more photos out there that aren't completely focused on Adrian but they don't seem to be on my camera. I know there are some on facebook from my fellow campers but I kicked myself off of there until Wednesday so I can't get to them just yet.


We did our usual garage sale excursion while we were camping. Who goes garage saling when they're camping you ask? Have you met Jeff's mom?? We didn't find too much but I think our best find was Adrian's lifejacket. I completely forgot about getting him one even though I had fully planned to take him on the boat. We found one for 10 cents! You just can't beat that price! Or timing for that matter.


The boys didn't catch any fish again...if I was bummed about that I'm sure they were pretty upset. I feel bad considering this trip is all about the fishing! They are planning on heading back in a few weeks to try again, this time it'll just be the guys. Maybe they'll have better luck this time around!


Oh man, Adrian is threatening to delete this entire post by way of one tiny little finger...


OH MY. He just did. Seriously. Luckily, I caught it fast enough so that it didn't autosave again with everything gone...yikes. I don't even know what he pushed...

Speaking of Adrian, does anyone want him for a few weeks?? He has a few teeth coming in and he has been craaaanky. I'm just glad I am able to get a full nights sleep each night to calm down and refresh before the whining and crying starts all over again. Cannot wait until those teeth pop through. I've been using Hyland's teething tablets up until now and they had been working wonders but not anymore. If you know of any natural and effective teething remedies PLEASE let me know. I think I'll be running to the co-op tonight to see what else they have to save my sanity--I mean, to help my poor little dude.


Besides the crankiness, he has been so much fun lately. He's at the stage where, even though he can't talk, he understands everything I say to him. I love it! He loves books right now too. He is constantly bringing me books, shoving them in my lap and then holding his little arms up for me to pick him up. How can I resist? Oh yeah, maybe because I've read Wag my Tail 17,293 times. But still, it's so cute when he tries to move the tabs with his little fingers...and 'barks' with his mouth closed.

Anyways, that's all for now, I have about 15 more posts in my head, 2 of which you might or might not see. Until then, enjoy this rainy day!

No Garage Sale finds this Weekend

We were camping!


Yeah, he's wearing socks. In the dirt. Dirty dirt. I just bought shoes for him before we left because I only had flip-flops for him. The ground was kind of wet considering it had rained the night before so I figured I would rather ruin a pair of socks than a pair of new shoes. They'll get dirty eventually but it just didn't make sense to buy new shoes just to drag in the dirt. I'm starting to wonder why I went out of my way to buy them before we went...


It rained for a good deal of the trip but Saturday afternoon was positively beautiful. We played bocce ball in the beach area. We were at Pewabic State Park and the beach area was pretty far from our site. Luckily enough, our fellow campers had a bike trailer that we used to pull our boys.


We knew it was supposed to rain all weekend but everyone agreed that it wasn't worth cancelling our trip. I figured if we canceled, the weekend would be beautiful so I would rather take our chances. It rained Friday night, cleared up for the day, and started up again in the evening. Jeff had picked up a couple tarps before we left just in case. It's a good thing he did, we would have been stuck inside, or soaked, otherwise.


The guys were chuckling about the amount of food we brought. Kate and I planned out our meals together so neither of us would have "meal envy." Of course, we brought plenty to snack on as well. Like that double batch of monster cookies...gone in two days! Maybe it's the T*r*la in me but, I didn't want anyone to be hungry! Camping is all about eating if you ask me. We went home with plenty of leftovers but at least we weren't lacking!


Adrian is teething right now so he's been a little cranky but otherwise he was a pretty good camper. Especially when I consider how he was in our arms most of the weekend. He's crawling like crazy and starting to stand so, sitting still isn't exactly the ideal (non)activity for him. He didn't mind crawling around the tent...when I was with him that is. It would have been nice if he would crawl and play in there while I was outside but he wanted nothing to do with that. Hopefully our next camping trip is a little drier so he can get down and play! That and, maybe he won't try to put every rock and acorn in his mouth!

Camping and Saunas

ETA: I did actually type this post the next day, I just never put pictures on it. I'll post what I have tomorrow...if it works. I tried yesterday and the pictures wouldn't even load onto the computer from my camera. Sorry for the delay!

Date posted: Sep 5 (Yes I know, this wasn't quite the "tomorrow" that I was going for)

We took off on Friday afternoon as soon as Jeff was out of work. Well almost that soon, we met his parents at their house first and didn't actually leave for another hour and a half. And to think I was feeling rushed...
We stayed at the State Park in Traverse City; for any of you that have not been there, it's smack dab in the middle of the city, not exactly your middle-of-the-woods campground. The went (salmon) fishing at the crack of dawn every morning. I personally don't think any fish is worth losing sleep over. Apparently they disagree. Jeff caught two, Dave caught one, and Paul caught one.
Other than that, we played lots of card games, went swimming, played putt-putt, and went garage saleing (how in the world do you spell that anyway). Yes, garage sales. We WERE with Paula after all. I am glad we went; Jeff and I really lucked out. We had been planning on buying one of those Coleman gas grills for camping. We found one that looked like it had never been used for $15! They sell for 70 bucks at Meijer!! Jeff's sister Jen thought I was crazy because I kept buying books. I don't know about you but, I'm thinking 7 books for under $1.50 is a pretty good deal!
We ended up going to this one garage sale at the home of an older Finn couple. So of course, Jeff and Paul figured this out and struck up a conversation. Paula and I both bought toys from them. I had paid a dollar for three baby toys. I'm walking away thinking "not bad."
Later on, back at our campsite. A minivan stops in front of our site and who should it be, but this same couple! (We had mentioned that we were staying at the state park.) The woman recognizes me and hands me fifty cents. She says "I was thinking about what you had bought, and I thought 'we were making deals today, she should have only paid fifty cents for those toys not a dollar.' So here's your change!" I couldn't believe she had tracked us down just to give me a measly fifty cents! Well I guess that wasn't it. Once everyone started gathering wondering what in the world this couple was doing at our site, she turns to Paula and invites us all for saunas the next night!
Long story short, we ended up fishing that night instead of going for saunas. But imagine that, a complete stranger inviting us over for saunas!

Four more days til vacation!!

And three more days of work! WOOHOO! I am so excited to go camping! And then off to Minnesota! I haven't the slightest idea as to how we are going to get our car moving, it's going to be stuffed! We seem to be playing postman because we have a whole bunch of stuff to bring for all of my siblings that I'm going to see! I may just have to ride on the roof.

Bikes, Camping, and Summer Vacation

Well!! It's been a while!
Jeff and I are now proud owners of some beautiful new bikes. I've used mine about twice. I won't go to Kensington by myself and it doesn't fit in the car very well. But, the good news, we bought a bike rack the other day so we can take our bikes camping!
Speaking of camping, we are not going to Canada with Mom and Dad this year as we had planned. I'm not sure if I even mentioned that before. I am bummed about that but I'll be okay because we are going to MINNESOTA instead! I am SO very excited for that. We will be visiting Jennifer and Sara of course! I can't wait to see Jen's new house and see ALL of those little kiddos again! WE haven't been out there for about two years now! ANd Jeff has that whole week off in August so we'll be staying there all week! PLUS, we are planning on camping with Paul and Amanda for two nights in the U.P. to break up the trip. So basically we are going to have so much fun!