Please do not mind the end of the video. Unfortunately, Riley reminds me of myself at her age!

Camping at Yankee Springs

We went camping this last weekend with the new camper for the first time. Let me just say I cannot get over how much easier it is to take that than it is to take the tent. The plan was for me to get the camper hooked up and meet Matt south of GR. However, once I got it hooked up we had no lights. Jason and I worked on it until we got them working but they were dim...after several phone calls to dads, we figured out the problem and fixed it temporarily. We had no problems getting there/driving with the camper. The weather was beautiful. We camp at Yankee Springs in the rustic campground. We love it there because the campground is huge, we can make reservations for what we want and it is only 45 minutes from home. Saturday we went hiking and if I remember right from last year, the trail we did was about 2.5 miles. The kids BOTH walked and loved it. They climbed some trees and had a blast. We went over to the beach on Gun Lake and swam in the afternoon. I tried to take pictures there but it was so windy that even our chair would blow over when I was not sitting in it. So needless to say I sat and held down the fort while the rest swam. I read a little and then decided to deflate the toys so I could swim too! Sunday we packed up after breakfast and came home. We worked on the bathroom a little, cleaned the cars and then Dad and Phyllis came over for dinner. We have not had such a relaxing weekend in a long time. The only thing we thought was missing was the sailboat. We need to get a new car so we can pull two things at once! :)

Here are some photos from the weekend. I tried to narrow it down!

We made omelets in a bag for breakfast the first day and this is us making them.




Our hike and some tree climbing.

A week without Riley

This week has been so quiet without our Riley around. She has been really busy though and she is having a blast at Papa Ron and Grandma Phyllis' house. They have been to Michigan Adventure, out to eat, the beach, miniature golfing and much more. She is in heaven. I miss her though. Carter is so different without Riley around too. It is fun to watch him as he acts so much older and he is just so entertaining. We are always laughing. Last night we took him for ice cream and when we got home he got in the tub. He was really excited to take a bath without Riley. The picture of him in the tub is us saying hi to each other through the little silver thing in the tub. If you look you can see him looking at his reflection in the tub. The other picture if him with his rain coat the other day when it was raining. Riley will be home tomorrow and then we are off for the weekend camping in our new camper! We are all very excited.

Ooops...I never posted these

These are just some pictures that I took when Riley turned 7 and I just realized I never posted them. They are nothing special but I think they really capture Riley. Enjoy!

Carter's Three Year Pictures

Carter's pictures have been posted on Abby's photography blog if you want to check them out. Thanks again Aunt Abby.

www.wierengaphotography.blogspot.com

Painting, Painting and More Painting!

So, since the middle of May we have been remodeling our bathroom. The project we thought would take a couple weekends has taken too long. We basically ended up gutting and re-plumbing the whole thing. Definitely not what we had bargained for. But we finally got to the painting and it seems like I have been painting for three weeks straight. Everything needed a couple coats and trim took three coats. Then once I finished with bathroom stuff I decided that I would paint the hallway since I painted the ceiling in the hallway over a year ago and never did the walls. Then that led to the doors to all the bedrooms. I wanted to update hardware on everything as well. Even that project has had slow-downs such as the holes in the door are drilled wrong and blah, blah, blah. I am excited to have the garage back because it is full of doors and trim. I hope to have everything painted by this weekend. I realize I just babbled on about paint for too long and sorry about that. Riley is at my dad and Phyllis' house for a few days because her cousin Lucy is here from Chicago. They went to the fair last night and today I think they might have gone swimming. I am sure she is having a blast. Carter is hanging out with UNcle Jason and mommy because Daddy is in Chicago for a couple days. Carter was such a good boy today when Aunt Abby was taking his pictures. She got some great shots and I will post them soon for you to see(I posted a couple unedited pics today). Other than that it has been all about the painting!

Riley's busy week

Wednesday night we had a Girl Scout Family Picnic at a park in Zeeland. We were able to eat and start the activities before the storms came rolling through. The kids left with Matt before the rain and I stayed to help clean up (leader duties). Here is a picture of Riley's centerpiece that she made for our table which had to be a camping theme. The food was great but only about half the people showed up.



Yesterday Riley finished up her gymnastics camp. She is so fun to watch. I think she really likes it but is not confident enough. I know she can jump because I have seen her do it on the tramp at Grandma's. However, when she tried at gymnastics it was like her legs would stiffen up and she couldn't do it. Here are some pics from that.








Here is one more that I got permission to post from Riley. This is her GRACEFUL attempt at the vault... or not.



Last night Grandma Jennifer and I took Riley and her friend to see High School Musical On Stage. It was at Forest Hills Performing Arts Center. I tutor a girl that was in the show. It was great and we had a good time with just us girls. Riley also had her first sleepover. It went really well and they even fell asleep reading books.

Our Anniversary

Matt and I went out without the kiddos tonight to celebrate our 8th anniversary. We had a nice dinner and then drove around looking for a place to put the sailboat in the water. Nothing too special but we spent the evening together. It was nice since Matt is out of town so much. Oh yeah, we went to Kohl's too to return all of the bathroom stuff we don't like now that we have the tile in. We chose some new stuff but couldn't buy it because I have a 30% off that starts tomorrow. I am sure Matt thought I was crazy when we found what we wanted and they had it but I wouldn't buy it until tomorrow. Oh well. We came home and I have been playing with my new computer since. I love it. I got a MacBook and I have really missed my Mac that I had when I was teaching so I am very happy to have another one. Anyway, off to bed.

Carter turns 3!

Carter's birthday was Saturday and he turned 3. We had a birthday party at our house in the evening. We spent the day getting ready. His big highlight was going to get his balloons. He had a great time. We thought it might rain so we planned for it and of course it didn't. It really was a great night and everyone had a good time. Here are some pics from my little man's party.

Carter with his cousins Lila and Tyler swinging


All of the kiddos eating dinner


My 3 year old


Carter with his new firefighters helmet


Aunt Abby made Carter an awesome construction cake. It was an orange construction cone with a big pile of dirt(chocolate cake) with a Tonka truck driving into the cake.



YUMMY! Thank you Aunt Abby!


This is Carter's attempt(of course he could not do it without the tongue hanging out) to put the stake in the ground to play croquet.


Future baseball player. I love this gift because he can play baseball without me! I know that sounds terrible but he always asks me to throw the ball just two more times. It is funny when he actually hits it because he gets so excited.


There goes Spiderman. Carter just loves to dress up and before his birthday he only had Cinderella and girly stuff. He got Spiderman, a police officer and a fisherman to play with now. What a relief.


At the end of the night we put his new GeoTrax together.

Carter opening his birthday cards that came in the mail

Last Wednesday

So, we bought a new computer which easily solved the internet problems I was having. Now I am learning a whole new computer. I love it though. Anyway, last Wednesday Carter and I went to an Outdoor Discovery class offered through the rec dept and it was so much fun. It was for 2-5 yr. olds and they read a story, went on a nature hike and made bird feeders. Carter loved it. He called it his school. His teacher's name was Mr. Jamie and Carter has been talking about him all week. Here are some pics from that day.

Reason for not posting

My computer cannot connect to my internet (need to get a new wireless card or a new computer because the battery is shot too so why not?) so I cannot upload any pictures right now. I will post pics soon. Carter's birthday was yesterday so I have several to share.

A few scenic pictures from the weekend in Wisconsin

The perfect holiday weekend...

Our holiday weekend started out a little rough but turned out perfect. We were one of the "unlucky" ones to lose power from last Wednesday's storms. Unfortunately, we were leaving for Door County, WI Thursday morning. It sure made packing a little difficult with no way of doing laundry, no lights and I couldn't bake my cookies. We went over to my mom's to have dinner, get things ready to go and gave the kids baths. The estimated restoration time was not until Saturday at 11pm so I knew that I had to take care of all the food in my refrigerators and have someone watch the house. My neighbors were all getting water in their basements and running generators to keep their pumps going. Luckily I did not see any water before I left. My dad came and took all of my frozen food to his house and we packed up in the dark. I kept calling the house to see if the power was on and the answering machine finally picked up Friday evening. My neighbor said she came over and turned all my lights off because the house was really lit up. So, I think I lucked out because I did not lose any food and no water in the basement.

So, the kids and I left Thursday morning and had to pick Matt up in Milwaukee on his way home from his business trip to Texas. Traffic in Chicago was terrible and we got behind so Matt waited for us for a while. But overall we had no car problems and arrived safely! We spent the weekend at Matt's aunt and uncle's cottage. Friday morning my father-in-law and I went out fishing with Matt's uncle and caught 4 salmon. It was a blast. I didn't even mind getting up at 4 because it was sooo much fun. I spent the afternoon back at the cottage resting out in the sun and playing with the kids while Matt went out fishing for the evening. He and his mom each caught one. We had dinner and watched the fireworks around the bay(their cottage is on Green Bay). I have NEVER seen so many fireworks going off all at once. Saturday morning we got up at 3:15am to go fishing again. We wanted to get an earlier start. We caught 4 more fish. Thanks Uncle Dave for the wonderful fishing! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the cottage enjoying the sun and playing in the other boat. Riley and I tried tubing together but it worked better with her by herself. I thought she would be scared but she just kept wanting to go faster and faster. We also did some kayaking which was a first for me. Overall, we had a terrific time and cannot thank them enough for a perfect weekend. We decided shortly after leaving that we wanted to check into taking the ferry home. We were dreading the trip through Chicago. We opted to take it and everything worked out perfectly. We loved it and the kids had so much to do. It was really relaxing and we would do it again. It was nice to not be buckled in the car all day and we ate lunch, played cards and Carter even took a nap. We got home and unpacked in time for bed. It was a perfect weekend.