We have some very good friends that hav a boat. They were kind enough to invite us out. We got Jacie a Life Jacket, and went to town. She seemed to enjoy it, though by the end, she was done with not being able to walk around.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Cedar Point
This isn't the greatest picture, but it shows some of the monstrous rides at the park. Can I just say HOLY COW!! This was the best roller coaster park I have ever been to. There was one ride that starts out at 120 MPH, then zooms you straight up, just to curve over the top and zoom straight down. It was awesome! Then there was the the Millenium Force that twisted and twirled and seemed to go on forever. What a riot! Jacie enjoyed the park, too. And the best part was that the longest we had to wait in line was an hour, and that was only once.
She loved all of the kiddie rides. The firt one we put her in made her squirm and cry a little bit before it got going. As soon as she began to prostest, Ryan said "get her out of there!". I told him to hold his horses, and give it a chance. Turns out she loved it. She went on a lot of rides in the two days we were there.
Snoopy!
She liked the Carousel, too, but not as much as the faster rides.
I think this was her most favorite ride, the helicopter!
Camping "Up North"
We went camping for thet first time this year at Aloha State Park. It is near Lake Erie, and it was wonderful! This was Jacie's first camping excursion, and other than losing LaLa, it was great. Jacie slept surprisingly well. We'd just gone through almost two weeks of letting her cry it out at night (and what a hellish nightmare that was) so we thought we were going to blow all that hard work, but it doesn't seem that we did. She is a good little sleeper now, and if she does wake up, she cries for just a few minutes , and then puts herlserf back to sleep.
This handy dandy little tent is Ryan's anniversary present. I bought him an 8 man tent and bunch of other camping gear. He was pretty happy with it, and so was I once we actually had to stay in it! It was so roomy, even with a huge airmattress, pack-n-play, and a cot. We loved it, and hope to use it a whole lot more.
OUr campfire where we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.
Alli, ALli, Alli. She was with us and was such a huge help with distracting Jacie while we unpacked and packed. She won't admit it to me, but she loves Uncle Ryan's cooking over mine. Tee hee, I don't mind. I prefer any cooking over mine!
We were all so excited to get out on the canoe, but Jacie just wouldn't have anything to do with it! As a matter of fact, she screamed so lound and long that every camper was well aware of her displeasure. I stayed behind with the disagreeable peanut and Alli and Ryan went hunting for a fishing spot...which they never found.
It was such a pretty place to camp. Hopefully, we can go again this year!
This handy dandy little tent is Ryan's anniversary present. I bought him an 8 man tent and bunch of other camping gear. He was pretty happy with it, and so was I once we actually had to stay in it! It was so roomy, even with a huge airmattress, pack-n-play, and a cot. We loved it, and hope to use it a whole lot more.
OUr campfire where we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.
Alli, ALli, Alli. She was with us and was such a huge help with distracting Jacie while we unpacked and packed. She won't admit it to me, but she loves Uncle Ryan's cooking over mine. Tee hee, I don't mind. I prefer any cooking over mine!
We were all so excited to get out on the canoe, but Jacie just wouldn't have anything to do with it! As a matter of fact, she screamed so lound and long that every camper was well aware of her displeasure. I stayed behind with the disagreeable peanut and Alli and Ryan went hunting for a fishing spot...which they never found.
It was such a pretty place to camp. Hopefully, we can go again this year!Thursday, July 3, 2008
Mackinaw and Heartbreak
We took Alli up north for some real Michigan camping. Since it was likely going to be our last trip, we thought we would splurge and head over the Mackinaw Island. $64 later, we got onto the fairy and headed for what has been proclaimed as one of the neatest places ever. The island boasts no motor driven vehicles. They have horse drawn carriages, walking and biking trails and all kinds of shopping (of course--as if the fare to get over there wasn't enough). However, it was a special trip, and we were trying to make it fun for Allison and ourselves. We get over there with our map (I think we even got suckered into buying one of those) and stroller and went to town.
Allison, me, and Jacie on the boat headed over. We are full of anticipation of thoughts of yummy fudge and beautiful sites.
The Leonard Clan.
The whole crew.
There are lilacs everywhere over there! Every year they have the Lilac festival. I can only imagine just how wonderful it smells and loosk when they are all in bloom. This shot is right along the lake, and is very pretty.
Somewhere along the way, our hearts broke a little. We got to a crossroads and didn't know which way to turn. We had the chance to go forward, left or right. We were consulting our purchased map (because pretty much nothing is free over there), and Jacie started to pitch a small fit. It was hot and she was hungry. We quickly said lets go this way. Apparently, none of us saw her toss Lala over the side. None of us noticed she was missing for over an hour. When we finally did notice, we retraced our steps. Nothing. We asked people on the street, in shops and drvinig the horses. We asked pooper scoopers (I believe they preferred to be called street sweepers. I prefer to call them, or at least the one that did the dirty deed, a jerk). One lady in a shop said she saw it an hour before up the street. Just as soon as she told me where, I knew what happened. We all walked up there again to look. Nothing. I don't know how many times we walked that island, but we walked it over and over and over. Hours! We walked for hours, searching weeds,asking more people. I cried, I prayed, I pleaded. I made Allison be brave and ask people she didn't know. I made Ryan walk the stupid hill at least 6 times. I wished and wished and wished that she would appear somewhere. Even if she was covered in horse poop, I would take her to a laundro-mat and wash her. Nothing. Heartbroken and defeated, we left the Island. The ferry ride back to the main land was heart wrenching for me. It felt like someone has ripped my heart out and squished it. My daughter's most precious belonging in the entire world was gone, and it was my fault. We got to the car, loaded up and drove off. Just as we pulled out of the parking lot, Jacie let out this painful, hurt cry. She knew--she KNEW that Lala was not with us and was devastated. She cried and sobbed for over 30 minutes. The whole time I wanted to cry right along with her. Heartbroken is the only way to describe it. And all of this over a stuffed animal? OK, back to the stupid Island, where none of us ever want to go again...
We packed our lunch and ate at the little grassy park there. It was nice to sit for awhile. We all relaxed a bit.
Jacie loved to chase the birds. She felt so free being out of the stroller.
Allison was so goofy. Very good sport that day.
Jacie loves cheese, especially string cheese. She looks like she found a real treasure!
This is the most famous Grand Hotel. Believe it or not, this picture is only 1/2 of the hotel. it stretches out the other direction. They charge you $15 just to walk past the front of it! Somehow we got into the garden for free (really, we don't know how, and didn't do it on purpose) and walked in front of the hotel. The gardens were really pretty, but certainly not worth $45 to see! Thank goodness we saw them for nothing.
Behind us you can see the lake. I think its Lake Michigan.
Just squattin' away in the grass...Before we all figured out that Lala was gone. Even now, my heart skips a beat at the thought that she got scooped up and thrown into a barrel full of horse dung. One of the pooper scoopers told me it was likely picked up and thrown out my a "street sweeper" aka jerk. The girl that worked at the Visitor's Bureau had the gall to tell me that Jacie would get over it. Of course she would, but did we need to hear it at that very minute? I know, just a lamb, but it was the most precious lamb ever to one little girl.
Allison, me, and Jacie on the boat headed over. We are full of anticipation of thoughts of yummy fudge and beautiful sites.
The Leonard Clan.
The whole crew.
There are lilacs everywhere over there! Every year they have the Lilac festival. I can only imagine just how wonderful it smells and loosk when they are all in bloom. This shot is right along the lake, and is very pretty.
Somewhere along the way, our hearts broke a little. We got to a crossroads and didn't know which way to turn. We had the chance to go forward, left or right. We were consulting our purchased map (because pretty much nothing is free over there), and Jacie started to pitch a small fit. It was hot and she was hungry. We quickly said lets go this way. Apparently, none of us saw her toss Lala over the side. None of us noticed she was missing for over an hour. When we finally did notice, we retraced our steps. Nothing. We asked people on the street, in shops and drvinig the horses. We asked pooper scoopers (I believe they preferred to be called street sweepers. I prefer to call them, or at least the one that did the dirty deed, a jerk). One lady in a shop said she saw it an hour before up the street. Just as soon as she told me where, I knew what happened. We all walked up there again to look. Nothing. I don't know how many times we walked that island, but we walked it over and over and over. Hours! We walked for hours, searching weeds,asking more people. I cried, I prayed, I pleaded. I made Allison be brave and ask people she didn't know. I made Ryan walk the stupid hill at least 6 times. I wished and wished and wished that she would appear somewhere. Even if she was covered in horse poop, I would take her to a laundro-mat and wash her. Nothing. Heartbroken and defeated, we left the Island. The ferry ride back to the main land was heart wrenching for me. It felt like someone has ripped my heart out and squished it. My daughter's most precious belonging in the entire world was gone, and it was my fault. We got to the car, loaded up and drove off. Just as we pulled out of the parking lot, Jacie let out this painful, hurt cry. She knew--she KNEW that Lala was not with us and was devastated. She cried and sobbed for over 30 minutes. The whole time I wanted to cry right along with her. Heartbroken is the only way to describe it. And all of this over a stuffed animal? OK, back to the stupid Island, where none of us ever want to go again...We packed our lunch and ate at the little grassy park there. It was nice to sit for awhile. We all relaxed a bit.Jacie loved to chase the birds. She felt so free being out of the stroller.Allison was so goofy. Very good sport that day.Jacie loves cheese, especially string cheese. She looks like she found a real treasure!This is the most famous Grand Hotel. Believe it or not, this picture is only 1/2 of the hotel. it stretches out the other direction. They charge you $15 just to walk past the front of it! Somehow we got into the garden for free (really, we don't know how, and didn't do it on purpose) and walked in front of the hotel. The gardens were really pretty, but certainly not worth $45 to see! Thank goodness we saw them for nothing.Behind us you can see the lake. I think its Lake Michigan.Just squattin' away in the grass...Before we all figured out that Lala was gone. Even now, my heart skips a beat at the thought that she got scooped up and thrown into a barrel full of horse dung. One of the pooper scoopers told me it was likely picked up and thrown out my a "street sweeper" aka jerk. The girl that worked at the Visitor's Bureau had the gall to tell me that Jacie would get over it. Of course she would, but did we need to hear it at that very minute? I know, just a lamb, but it was the most precious lamb ever to one little girl.Shoes galore
I know I should feel ashamed about this, but I don't. I love shoes, and Jacie loves shoes, so why not? They are fairly inexpensive, and she wears all of them. A lot of them were given to us, too. A girl has to have matching shoes!! She is only happy when she has a pair of shoes on. Loves them! This picture was inspired by the two pair of jelly shoes Nana sent in the mail. By the way, the jellies are just a tad to big, but she loves to trot around in them, and I have to dmit, they sure are cute!! I think her most favorite pair of shoes are her pink sparkly ones that she picked out. I swear she did. I was looking at shoes one day at WalMart and I picked them up. She screeched, wanted to hold them and that was that. Somehow they ended up home, on her shelf. Shoes. Gotta love it!Detroit Zoo
I learned that Butterbean loves the zoo. Some of my friends were planning to make a zoo trip after Alli got into town a,dn I thought, Sure why not. I aksed Alli if she wanted to go. First response? "Not really" Spoken like a true 12 year old! I talked her into it because it was the last time that one of my friends would be there since they were moving the next week. She signed on, and we hit the zoo. First up: amphibians! Did I spell that right? Anyway, the frogs and such were so cool!
Just a smattering of the zillion kids at the zoo that day--all with our group!
Here are almost all of the kids. funny that I took this picture...my kid is strapped into her stroller and NOT in the picture!
But here we go, with Alli attempting to get some lovin' from Jacie. Just a word of caution: never try to get lovin' while she is stuck somewhere that she can't get out of. She might bite.
The Moms. Erin, in the middle moved lat week to Idaho. We'll miss ya, girl!
Jacie's favorite part was the penguin exihbit. It was awesome. Their jumping and swimming and diving kept her laughing. Totally fun.
Isn't this such a cute picture??
I can't remember what is behind us, but Jacie preferred to be on my shoulders for a big chunk of the day. She really liked the view from up there.LaLa Dos y Tres (LaLa 2 and 3)
So my niece Allison is staying with us this summer. We are very excited, having a blast, but when she firt got here, I decided to take her to Bronners. Good move, because I knew they had the very Lamb Jacie has been carrying around. I thought it might be a good idea to have a back up--you know, just in case something happened to Lala Uno. I'd been looking around town at various stores, but never saw one. We got the the Christmas store, an stumbled upon a whole cubby of Lalas! I was so excited, and they were so inexpensive (only $8!!) that I bought two more. Yep. Two. When we were in the store, I handed one to her and she hugged it and kissed it and squeezed it. Once she saw the "real" LaLa, the new LaLa was out on the floor. Once we got them home though, she played with them for awhile.
Can you see the difference in the the color??? And the old LaLa gets washed all the time!
Girlie Girl, but not totally
Jacie loves to be outside. If she had her choice, she would be out there every single hour of every single day. She is a collector (what small child isn't??). Her most favorite thing to collect is rocks. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. This particular day was a Sunday afternoon. She wore cute little leather mary janes to church, but I didn't want to ruin them by letting her scuff them up, so we put on these little pink hightops. Somehow, she manages to pull off the look and still be adorable!
She also loves to squat. It makes her look like she isn't a babt anymore! Where did my baby girl go?!
Mischief? This is the look of Ryan, I tell ya. She is so much like him, its crazy. She speaks some other language that we haven't figured out yet, and I think she mightbe swearing at us because she'll say something and then giggle. Certainly she isn't telling a joke, right?? Maybe she is, being Ryan's offspring.Thursday, June 12, 2008
Snuggled
Jacie is an amazingly busy kid in the crib. She flips herself all around and manages to get her legs and arms stuck in the rails. As a general routine, I go and check on her each night to re-adjust her into a better sleeping postion. This is what I found. She is actually laying on LaLa's behind. Any good mother would have risked waking the sleeping baby for a shot of that, right?
Food Stories
Funny story. Jacie is not eating very well these days. It’s frustrating, but kids go through those phases, I supposed. In an effort to get her to eat something, he bought her a hot dog at Sam’s Club. She loves hot dogs, so we thought this would be a sure bet. Wrong! She took about 5 little pieces of it before she refused anymore. However, she would eat the bun. So, Ryan being the guy that will do whatever it takes to get you to do something you don’t want to do, hid pieces of the hot dog insie the bun before he gave it to her. It worked for a few bites. Then she spit it out, took apart the bun, got the hotdog out and ate the bun. After that, she had to hold every piece of the bun she as being fed to make sure it didn’t contain a smidgen of meat. Weird? Yes. This kid is determined! She is becoming very independent with her eating. I know, probably seems really late to some of you, but up until recently, she has let me feed her things like yogurt or applesauce. Not anymore. She has to work the spoon herself. A huge amount of it goes down the front of her, but she gets a surprising amount into her mouth. It keeps her occupied for quite some time, too. At least she is getting that. Oh…and she used to gobble up the string cheese like there was not tomorrow. Now, she systematically shreds it, but doesn’t’ eat it. This kid just kills me.
I guess we drink a bit too much soda around here. Funny, because I don't think I drink very much, and I never drink it straight from the can. Its always from a glass and straw. However, you see her mimicking someone here.
We had our good friends Dawn and Paul over for dinner a couple weeks ago. Jacie flat out refused to eat her own dinner, which was the same food the rest of us were eating by the way. I let her down, and she walked right over to Paul and crawled up on his lap and ate HIS dinner.
She loves to feed LaLa whatever she is eating. She has started to feed the t.v., too. The other day she was eating some goldfish, and I walked into the living room to see her trying to feed Telly (from Seseme Street) a fish.
She refuses to be fed, which is great for her developmentally, but crazy messy for me. I have to clean the floor three times a day!
So...this is what happens when you feed her and she is tired. Yogurt gets into the hair, down the shirt, up the nose, all over the table and on the floor!
I guess we drink a bit too much soda around here. Funny, because I don't think I drink very much, and I never drink it straight from the can. Its always from a glass and straw. However, you see her mimicking someone here.
We had our good friends Dawn and Paul over for dinner a couple weeks ago. Jacie flat out refused to eat her own dinner, which was the same food the rest of us were eating by the way. I let her down, and she walked right over to Paul and crawled up on his lap and ate HIS dinner.
She loves to feed LaLa whatever she is eating. She has started to feed the t.v., too. The other day she was eating some goldfish, and I walked into the living room to see her trying to feed Telly (from Seseme Street) a fish.
She refuses to be fed, which is great for her developmentally, but crazy messy for me. I have to clean the floor three times a day!
So...this is what happens when you feed her and she is tired. Yogurt gets into the hair, down the shirt, up the nose, all over the table and on the floor!
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