Pearl Lake Weekend 2012

We spent a long weekend up at Pearl Lake for lake fun, celebrating Mom's 60th birthday, and hanging with the Kruses, our college friends, currently living in Germany but doing a grand tour in the U.S.

Brotherly love

 Helping Grammy blow out her candles

Us with Derek, Nicole and their son Benny

Our days were full of skiing, swimming, floating, sailing and more 

(plus fishing, but that will be getting its own post!)

Driving the boat. Jojo is the "second mate" because TJ is first mate.

 Benny gets his first swim in the lake!

 Look at those big blue eyes!

 Trying out the floaty fish

This photo is for all the people who ask if there is red hair in my family. Just a bit! :)

Check out those front teeth just starting to poke through!

The weekend also involved naps in many forms, mostly on the boat

And lots of tubing. Notice that the boys chose a more relaxed, leisurely tube ride.

Isn't my sister's little bump cute?!

 Derek wore the "guest" brova brova as the three guys drank beer and bonded.

 Love this photo!

The bump is not only cute, but functional.

Our growing family of 8!

Visiting the Dreyers

We spent our last night in Cincinnati at the home of our good friends, the Dreyers. Their kids, Ella and Will, are 8 and 6, but they were great about playing with the boys. Craig brought Carter over as well, and all of the kids played in the sprinkler and with squirt guns while we sat on the driveway and ate pizza in the heat. 

 Thomas was right in on the action, though he didn't like getting splashed!

 So cute!

Jojo has a thing for very soft, plushy stuffed animals. He gets very exited and tries to eat them. 

Here, he's attacking a snake. 

 Sunday morning we went to Great Wolf Lodge for brunch to celebrate Father's Day. 

Good food and a fun place! The kids had a ball.

Josiah is 10 months!

I wrote this post 2 weeks ago and just realized tonight that it hadn't posted. Oops!

Had to break out the double digit blocks this month...

Our happy little guy thinks he's a big boy. Move over, baby toys, he wants to play with the big kid toys, such as pushing cars around the room, cooking in the play kitchen, and anything TJ is playing with. He crawls at warp speed, has occasionally stood on his own for 3-5 seconds, and is more than happy to walk all around with a few fingers for support. He and TJ have started playing nicely together (for about 2 minutes at a time, but we'll take it!).

Jojo has also learned that a well-timed squawk works well to get him what he needs (particularly food), or get his brother (his favorite person, except for Mama) in trouble. Right now his two top front teeth are poking their way through, so we've been dealing with extra fussiness and a red monkey butt while serving as human chew toys. He waves and sometimes will do "so big." Sleeping through the night is still hit or miss, something we hope will improve soon!

Oh, and here he is his with one of TJ's toys, his latest and greatest teething remedy.

Yep, it's a play drill. This video was originally 42 seconds long, if that's any indication of how much he likes this!

More family wedding pics

Some non-wedding pics from the wedding weekend...

 We celebrated Aidan's first birthday and Corban's 9th birthday. Aidan looks pretty happy about the presents!

Aidan and Jojo played pretty nicely with Aidan's new toy. It was not quite as nice when the big kids got involved. Or when Aidan eventually bonked Jojo on the head with the hammer, but Jojo faces worse on a daily basis from TJ!

 Silly boy! Aidan wasn't walking this weekend, but he was a very solid stander. Here he's standing and eating Thomas' flip flop.

 If there was a theme to the weekend besides the wedding itself, it was jumping on the bed. Here are Thomas and Lauren bouncing on Grandma and Grandpa's bed; the night we arrived Thomas, Jakin and Corban had a 30-minute bounce-fest, complete with pillow fight. TJ kept stopping and saying "Guys! Yet's (let's) settle down." The boys would stop, and then TJ would hit them with a pillow again. They were having a ball. I think that's the best part of staying in a hotel--free rein to bounce on the beds! 

 We also tried out the hotel swimming pool. Here's Lauren on Ed's shoulders.

Lots of kids in the pool!

Suzanne and Caycee's wedding

Does it seem like weddings are the theme of the summer? Because they are. The weekend of June 15, we had our 4th wedding of the season. This one was in Cincinnati--Ed's cousin Suzanne and her fiance (now husband) Caycee. As always, when the Rubles come, they come big, so it was a full house. It's great to have so much family time--we love seeing the cousins play together!

Don't they look happy!

The bride's entire family

TJ sitting with the big boys during the ceremony. Don't they all look thrilled?! About halfway through, he drifted and joined me in the pew in front. Ed was videotaping the ceremony and I was corralling Josiah. Then Thomas started singing "Red Solo Cup." 

Not the best song during a wedding...though I think he was anticipating the party after the ceremony!

 Annie and Lucinda, handing out programs

 The Ruble siblings

Yep. TJ got his hot little hands on our camera again, and Corban posed again. Just like the last family wedding. Perhaps this will be a new tradition? 

Our family of four

I LOVE their plaid shorts--so cute!

 All the cousins (and second cousins) at the wedding

Jojo wanted to walk. Way better than crawling on concrete!

 Father-daughter dance

Kids dancing

Dancing on Daddy's shoulders

Ed did not disappoint; we have a dancing with kids video from this wedding as well. Make sure you watch until the end--the last couple seconds contain the best part!

The best wedding receptions end like this!