Thomas on skis!

Thomas has gone hot and cold about skiing all summer. He loved the tube ski, but even with that, he had certain requirements--he would only do it behind the pontoon boat, he kept emphasizing he wanted to go slow...

But when he would get excited about it and skiing, we'd nudge him toward the real skis. With a large chunk of sandy beach at Pearl, it was the perfect time for another shore run. (This is how Jenn and I learned too, way back when.) He did a fantastic job! (And so did Dad as the horsepower!)

Week at Pearl Lake

When I started working for myself last September, one of the big motivators behind it was being able to set my own schedule rather than being stuck at a desk 9-5. And along those lines, I really wanted to be able to spend a week at Pearl Lake. Since I was a kid, it was always a weekend thing, or maybe a long weekend. But an entire week? That would be fantastic.

That's exactly what happened the week leading up to Labor Day.
The boys and I took the Lake Express ferry across Lake Michigan on Sunday, the day after our self-appointed family fun day.

This picture is from before Jojo puked. Yep, turns out I'm not the only one in our family who gets seasick on large boats! The afternoon was super windy and super wavy. So glad I took dramamine or two of us would have been losing our cookies! Ferry boats helpfully have little bags in the seat pockets, much like on planes. Thomas was very interested in what Jojo deposited in the bag and asked a lot of questions. I think we were all thankful it wasn't a long trip!

Dad took me and the boys sailing. Three of us ended up in the lake.

Thomas and Buppa were very busy. They fixed a lot of things and worked on the train in the garage, painting the roads and adding rocks to the tunnel.

Thomas backing the truck into the "garage" he and Buppa built. The numbers for the address, written by Thomas, is our address at home.

The cousins with Buppa's new car

TJ helped Buppa with maintenance on the car. He loved the matching trailer that you see in the background!

I tried out the Rhyans' paddle board.

James joined us from Wednesday night on. He and Jojo played nicely and competed a bit for toys. James was almost walking this week. I don't know if what was it or what, but Jojo was much more interested in him, which was fun. Usually, Thomas plays with James and Jojo sort of does his own thing.

He did not want James driving.

I had some sewing projects to finish up. James was very interested.

Swimming with Aunt Jenn Jenn

Jenn kayaking with James. Mom and I did a loop with TJ and Jojo as well.

 The boys tubed on Big Mable with Buppa. TJ wasn't feeling it though.

Jojo liked it so much that he went again with me and Mom. Look, no hands!

TJ and Abby got the idea to sell lemonade at the lake's association meeting.

We watched the NU-Cal game. Niki was teaching Jojo the wildcat "roar!"

 Ready for the game!

Ed and Pat both did some sailing as well. The boat doesn't sail real well this way though...

Jojo caught a fish but wasn't real sure about it. Frankly, this is about as close to a fish as I want to get too!

Following his big brother's lead, Jojo tried (and loved!) the tube ski. He did great!

And napped on the pontoon boat.

Ed arrived Saturday morning and the boys loved swimming with him.

Ed and Pat enjoying the booze cruise!

Dancing with James. Check out that spiky hair!

Beyond the whole wonderful-ness of being at Pearl Lake for seven days, this was the highlight of the weekend. Video to follow in next post!

Family Fun Day

As we started running out of summer weekends, a few things on our to-do list converged into one full day. We could not have asked for a more gorgeous day, and it was certainly filled with fun!

Ed bought tickets through Groupon for a train ride northwest of Grand Rapids on the Coopersville & Marne Railway. It's a 14-mile roundtrip ride on a restored train. We thought the boys would love it. And they did...just not the very loud horn...

We brought their train conductor hats along

Thomas got to sit in the engineer's seat before we left. 

About 30 minutes into the 90-minute round trip, the boys were kind of done. I blame the horn.

Looking out the window the engine switch ends along a siding

The train tickets included a free donut at a local bakery. The day just kept getting better and better.

It was an exhausting trip!

We had dinner and played bags at a brewery pub in Grand Rapids.

All summer I'd wanted to go to a West Michigan Whitecaps (minor league baseball) game in Grand Rapids. This Saturday night was our last opportunity, and since we were already in Grand Rapids because of the train...

And did I mention that it was superhero night at the ballpark? Guess who wore their capes?!?!

Learning to love lemon ice

The game included plenty of side entertainment, including racing eyeballs, and my personal favorite, monkeys riding dogs while herding goats. Yep. We had a great time, but after such a busy day, left in the 7th inning. Plus, did I mention the boys and I were taking the ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee the next day? We had to pack!

Random August pics

Just what it sounds like...a collection of pretty random pictures from August!

Thomas likes to hang out in the boat when it's in the garage. He's happy, he's contained...it's a win-win situation. Until this day. He found the sunscreen in the glove box and decided to coat the boat (and himself) with it. Not cool. Daddy was NOT happy!

Love this hair! Jojo's hair is so fine and light that when the boat is moving it stands on end like this.

One rainy, babysitter-less afternoon, I turned on a movie and made popcorn to preserve my sanity. Ahhh...

Our neighbor Miss Nancy took Thomas and her granddaughter canoeing in the pond behind her house. Thomas' paddle? Nancy's old sorority paddle!

After being squirted one too many times, Jojo tries to refill a squirt gun to seek revenge on TJ. This summer he quickly learned how to turn the hose on at the spigot, watching, as I'm sure you've guessed, his brother. The boys loved to use the hose to spray each other as well as me--I usually would just kink the hose to avoid getting sprayed. Fortunately, the squirt guns were pretty puny and neither boy had much patience with filling them.

We had hoped to go camping this summer and decided to try a dry run in our backyard first. That way, if we were miserable, we could move inside rather than being stuck a couple hours from home. And by "miserable," I mean if the boys were restless, not sleeping, etc.--in general, we really like camping but haven't tried it with kids yet! The boys and I set up the tent my family used when I was growing up. Fortunately, it rained before we had a chance to try it out overnight, so we learned the tent was no longer waterproof without getting soaked while we were sleeping.

Annual Fly-in Breakfast

The fly-in breakfast at the airfield near our house was the same weekend that the Cooks visited, so they came with us to it on Saturday morning. We also met some preschool friends there.

The extended Cook family (minus Kelly, who was grocery shopping)

Little boys loving the planes!

A one-person helicopter

How old does he look here?!?!

Buddies and their dads

So many little kids running around meant a lot of rough housing. What's great is that Abbey gives it back to Thomas as much as she gets. It started like this:

And moved to this:

And then this: