Feeding the Ducks

This is now one of Brody's favorite places to play!

Brody and I met my mom in Lowell for dinner tonight. We ate along the river and had to take advantage of feeding the ducks before heading home. Brody was so excited to feed the ducks - there were so many of them following us and waiting for our food! For those of you who don't know - my mom and I have a fear of birds (I know it makes no sense, but it is still there!). I did surprisingly well with the ducks and my mom only freaked out a few times!

Come on ducks!

All gone!

Weekend with Bobo, Grandma and Uncle Neal!

We headed south this weekend, Brody went to stay with Bobo and Grandma and Jim and I went to Indiana with our Neighbors. On Saturday my parents and brother took Brody to Uncle John's Cider Mill and Jim and I enjoyed an adult evening at a dinner party.

TOOT TOOT!

Look at all this sand Uncle Neal!

This may be the only time you ever see a picture of Brody in an MSU shirt!

Ludington Camping Trip

We had a great time in Ludington this weekend. It was much nicer weather than when we started out the summer there in the cold and rain. Brody was even brave enough to venture out in to the sand and water this time around.

Family Photo in front of Lake Michigan (Jim bought me a special shirt at the camp store "Getting Hot in Ludington")

Look at all this sand!

Building sandcastles

Ready with my bucket!

Wow - that is a lot of water!

Throwing sand is much better than building with it!

MMM...smores! (a boy after his mom's heart)

End of Summer Fun

We celebrated the end of summer with friends and family! Last weekend my work invited everyone to attend the Whitecaps game (local baseball team). We had a great time at the game! Brody even got a big Finger to hold up!

Brody has become quite talkative in the last few weeks. He is definitely turning in to an active toddler!

We had a HUGE garden this year (maybe even a little over grown!). Even with all of the crowding Brody really enjoyed helping us collect the vegetables. We seemed to have the most luck with zucchini and cucumbers this year.

We went to visit Jim's family this past holiday weekend. It was our last chance to have Brody travel for free so we decided to take advantage of it. He did fairly well on the airplane (much better on the way home!). He had such a great time playing with his cousins Dylan and Sydney! It was great for us to see all of our family and get to spend a few days relaxing.

My new computer is now all set up with internet (so according to Jim there should be no excuses not to get back on track with the blog). I should have a lot to post about after our end of season camping trip this weekend!

Splish Splash

Enjoying the Summer

Brody and I had the opportunity to take a day a week ago to spend some time together. We ended up in Charlotte visiting my parents and we even lucked out that Uncle Neal was around that day. We went to the zoo that I worked at during my College years and saw that most of the same ponies were still there giving rides (although Brody was too scared to ride on any of them). He did enjoy the goats and was evening brushing them by the end of our visit.

Last weekend we were back at my parents for our annual family reunion. Brody had his first real adventure with balloons and enjoyed throwing them in the air, biting and popping them. He even got to throw a few water balloons.

A few weeks ago there was a rainbow that stretched all the way across our house. I had to take the opportunity to take a few pictures (as well as some of my flowers).

Summer Fun

Still drooling!

Sorry it has been FOREVER since I updated the blog last. We were so busy during June, pretty much camping every weekend. We had a lot of fun visiting State Parks and Private Campgrounds. It seems like Brody really enjoys being outside and exploring all the world has to offer!

For the 4th of July we had our second annual trip to Harrison State Park. We camped with my best friend from home and her family. Brody had a great time experiencing a lot of "firsts" including, attempting to blow up a beach ball, fishing and a parade!


I was surprised at how much Brody liked fishing. He was even excited about letting the fish go back in the lake and handing worms to dad!
Uncle Neal was able to make it for the 4th of July Camping weekend (and he didn't even sink a boat this year!)

The last week of June we went with some friends from my work to visit Yogi Bear Jellystone Park in Fremont, Indiana. It was such a nice park! We were camping right by a pool and a splash park (lucky for us because that week it was in the 90s!). Jim ended the weekend by dropping an axe on his foot (it sounds much worse than it actually was) taking us to the ER for 3 hours! I guess we always need some excitement!

Brody attempting to ride his car around the kitchen

Brody is amazing us each day. He can say quite a few words now and can tell us what most animals say (although sometimes he gets stuck on every animal saying "moo"). His favorite word right now is definitely "no". Some mornings on the way to daycare he will just sit in the back seat saying no in every tone he can think of (I just sit in the front and laugh). He also likes the words up, cracker, cookie, push, ball, water and Bobo (that is what he calls my dad). He was even able to pick him out of a picture we have in the house last night. By far his favorite things to play with are balls and he enjoys watering my flowers with me when ever he has a chance.

Jim was traveling for work last week and came home Friday to this....we couldn't stop laughing at what I had dressed Brody in that day. Doesn't he look like a 70 year old man?

I just got a new computer yesterday to transfer all of my photos to and really start focusing some more on photography (so hopefully everyone will be seeing a lot more photos on the blog!)

Great Two Weeks

Brody has been enjoying the awesome play set we got as a hand-me-down from my coworker Peggy! It was such a great gift!

We started out June by heading to Ludington State Park for a family camping trip. We had a great time biking, visiting a nearby elk farm and enjoying the sunset over the water.

On Saturday, my grandmother celebrated her 96th birthday. It was such a great day!

Last weekend we were lucky to have Jim's mom and dad, sister Sue and nephew Nathan out to visit us from Pennsylvania. Brody got to enjoy a lot of firsts with them: going to a local baseball game and bowling!

Family Photos at my Mom and Dad's