Up, Up and Away

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go on a hot air balloon ride. While I was a little apprehensive to be risking my life in the air, I thought what the heck, this is a once in a life time opportunity. So off I went with my brother and his girlfriend, Amanda, in to the big blue sky!

Uncle Neal and Brody watching the balloon inflate

Brody posing by the big balloon

There were a few things that occurred prior to take off that led to this facial expression: 1. the need to fill "tanks" very last minute 2. the flame went out in the balloon and it seemed to take just a little too long to relight!

Lift off!

It didn't feel like we went very high in the sky, but looking back at the pictures, I guess we really did.

A view of corn that you don't often get!

The view looking up from the basket

The fields made beautiful patterns when looking down on them

The trip was not uneventful. As we were looking for a place to land...we ended up in some trees. I don't think I have been quite so scarred and unsure of what to do in my life. Fearing for my life I hit the floor in the basket while Neal and Amanda battled oncoming branches/trunks. After we finally cleared the trees everyone turned around to find me crouching in the basket! Looking back it was quite humorous...at the time I was scared to death! I didn't let go of the basket for the remainder of the flight!

This picture was taken after the tree incident - proof that the balloon kept us afloat!

We ended up having to land in a field of weeds, but luckily there happened to be mowed paths leading to our location so everyone was able to come and get us.

After we landed Jim thought he would help out by making sure one of the ropes didn't get caught in the brush..

He didn't know that this would lead to him running as fast as he could with the rope to deflate the balloon!

It's hard to see Jim's face in this picture - but if you look closely you can see that he is in disbelief that he just had to help bring the balloon down

Elephants, Elmo and Birthdays...oh my!

Oh what a difference two years makes! It seems like yesterday that I was meeting him for the first time!

He has grown so much in just one year!

We had a great birthday party for Brody on Saturday with about 15 friends and relatives present. It was so much fun for me to watch Brody play with the other little kids and get so excited for his presents and Elmo themed party!

Showing off my masterpieces - An Elmo Cake for Brody

And a carrot cake for my mom (her birthday was on the 10th)

Brody's reaction to us singing Happy Birthday

mmmm...cake!

Since Brody was born on the 12th and my mom was born on the 10th, she came up with the idea to always do something special on their "in between" day. This year was definitely something special! They were able to ride on an Elephant at the local Apple Orchard. I was shocked that Brody would ride on the elephant - but as you can see they both enjoyed it!

Gotta get the perfect apple!

Brody was even brave enough to ride the pony (for about a 2 minutes - then he jumped off!)


The celebration finally ended today (on his birthday). We spent the morning opening some more presents and visiting the local children's museum.

Welcome to the Terrible Twos!

Pumpkins and Two Year Portraits

We went to pick out our pumpkins last Saturday - as you can see they had all sizes!

The same day I attempted to take Brody's Two Year photos at a local park. We had success with a few!

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!