Michigan Trip

Last weekend we traveled to the upper peninsula of Michigan with my family.  Since Bret and Laura had their wedding in Henderson in February and a lot of Laura's family and friends were unable to make it due to the distance, they planned a reception where Laura grew up.  We were so excited to get away for a vacation and go somewhere we've never been before! (well Blake has been to the UP before, but I sure hadn't!)  We had a 6 am flight out of Omaha Thursday morning and had to leave home at 2:45am to make it there.  We thought Brooks would fall back asleep on the drive, but he didn't.  Luckily he took a short nap on both of the plane rides and did amazingly well the rest of the day!  We were all running on little sleep, but I think we were all excited to be on vacation, that it didn't matter!

We spent most of our time at Laura's grandparent's place right on Lake Huron.  It was beautiful! We were all wondering why Laura would want to leave a place like this for Nebraska, but then when you consider the long cold winters they get in the UP, maybe it wasn't so bad. :) As long as you can visit during the summer months! Here is what we saw from Laura's grandparents back yard.

The first evening we were there, Laura and Bret took us out on a tour of the lake.  The cool air felt so great after the 100 degree weather we were having in NE!

Thursday was our 4 year wedding anniversary.  It was fun to go on vacation on our anniversary (even if it had nothing to do with it!).  Here is our 4 year anniversary pictures! :)  So much has changed in just 4 short years!

Friday, we went to Mackinac Island.  Here we are waiting to leave on the ferry.  (Ferry is the only way to get to the island, and no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island)

We had a fun time on the island and took a horse drawn carriage ride, saw a butterfly house exhibit, and enjoyed walking around the touristy shops.  Unfortunately, I lost my camera half way through the day, so I don't have many pictures from it all!  Luckily someone was nice enough to turn it in, and we got it back!   So here is the only picture I really have of the island.  I may post more if I can get some from my sister and mom.  

Brooks had a fun time just playing outside most of the time we were in Michigan.  He is getting along better and better with his cousin Katy!  This is about the best I've seen them play together without tears! 

Boys just love to play in the dirt! 

I was glad the wedding reception was outdoors and that the weather was so nice! Brooks loved walking around the yard and even got to meet a puppy! 

However, this puppy was not as well behaved around kids as Cheyenne, so Brooks got scared when he took a toy from his hand.  Pretty cute how sad he looks and getting reassured by Dad that the puppy just didn't know better!  Brooks is glaring at the puppy in this picture!

Hopefully I'll be able to post some more pictures of the trip later on when I get copies of the ones from my Mom and sister's cameras.  But this gives you a small glimpse of the weekend!  We had a great time!

Just Like Dad

Brooks has really started imitating what Blake and I do.  It's pretty cute to watch!  He especially likes to do whatever his dad does.  He has even started brushing his teeth on his own after he watched Blake one morning. He also loves to vacuum now since he sees Blake do it ALL the time.  (Having a dog shedding her winter coat makes vacuuming a daily necessity!)

 Brooks always wants to steal bites from Blake (well mostly just from his yogurt at noon!)  Here he got to try a smoothie from McDonald's, and he loved it! He also tried some of my frozen strawberry lemonade and didn't like it at first, but then came back for more after he learned the tartness wasn't so bad!

Blake found a tee-ball set I bought Brooks for when he gets a little older, and he started showing Brooks how to hit the ball.  Brooks liked to try, but mostly liked to watch Cheyenne fetch the ball!

I'm not sure where Brooks came up with this one....he has started eating some of his dropped snacks off the floor with his mouth.  My only guess is he is imitating Cheyenne!

Blake has put together several new furniture purchases in the past few weeks, and Brooks now likes to try and 'fix' things too.  He takes his little toy screwdriver and acts like he is screwing on the end table after he saw Blake working on it.  He had to get in on the action when Blake was tightening the screws on our dining room chairs too. :)

The boy loves his dad!

Parade

Last weekend Henderson had their annual Community Days.  Since Blake had the weekend off, we decided we'd join in on some of the festivities.  I played in the alumni basketball game on Saturday morning.  It was fun, but I was sooo out of shape I could hardly run up and down the court by the end!  I played with girls mostly older than me and only a couple that I actually played with in high school, but it was still fun.  There were only 2 girls teams and we had to play a group that was at least 5 years younger than me.  They were still in too good of shape and made almost all of their shots!  Needless to say, we lost pretty bad!  Oh well...maybe next year I will actually do a little training beforehand! 

There wasn't a whole lot for Brooks' age, but we decided he might like going to the parade on Friday night.  It wasn't a very long parade, and there weren't a ton of entries, but he did like picking up the candy!  Not that he even knew what it was because we didn't let him have any of it, but he sure liked the concept anyway!
He got the hang of it pretty quickly!

 

Lane and Katelyn liked it too!

 

Taking a break (and found some sand to play in)....

I'm not sure how he learned what the candy was for...maybe he was watching other kids around him, but I thought it was pretty cute he was trying to eat it!

Didn't understand the bubbles were not candy!

He got knocked down once by a little girl running for some candy, so he took a break and sat on my lap for a bit

Didn't last long and he was ready to get some more!  When the parade was over, all he wanted to do was walk in the street.  Good thing Henderson main street isn't a busy place :)

I think it was a little too short of a parade for Brooks, but maybe it was just a good warm up for the Smith Center parade in September.  :)

Happy 4th of July!

For the 4th of July we went out to my parents farm to celebrate with family.  Blake smoked a couple of pork butts on his Big Green Egg and I made some homemade peach ice cream.  They both turned out great and were a huge hit! Brooks actually did much better with fireworks this year than I was expecting.  We watched the York fireworks show Sunday night, and he loved them!  He actually started laughing and clapping during it all!  He was pretty tired Monday night when we lit some out at the farm, but he still watched them without getting scared! 

Monday afternoon Blake and I went out to the farm early to have some fun playing outside.  Brooks enjoyed the splash pool Grandma had bought, but he didn't play in it long since he was pretty worn out from the already busy weekend.  We had cousin Katy's 1 year bday party Saturday night, swimming for the first time in a pool on Sunday night, and then his first fireworks show later that night.  Even though he was exhausted and in need of another nap, he enjoyed splashing for a while.  Blake had just as much fun with it as Brooks I think!

 They almost have the same expression in this picture!

Blake and the pulled pork he made....yum!!

Walking around with Great-Grandma

Playing in the sandbox was the big hit of the night for Brooks

 Uncle Bret showed him how to make sand turtles.  I think Brooks just liked to smash them!

Keeping the peace!

Sparklers!

We had a fun weekend celebrating pretty much 3 nights in a row, but I think now we are all pretty tired!  It might take Brooks a few days to recover from the late nights! (and me too!).  Happy 4th!