Kaiser enjoyed his breakfast out on the deck.
"Double air bump" for Uncle J.
Fun on the tramp.
P and P.
Porter donned his red, white, and blue.
Once the babe laid down for his morning nap, I got Kaiser in his 4th of July wear and we all walked down to the lake. Of course, he made a beeline for the neighbor's dump truck.
When he did cooperate with my request for a smile, this is the face I got.
There it is again.
Daddy's impersonation of Kaiser.
I think he would have stayed there all day if we let him.
The older kids got out on the water to tube, while the rest of us opted to stay dry on land.
Sweet sisters.
I think these two could be twins.
There they go!
Watching his cousins ride off.
Since I'd pulled out our fancy camera, I thought we should try to get a couple of good pics with our dapper dude.
Father and son.
Mommy was "fixing" her face, so Kaiser decided to fix his hair. :)
Ooohhh, sweet child of mine.
My baby brother and my baby boy.
Another silly smile with Pops.
I definitely didn't bribe my child with fruit snacks. Nope, not me.
Mommas and daughters post-tubing.
Bros-in-law (and bests) playing a friendly game of tetherball.
Finally all fifteen of us were present and accounted for, and Brett had set up the tripod and camera for our big photo shoot. Unfortunately, Porter wasn't feelin' the whole "model" thing, so we didn't get any pics of him looking at the camera. Kaiser was only slightly more cooperative; I guess that's to be expected. Nonetheless, we got a few decent shots.
The whole fam damily.
Pops and the grandkiddies.
The Rowes.
The Walstads.
The Bralys.
As you can see, the sun was beating down pretty hard, and by the time the camera clicked for the last time we were all ready to be done! Right afterward, we stuffed ourselves with a lunch of burgers, corn on the cob, potato casserole, and several other yummy sides. Then we sadly had to bid goodbye to Brett, who needed to hit the road in order to get home at a decent time that evening and be at work bright and early on Tuesday.
Enjoying playtime with Ellis and William before his nap.
Syd and Emerson decorating their festive flag cake.
While the boys rested, I went down to get some sun by the lake. Though I don't get to do it that often, sometimes I get bored laying out; this time, however, I had loved ones to keep me company.
Daddy and daughter.
Ellis kept this thing going for a long time!
Aunt Kir Kir's still got it!
Catching up on celeb news in People.
In la-la land.
Look who caught a fishy!
Kirsten, Cami, and Pops picked up bar-be-que for dinner. After we ate, we took Kaiser and William out for a boat ride. My boy was chompin' at the bit, and kept announcing excitedly, "It's boat time!" until we finally strapped him in a life jacket and put him in his seat.
Ready to ride!
Attempting a self-portrait.
Kirsten and William behind the wheel.
Wore a serious expression, but he truly loved it!
See -- a smile! (Sort of.)
Trying to give a "thumbs up".
When we got back to shore, I decided that night I'd let Kaiser stay up way past his bedtime to enjoy some extra time with his cousins. Originally I had wanted him to go to bed early because we planned to drive back on Tuesday, but during the course of the afternoon/evening Pops and I had decided to tack an additional day onto our time in Michigan. Hooray! I was so glad to kick back and relax without having to worry about prepping to leave the next morning.
So peaceful.
More digging and dumping with William.
Got a kick out of the tetherball pole.
Time for s'mores!
Scarfing it down.
Connor couldn't distract him from his tasty treat.
Soon the kids started doing fireworks on the beach. I wasn't quite sure how Kaiser would react, as he's never been around them before. At first, he stayed busy playing at the edge of the water and was totally oblivious to what was going on.
Here comes the fog...
"What is that?"
Neighbor kids joined in on the fun, too.
Shortly after the fireworks began, Kaiser made his way over and asked to sit in the chair right beside me. From there, my cautious child was close enough to observe what was going on, but was still a safe distance away.
Enjoying the show.
As the fireworks got a bit louder, I could tell that Kaiser was getting startled. His eyes got really wide, and he turned to me and said, "Did dat scare you?" Then, when the house next door began shooting much bigger ones off of their dock, Kaiser started to jump and kind of cry out. He told me he wanted to go take a bath, so we headed up to the house to get cleaned up. During his time in the tub, Kaiser continued to repeat, "Did dose fiewooks scare you a little bit?" Each time, I asked them if they had scared him, and he replied, "Yes ma'am." We were able to watch some more big ones through the living room window right before going downstairs to lay down. You can imagine my surprise when, as we said our bedtime prayers, Kaiser added in, "Tank you for da sound of da fiewooks." Yes, God -- thank you for the (somewhat frightening) fireworks. :) I'd say it was a happy 4th for my baby boy.
Tuesday morning Kirsten threw out the idea of us all visiting the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and we jumped on it! We decided to go after Porter's morning nap, so once again we had plenty of time to hang out and get ready for the day.
Uncle Justin speaking Kaiser's launguage -- excavator!
Blue-eyed boy playing on his momma's iPhone.
Tidying up around the house.
Sneaking down to the beach for a bit.
Before we left for the sculpture park around 11:30, we gathered the kids in front of the house for a picture. Cami had spotted a bunch of baseball helmets in the garage and suggested that we get a shot of Porter with his brother and all of his cousins showing their moral support. Love. It.
"We're All in This Together." :)
Crazy pic.
I have to say, if we lived in Grand Rapids, our family would totally have a membership to this place! We had a blast exploring, and didn't even get a chance to see as much of it as I would have liked. First up was the indoor exhibit, which we kind of sped through since it wasn't too interesting for the kiddos.
Sweet ride for K & W.
Kaiser enjoyed driving buses around on this huge table in a kids' space.
Rearranging a model of the actual park.
Stretching his legs for a few minutes.
Then we headed outside to check out the awesome sculptures. Here are a few pictures I snapped of them:
Quite possibly my favorite piece was the large clown-looking figure on the lower left in the collage above. Any guesses as to what it's called?
Ha!
We spent the vast majority of our time in the fantastic, interactive children's garden.
Entering through a door that's just his size!
Being silly in the sensory garden.
Uncle J did a great job on stroller duty.
Fun with the girls in the beaver lodge.
Ready to eat!
Munching on lunch in the treehouse village.
Connor keeping him company.
Stopped on the bridge for a photo op with my guys.
Ringing the bell in the butterfly maze.
Coolio.
The hosts with the most.
Silly pic with Aunt Cam.
This wasn't staged. Nope, they totally walk like this. All. The. Time. :)
Water play in the Great Lakes garden.
Trying hard to catch fish.
Painting with water on the sidewalk.
Disappeared quickly in the sun.
Lasted a little longer in the shade.
We'll have to try this at home!
Fab foursome.
Treating Ellis to a whiff of his stinky feet. How considerate of him!
I was so disappointed when I realized that the boys and I needed to skidaddle to get home for naps. We took off in our car with Pops. Meanwhile, the uncles and remaining kids drove to Dick's Sporting Goods to shop for shoes for Connor. Cami and Kirsten stayed longer to check out the rest of the sculpture park, and judging from the cool pictures they took and descriptions they gave, I wish I could have accompanied them!
That afternoon I attempted to soak up a few more rays down at the lake. I thought I'd bring our big camera lens down there to play paparazzi with my nieces and nephew.
BFFs.
Oh, to be young again...
William's turn on the tube.
Pouting up on the trampoline because she wasn't allowed to have cake.
I expected Porter to sleep until 5:00, but around 4:00 I heard him start crying on the monitor, then quiet down. I assumed he'd just fallen back asleep, but upon coming inside I learned from Kirsten that, unbeknownst to any of us, her neighbors were back from their time away! Whoops! I'm sure it was odd for them to come home, be unpacking, and suddenly hear the cries of a random baby coming from their basement. Fortunately, Jill (the wife/mom) is so kind and easygoing and didn't mind at all. Though Daddy and I were hesitant, she insisted that we not change our plans and stay over there our final night. So sweet!
Porter was wearing his cranky pants after his early wakeup, so Aunt Kir Kir cuddled with him and fed him a little pre-dinner snack.
First taste of watermelon!
That night Connor had a baseball scrimmage at 6:00. I thought that it would be too much to try to take Porter and still get him fed and in bed for a good night's sleep, so he and I stayed behind at home while Kaiser tagged along for a portion of the game. I think Porter enjoyed the peace and quiet of an unoccupied house; he was content playing with toys on the living room floor for quite a while, and then got movin' to come find me in the kitchen.
"What's that I hear? Silence."
"A little help here?"
On the prowl.
Kaiser arrived home with Aunt Cami and the girls just after Porter went night-night. He'd had a ball at the ball game with the gang and was lovin' life. I got him in the tub for a quick scrub, and then it was off to bed for this construction truck-covered cutie.
Thrilled about his new pajamas!
The rest of the night just we hung out, watched news reports about the Casey Anthony verdict, and watched funny videos on YouTube. Finally we figured it was time to throw in the towel and get some rest before the next day's trip.
We were bummed to have to say goodbye to the fam on Wednesday morning. Our goal, once again, was to pull out by 8:00, but it ended up being more like 8:30. While my boys ate breakfast, their cousins all rolled out of bed to bid us farewell.
Willy and Pops.
Buddies.
Can't wait to see this chica when we're in OK next!
Kaiser sandwich.
Crusty, half-asleep cousins.
After hugs all around, we loaded up in the car. The only thing that made me less sad about our goodbye is that the Kent, Kirsten, and the kiddos are planning another road trip to visit us sometime in August, so it won't be too terribly long before we see family again!
We had a fairly uneventful trip home, which is just how I like 'em. Pops manned the driver's seat the entire time so that I could tend to the boys when need be. (Huge shout out to my daddy for being my travel companion. I'm so grateful for him and his willingness to help me!) Kaiser played with his trucks for a while, then requested that I read him every single one of the ten or so library books we brought along, and finally requested to watch a DVD...and then another...and then another. And, of course, I let him.
Perusing Three Billy Goat's Gruff.
In the Finding Nemo zone.
Porter did about the same -- caught a couple of short naps, and fussed on occasion when he was bored and needed a little bit of attention or a new toy. On the whole, I was proud of how well he handled the hours in his carseat with only one break for lunch.
Precious thang.
We made it back to Pittsburgh safely around 4:30 that afternoon, and Kaiser was thrilled to be reunited with his track excavator, which we'd left behind. Pops unloaded the car while I tried to sort through things and the boys played in the living room. After Brett got home, early bedtimes were in the cards for both our boys, as afternoon naps had been nonexistent and I would need to wake them up super early the next morning so we could get Pops to the airport to catch his flight back home. Kaiser kept saying that he wanted to go on a plant to Oklahoma, too. :( You and me both, Buddy.
Kent, Kirsten, Connor, Sydney, and William -- Thank you so much for welcoming all of us into your home for this extra special visit! We had the absolute best holiday weekend and treasure the time we spent with you. Thank you for preparing scrumptious food for all of us, taking us out on a couple of awesome excursions, sharing your cool toys with Kaiser, and lovin' on Porter. You are wonderful hosts! We love you loads and loads and can't wait to see you next month!
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