Ball games!

Our visit to Michigan always includes getting to see some of my nieces and nephews in ball game action.  I love going to see them play.  This year was especially fun because Luke played T-ball for the first time.  This is the fourth kid in my sister's family, so he has sat through dozens and dozens of sporting events, and now it is HIS TURN!  He was so stinkin' cute out there.  Also, he was super serious about the game!  None of that "digging for daisies in the dirt" for Luke, no way!  He had watched enough games of his sibling's that he knew what he was supposed to do and he was going to do it, dad gum it! 

My nephew Jack is an old hat at the game, and like pretty much anything he does, he is REALLY good.  This year, he plays catcher for his team most of the time, with occasional stints in the outfield because he is one of the few boys who can barrel the ball into the infield.  His team qualified for the playoffs, which start this week.  We'll get to watch the first one, which happens to be against the first place team that is undefeated.  My brother in law, Jack, is the coach of this team and has confidence that they can beat that team (that's right, think positive!!!).  Apparently they came within one point of beating them in the two previous matchups, so anything can happen!  I can't wait!  I love a good close scoring ball game!

Classic Coach Jack position!

Giddy Up Pardner!

Yes, we are having more fun in Michigan than might be legally allowable.   Is that a problem?

My really great friend Julie and her family own a couple of horses, and besides the amazing company she is to begin with, the added bonus of horse riding makes a visit to her house awesome.  Kendra was so excited to ride and to see her old pal, Charlie the pony.  A little story about Charlie:  back before Julie had her house built, they boarded their horse across the street with their neighbor.  The neighbor had a horse named Cooler and Charlie pony.  Charlie is a little white Shetland who is THIRTY FIVE YEARS OLD.  Did you know that ponies live so long?  Charlie still has a good five years yet before he reaches average life span!  Well, Kendra fell in love with Charlie several years ago when we still lived here.  You see, Charlie only likes children.  He doesn't let adults anywhere near him willingly, but he'll let a small child pet and groom and hug on him all day long.  Julie's daughter's have now passed the height requirement for Charlie's tastes, but Kendra is still short enough that he allows her attention.  So she groomed him and hugged on him and loved him for a good while that day.

Kendra also got to ride the "big" horses.  She first rode with Julie leading the horse.

Then she told us that she wanted to try it on her own.  Pretty brave, I thought, considering her feet didn't even reach the stirrups so she had only her sense of balance to keep her up in the saddle.  Luckily the horse (can't remember his name!) was super sweet and gave her a nice smooth ride. 

After riding, we enjoyed a yummy lunch together and Julie and visited while Kendra played with L.  They went out to see L's chickens--she has 13 chickens that she raises for selling eggs!  Five of them are adults and are laying eggs now, and the other eight are "teenagers" yet and will be laying in a few months.  She has quite a little business going already...pretty cool! 

We are so glad we got to spend time with these awesome people.  I love Julie and I could talk to her for DAYS.  We still haven't caught up all the way yet, and it is doubtful that we will.  Sigh. 

G'ma Janice and Papa Terry

My sis and I herded our families into cars and drove over to see my dad and stepmom for an afternoon.  This year, Kendra and I took our hound out there as they are dog-friendly folks who actually requested the hound's visit.  Crazy people.

We got there and as is per usual, the kids peeled off their clothing as fast as they could (in the house, of course) and got into the pool immediately.  The great news this year was that Luker was tall enough so the water wasn't over his head!   Another bonus was that the kids of my step-brother Jason were there and we got to see them too!  Great kids, although I'm not sure who gave them permission to grow up so much.  Sheesh!

So first was the pool, and I caught each of the kids in an action shot as they jumped off the ladder...

Next, we continued the tradition of walking the couple blocks up to the little charming downtown area.  We went to a local mom & pop restaurant and had some seriously yummy pizza.

 

Here is niece Tessa, clearly in a pizza coma.

We ordered WAY too much pizza, so we took it with us.  My brother in law Jack makes a fine pizza carrier!

After stuffing ourselves ridiculously full, we did the next logical thing--we walked to the swinging bridge so we could mix all that pizza up with some serious motion!

The bridge is only anchored on both ends of the shore, so I suppose that would be called a suspension bridge?  As you walk across it bounces, wobbles, and swings.  Kendra is not a fan---this is about as far as she went across, but the other kids loved running full speed and making it shake like crazy!

Here are all eight kids and a good view of the bridge behind them. 

We walked back to the house where the kids jumped back into the pool until it was time to head home. 

Just before we left, Dad and Janice gave Kendra her birthday card.  Tradition is that they get a couple of lottery scratch cards in their card...unfortunately no winners this year!

When it was time to go we took a few pics of the soggy kids with their grandparents.  It was a fantastic, fun-filled day!

(Luke insisted that Grady be in this shot...how cute!)

Spontaneous T.R.O.U.B.L.E.!!!!

If you love country music,  you'll recognize that song title from this handsome fella....

After my two nephew's baseball games were cancelled due to rain, my brother in law Jack started fishing around for something to do last night.  Travis Tritt was playing at the DTE music theater, an outdoor venue in Clarkston right near my mom's house.  So with a little finagling of babysitters (the five kids were dispersed to three different places!), Jack, Erin, Craig (Jack's brother) and I headed out to SEE A CONCERT!  Note:  the all-caps on that last line are to help you understand how very long it has been since I have done such a thing!  I was geeked to be getting out to have a fun night with real live adults and no kids!

We took a few pics in the parking lot before the concert.  I really wish I had brought the camera in becasue we were only about 14 rows from the stage and I could have gotten some sweet shots.  Oh well...

My gorgeous sis and her handsome hubby

A couple of hottie sisters.  I'm just sayin'....

Some nice passers-by took one of all of us.

Here are some highlights of the evening:

--The opening band (can't remember the name) had a lead singer who was a dead ringer for my Uncle Larry, who just happens to be in town this week from California. 

--As aforementioned, we were only about 14 rows up, and we were in the only section that WANTED to stand up and dance!  Yay!  We are people that HAVE to get up and move when there is good music.  It is just required!

--We had some ladies right behind us, and one of them was physically disabled and couldn't stand the whole time.  Of course, the whole crowd in front of us was standing and Jack felt really bad for her.  So Jack tried to get the usher guy to let them move up.  Too bad he was a putz and wouldn't do it.  There were plenty of seats, and it would have been the nice thing to do but he said he didn't have the authority.  That's my brother in law---he is such a nice guy.  The ladies did seem to have a great time regardless, and it sure was nice of Jack to try.

--The ladies in front of us were a HOOT!  They were truly old school--eighty's hair and all.  They were hilarious! 

--Travis Tritt has the nicest smile!  Oh my goodness.  And he smiled all night---you could really tell he loved to watch the crowd react to his performance and was really humble about it.

--TT's pants---leather in the front, blue jean in the back, bling on the bo-hiney.  You might think "ugh!" but let me tell you---Mama likey! :-)

--I got carded!  And NOOOOO!  I didn't buy or drink any beer, but Erin and Jack did, and they will card everyone in the group if they think they need to.  I don't ever get carded because I don't drink, so that was a particular delight to show my forty-one year old self's ID!  Oh yeah!

--It was HOT!  We were in the pavilion which had little air circulation.  Erin and I had sweat dripping down the back of our necks.  Didn't stop us from dancing though!

--At the end, TT rocked out to some classic country--Waylon and Johnny Cash.  Jack was in heaven. 

--On the way home we rocked out to the Bee Gee's Stayin' Alive.  Talk about genre confusion!  :-)  But so fun!

Here is a photo of us AFTER the concert.  Note the flattened hair due to sweating our fool heads off.

Thanks, Erin and Jack, for inviting me along!  I had a total blast!

To Lansing we go....

A big part of our Michigan vacation includes seeing good friends.  My oldest friend, Melissa, lives with her family in a little town outside of East Lansing so Kendra and I went to visit her and check out my old college stomping grounds!  Melissa has a daughter a few years younger than Kendra and they get along famously, so they had a blast.  We started our day with the traditional birthday gift swap---Kendra and S have birthdays within a couple of weeks of each other.  We gave S a Zhu Zhu pet and found out that she had been coveting one of those for a while, so she was thrilled.  They gave Kendra a very fun set of nail pampering supplies, including some really cute blue polish and summery nail art stickers to make the toeseys look like an aquarium!  We've already had much use of these supplies with my sister's kids. 

After the gift swap, we headed toward the MSU campus and had really yummy grilled cheese sandwiches and soup at the MSU dairy store.  Then we went to a hands-on children's museum in Lansing called Impression Five.  Totally cute little place;  its only downfall was the lack of air conditioning!  They had several different sections for the kids to experiment---the bubble section was a fan fave!

The Whisper Dishes were set up across the building from each other and the kids talked to each other in tiny voices!

I loved this picture of Kendra in the mirror room!

We were all pretty hot after we played at the museum so we headed BACK to the MSU dairy store for some of the best ice cream EVER!  Kendra had Capitol City Sundae which had chocolate swirls and brownie bites, and I had Mint Cookies and Cream in a waffle cone (I gotta have the waffle cone!).  YUMMMMMMMM...

We rounded out our day with pizza from Westside Deli, which is some of the best pizza around!  Melissa had some tiny cupcakes for the girls to celebrate, too.  It is so fun to visit with friends!

First few days in Michigan

Kendra and I arrived in Michigan on Wednesday June 30th and its been non-stop fun since we got here.   My sister's family was camping nearby as the annual tradition around the 4th of July holiday, so we've spent much of our time with them hanging out at their camper.  Here is a re-cap of the last few days....

Kendra was beyond thrilled on Wednesday when we arrived at my mom's house.  She looks forward to this trip from the moment we pull out at the end of July!  My mom decorated the front of the house with pink and green balloons, and she, Troy and the Murph-dog met us at the door.   A little while later, my sister's family came over for a barbecue dinner and hanging out.  The kids took off and played instantaneously---they played ball in the yard and made a giant mess of the bedroom within moments.  Of course, Kendra and her cousin Tessa hatched a plan within moments and begged for Tessa to stay the night (which she did).  Just when the Garnetts were heading out we learned that the UPS man had dropped by with Kendra's VERY EARLY birthday gift from my mom.  My mom ordered it early on purpose so Kendra would enjoy it while we were here.  She received the American Girl doll named Josefina, which was on Kendra's wishlist since last year!

Thursday we headed out to join the Garnetts at the beach where they were camping.  The weather was in the low 80's and delightful, and the kids had tons of fun splashing and playing in the sand. 

Again, a plan was hatched and this time Kendra stayed at the camper with the Garnetts while I went back to my mom's house for the night. 

Friday I packed up and headed back to the campsite because this was the day/night that had already been arranged for Kendra and I to stay over.  We did the beach thing again and had yummy taco salad for dinner. 

My sister Erin and I tried desperately to read our books at the beach, but we never really accomplished more than a few pages each.  Children's needs kept interrupting us, dang it!

My brother in law, Jack, had his parents camped next door and his Aunt Teresa, her boyfriend Rick, and her son Adam were also in from Florida and came to hang out at the campfire at night with us.  Adam is a VERY
 accomplished guitar player--he is only 18 and plays in several bands that play in the Cocoa Beach area regularly.  He plays at least 2-3 gigs a week.  So he broke out Jack's acoustic and played us a concert each night, which was awesome!    Adam even knew Party In The U.S.A. so he played it while the girls gave us a little concert, too.

A fan favorite was Aunt Connie's three wheel bike.  Everyone loved riding it around...here is Rick with Kendra in the basket and Tess holding Murphy.

The girls found a little secluded spot in the pine trees and dedemed it their clubhouse. 

After a night of smores, Washers tournaments, campfires and great conversation, I squished my long self into one of the camper's bunk beds while Kendra slept with Tessa on the couch fold-down thingy.

We hung out Saturday but then headed back to my mom's house so we could go to church on Sunday.  We saw lots of old ward friends but didn't have much visiting time as we only stayed for one meeting so we could get to the family get-together back at the campground.   The place where my sister stays is a premiere place for fireworks and the day-pass people come from miles around.  The park is absolutely packed, and if you don't get there early enough you can't get in.  As it was, we got there at 12:00 and had to wait in a line on the road for 30 minutes and parked so far away from my sister's site that they had to come get us in their car!  We did the beach yet again, and then grilled out some burgers and dogs and had some more Washers matches.   The park has some bounce houses and a band, so we went there for a bit.  Adam even got to go on stage and play a few songs! 

The fireworks display was fantastic yet again, and well worth swimming upstream in the mass of humanity!  What a great start to our annual vaca in MI!!!!