Spring 2012 Misc

 Jackson and Ellery's cousin Zion had his 3rd Birthday party at the John Ball Zoo! Unfortunately the weather didn't exactly cooperate but still had a great time! Ellery liked watching the monkeys as we waited for the rain to stop.

 Zion and Jackson waiting for some cake!

 All the kids got to pick out a fun animal mask. Jackson choose a dog one.

 Ellery and Jackson loved the petting zoo area. It was the first day that it was open for the season so the animals weren't quite ready for all the attention but we still managed to get some petting and brushing in....

 and a few kisses....

 and a few hugs ;)

 They all had so much fun running around the pen :)

 one last brush and pet for the goat

 It was also the first day the sting rays were in the pool. They were going crazy swimming in circles and I tired really hard to reach Jackson's hand in so he could pet one but we couldn't quite reach and I ended up soaked. Oh well, maybe next time.

 Ellery relaxing in the hammock chair at Grandpa and Grandma's

My two cuties having some milk in the morning :)

Fun on the Farm

 We were invited to join our friends the Lemke's for a day at Dakota's farm school. It was a cold and rainy day but we had a great time! Here Jackson is checking out the inside of the police car!

 Jackson and Ellery enjoyed feeding the goats.

 We went for a hayride around the school grounds

 Jackson and Dakota had the best seats!

 Ellery on her first pony ride! She loved it!!

 Jackson loved it even more so! He was sooo happy up on the BIG horse!

Holding on all by himself!

Coloring Easter Eggs and Easter Egg Hunts!

 We found out our church was having an Easter egg hunt a few days after getting back from our Florida trip. At first we decided we weren't going to go because it was going to be right at naptime. Well at the LAST minute I decided to just take Jackson since he wasn't acting to tired yet. I got him all ready with a bucket and off we went. I had looked up the address (or so I thought) of the park that it was going to be at before I left. When I got to that location it was just the firestation and community building. So I started driving all around the area looking for this park. The entire time Jackson was sitting in the backseat holding his bucket asking where the Easter egg hunt was. After 15 minutes of searching he fell asleep and I headed home :( Turns out if I had gone over one more street I would have found it...we were sooo close. When we got home I carried him into his room and put him in bed. As I did this he briefly opened his eyes and said "Easter egg hunt". Let's just say it broke my heart and I immediately drove to the store to buy eggs and candy and we had a little hunt in our backyard :) 

 He had fun and that's all that mattered!

 Even Ellery enjoyed finding some eggs in the yard!

 Jackson had a lot of fun coloring eggs this year. It was our first time doing it as a family. He picked out "CARS" stickers to put on them....shocking right :)

 Concentrating very hard on carefully getting the eggs out of the cups

 My sweet boy :)

 Daddy helped with the stickers because they were a little tricky to get off the sheet

 Grandma had a Easter egg hunt at her house for all the cousins. The kids all had a specific color egg that they had to find to ensure everyone got the same amount. It was really fun....but a tad bit windy that day!

 Ellery and Israel holding their buckets!

We attempted to get a picture of all the kids together with their eggs and buckets but it was nearly impossible between being tired, hungry, and running off! At least they are all in this picture :)

Florida March 2012

At the end of March we headed down to Florida to stay with my parents and enjoy some nice warm weather....turns out it was actually hotter in Michigan most of the time we were there. Go figure! It was definitely better than being home and having to deal with everyday life. We had a great time hanging out at the pool at the condo and going to the beach. It was a wonderful week away as a family, and much needed since Gerrad has been working so much.

Jackson was soooo excited to pull his very own "Cars" bag that he helped pack with special things for the plane ride. He was a trooper in the airport cause we of course had to go to the very end of the LONG terminal!

Ellery loved the swings at the park right by the condo. We went there often!

And Jackson loved them too! :) The Park was located right along the channel so we got to see lots of big boats come through and watched the bridge go up many times to let the boats through. Jackson thought that was really neat!

Another favorite thing of Jackson's was chasing all the pigeons around the park and trying to catch them. Thankfully he never succeeded!

One day while we were down there my Dad and Gerrad rode Harley's down to Key West so my Mom and I took the kids to a beach a few miles down the road and grabbed lunch while we were there. The water was really warm and the kids loved playing in it!

We went to the Miami Zoo one of the days while my parents were off visiting friends. This picture was in their horrible petting area. I thought the people in there were quite rude and not helpful at all. Jackson was trying really hard to pet a sheep and there was a guy in there sitting down and would call the sheep over by him and anytime Jackson would try to pet one they would run away. Not once did he ever get up and help out. NOT impressed.

It was a really hot day as usual and so while we ate lunch Jackson ran through this water sprayer thing. He LOVED it and just kept pushing the button to turn it on over and over and over. He had a look of pure joy on his face :)

I will say the giraffe feeding experience made up for the horrible petting zoo area. You can buy a bowl of lettuce for $3 and we could all take turns feeding them. Jackson and Ellery both loved this part....and so did Gerrad and I. It was a really cool experience.

Ellery looking longingly at the pool hoping her daddy will take her in it : )

My sweet girl so proud of herself for climbing up on the chair.

So I bought a couple water soakers for Jackson to play with while we were down there....can I say great purchase! Jackson had soooo much fun squirting people and Grandpa and Daddy got really into it with him. He was in heaven!

It doesn't get much better than the look on his face! What a happy guy!

My little Ellery cashed out while we were at the beach. What a rough life!

I think Jackson could spend all day playing in the sand.

A quick family photo :)

On our last morning there we walked down to the beach to watch the sun come up. it was sooo pretty.

We had a great relaxing week while we were down there and if the trip home would have been smooth it would have been a pretty perfect trip! Unfortunately Miami's airport sucks! We had no problem bringing our stroller to the gate in Detroit ( or any other airport we've been in with it) but in Miami if your stroller is over 20 lbs you have to check it, which we didn't do when we checked our other bag, so to make a long story short I had to run from one end of the airport to the other with Ellery while Gerrad sat with Jackson and our five carry-ons by security to check it. Of course after doing this we didn't have much time to get to our gate so we had to walk fast/run to get to our gate which of course was at the end of the terminal with two tired kids and five carry-ons and we now had nothing to push it all in. Not a good time at all. Thankfully we made it just as they were boarding. The fun didn't stop there though. Ellery REFUSED to sleep on the plane and therefore cried off and on for an hour while we tired walking up and down the aisles, snacks, movies, books, anything. We were those parents. Ugh. Thankfully she finally caved about 15 minutes before we landed....great timing right?!? We then had to carry two kids and five bags to the baggage claim where we got our stroller back and some relief! We were definitely happy to be home!