Girls' Weekend

Michele spent the past weekend in Chiago with her girlfriends from college. They packed quite a bit into their three day trip including a show, brunch, and some sightseeing. It sounded like they all had a really nice time. I'm very jealous because I've been wanting to go to Millennium Park since the first time I heard about it. Maybe I'll get to see it eventually if they make a Midnight Club: Chicago or some other Chicago-centric video game.

With Michele out of town from Saturday through Monday, Jake got to split time between his grandparents. If this weekend was any indication of how this fall is going to go, he's going to have a hard time adjusting to not having Mommy around.

Please click through to see the rest of the pictures from their weekend. There are also a few pictures from our latest zoo trip and Jake with his puzzles.

If Michele were part of a TV show when she redecorated Jake's room, this would have been the reveal scene. Try to listen to catch the two things that he notices are missing! The pictures of the finished room can be found above as well. The video was taken after the painting was done, but before Meme and Papa brought down the bed they were so kindly storing for us.

July '09

July has really flown by. From celebrating the 4th to our annual trip with the Trosko family to Shelby, we've been cramming in about as much fun as possible.

During the weekend of the 4th, we got together with MPnA at MKnE's house for a cookout. Meme had bought the kids matching sweatshirts so we all tried our best to get a good shot of all three kids. The experience makes you really appreciate how tough professional photographers have it when dealing with kids. In the end, I was able to make this photo by combining two other photos using an old tool from Microsoft called Group Shot. It'll be interesting to see if it prints well.

We had a great time in Shelby this year. Jake found that being in between Colin and Maiya really has its benefits. If he wants to do something older like play Candy Land, he can play with Colin. If he just wants to run around and be crazy, Maiya is happy to comply.

We went back to Michigan's Adventure again this year. Jake was about a foot too short to go on a lot of the rides, so he had to make due with the carousel and the whale ride. He REALLY wanted to go on the big water slides, but as we walked to each one so he could see if he was tall enough, he realized he was not. We did send him down one slide that I thought I could go with him, but was turned away. He said he still wanted to go and got flipped over at some point so he came out face-down. Michele said he had a big smile on his face, but he lost a lot of his nerve after that. He still had a really good time, as did we. We've told him when he's over 48 inches tall we'll go back. I'm hoping he'll like riding all the rides with me!

The three of us also headed back to Ludington this year. Jake definitely remembered the park with the roller slide. It's amazing to see how many of the toys he can use now that he couldn't last year or the summer before. We found a great new restaurant, called The Blu Moon, that will probably be our go-to place any time we're over there. The atmosphere was very unique and the food and coffee drinks were outstanding. Jake was uncharacteristically outgoing while we were there. He chatted with the host and waitresses. Then, while we were getting coffee at the end of our stop, he ended up chatting with two ladies eating lunch and the next thing we know he's doing muscle poses for them! We're not sure what got into him, but we really liked seeing that side of him outside of our house! Right before we got ready to head home, we caught up with Grandma who came into town on her own to meet up with an old friend.

As usual, we tried to get a family photo on the beach. I used that trusty Group Shot program again to merge three different pictures this time. We'll see if it turned out better than any that Lynette might have captured.

If you'd like to see the rest of our pictures from July, you can follow this link.