Vacation

Today we are leaving for Niagara Falls for a week of camping. It's taken a lot to get everything packed up, but we are headed out this morning. I will post pictures when we get back!

Brains

Dane was taking a nap in our bed today, and I was at the computer in our room. He was sleeping, and then I heard his sweet little voice say "Mommy" - as I turned around, he was pointing to his head and said "my brain's in there". Then he asked if my brain was in my head, if Moose's brain was in his head, and if Abel's brain was in his head. I told him yes to all three.

Then he asked, "Mommy, does Daddy have a brain?".

Our Little Firecrackers - Literally!

On the Fourth of July, Eric surprised us with tickets to the Grand Rapids Whitecaps game (minor league baseball) which had fireworks afterward. We were going to see the fireworks somewhere, and we had been talking about going to a Whitecaps game sometime. We thought this would be a fun thing to do.

We got lawn seats, thinking that would be better for the boys. We found a spot, and the boys were pretty good for about 20 minutes. Abel was just quietly sitting on the blanket checking out everyone around him. Then they got brave, and braver, and braver. They kept trying to see how far they could get away from us before we came to get them. We let Daddy watch a few minutes of the game while I tried to take them to the play area for a few minutes, but that just stressed me out. There were tons of kids playing there, and there was no way I could watch both of them. So, off we went back to our lawn seats.

Abel and I went to get some popcorn and a Melting Moments (two cookies that aren't fully baked with ice cream in between -AWESOME - one of the reasons I like to go to the games). We thought that this would occupy them for a little bit. It worked for a few minutes.

After I took this picture, I realized that's when Eric was ready to go.



Eric and I then saw some parents set up their kids with sidewalk chalk on the sidewalk behind me. The parents left, who knows where they were sitting. People were trying to walk around them while the kids were oblivious to them. I then realized that someone had spilled their juice box all over the blanket, and I was sitting in it. That's when I had enough. We were there long enough for Daddy to have a beer and Mommy to have her ice cream. We were done.

I think it was in the fifth inning, and we packed up the kids and headed home. As I was giving the boys a quick bath, Eric went to Meijers to get some fireworks, and set up chairs in the backyard. Here they are after their baths and ready to see fireworks!

FIREWORKS!!!!
Daddy's little helper

After everyone was tucked into bed that night, we realized that it was probably a good thing that we left the game and just did our own fireworks in the backyard. I'm sure the boys had a much better time watching Daddy light the fireworks and then run from them before they went off!

Waterfront house, anyone?

We did it!! We put our house up for sale last week and now it's just a waiting game. It hasn't been listed online yet because of the holiday, but hopefully this week it will be. The night after we had the realtor come over and put the sign up, she called me with 5 minutes notice that she was bringing someone by from out of town. I was in the middle of cooking dinner, it was pouring rain outside, and the boys were wound up. Moose had to endure the rain for 10 minutes while they were here, otherwise they would have gotten his kisses and wiggling tail! I was frantically trying to light candles and put things away in the 5 minutes I had to prepare. Luckily, the house was pretty clean from the night before, and we had been gone all afternoon so there wasn't much of a mess. I don't think anything will come of these people seeing the house, it didn't seem like their cup of tea - and yes, I was here the whole time.

So now, we'll just wait and see what happens. We are hopeful that it will sell in a few months, but we know that the housing market isn't that great right now for sellers. We'll keep you posted!

We have looked at a bunch of houses online, and there are some we are interested in seeing. We have a few busy weeks ahead of us, so we probably won't start looking until August. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Abel, aka Aunt Erin

The other night, Abel saw our camera and just started saying "cheese, cheese, cheese". So, I just had to take a bunch of pictures of him. I can totally see his Aunt Erin in him, especially his mouth.

Out in the back yard...

Here are some pictures of the boys out in the backyard taking a break and walking down by the river.

Trucks

When Grandma and Grandpa Clark (Eric's mom and stepdad) came to visit in May, they brought some cool wooden trucks for the boys that Grandpa TC made and Grandma painted. The boys love playing with them. As you can see in the pictures below, Dane likes to drive them normal, and Abel likes to ride on the semi truck and push himself with his feet. These two are all boy, but they sure are different than each other!

Abel also likes to hide things in the semi.