Rainy Wordless Wednesday

A day at the park

We FINALLY had some beautiful weather up here this past weekend. Now I am not complaining about Michigan weather.... yet. We have had some wonderful days here, they have just had an unusually rainy spring with way too many pop up thunderstorms. So since we we had the beautiful weather we decided to check out the park that is closest to our new condo.  

 

Chase ran straight for the swings so we were off to a good start.  

 

 

 After some fun play time we took a short break for a wonderful picnic lunch.  Chase was still long enough to eat his sandwich and some chips and then was off again to play. 

After some fun picture taking Chase insisted on playing hide and seek.

 

Now if you look closely at the below pictures of Leah you will see why I am excited about this park.

Those strange green/blue/yellow things are parts to the free water/splash area!!! Sadly it was not open yet for the season but I am so excited to get to take Chase back to play in the water! Now we are hoping that we will have some more nice weather weekends so we can get the boat out into one of the many gorgeous lakes around us.

 

Outings

We have been busy busy with new adventures up here. On Friday we were invited over to a friends house for some good old fashion playtime.  Chase had a wonderful time with his new friend Lucy and has been asking me every hour since if we could go back and play.  After our playtime we went to check out open gym time at a local "gym."

It was an amazing place and exactly what a rambunctious 2 year old needed! There were obstacle courses for him to go through, ropes and poles to swing on, spring loaded floors, and a huge foam ball pit to play in.

And Leah really enjoyed herself as well!

 

 

We really had a good time and it was fairly inexpensive. This place is definitely going on my list for places to frequent during the winter and if we can swing it financially we may have to sign the kids up for the fall season.  We will have to see what else is out there for us to do. This sure was a fun activity!

 

 

Count down

Let the count down begin. We are one week and counting until we begin the next phase of this moving journey.  Starting Wednesday next week Kevin will pick up the new furniture we bought for Chase and the kitchen and bring them to the "new house" (as Chase says) to assemble them.  At that point in time we will slowly move some of our stuff over there in anticipation for Friday morning.  Friday morning the movers will be arriving will all of our stuff that has been in storage up here.  I am so excited that we will have all of our stuff back! Well that is when we find the right boxes and get it all unpacked :). 

As for the last week and a half and the next we will continue to live life, waiting patiently.  I can say our first days up here have had their ups and downs.  The downs being cold weather, rain, thunderstorms (scared dogs in the middle of the night), screaming babies in the middle of the night, and pink eye (me). The ups being fun playgrounds in the apartment complex, long walks, kids and dogs settling into routine, Kevin home from work early, enjoying a church we found, meeting new people, and Leah into everything (well that one is up and down:)).  Overall we are having a really good time getting to know the area and spending time together.  Here are some pictures of what life looks like right now around here...

Leah's 8 month picture (Our joyful baby)

Help! Let me out of here!

Lots of hiding and tent making

Pulling up on everything

"Crashing" in whatever position

Random cuteness

Well that is what is going on here for now! Let the countdown begin for more craziness!

A new love affair

I am in love with my new camera!  As my "...For Dummies" book states, "It is two, two, two camera's in one" (It was referencing some old breath mint commercial.)  It allows the novice photographer (ie. me) to point and shoot and still get really great pictures but it is also very, very, very high tech and gives me the potential to take better than great pictures.  I have to say I have a long way to go and a lot to learn about all the settings on the camera and then a lot to learn about aperture, shutter speed, lighting.... stuff I am pretty clueless about.  Needless to say I am doing a lot of studying but having fun "getting to know" my new camera.  Here are some examples of some simple point and shoot pics....

Ok... so I have a long way to go but I am having fun!

Moving part 4- the whole family

After our busy week in Michigan of working out all the logistics of our move, Kevin and I flew back to Charlotte to pick up the kids and dogs to head to our new home. 

Chase, equipped with his new DVD player, was ready before we even got out of the driveway.  We didn't have grand expectations about this trip with two dogs and two kiddo's but were pleasantly surprised at how well everyone did. Chase was great with his DVD player. The only downside was the occasional scream of excitement that would wake Leah up from her sleep.  Leah enjoyed endless games of Peek a boo and non stop snacks all day long. We left for this trip on Sunday morning (AKA mothers day) around 9:00 am.  I have to say there was not greater reminder that I am MOMMY than being in the car with your kids for 12 hours.  They did make it very special for me. Chase wished me Happy Mothers day several times through out the day and at our lunch stop they gave me a very special gift. 

Ok so I know that picture doesn't tell you much but I got a new CAMERA!!! Not just any camera but a Canon EOS Rebel T1i/500D.  I am so excited!!!! This is something that I have wanted for a long time. Luckily, Kevin also got me the "for Dummies" manual to go with the camera so I can really learn how to use it.  While I was trying to figure out things on the camera Chase was having fun with the bubble wrap.This is actually him trying to be quiet with the bubble wrap after being fussed at for annoying everyone around us.

After he was all out of bubbles to pop he moved on to other things to play with....

Leah had a little lunch with her Daddy...

The last two pictures were the first snaps with my new camera!!!  Once we had sufficiently annoyed everyone at the McDonalds we loaded back up in the car for the second half of our trip.  We finally made it to the apartment around 9:30 pm and Chase was so excited.  He immediately got into his toy box. These were toys that I had boxed up over a month ago that were put away for the move. 

It was hard to get him settled down and into bed and Leah had trouble with her new surroundings as well. Eventually though everyone was settled in and asleep.  Until those moments though, Kevin and I had forgotten about the woes of  apartment living.  The next day I ran into our downstairs neighbor and I apologized about the night before and her response was "I could tell you were trying."  GREAT they really can hear everything and I am sure will be very glad when we are gone 4 weeks.