Sheboygan 2010

Once upon a time, we traveled to dreamland.


We watched the fog roll in, hover, dissipate, and then repeat its process all morning. And we had the beach to ourselves! The stillness and the haze made it feel like we were in heaven (or else a movie about heaven!).


And then the tiny babe was sent to us from above... Seriously, doesn't this look like heaven? It feels like it to me. No stress, no worries. Just being with my family having fun in this gorgeous place with clouds all around! (; This is how I imagine heaven to be anyway.


The girls were buried... Um... Maybe I better stop with the heaven analogy before this gets creepy?!


My words will just detract from this lighthouse photo taken from our hotel room patio.


We explored the John Kohler Arts Center, and one of the exhibits allowed each of us to take home a pair of cardboard flip flops in our own size.


Just chilling.


We finally figured out how to have a family bike ride! It was so fun and were able to see more than we would have otherwise.


Can you believe they had a surfing competition? Unfortunately, the waves were pretty flat that day.


And it was cold!


It is fun to think back at the past three years of coming here and the individual milestones each kid has made each time. This year, Aubrie braved the big slide all by herself! Hooray Aubrie!





On the cold, windy day, we took a rugged stroll to the lighthouse.


Our first taste of fall weather... That wasn't in the plans.


We explored the children's art room at the John Kohler Art Center. This free museum allows kids to create their own art projects or contribute to a group project. I think we spent three hours here!








The art center is most well-known for its designer bathrooms!


Each one was unique. (The bathrooms, I mean).


Driving to Door County. Photo credit: Ellie.


Just outside of Door County, we stayed at a hotel that truly felt like the middle of nowhere. It was a blast from the past and even had a real key for the door. We borrowed the hotel owner's personal iron.


Door County was more of a tourist trap than we anticipated, but it was fun to go somewhere totally new for all of us. We ate at Sister Bay's Al Johnson's Swedish restaurant with goats on the roof.






We also made sure we experienced the 'legendary' Door County fish boil.







We hope to return to heaven rather than the fiery gates of ...

I crack myself up!

'Malibu' of the Midwest

We couldn't complete our summer without a trip to our favorite getaway of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. This year we decided to also add a side trip to Door County. Here's a quick peak -- it includes watching a surf competition on Lake Michigan, eating at a Swedish restaurant with goats on the roof, and watching the legendary "fish boil" of Door County.

The tooth fairy

We were starting to think Ellie might go to college without losing a tooth. Not because her age, but because she was looking like a shark -- her bottom two adult teeth had completely grown in behind her baby teeth. She wouldn't let us touch those wiggly teeth with a ten foot pole.


But, finally, the first one just popped out! She wasn't even expecting it and didn't even know at first that it happened. After losing the first, just a few days later, she gained a little confidence and popped the other one out. Phew!

Up to this point, Aubrie had also only lost a total of two teeth. So as soon as Ellie lost hers, Aubrie yanked and pried two of her teeth (that were barely loose) so she wouldn't be shown up by her little sis. All this competitiveness is causing the tooth fairy to feel a little broke!

The escape artist

At 8 months, Kyler decided he wanted to be an overachiever. Over -- as in up and over the gate. No more gated community for Ky-boy.


He may be little (5th percentile in weight and height) but he is a very determined and strong little guy (two gifts he was born with!).


As you can see, he has become very resourceful in using what he can to give him that extra lift to get over the top. He is so social; he wants to be right where we are and getting into everything he is not supposed to. We love him to pieces, but we're a little afraid of what's to come! Boys and girls are so different -- even at 8 months!

The little dominator

Ellie has come out of her shell to say the least. She's at 60 goals and counting this season! Our sweet, timid Ellie probably also would have had multiple red cards for pushing (if they gave them in 4/5 soccer). Not so proud of that fact...

Living in a gated community

Much to his dismay, poor little Ky-boy has been behind bars all summer since he decided to start crawling at 5 months and pulling up at 6 months!


Kyler is definitely our most active and curious kid!


How could you resist these baby blues?




...or this little smile?




When Kyler is not too happy, he says "ooooooooohhhh".


But he quickly recovers and 'Kyler the Smiler' returns.


Shhh! When he is all grown up, don't tell him we sometimes put girl bibs on him or we might get some more "ooooooohhhs"!

Hospitals, medicines, and surgeries ... oh my!

Instead of this...


We have been doing all THIS!!


And this...


In a week and a half, we had 10 doctors visits, surgery, and a hospital stay! First Teyah and Ellie became sick with strep throat. Aubrie developed a strep infection in her finger. Kyler got an ear infection. Then he developed a terrible cough, which fortunately wasn't Pertussis like the doc first thought it was, but unfortunately was pneumonia! And on top of it all, Teyah had her tonsils and adenoids removed and new ear tubes this week. Her surgery meant another night for me this year at Children's hospital.


Taking care or these cuties, and administering ALL those medications would have been a nightmare without the help of this wonderful Grandma! I'm not sure how we would have survived without her (once again!).



Hopefully soon we can get back to a little more of this...


And this!

GOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLL!

We've never been into rewarding our girls for scoring goals...not because we are against that sort of thing, but because our girls have combined for a total 1 goal over the last 3 years. That is until this week.



In the first 30 seconds of Ellie's game, she had her first goal ever. About a minute later, she surprised us with another. Then, moments later, she scored again...and again...and again. Before we knew it, she had scored 9 goals, and she became too tired to go anymore. That is until we mentioned that she could get ice cream if she scored 1 more. She promptly went out and added 2 more for a total of 11 goals!



On the way home, Aubrie negotiated a similar deal that if she scored 2 goals, we could all go out to ice cream as well. That extra motivation was just enough to get some of her kicks into the net as she scored 2 goals tonight.



Even Kyler couldn't be left out as he got to have some milk for his reward for being such a good sport at the soccer games.

Highlights from the 1st half of the summer

11 states in 2 months....not bad...

Why I'm behind on blogging, life

Ellie graduated from Joy School! She was so proud.


And so were we. She is already worrying about where she is going to have to live when she grows up. She doesn't believe me that it's still a long time away.


I am certainly going to miss her sweet spirit around here next year. She helps me soooo much. It is extremely convenient to have a 5-year-old going on 35-year-old daughter. She cleans and is so helpful with the younger two. Love this girl.


Aubrie and Ellie performed in a children's ballet for their final dance performance. We couldn't take pictures of them dancing then but could at their final dance class. They loved being in class together (and I loved it too). Next year they can't be together because Aubrie will start "Ballet 1."


They also had class with two of their best buddies. I love this picture where they are scheming.


Two and a half hours of softball two nights a week certainly keeps our family busy as well.


This slugger is having a great year of "coach pitch."


We ditched the second to last week of school, and went on a long road trip, which included a few wonderful days with a handful of different family members, tons of sightseeing, a few days of Dave working in Philly, a chocolate tour, thousands of miles in the car, some tornado dodging, and ...

a very relaxing stop at the beach.


We have about a billion pictures from our trip to share, and we will eventually, but here's one of my favs. Cousins Liam and Kyler chilling in front of the nation's capitol.

June is every bit as busy at our house as December (especially with birthdays, anniversary, Father's Day, etc.) so hopefully we will be able to post more soon too.