Visitors!

We have visitors! The Texas crew finally made it to Michigan to visit us!!! My Aunt Nancy and cousins Kelsey and Erica and Peyton (don't ask me what kind of cousin, I can't remember; something removed; he feels more like a nephew to me). They arrived yesterday afternoon and we all hung out for awhile at our house and gave Peyton a chance to crawl and Carolyn a nap so we could all have a sane evening. :) Then we went to Holland for dinner and sunset at the beach.
It took awhile for dinner to arrive and Carolyn wasn't a fan of sitting still for one second longer than necessary, so she walked up and down the cobblestone sidewalks outside the restaurant. :) Here we're demonstrating our Frankenstein walk together. :)

I love the determined look on her face. She's getting so much more confidence as a walker!
But sometimes she still bumps down and she just looks so cute!
We made it to the beach! Here are Erica and Peyton together in the dune grass. Amazing! A picture where the 9-month old AND his mom are both smiling! :)
And here Auntie Laura dances with Little Carolyn on the beach. :)
Peyton is crawling- mostly Army Style, but he's starting to pick himself up on all fours... He did some of both on the beach, but I thought the sandy army crawl was the cutest! He did not care one bit where all the sand got... and it was everywhere! All boy!
Here's our group- my mom, Erica holding Peyton, Kelsey, Laura, Brad, me with Carolyn, Bryan, Michelle, and Aunt Nancy. It's so great to see everybody again! We don't get to see each other very often.
Two mamas, two babies, one lake.
Hey guys! Let's sit together for a picture!! Peyton smiles when the people trying to get the picture make a spectacle of themselves... Carolyn has always just looked like she was trying to figure out why they're behaving so weirdly.
Here you can see the difference between boys and girls (or maybe it's just the age difference...) We can't get Peyton to look up from the sand, but Carolyn is more interested in the social interaction with the people around. :)
Here are the boys... crawling crawling toward the water.
And here are the girls all walking/standing together. :)
ICE CREAM! No trip to the beach is complete without a stop by Captain Sundae, a classic Hope College hangout (all of my sisters and our husbands- so far- have gone to Hope College).
Peyton missed out on the ice cream... soon enough, he too will be clamoring for "more."
We had a big slumber party at our house with every mattress we own on the floor! We all managed to fit and everyone seemed to have a good time. Next we head to Michelle and Bryan's house for the night tonight and to spend the day tomorrow in Chicago! I've got to be back in time to work on Monday so I am sure it won't seem long enough. But I'm so glad we're here.
There was much joking about who would be the first to post this morning as we all have blogs! Guess I won...

And here you can see a snapshot of how weird my family is. Brad had to work this morning and he was up early and found my mom hiding in the tiny bathroom off our kitchen surfing the internet and trying to keep from waking everyone else... he promptly got on his computer in our laundry room and they had this conversation on their gmail chat.

mom: you know you think I'm a little weird for sitting the bathroom with my lap top, but you do realize that you are sitting at a laptop in the dark having a conversation with someone about 5 feet away for you. I'd say that qualifies you for charter membership in the weird club

brad: i married into it years ago

Ha ha ha... Weird is great.

Benadryl

Benadryl. It works! Carolyn was so sleepy she fell asleep in her yogurt! I hope she feels better tomorrow. Her nasal congestion seemed better today, but "it" seems to have settled in her chest and caused a pretty nasty cough. Poor kid! I feel like she's gone from one thing to another the past few months... makes me wonder if I'm not doing a good enough job of protecting her from all the bugs that are out there- I do try to wash my hands lots and use the hand sanitizer and my shopping cart cover and everything... but she just keeps getting sick! I guess I should be thankful it's just relatively minor stuff and nothing too serious. Maybe she'll have a super immune system when she grows up and she'll get all the sickness over with now. :) I can always hope.

First Haircut!

Well, I finally took Carolyn for her first hair cut today. :) I was loath to cut those sweet little locks, but there's no doubt she was starting to look scruffy... so it was time for a trim. :)She wasn't sure what to think about her reflection in the mirror wearing the animal cape (preferred to face the other stylist and the man who was having his hair cut). She definitely didn't like it when the stylist sprayed water in her face by mistake... but overall, she was extraordinarily good!! She sat so still in the big chair and looked like such a big girl!
Snip snip!
She looks like such a tiny, BIG girl in this picture. :)
Check it out!! A balloon for being so very good! :)

Stories from Seattle- Day Five and Home!

Yesterday was the last day of our delightful Sojourn in Seattle. :) We spent a lovely day together, just the two of us, while Carolyn had fun with Chandra and Andrew. What a wonderful gift to us to just have a few hours alone together- two days in a row! Unheard of! :)

We spent most of the day exploring the Pike Place Market and loved all the sights and smells of this historic place. Below is the famous Fish counter where when a customer orders something, the worker on the floor yells up to the worker behind the counter what was ordered, then chucks the fish up for the guy behind the counter to catch and wrap up for sale. We watched the action for quite a while and I never saw them miss any!There are all kinds of interesting shops in the market- this is an entire store dedicated to wind-up toys. Hundreds of different wind-up toys all over the place. I was amused. :)
We shared a small bag of warm, fresh doughnuts from the Daily Dozen. :)
And I enjoyed my first-ever doughnut Peach! Delicious!
We had a lot of fun wandering through the stalls, watching people, and smelling these beautiful flowers that were surprisingly cheap for something so pretty!
Meanwhile... Carolyn was sharing some special time with Andrew and Chandra. The night we were at the movie, they visited the sculpture park and let her crawl/walk around some. Below she is receiving her first ever lesson on the balance beam- no doubt preparation for a future career in Olympic Gymnastics. :)
Yesterday they took her to the zoo. They said she liked watching the people best (and saying "baby" over and over and over again), but reportedly, she also liked pointing at the animals; particularly the giraffes.
Ooops! I forgot to tell Chandra about Carolyn's intense fear of the carousel... This was the low point of the experience... obviously... :)

We flew to Chicago and drove home today- it was surprisingly smooth and uneventful, given how tired Carolyn is!! She also seems to have picked up a cold somewhere along this experience and is very stuffy, fussy, and has a low grade fever. Poor kid, seems like she gets sick every time we go somewhere! Hope it's just a little blip on the screen and with some sleep she'll feel better soon. Anyway, thanks Andrew and Chandra for sharing your wonderful city and gracious hospitality with us! We had a great time!! And thank you, dear reader(s?) for sharing this journey with us. I'm glad to be related to most of you!! I can't imagine anyone who isn't (or who doesn't love me as though we are) actually sitting through my long treatises every day! :)
We flew

Stories from Seattle- Day Four

We spent a quiet, restful Sunday yesterday. Didn't really take too many pictures (surprisingly)! We went with Andrew and Chandra to their church Emmaus Road and really enjoyed this chance to worship with them. Every once in awhile, I am struck anew with the concept of how the body of Christ is really everywhere. It doesn't always look exactly the same, as we of the fundamentalist-type church are often guilty of thinking... Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but the hearts He seeks to find a home in are as unique as the individuals. There IS absolute truth, found in His Word, but the number of things that are Absolutely true is not as large as some would have us believe. The people of Emmaus Road worship in a slightly different style than we do at home, with our hymnbooks and organ, yet the God they worship and serve is the same. I remember the first time as an adult that I felt that sense that I was "looking" at Jesus through the eyes and hands of people. It was when we went to visit Steve and Carolyn Rohrer's parents in San Diego several years ago and stayed with them and attended their church on Sunday. We were so touched by their hospitality and true, genuine love for others that we knew we were looking at the kind of love that only a vital, vibrant relationship with the Lord can bring. I had the same sense yesterday as I interacted with the people of Emmaus Road. It really is inspiring to see how all the way across the country from us, God is touching the lives of people and making them more like Himself.

After we had a nap and an early supper, Brad and I handed Little Miss Carolyn over to her Auntie Chandra and Uncle Andrew and went out for a date for the evening! There's a really cool, posh sort of movie theater just a few blocks away. It has a great ambiance and was showing the very film we wanted to see- the Bourne Ultimatum! Of course, we can go see movies at home, but we hardly ever get to, so we jumped at the chance and thoroughly enjoyed gripping each other's hand through this fast-paced high-action movie.

Afterwards, we had a little more time, so we wandered down to one of the piers to watch the sun set. It was really pretty to see it over the water.
We had some fun trying to take a picture of ourselves with the city behind us...

And finally had someone else do it for us. :)
We rounded the evening out with a jaunt through the sculpture park (since we sort of "missed" it in all the fussing that was going on while we were there the other night)...

Today promises to be another great day. Andrew has to work, but Chandra is going to hang with Carolyn and we are going to go out for breakfast and lunch and explore the market in between. Maybe we'll do a little window shopping along the way and just savor the delight of being somewhere alone together.

Stories from Seattle- Day Three

Yesterday turned out to be the nicest day of the weekend weather-wise. It was a great day to be outside all day! We started the day at a nearby park with a great overlook of the city skyline. We tried for a family picture with the skyline in the background, but Carolyn wasn't in the mood for pictures (a theme that lasted the entire day...)
This was the best we could do. :) One of the coolest things about Seattle is the abundance of sculptures all over the place. I feel like we see something cool just about everywhere we look! And lots of the sculptures are good for climbing on. :)
After our visit to the park, we drove out into "nature" a bit for a short "hike." For us, it was a hike; for Andrew and Chandra, a pleasant stroll through the trees. :) It certainly was a beautiful hike/walk. :)
Carolyn had the best seat in the house, perched on "Uncle" Andrew's back! :)
One of my favorite things about the scenery was the way the light filtered down through the leaves on these trees. It made the leaves look like they were glowing. When you're the person lagging behind in a group, huffing and puffing your way up the hill while all the others are chatting merrily away, you notice things like leaves. :)
But we all made it to the top- even me! And the view was worth every huff and puff. :)
Here's one of Andrew and Chandra's famous "hold the camera at arm's length and snap the picture" shots.
We paused for a snack at the top... everyone was hungry!!
And here's the whole group all together.
Carolyn got a little drowsy on the way back to the bottom.
After we all napped and freshened up, we went out for a nice dinner. Here's our best attempt at a "family" picture, after which we decided it might be too dangerous for another try, given our child's obvious inclination toward holding sharp objects. :)
The food was phenomenal! We cleaned our plates! Some of the best seafood I've had in a long time!
Andrew was favorably impressed with his selection as well.
Carolyn would have been happier if we had ordered berries for dinner. Here's how our conversation went.

"Please, Mom, can I have some more?"
"Dear, I've offered you everything on the table and you have cried and spit everything out!"
"But Mom, I want some of THAT!!! I can't tell you what THAT is, but I want some! Now!"
"Arrrgh... nobody gets me."
"Oh wait, this is more like it! Why didn't you offer me some of THIS before?!"
"Oh yes, I'll have some more of that brownie sundae!"
The evening ended with a much happier little Carolyn strolling down the street with Andrew and Chandra while we pushed an empty stroller. :)