Michigan trip

Here are some pictures from our short four-day vacation to Michigan.  We had a great time on Colin's first real vacation!

There are many things that can suck about living in Indiana.  Living an hour and a half from the beach again is not one of them:

This was Colin's first experience with walking in the sand and making footprints.  He liked it.

King of the Dunes just had to climb to the top!

We stayed in a great condo/hotel with plenty of space for all three of us and a balcony overlooking the harbor.  Colin was so cute, he thought the hotel was called "Michigan."  Every time we left, he'd ask if we were coming back to Michigan?

Piggy back ride back at the beach

Me & my babies at the beach

Collecting sand and "splashers" (ie, rocks to be thrown into the lake) in his bucket.

Our first day at the beach, Colin was a little afraid of the water and wouldn't get near it.  Back at Michigan, we got him all geared up in swim trunks, and then he wouldn't swim in the pool there either.  So we didn't bother putting him in swimwear when we returned to the lake.  Of course, that was when he decided he wanted in the water.

Emptying Lake Michigan into a hole in the sand, one bucket at a time.

We had a great, relaxing trip.  I wish we were still on the beach!  More pics are here:

http://tinyurl.com/8gzdeq6

(Please let me know if this link doesn't work.  I was forced to convert to evil shutterfly so I don't know if my old system will work or not). 

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!

We started off our vacation time with our big ultrasound on Thursday morning.  I was, of course, a nervous wreck when we were called back.  It made it easier that we had our favorite ultrasound tech who had done all of Colin's ultrasounds... she is so much fun and we love her.  She put us right at ease and started measuring all those little baby parts... like tiny little feet...

 and getting pictures like this zombie face...

When it got to be time for the gender, she asked if we had a gut feeling.  I said, "I think it's a girl!" and she asked, "Dad, what do you think?"  Mike said, "It's a girl!" and she shouted, "I agree!"  Even though that has been my hunch all along (thank you all-day sickness for the past 14 weeks), I still couldn't believe it!  There was lots of celebrating and then just like last time, Mike asked, "are you sure?"  When she said she'd bet her car on it (but not her husband or kids) we took her word for it.  A girl!!

Just look at this sweet face! 

Looking an awful lot like her big brother's profile there! 

We left for vacation on an awesome high.  I talked to my doctor when he was on call the next night and he confirmed that she's growing right on track and that everything looks great.  I am so thankful for that, and so excited to know who's in there! 

family park pics

When Grandma Pat and Grandpa Ron were in town this past weekend, we spent some time at the park and got some rare pics of all three (or "four") of us.  This is so rare that when Colin's teacher asked last month for a new family picture for the classroom, I had to dig back to Christmas to find one! 

random long weekend pics

Just a few pics from our long, rainy weekend spent indoors:

Colin jamming out on the "um-tar" - when he sees people playing guitars on TV, he has to grab the umtar and play / dance along with them.  Little rockstar.

Dad and Colin both had to put on their aprons to make dinner Sunday night.

Mom made chocolate chip cookies and Colin was more than happy to help me out with them.

the very hungry caterpillar

This is one of Colin's favorite books... so much so that he has it memorized!  He "reads" it to me every night.  I managed to get about half of it on tape tonight.  What a little smarty-pants! 



busy saturday

We had a jam-packed Saturday yesterday.  Colin and I started out going down to Purdue to watch Daddy run in a 5k.  While waiting for the runners to finish, Colin ran laps around the stadium parking lot, telling me he was "running to college!"  Luckily we got back to the finish line just as the runners were arriving - because Daddy finished 3rd!  We cheered for him as he crossed the finish line, and then someone swiped Daddy's post-race chocolate milk.  He'd never had it before.. we couldn't tear it out of his hands!! 

Then we headed down to the farmer's market, and Colin enjoyed the season's first honeycrisps...

And then on to Hands on Trucks, the event downtown featuring all kinds of cars and trucks and things that go.. a/k/a Colin's heaven...

We got very hands-on with a giant hook-and-ladder truck...

Colin has a weird fascination with exhaust pipes... he got to touch his very first one and couldn't stop talking about it!

This go-kart was his favorite thing there though, go figure...

He got to drive a squad car...

He got sticker badges from both Lafayette and West Lafayette police officers... he is still wearing his silver badge (a/k/a "police sticker") today!

and finally we finished off the day's outings with some frozen yogurt at a new place up the street.

A great Saturday.. though I think we were as worn out as Colin by the end of it!

zoo trip

Just some pics from our trip to the Indy zoo on Sunday.  We had lots of adventures!

We tried to pet some sharks...

Colin got up close and personal with some penguins...

Riding on daddy's shoulders instead of the stroller.... 

took a break to play on the playground...

Took our first ride on the carousel... someone has a little too much of his mom in him to enjoy rides just yet..

And the highlight of the trip was getting to feed a giraffe carrots!  Colin is still talking about it!