Moments...

Travis' parents joined us for dinner at our house on Sunday night. It was the first time they had eaten at our place - EVER! We all enjoyed good conversation and delicious food (good job, Trav!)



Heather, Lily and I did some Christmas shopping today. Lily LOVES to pet the Old Navy dog. Too funny!


I got home from shopping with a couple of baskets to stash blankets and warm weather slippers and socks in in our living room, and no sooner had I taken my coat off when I found this... : )

Happy Wednesday from me and the gang!

What a Peach!

After Heather and I's visit to the farmer's market yesterday, we had lots of beautiful fresh produce we were anxious to sample. Once Travis got out of work we headed over to the Hills' place to grill.

As you know, I love to take photos of our niece Lily. She has all kinds of fun faces these days. Such a little peach!

(We got her that shirt from Austin, Texas when we went to visit my brother!)

(Lily and Aunt Joanne on the swing!)

(Me and two of my favorite ladies)

For dessert, Travis grilled peach halves, and we ate them with vanilla ice cream on top. They were delicious! He added something to them - brown sugar maybe? - to caramelize them a little bit. Yum! Peaches!

Today and tomorrow Heather and Anthony are out of town at Anthony's high school reuinion. That means that I'm taking care of my husband, our dog, two cats, four kittens, and Lily. Quite the brood! Check back tomorrow to check out pictures and stories of Lily's weekend with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Travis!

Weekend Fun at Taste of Grand Rapids

I was pretty needy this weekend. Thank goodness for the Bylsma's who came over on Friday, and the Hill's who - well - they spent pretty much the entire weekend with us! : )

I needed to stay busy and keep my mind off things - so we headed down to our city zoo on Saturday for an event called "Taste of Grand Rapids."

It was essentially a huge fair of food. All kinds of food booths from local restaurants with samples and food for sale. We bought food and beverage tickets at the door and went to town!

Delish! Thanks for the fun, Hill's! : )

Fourth of July continued...

So as I was saying... we had beach fun with Lily....

Yup, pretty much adorable. Enough said.

But Lily wasn't the only one who had beach fun... the rest of us enjoyed ourselves as well!





And yes, we do have our cheetos in a plastic boat toy. You have to work with what you have, people! Don't judge!

Later in the afternoon we headed to the pool for Uncle Travis to work with Lily on her swimming skills...

We finished the day with great BBQ, a sunset, and patriotic cupcakes (of course!)

On Sunday we checked out the art show, then spent the rest of the beautifully sunshiney day on the beach. Here we are long before my dreaded sunburn...


All in all, it was a wonderful holiday weekend. It finally feels like summer... sunburn and all!

Unfortunate end to a beautiful weekend...

I'll get the whining out first. I got insanely sunburned yesterday. Ha, ha, ha very funny-serves me right for not liberally applying sunscreen-etc. I know. But not funny at all considering I've spent the day alternating throwing up and sleeping, with a screaming headache. Yup, too much fun in the sun. Love me some sun poisoning. Entirely my own fault, I know.

Phew! Now that I've got that out of my system I can share with you how GREAT the weekend was before today's aftermath! We headed to South Haven on Friday morning and enjoyed a lazy afternoon. It was warm enough to sit on the beach for a little while, but cooled right down in the evening. We opted to stay in with pizza and a movie. A nice, relaxing night.

On Saturday morning we took Bella down to the beach to see how she liked the water. She loved it! She chased sticks and had absolutely no reservations about getting in the water at all. Afterwards, we dried and brushed her and she wanted to get dressed up for the holiday of course... she's so festive!


Well, not THAT festive. You see, we tried to take her to the parade in town, looking all 4th of July-ish and everything... but the moment it started and all the emergency vehicles came by laying on their horns and sirens it was all over. Our tough large-breed dog turned into a frightened puddle of mush - practically jumping into Travis' arms in fear. Yeah, loud noises like that don't do it for her I guess. So that was the end of the parade for us!

Saturday afternoon our dear friends the Hill's came into town for some beach fun. It was a little overcast so the girls (me, Heather, and Lily - Bella was still too traumatized from the parade!) headed into town for a little shopping. With a few impromptu photo ops along the way of course...



We had a great time tooling around town - although I learned that the majority of those cute little gifty South Haven shops are NOT stroller friendly. Next time we'll take the men with us to sit outside with the stroller while we browse... : )

We headed back to the condo and after a snack made our way down to the beach for some sandy fun. I took about a hundred photos of Lily... I'm not exaggerating. I'm still editing them all - so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the beach shots. For now, I think I'm heading back to the couch with my Excedrin, ice packs, and aloe... ah, good times.

Fourth of July weekend part two coming tomorrow! See you then!

Lily in the kitchen!

While Heather, Mariah and I baked cupcakes, and the boys put up a fence, Lily hung out in the kitchen and played with bowls and utensils galore!

A whole lot of Lily... and a few cupcakes, too!

Saturday was Lily's first birthday party - and we had a WONDERFUL time planning and having her party. It was cupcake themed!

Heather and I made and decorated five different kinds of cupcakes - it was our first foray into cupcake-ing and it was a lot of fun!

We were proud of how everything came out, and even had some folks interested in placing an order with us for THEIR birthday party! Do I see a side business in our future??...

Lily was adorable, or course. She was in really good spirits the entire time. No crying or drama. What a good baby!

Aunt Joanne and Lily...

Every birthday girl needs a mid-party costume change, right? Check out the cupcake tee!

Such a cute sister picture...

BFF's and cupcake QUEENS!

Happy Birthday! YUM!

Birthday girl's momma with a super cute cupcake pop!

Sweet little crochet rabbit that Lily's Aunt Heidi made!

LOVE these bubble photos...

She got a little sleepy from time to time... too much excitement!

Our Grand Rapids family...

It was a beautiful, beautiful day! Now... time to start planning the NEXT party... : )