Renasance Festival

In September we were able to go to our local (almost 2 hours away) Renasance Festival. Wow there were a lot of people! It was pretty cool. We went with a small group of people and because one of the guys we went with works for a DJ company, they let him rent their party bus for us to go in. It played music, and had lights, and even a fog machine. The kids really liked it.

There was a movie being filmed at this festival, "All's Fair in Love". I believe that Jack Black & Hillary Duff are in it. I think that's what some of the radio stations were saying. They were telling people that if they went in costume, they could audition for extra's in the movie. How fun. No, none of us went in costume. But it would have been fun.

Our driver bought an arrest warrent and had Tim put in jail for Falling Out of the Ugly Tree. One of the workers came and arrested him and then paraded us thru the street's all the way to the jail. We did stop in front of a group of visitors so that Tim could plead to them for his release. He was sent on to jail, they took no pity. It was fun and Tim did it up good.

We watched the royal parade go thru the town, complete with Queen Elizabeth (?). Later on in the day we watched a jousting match and that was fun, we had seats right at the rail. Ethan loved watching the horses and it was pretty cool watching a "real" jousting match. We even saw a guy dressed like a pirate that looked like Johnny Depp as Capt'n Jack.

Here are some fun photo's:

Merrick & Ethan parting on the Party Bus. You should have seen us on the way home.....

Half of the crew was sleeping.

Prince Merrick

(now he can see how he'd look like w/really, really long hair)

Prince Ethan

Princess Sophia

King Tim

Queen Christy

Johnny Depp

Look-a-like

Tim being presented his "Arrest Warrent" and then led off to jail

Tim pleading with a group of people to be kind and spare him the fate of jail. They denied him.

Tim enjoying the view from jail

In order to be set free, the prisioners had to do everything the guy in the kilt made them do. Including this silly song and dance. It was fun to watch Tim.

A shot of some of the construction for the movie they were filming

Jousting match. It was really cool to watch

The fighting after they've been unhorsed

Good Family

It's always nice to be able to get away from everything at home and go visit family. We had been trying to get away to Indiana most all summer, and it never worked out. We had family that hadn't ever seen Sophie and we wanted to get down to see them. Well the last weekend of August we were able to get away. So Merrick missed the first day of school, it was 1/2 a day anyway. We were able to be gone over Labor Day and it was wonderful!

It also happened to be Conner's 16th Birthday that weekend. And being the wonderful, thoughtful, loving, awsome cousin that I am, we bought him a car....A Hotwheel car, but a car nontheless. Conner wanted to spend his day on the water, so they borrowed a boat and away we went. (So I'm humming the theme song to Gilligan's Island, just for fun. We stayed afloat.) The kids had a wonderful time in the water and with all the candy! Conner had a great birthday.

After leaving Andy & Lori's on Monday morning we went to visit with Tim's Aunt Faith & cousin JeanAnn. That was a good time. It was great to be with JeanAnn for lunch and talk with her and then go visit Aunt Faith. It was one of those good, but hard visit's. When some loved ones age it's not always easy on them. Aunt Faith has Alzheimer's. It was good to see them both, and I hope we get down there again soon.

From there we went to my Aunt Vera & Uncle Max's house. It was rough to only spend one day at each place and then only a few hour's with JeanAnn & Faith. But family is family and love is love!

Enjoy these photo's:




Conner & Merrick. Big Smiles!

Merrick & Carter.



Conner's wonderful candy art.



Are you suposed to feed the wildlife?
Our captain thought so, he's throwing them M&M's and other assorted food items.

Our little fish, Ethan and his daddy. Ethan spent ALL of his time in the water. Okay, maybe 10 or 15 min. actually in the boat, so daddy could rest.

Christopher helped out with his little cousin, so that daddy could take a break.

Sophie and her cousin Lori.
A couple of cool girls, catching some ray's.

One of Sophie's favorite spot's was with Cousin Andy.

As we were packing up to leave, we lost Ethan. We found him in the horse pasture with the horse. He was just short enought to walk under the electric part of the fence. Good thing the horse likes kids.


Sophie actually petted this horse.

It's a Sophie Sandwich. Lori & Conner tell her goodbye.


Big cousin Kyleigh was a big help!

Saying goodbye after our stay with Max & Vera.

Ethan usually has a photo of him crying when we are trying to take a nice photo of him.

Summer at the Fair

We went to the fair again this summer. The really nice things about it was Tim was able to go with us (it was his day off) and Ethan could actually ride some of the rides. We also went up to the animal barns and Ethan was able to see a horse up-close-and-personal. They had a little petting zoo that was a new feature this year. Some of the animals you couldn't pet. But they had an interesting varity. They even had a reptial house. I braved the spiders that were in there and took Sophie thru. Tim braved the snakes that were in there and took Ethan thru. It was interesting. The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful day. Enjoy the photo's:

Baby Ostridge

A varity of animals. There are camels, goats, alpaca's, llamas and sheep/rams.

Ethan has always enjoyed driving by fields with horses in them. Here he was able to touch one.

This was a close as Sophie wanted to get. It's a really big horse.

It looks like he's waving to us...but no. He's actually crying and wanting off. I guess it was too fast for him....Maybe next year.

Merrick helping Ethan thru one of the fun houses. He went thru this many, many times.

Ahhh, the Fun Slide. Ethan first went down it with daddy and now is getting a ride from brother (Merrick's friend John is at the bottom).


Wheeeeeee

Daddy taking Ethan for a ride on the Carosel. Sissy was sleeping, so she didn't get to go.

Charge!

Back online....

Because I've been offline for a few months, and A LOT of fun stuff has happened. I will not make this a large & long entry. I'll do several short entries that will cover everything, I hope.

So last we heard from our wanderings Tim & I had just been to our renuion. Fortunitaly the rest of our summer was much more eventful.

For my birthday (in Aug.), we loaded up the kids (minus Merrick, he was a football camp) and headed to Mackinaw City. It was a warm, sunny, wonderful day. We had a good time together and had some fun. Ethan and Tim climbed a lighthouse. They said that Ethan could go, but he had to climb the 44 (or so) stairs himself and the 11 rung ladder into the top.

We bought Ethan a miniture of this lighthouse so he would have a keepsake of the lighthouse he climbed.








A little dark, I know, I was shooting into the sun. But Tim & Ethan are waving Hi.

After a walking around the park we changed Ethan into his swimmers and we took the kids into Lake Huron. We went in right by the Mackinaw Bridge, so it's in some of the shots. The water was warm and Ethan had a blast. He loves playing in the water.

Sophie wasn't sure what to do.

The stones are all over, there is no soft sand. However, that didn't stop Ethan. Off went the shoes and off went the boy, with daddy close behind.











It took some work and a little screaming (from Ethan), but we got the kids loaded up to go eat and leave. We had to be back home by 6 p.m. to get Merrick from football camp. It was a really wonderful day!!

15 Years

I have no photo's for this entry. And it will be short.

Tonight was our 15 year high school renuion. Where has the time gone. It was interesting to see who showed up and who didn't. It was interesting to see people that we hadn't seen in a few years. And it was interesting to see how people had/hadn't changed.

When we got home we realized that we spent most of the night talking with people that we see on a semi regular basis. Those that we haven't seen we had a polite "Hi, How are you? What are you up to?"

It's amazing how people change and how much some stay the same. Everyone has physically changed (I mean it's been 15 YEARS), but some still have the same mentality. Tim had it right when he said that it will be even more interesting in another 10 or 15 years. So I guess I'll sit back, enjoy those people that we still see every now and then, and wait for another 10 or 15 years to go by.

I'm glad that it's over. We only stayed a few hours and that was long enough for me. Grandma Betty was wonderful and watched the kids for us. And if nothing else, at least I got a cute outfit out of it :)

Dedication

This past Sunday we had Sophia Catharine dedicated. To many people this means many things. To us it simply means that we are going to give her the best spiritual upbringing that we can, with the help of our families and friends.

Tim's sister & her husband, Steph & John, came all the way up from Ann Arbor to join us for this. Tim's mom, Betty, was there. As were my dad & mom, Pastor Gary & Sarah. My mom made it to church just for the dedication. (She's been sick w/pneumonia.) We were glad to have her there, not just because she's been sick, but also because she was the only one who brought a camara!

Look at how cute she looks. Her hat, pretty white dress, and cute shoes.....

The shoes are no more. The dog got them.

Sophie trying to get the pretty rose that Pastor Papa gives to all the parents of the babies/children he dedicates.

We had a wonderful cookout at John & Betty's on Saturday night with Steph, John, Betty & John. It was good family, good food and good fun. Grandpa John's polebarn provided the perfect place to enjoy the shade and play and eat. After dinner Ethan showed Grandma Betty what he could do with a garden hose, and then Grandma Betty showed Ethan what she thought of that.

Sophie and Grandma Betty talking things over.


















Ethan playing leapfrog.












John, (Betty in the background), John, Steph, Sophie (1/2 behind Ethan), Ethan & Tim's leg's. Just play and waiting for the grill.....

Watching Grandma Betty Cooking the burgers, dogs, and brats! Can't wait!!

Storm Clouds

So we had some nasty storms in June that gave us some really cool clouds. So I was out there with my camara (not the only one, neighbor had cell out taking photo's too) trying to capture some interesting storm clouds. Even when nature is being nasty, it's still very beautiful. Merrick pointed out the cloud that looks like people and the one that looks like an angel. So I had to get shot's of them.

Hope you enjoy these, I had fun taking them.