The second half of the year is always busier with Summer activities, back to school, fall activities and the holidays. Here is what we did!
JULY
We kicked off the month with the Brandon Fireworks and 4th of July parade in Clarkston.
We spent a day at the Zoo and a day at the 4H fair with our friends Blake and Casey. Evan and Blake rode a camel - TOGETHER - hahaha and I got Evan on the Pirate ship for the first time. It was hot so we cooled off with 7-11 Slurpees since well, it was 7-11 that day and they were FREE!!
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| Evan and I are in the front row facing the camera! |
Alex and Evan turned 9 on July 16th. We celebrated a few days early with our family.
The boys enjoyed the pool with their cousins!
July 17th, I packed the kids up and we headed over to Grand Haven
and Muskegon for a couple of days with Rachel, Lauren and Nathan.
Our plans were somewhat altered by the weather but we made the best of it.
Probably my favorite day this summer was watching Alex waterski for the first time. His PT told me about a program called Michigan Adaptive Sports. For a small fee you can sign up to waterski or kayak in the summer or downhill ski in the winter. They have an adaptive seat for kids with disabilities to sit in. Watching him take off and go overwhelmed me with emotion. For him to experience something so great is just amazing! Of course he loved it! It wasn't until he was done that I realized he wasn't buckled in at all - but really he couldn't be. Glad I didn't know that until the end!
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| Evan along for the ride - supporting his brother |
AUGUST
We decided to take the kids to Canada for the first time and visit Toronto for a long weekend. Rachel, Annette, Lauren and Nathan went as well. We had a full weekend of activities including The Toronto Zoo, Casa Loma, The Ontario Science Centre, The CN Tower and Ripley's Aquarium. As a surprise, the day we left Toronto, we drove to Niagara Falls to surprise the kids. We visited for a few hours and then came home. The weather was perfect for the trip! Evan got a little sick on the ride up to the CN Tower and vows to never go again - but I hope he will change his mind.
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| The Toronto Zoo |
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| Casa Loma |
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| Science Centre |
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| CN Tower |
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| Ripley's Aquarium |
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| Niagara Falls |
Oakland County International Airport Air Show -August 11th
August 24th was the Banbury Cross Horse Show. It was a disney theme this year. Alex's horse Story was Tinkerbell and if you look closely, you can see he is wearing Mickey Mouse Ears!!
After the Horse Show we headed North for the weekend. We crossed over the Mackinac Bridge and stayed in a town in the upper peninsula called Newberry. We visited waterfalls along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, went to Sand Point (Everyones Favorite), went to Oswalds Bear Ranch where we had our picture taken with a baby bear and we took the boys to Tahquamenon Falls. We ended our stay in Mackinac City. It was the perfect end to our summer!
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| Munising Falls |
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| Tahquamenon Falls |
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| Oswalds Bear Ranch |
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| Sand Point, Lake Superior |
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| Tahquamenon Falls |
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| Oswald's Bear Ranch |
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| Mackinac Bridge |
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| Miner's Castle Rock |
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| Sand Point Marsh |
SEPTEMBER
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| First Day of 4th Grade |
OCTOBER
October 13th Eric and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary by going to a cider mill
for a hayride, cider and donuts!
October 15th, we saw one of our favorite bands The Head and the Heart in concert
October 20th we did a day the Zoo and Ice Cream at Cooks Farm!
October 26th, we took Alex and Evan on their first HAUNTED HAYRIDE!
They did good and even got to meet one of the characters.
October 27th we went to the Flint Children's Museum with Cousins Laken and Sailor
Halloween is one of our Favorite Times of Year!
NOVEMBER
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| Big Snow on Nov 12th |
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| 4th Grade Veteran's Concert |
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| Our Annual Trip to Bronner's |
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| I had to throw this one in of these two |
We celebrated Eric turning 39 on November 25th
DECEMBER
We had a lot of Christmas Fun!
I won free tickets to see one of our favorite comedians on December 13th, Brian Regan at the Fillmore Detroit on December 13th. After the show we walked down to Campus Martius.
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| Campus Martius, Detroit |
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| Campus Martius, Detroit |
Santa House and Dow Gardens - Midland, Michigan - December 14, 2019
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| Santa House, Midland |
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| Santa House, Midland |
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| Santa House, Midland |
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| Dow Gardens, Midland |
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| Dow Gardens, Midland |
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| Dow Gardens Midland |
Downtown Rochester - December 23, 2019
Christmas Morning, 2019
Another year full of fun adventures and lots of memories. We hope 2020 has even more good in store for us! Happy New Year to all of our family and friends! Love, Eric, Keri, Alex and Evan
