Beach Day With Cousins

So while we were in California over the 4th I realized I didn't bring my camera charger. Awesome right?? So I only have one day of pictures from our trip. Luckily Kristen snapped a bunch for us on the 4th. So here is our one day really documented. The weather was really nice while we were there. We got lucky and the June gloom wasn't really an issue the whole trip. We watched a lot of World Cup and had plenty of cousin time. This day we met up with Kristen and the kids at the beach for the afternoon. We caught a lot of sand crabs, made Katherine into a mermaid, and buried Vi at least a couple times. The only down side was that we all got a little sunburned. Violet and Katherine were little buddies this trip and it was pretty adorable. She was such a sweetheart with Vi and Violet could not get enough of her. We love having beach time with family. It seemed like such a fast trip but we did do a lot of really fun things. I will have to do an I-phone blog post of what I captured on my phone. We are excited for our next trip back.

Peony Time

I think it is pretty apparent from my wedding that I love peonies. So when we found out last year that Ann Arbor had a huge peony garden, I just about lost it. I was so glad that they came out in full force before we headed off on vacation. We just got back last night and I am trying to play catch up with life right now.  So even though this was a month ago I am still going to do a crazy picture overload. Or maybe I am just trying to put off all the other stuff I need to do today. 

Vi girl was loving life. There were flowers and there were dogs. Violet really doesn't need much more than that in life. Maybe some pirates booty here and there but really I think the flowers and dogs would do the trick.

Mike is such a trooper and walked around with Vi chasing her and carrying her on his shoulders. He is a good sport about going to see flowers because he knows I love them. What a keeper right? There are all kinds of updates for Vi but that will be a post for when I have more energy and enthusiasm.  I love this girl and this guy. They make me happy and they are pretty dang cute.

amazing right??

This is when a large group of Asian women decided to stop and take pictures of Violet. She didn't really know how to handle this.

killing it

Chatty Cathy

To say Vi is a talker is an understatement. Strangers comment to me all the time on how talkative she is. Violet really loves to give the whole store a play by play of what is going on around her. She is sometimes shy when she first meets people but for the most part that is gone in about a minute and she will just start telling you all kinds of things. Here are some of the funny ones we have gotten lately. 

1- Mike always says "come on" when he is buckling Vi into her carseat. He struggles with the buckle a bit. So now Vi says "come on dad" all the time. It's pretty funny. She also says come here.

2- I taught Vi what poop was last week. I have been trying to explain why we do certain things like change diapers and clean our ears. Ya know, all the really fun things that kids cooperate for. So now Vi will inform me by saying " Uh oh poop mom. Bye bye poop". It is nice because I always know when she has a poopy diaper. 

3- When Violet wants you to move she will say "pardon me". That one kills me every time.

4- When she wants us to pick her up she will say " want to hold you mama"

5- This one isn't really anything special but she has started saying " Hey dad". She thinks she is a teenager or something. She also say hey guys or hello everyone.

6- Violet refers to herself with everything these days. Violet's shoe, Violet's milk, Violet's seat, and on and on all day long. She likes to tell everyone which one is theirs. 

7- She sings happy birthday, twinkle twinkle, and counts to 10.

8- she says bless you mama or bless you dada when we sneeze and of course bless you Violet when she sneezes.

I'm sure there are some good ones that I am forgetting but I'll have to add them in later. Life is starting to get funny around here and I love it! I snapped a few pictures of Vi in these jammies she has. She was killing me with the belly popping out and the total bed head. She also has this strange obsession with sticking her face in the rug in her room. She is a weirdo. 

Holland Tulip Festival

Last week there was only one day that would work for us to go to Holland for their annual tulip festival. So we climbed in the Allen's minivan and made the trek. The weather was kind of cold and we were a little underwhelmed with the amount of tulips. I had been to the one at Thanksgiving Point in Utah and just kind of assumed it would be big like that. It was still really pretty and such a cute town. We really love visiting it. The kids got to ride a 100 year old marry-go-round. We tried on wooden clogs and got a tour of the windmill from the 1800's. We also got to go into their little market and try on lots of awesome fur hats. The guy running the place was a character to say the least. He informed us about how the FBI has all the records of the heads of PETA and that they are a terrorist group. It was interesting... We got dinner and fudge in town and watched some dutch dancers take over the downtown streets. It was a really fun day and I'm glad we went out and saw it. Here are a bunch of pictures of our outing.