Life at the Hatchery

What has been going on, let's see...

Austin turned 6 months old on June 30th! Wow! I miss my floppy, snuggly little newborn already. He hasn't grown much lately (I'll have the stats tomorrow, after his 6 month well child visit), but he has been changing a lot! He rolls over a ton, which is cool except for when I find him on sleeping on his tummy. We tried some rice cereal on the 4th of July for the first time - he wasn't crazy about it. He loves the beach and swimming in the lake. Jacob can make him giggle like crazy in the car - it cracks us all up. He still sleeps pretty good most nights, including the last two nights we stayed at Holiday Inn for the holiday weekend. Still no teeth, but he is drooling a ton. His two favorite things remain the same: His mommy and his (left) thumb.

We didn't manage to take our trip to Illinois to visit Debby and family. We had some freak car trouble the night before we were scheduled to leave and while some of it seems to be managed, I didn't want to take any chances when driving through a big city. Yes, I've been living in the country too long. And I watch Nascar. Insert redneck joke here. I'm determined to get over there soon though, it's looking like it will be after Brady baby #2 makes his appearance though.

After I felt a little more confident in my vehicle, I did manage a trip to Grand Rapids to visit Shannon, Cadence and Berkley who are home from Arizona for 3 weeks. We hung out around Shannon's parents pool for the day and despite the weather reports, the day turned out perfect! Shannon and I had to stay on our toes most of the day to ensure all 5 children survived the day around a pool, so we had a lot of started conversations. Hopefully we will be able to finish them when Shannon and Joe come for an adults-only visit on Friday. Jacob was pretty funny while we were there, he was so concerned about Brody's safety around the pool. Although I'm not sure if I should be impressed that Jacob is so protective of his little brother or offended in his complete lack of confidence in my skills to keep Brody safe.

It's a busy time in Traverse City right now! Cherry Festival and the fourth of July. Typically we take in the festivities in style on the back of a 40foot Sea Ray. But somebody decided to go and sell their boat, so we decided to take everything in the next best way - we got a bay front room at the Holiday Inn. It worked out perfectly, we had great seats for the Air show on both Saturday and Sunday (and we checked out Friday's practice while having lunch in town, too!) which included the Blue Angels as well as the Fourth of July Fireworks. All without having to worry about parking and traffic or loud noises for a little baby. Brody wasn't too impressed with the Air Show (and slept through the fireworks), but Jacob was in awe! It was pretty cool to see the Blue Angels through the eyes of a 3.5 year old (Noah) and a 4 year old (Jacob). The boys LOVED it! The weather was crazy hot - in the 90's! It was so strange seeing everyone watching the fireworks still in their bathing suits... usually a summer night in northern Michigan involves a sweatshirt! My favorite part of the trip: taking a walk alone with Jacob 2hrs before the fireworks were to start. I turn around to make sure he is still with me and I realize he is very carefully trying to walk in my footprints in the sand. I love my little guy :) We checked out of our room on July 5th, which also happens to be our 7th wedding anniversary, did I mention this was the same hotel we met at 9 years ago? So funny to be back with our three kids.