A Trip to Utah

We ventured out to Utah at the end of June for "May-May's" (Meghan's) wedding. It was an awesome trip, and I've been meaning to post about it since we got back. All of the action and excitement of the wedding was fun. It brought back the memories. (Ethan and I have been married for over three years, but we still feel like newly-weds.) The Manti temple was beautiful; I'd never been before. The top picture was taken at the temple, right after the wedding. Yippee for Meghan and Jake! The next picture is of Anna making friends with Aunt Patty while we're waiting for the reception to start. Patty's beautiful, sparkly sandals helped break the ice with Anna.

We stayed a few days with my sister Christie. It was great catching up with her and seeing all her impressive home improvement projects. Most exciting, we met Paxton Freir for the first time. What a handsome baby! There's a cute picture of Garrett holding him up. I do have to mention that the first day I was there, Paxton puked on me THREE times. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but our luggage had been lost and clothes were precious items just then.

Next is a picture of Anna with my cousin Amy's kids, Cole and Kenzie. It's so fun that Anna is at the age where she's really excited to see other kids and wants to play and interact, not just observe. I'm glad that she got to meet her second cousins - is that right? - even for one afternoon. The other picture is of Anna eating Indian food with our friends Dan and Jazmine Peterson. It was great seeing friends out there, AND it was great eating at a lot of restaurants we don't have here in Marquette. Yum, yum! :-) Whenever we take a trip, we realize how totally secluded our little part of the world is.

To reward Anna for being such a little sweetie (she was really, REALLY good the whole trip - way easy going) we decided to go to the Living World Aquarium the last day we were in Utah. Anna LOVED all the fishies. I think her favorite were the jelly fish, or maybe the sting rays.

Anna also loved swimming at the pool; courtesy of Meghan's apartment complex. Anna was so excited about staying at Meg's house and every time she woke up in the morning she would say, "May-may's house." When we were swimming in the pool, an airplane would fly by about every five minutes and every time Anna would say, "Look, airplane!" She was so excited about our airplane ride that she still occasionally looks up in the sky and says, "Look, airplane!" Only, there isn't an airplane. When we ask Anna where it is, she says, "Hiding."

Race at the Base

Ethan just competed in his first ever bike race last week. He's had his bike for almost two years and has done a triathlon and a few time trials, but the "Race at the Base" was his first official bike race. Of course I couldn't miss it, so I took a few pictures while I was there. I thought he looked pretty dang good (there's nothin' like my husband decked out in black spandex, oh baby). Really, I've gotten used to it and I rarely laugh anymore. :-) So Eth really liked the experience and he did pretty well...I'll let him tell you his time/placement if he wants. Most of his bike workouts he did solo, so it was a very different experience riding in a pack - the 'peleton' if you will. Anyway, if you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you'll be able to pick out my sweetie.

Summer Fun

Well, my whole purpose in having this blog is to keep people updated on my family - for all our relatives and friends who don't live close by, you know who you are. Although I've been pretty decent about posting pictures and describing events, I haven't really been sharing too much info on our life.

So we're right in the middle of our favorite time of the year - summer! Ethan works full time at NMU during the summer, but life is pretty relaxed and low key compared to when we have classes. Since we're both close to graduating, our semesters have been pretty busy...too busy if you ask me. I student teach this fall in a 4th and 8th grade class. I'll graduate in December with a degree in Elementary Education, English/Language Arts. Ethan graduates the semester after with a degree in Sports-Exercise Science. Right now he has an internship at a Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation clinic to get some experience. He loves it and finds it extremely interesting, so that's a good thing. We're looking at a few PT schools in lower Michigan for Ethan to apply to for fall 2008. As of right now, we're thinking the U of M Doctor of Physical Therapy program would be our first choice. We'll see where we end up in a year.

Back to summer: there are so many fun things to do with Anna during the summer. We mainly go to parks, on walks, to the beach, BBQ, and play in the backyard. Her favorite is sidewalk chalk. She would color for hours if we let her. We try not to take this beautiful weather for granted because the winters are so dang long up here. This summer has been especially fun because Anna can walk and do lots of things she couldn't last summer when she was only crawling. She loves to go to the park and she is way more brave than Ethan and I want her to be. Anna always wants to do everything herself...even climb up the tall slides. (We walk up with her, but she doesn't want us to touch her.) She is so funny and quirky! I just love watching her grow and develop and I can not believe that she is almost 2. I think we might even be ready to try and get Anna a brother or sister. Hmm...we'll let you know how that goes for us.

Ethan has been focused on training for the CopperMan Triathlon that takes place the beginning of August. I'm so proud of him. OK, I'm not that ambitious, but I do go for nice leisurely walks with Anna. I've been reading a lot this summer, making up for the school year when I only read class related material. I actually just read all the Harry Potter books for the first time in about a month's time. They were pretty good. Ethan had been telling me forever that I should read them, so I thought I'd jump on the boat.

Well, enough updating. Hope everyone else is having a fabulous summer!

Family Pictures...Finally:

Hey! Here are a few family pictures we had taken about a month ago. Our friend Brian took them and we thought they turned out great. For anyone interested, and in the Marquette area, his website is http://www.avenuephoto.com/. Wow, I had no idea how difficult it is to get pictures with an almost 2 year old. Anna really didn't understand why she had to stay right with us when we usually go to the beach to play. Because of this, many of the pictures show her looking confused or impatient, but we also have some smiles (see above). My favorite is the last one with Anna looking at my necklace. Anyway, enjoy!

Andrew's Graduation

I took my first trip away from my little family to go to my brother Andrew's graduation. I was only gone two days, but I missed Ethan and Anna lots! It was fun being with my mom and dad and Andrew and Alex. It reminded us of family vacations we took when we were all younger, the good and the bad. It's always nice to get out of the Upper Peninsula. A change of scenery was much needed.

So Andrew graduated from Michigan State School of Law and takes the bar exam in July. There was a really nice day planned for the graduation and I was glad I could make it, since it was such a last minute decision. Yay, good job Andrew! We were also able to meet up with my grandma Hazel and Aunt Linda for dinner the night before. (picture above) It'd been a while since I'd seen them, so we had some catching up to do. Well, enjoy the pictures. (I love the one of Andrew and Alex in front of the Spartan on MI State's campus.)

Dinner Time!

Anna loves noodles! Here are some pictures throughout a dinner she had a few weeks ago. It starts with her anxiously waiting to be served. Ah, the anticipation. We warned her that the noodles were too hot, but she didn't listen (second picture). We remind her to blow on them and give her a bite. Anna feels better and feeds herself. She starts out trying to use the spoon and fork, but then decides to just hold the utensil in one hand while she uses her other hand to eat. She's a natural.