July 5 - July 11

Before we left the Akron area we ran over to the Akron Zoo. We went with Seth's family and we met Seth's longtime friend, Marc (who happened to bring his family). It was great to see Marc and Celina and Lilly loved playing with their older daughter, Rowan.


(Seth and Marc have been friends 'forever' so it is always great to get the two families together.)

Back in Michigan it warmed up enough to use the hotel pool. Lilly loved using the goggles while we were with the Bolens at the Troy Aquatic Park so we picked up a pair for her. She also had a test run of the water wings when we were at camp. With both of these items she became a little fish. She wasn't afraid of swimming in the deeper part of the water or sticking her head in. After watching a little girl jump in and swim around, Lilly decided she was cool enough to do the same thing. Whenever we would go to the pool Lilly put all her gear on and walked down the hall and down all the stairs just like this. If she had some flippers, it would have been awesome, but she would have been crawling.


Wednesday evening Lilly and I took the train to Michigan City, Indiana to spend time with my mom. It was nice not having to drive. If I could have slept, it would have been even better.

Thursday we played around at the store and then we found a park to play in. The park was mainly these huge tires everywhere for the kids to jump around on. Very interesting concept. Lilly was impressed by the snake.



Friday my brother and Michelle came with the twins but I left to go to Gary for the day. The Thunderbirds were having their practice time for the airshow and I wanted to see if I could get some pictures. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Lilly and I met Emily and her girls and we headed to the beach. The younger girls played while Emily and I practiced our photography skills with the T-birds. It was absolutely awesome. In case you don't know, I have a cousin who flew with them for the past two years. This was my first chance to see them. I've said it before and I'll say it again, my dad would have been so proud.

From what I've been told, my cousin is the back end of the diamond.




Since we were on the beach, there was lots of water and sand to think about. It was just a bit chilly for the girls to go into the lake (and I really didn't want Lilly in there) so they were satisfied with hunting for shells. Don't ask what Lilly was doing, but there was some sort of accident:


It was hysterical and boy was she mad when I took pictures instead of cleaning her up.

My mom had stayed home with the twins and played with them all day. When I got home Jaime and Michelle were running late so I helped get them all ready for bed. They had their mild while sitting on Grandma's lap. But really, who do you think was more tired?


Saturday Seth got out to Indiana and everyone headed to Gary to see the airshow. We ended up having quite the Weaver crowd. It was fun to see my cousins that I hadn't seen in two years. I never did get to talk to or see Sean in person but I still had a really good time watching him fly.




In the evening, all the Weavers went out for pizza. There is a picture of all of us, but again, I for some reason don't have it!

Sunday we tried to make it to the airshow again but it just wasn't in the cards. Instead our family headed for lunch before Jaime and Michelle went back to Columbus. Lunch did not go smoothly and the first half we were split between two tables that were not close together. In the end we got to sit together and we tried to watch the finals of the World Cup.

Sorry to those that actually pay attention to the blog. I know I'm not writing anything cool or fun and the pictures aren't fab, but I really want to catch up! I have approximately three weeks until the new addition and I'm sure I'll want to post those sooner than Halloween!

June 28 - July 4

I stopped writing notes, I see. Now I have to rely on pictures to tell me what we did. So we might even have shorter entries. At least maybe I'll catch up faster?

For this week we headed back up to Dearborn to spend some quality time with Seth. Well, he still had to work so we puttered around during the day and played in the evening.

Our friends got us in to Greenfield Village and we were even able to use their ride pass. So we could ride the carousel and the train as much as we wanted! The carousel got the most use.





For the holiday weekend we headed to Seth's parent's house in Ohio. Some relatives stopped in for dinner on Saturday night and I even had some friends come over. Heather, if you read this can you send me the pictures we took?

On the 4th we went to Blossom Music Center to see the orchestra play and then the fireworks. Our family went with my father-in-law, Alan, and sister-in-law, Rachel. We grabbed some food on the way and took some chairs and blankets. Lilly wasn't feeling all that well and for some reason she just wasn't into the fireworks. Towards the end she relaxed but most of the time was spent holding her with my hands over her ears.

June 21 - June 27

Lilly and I spent some time with Emily and her girls. First up, Paige had a t-ball game. She was being a ham whenever she got to third base since that's where we were sitting. She even did a little dance for us.



I took the opportunity to steal, I mean borrow, Emily's car and visit my Grandmother in Greenville since we were so close. Hope she doesn't mind these pictures being online! The second picture was taken by Lilly.




The five of us girls went to the Troy Aquatic Park but I seem to be missing pictures of it. Maybe Emily was the only one who took pictures. Sometime I'll have to grab some of them from her because there are some cute ones of the three younger girls.

At the end of the week I made a mad dash (by way of Emily's driving) back to Jaime and Michelle's house. We had some last minute planning to do. This was the weekend of the Callaway/Larris/Weaver Pretend Christmas. I still had to wrap some presents. But everyone made it (at least we didn't have to worry about traveling in the snow) and we had fun opening all our goodies.

Yes, I have a box of Velveeta Cheese in my hand, and no, I did not get Velveeta Cheese as a present. You'll also notice the baseball game in the background, this is something else that we don't usually see during Christmas Festivities.

This is Lilly and her new dollhouse. The one that I had to give up a suitcase for so we could bring it back to Australia.


And finally Sunday was my mom's Surprise Luau Birthday Party. Seeing as her birthday wasn't for another month and a half, she had to have been a little surprised. And again, missing some pictures, but these will do.

Mom with her younger sister, Janet. We got mom a bunch of pictures of the three grandkids for her birthday. I think they went over well.

Me in a festive mood. Although I was very busy and didn't get much of Jaime's home brew which I always enjoy drinking.

And just because it is cute, my sister-in-law, Michelle, and my nephew, James. I guess I shouldn't leave our camera lying around, you never know what you'll end up with.

June 14 - June 21

So after the Real Life Farm was canceled a second time, the third time was a done deal. The kids got to go on a pony ride, milk a cow, feed some goats and hold some very tiny animals. Lilly loved it all!



Last time Lilly milked the cow she covered the farmer in milk.





By Thursday Lilly and I were going crazy in the hotel and we met my cousin, Emily in Ohio to spend some time with them. We got back to there house in time to run Abby to her g-ball game. Is that what it was called?



Ok, so really, Emily's house was a quick stop. On Friday she drove us down to her mom's house (hi, Aunt Julie!) and my friend Heather picked us up so Lilly and I could go to CAMP!! We spent a weekend at Woodland Altars for Parent/Pre-school camp. It was so much fun to go down and show Lilly all the places we used to hang out. It was really fun to go down with one of my own camp buddies (our daughters are only a few months apart in age).

Lilly with her camping best friend, Ellie.


Taken from the lodge. You can see the water slide. The weekend we were there the water wasn't quite clean yet. At least the pool was ok. Freezing but that was to be expected.


The naturalist used one of these bug catchers so the kids all wanted one. They spent the rest of the weekend catching bugs. Lilly still catches the bugs and spiders around the house with that thing.


Taking a break from bug catching.


I know I have a picture of Heather and I somewhere. Instead I'll post a picture of her lighting our camp fire. All I can say was that it was hot when we finally got to doing the fire and we were a sweaty mess when the kids got there. The s'mores were wonderful though. We just don't have the right ingredients down under for them.

One of the many funny moments - We always had to get our temperature taken and make sure we weren't feeling ill. The dean of the camp asked Lilly if she had been on a plane recently and Lily looked at me and said, um . . . no? And then the dean asked if Lilly had traveled a long way to get there and Lilly said yes! The dean asked where she came from and Lilly said Australia (as if that's where everyone had traveled from that day).

We even took the girls for an ice cream treat before heading back to the Dayton area. Sigh, good times!

June 7 - June 13

We got back to Ohio late on Monday and then Tuesday was spent relaxing. In the afternoon, Seth drove me most of the way to Columbus and my brother, Jaime, picked up Lilly and I so we could spend some time with them.

The week was spent playing with the twins and scrapbooking in the evening when my sister-in-law came home from work. Did we actually get anything done that week? Anyway, here are some pictures of playtime:




Thursday Jaime took me to a beer tasting. We sampled Colorado beers. There were some interesting selections. Too bad I didn't get any pictures.

On Friday my mom decided to come down. She couldn't wait any longer to see me. Giggle - she was there to see Lilly, I'm smarter than that. Seth also came down from Michigan for the weekend.

Saturday Seth's sister came up from Louisville. We had dinner with them and then on Sunday we went to COSI.
This me at the display board for the overnight program. I am pointing to a picture of me holding a giant toothbrush thinking I'm going to a workshop on desserts. But no, it was a workshop on deserts.

Lilly and her cousin, Alandra, with the construction equipment.

Lilly being cheesy.

We signed the girls up for a science lab where the got to try different science experiments. They had a hard time agreeing on what to do but thought anything with marshmallows would be fun.

And here is an attempt at getting the James, Jenna and Lilly to sit still for a picture at some point throughout the week:

May 31 - June 6

I'm trying to catch up here. So bear with me while I lump large sections of our trip together. There won't be a lot of detail either, remember, I don't take good notes. I'm working on that. I'll probably do it this way until I catch up. It just makes it easier and I need to get back on track soon!

So our first day in Michigan was Memorial Day so Seth was able to spend the day with us. We went to the Fairlane Mall just to see the sales. We didn't really buy too much although I was tempted to buy lots. Then we went to see some friends from the Moms Groups I used to belong to. We had a very nice BBQ with a few of the other families. It was so wonderful to see everyone and it was great to see all the girls play together.

Tuesday Seth dropped Lilly and I off at a shopping center so we could look around and get a few things. Not too exciting but I miss some of the stores!

Wednesday was supposed to be a trip to a farm with the old Moms Group. However the news was predicting a huge storm so it was canceled. So I went with several of the moms to IKEA to play around with the girls (there were very few boys in our group when we first started meeting). And while the storm only lasted for a few minutes, it was great to hang out and just relax with our old friends. Lilly had a wonderful time catching up with everyone (although she really didn't remember anyone!).


Thursday was spent at a friends house (I really wish I had taken some pictures). Lilly was exhausted at this point and didn't really play much but I got to spend time with a great friend and see her new baby as well.

We spent part of Friday with yet another friend (I loved having so many people to visit) who was able to pick us up at Seth's hotel. In the evening we drove to Seth's parents house so they could watch Lilly for the weekend.

Because on the weekend, Seth and I went to New Orleans! Yahoo! Not only did we get to go see a cool city, but it was just nice to spend time together. Remember, we hadn't seen each other in two months. We did a lot of walking, a little tram riding and then some more walking. We even got to see Seth's cousin who was there for a wedding. That was pretty cool (although we did crash the wedding looking all touristy)!


Browsing the shops, this was what Seth picked out. Of all things.


Had to stop at Pat O'Briens for a Hurricane. Always such an interesting crowd. I've only been here one other time and I went into the piano bar so I didn't even know this fountain existed.


Our nice dinner out was at Houstons. Yummy!

Around May 31 - We're Comin' to America

I don't really remember taking these pictures but we must have been bored at one of the many airports that we were in. Could have been Melbourne, or Sydney, or LA, or Colorado. But not Detroit, we were too tired then.




It was a long journey but we made it safely to Detroit. Seth picked us up and we went straight to Wendy's for a spicy chicken sandwich.

May 24 and 25 - Charlie Bear

Lilly's Kinder class had a Charlie Bear. Charlie was taken home by the kids for a couple of days. We were given a journal to write down what we did with Charlie. It was cold in our house so I knitted Charlie Bear a scarf.

The first thing we did was take Charlie to the library.



The next day Lilly didn't have school so we took Charlie to the pool - the Bear just had to watch all the fun. [That's Alex next to Lilly and Charlie, he's Lilly's best friend, unless they are arguing.]



Then we went to the Melbourne Museum. Charlie played in the children's section.



And then he learned to hula hoop.



Lilly tried to learn as well.