More Michigan

Beautiful, Beautiful Michigan. We just could not get over how beautiful it was. Very different from our little desert.

Scenic Drive along the coast of Lake Michigan. Where's the Lake you ask? It was very hard to see because of all the beautiful trees.
Friday Night Live in Traverse City

Once a year, Traverse City shuts down its main street to host their annual Friday Night Live. They have live bands, fire engine ride, hair and face painting. Cade Choose to have his leg painted with a very cool dragon. We all had a lot of fun and the great thing about it, was that it was free!

Michigan

Here comes the Griswalds once again. Our trip to Michigan was so much fun but like all our family vacations it did not come with out its challenges. We decided to take our family out on one of the many beautiful lakes in Northern Michigan. Our friends let us use their boat and we loaded everything up and were ready for a day of fun in the sun. Well the weather was less than desirable , (a little too windy for comfort). We checked the fuel level before getting on the lake, but when we launched the boat the fuel registered less than we originally thought. We were stranded on the lake with no fuel. Fortunate for us there was a small local gas station across the street and up a hill. Craig stood in the water to keep the boat from slamming into the dock while I walked up and down the hill with a borrowed 2 gallon tank. We were determined to not let a little minor problem like no fuel ruin our trip. It only took 6 trips up and down the hill to fill the boat. Every time Craig would fill the tank the boat would rock with the waves and fuel would splash all over him. This little inconvenience did not get in our way. We still had a great time and loved the lake.

Cade Tubing
Cade could have ridden in the tube all day long if we would have let him. He loves the water

Sticks Sticks and More Stick

The boys loved building forts and playing with the sticks.

Cade and Ethan at Long Lake

Cade Flying Daddies Plane.

Lake Michigan Sand Dunes

Cade was exhausted after running up and down the sand dunes. He had way more energy than we did.

Daddy attempted running down the Sand Dunes. Quite the picture, I wish I had a video camera. Ha! Ha!

Aaron July 2008

Aaron has learned how to zoom around our yard riding his bike. He can't reach the peddles yet, but that doesn't seem to stop him. Next year buddy and you will be riding a bike.

What a cutie!

Yellowstone Out the Door! (SO SAD)

So our yearly trip to Yellowstone did not go as planned. We loaded everything in our truck and we were about ready to walk out the door when we noticed Cade was constantly in and out of the bathroom. We then began questioning him to try and find out what was wrong, but he was a typical 7-year-old and was being very evasive. After about a hour of him continuing to go in and out of the bathroom we started watching closer. Well to make a long story short we decided to wait around a while before we ventured into the car on a three hour drive without a bathroom in sight. By about 12:00 we began to get really nervous because he began to bleed in his stools, so we took him to the emergency room. He then came home and fell asleep for three hours. After he woke up his symptoms were worse, we then called the doctor again and he did more blood work. At around 12:00 midnight his symptoms were severe and we were very nervous so we again called the emergency room and they referred us to Primary Children's Hospital. We loaded Aaron in the car and sent him to Gramps while we quickly drove to Salt Lake. They did more test and finally released us around 6:00 in the morning and told us to go home because there was nothing they could do for him that we could not do at home. So off we went with very little sleep and a lot of stress. The test came in the day after and we found out that Cade had Ecoli Poisoning. Very scary. So much for our trip.

Cade was very sad about missing our trip to Yellowstone so we tried to do other fun activities to make up for the sadness. The following day we took Cade to his first Baseball game (GO RAPTORS). They lost but we had fun.

On Saturday we stopped at KFC and took the kids to our favorite park. We got the typical pictures of Cade in the famous tree, and hanging from the playground.

Aaron loved all the animals and was infatuated with the turtles. He was so amazed at all the animals. It was extremely fun to watch his little facial expressions.

Cade and Aaron looking at the Monkeys!

Aaron was absolutely amazed at all the animals, this was his typical expression the entire time. OOOH! he said every time he would see a new animal.

Aaron and Craig going down the slide. Careful Daddy the slide is not meant for you! (ouch)

Aaron's first time in a swing. At first he was a little nervous but then he quickly realized that it was a lot of fun.

Our Famous Tree

4th of July Celebration 2008

Aaron, Loving the Parade

Candy, Candy, More Candy!

Cade flying through the air on the bouncy toys!

Over the years it is our family tradition to spend the 4th of July with Craig's family. We start the day off with the local parade. This year Cade and Aaron came home with bags of candy. Aaron learned quickly how to pick the candy up off the street, and he was soon found eating it with the wrappers on (yum, yum). When the parade is over we walk over to the park to let the kids play on the bouncy toys and other fun activities. The rest of the day is spent at Craig's dad's house where we barbeque and the kids play in the water.

Swimming June 2008

We decided to spend a hot summer day basking in the sun at our favorite swimming pool. Aaron has always been very afraid of the water but after a week at Disneyland, and swimming in the ocean and the lake he has learned that water can be a little fun, as long he doesn't get splashed. I tried all day to get a good picture of Cade but he was too busy having fun to sit still long enough to focus the camera.