Ben's Birthday and 4th of July in Maine (vacation part 4)

We celebrated Benjamin's 3-year birthday on the 4th of July. (His bday is actually the day after, but we were going to be traveling back to NJ that day.) We started off the doubly special day with a kayaking expedition! Ryan took the six of us kayaking, and it was SO FUN. It was the first time Benny and I had been kayaking.
He's ready to get started. He probably would have enjoyed a free ride to the shore, but he wasn't that lucky. :)

Jeremy and Jenna rode in one kayak, Benjamin and Ryan rode in one, and Jed and I shared the third. The guys at the kayaking shack gave Benny a mini paddle. It was a great toy...

And look, he's helping Ryan get a workout. Adding a bit of drag to his kayak...

We landed on a beach up an inlet and pulled our kayaks onto the sand so we could walk around. Ryan treated us to some famous Maine icecream served on the beach. We found a few horseshoe crabs in the shallow water. Jeremy's holding one. Cool, huh?

After awhile Benjamin discovered that the water was salty... So he would hang both his arms overboard and then suck on his hands (below). How funny!

On the way back, Ben joined us in our kayak. It was so fun having him join us on our adventure. Thanks for taking us, Dad!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BENJAMIN!

His birthday cake consisted of a batch of cookies, so he got to blow out three candles stuck in some icecream. He got to have his special birthday cake at his birthday party once we got back in town, so he wasn't deprived. :)

Opening up presents from his Grandma & Grandpa and all his cute cousins.

Eliza and her special buddy, Shane.

4th of JULY FIREWORKS!

We watched the fireworks from the steps of a courthouse. It was fun to be there with everyone. We had to bundle up - it was a little chilly.

Maine (vacation part 3)

Visiting the Comins in Maine was so fun! Jed's sister, husband, and family live in Maine, right on the coast, and we stayed with them for about a week. (Everyone has a funny face in the above picture because they are all "chewing" on grass. :) )

As soon as we arrived, Jenna and Kiersten called dibs on Eliza. Isn't this picture cute of the three girls? It was taken only 2 or 3 minutes after we walked in the door.

Benjamin just adored his cousins. Here's Jenna reading to them all. Jenna also played blocks with Benny upstairs a lot during our stay. He LOVED having a dedicated playmate. He could go on and on playing with her and would beg her to stay if she needed a break. :) What good cousins he has!

The first place they took us was to this quaint lighthouse on the coast. The coastline is beautiful in Maine. Every day we would pack a lunch and take all the kids out to the beach or some place fun.

Here we are, below, at a beach that had all kinds of neat things among the rocks. There were tons of snails, lots of hermit crabs, crabs of all sizes (I'm holding the biggest one we found), little eels that would flap like mad when we lifted the rocks that were hiding them, clams, and even a small lobster. It was fun. Everyone is showing the camera something cool they found in the picture below.

While we were driving home from the beach one day, Eliza was feeling sad. She kept making her sad puckering face and starting to cry. But every time Shane leaned forward and talked to her she would smile and be happy. As soon as she couldn't see him, she would start to cry again. He was a pro at making her happy. He played with her a lot during our stay and he never failed to get a smile out of her. She loved him!

One evening we went to their landlord's home for a lobster dinner. This was true Maine dining! We started out the meal with "steamers" - a whole pile of yummy clams on each plate. You break the shells apart, take out the small clam inside, remove and discard the dark part, and then dip the rest of it in clam juice to 'rinse' it and then in garlic butter. And then pop it in your mouth. Yum yum! :) After we were stuffed full of clams, we started cooking the lobsters. That gave us some time to make room for more Maine seafood. :) These lobsters were fresh and locally caught. And they were huge!

Benjamin and I are looking at those monster lobsters on our plates and wondering how to use the shell crackers on those things... and Shane has already dug in! Look at that face. He LOVED this meal. :)

MORE BEACHES.....

One of the beaches we went to was a 'pebble' beach. The sand was still sand, but it was very coarse, and it kind of hurt to walk on it! But it was cool in the way that it didn't stick to you like regular sand does.

This is the last beach in Maine; as you go North, there aren't any more beaches like this, just rocks and cliffs and coast. (That's what the national park manager told us. We had a long conversation with him since he rear-ended us and we had to wait for the police to do a report! Ironic, huh?)

There's Kiersten, Ryan (Jed's Dad), and Cerissa lounging on the beach in the picture on the right.

Jenna and I decided to stand still on the beach and let our feet sink as the waves washed over them. Although you can't see in the photo below, our feet were totally covered in the sand. This water was COLD, by the way. It hurt for awhile, but when this picture was taken, we were numb and couldn't even feel the coldness anymore. :)

Shane found this tidal pool at the top of the one of the rocks. It was full of very warm water, and helounged in it like it was his personal jacuzzi. It was hilarious because Michel and Cerissa were both telling him how gross that bacteria-ridden water was, but he didn't mind one bit!
He was a good sport to let Benny borrow his toy, show him how to fill it, and then let him shoot the water at him. :)

Connecticut (vacation part 2)

After New York City, we headed to Connecticut to stay with Nate and Kylie for a day. They took us on a walk up to a lighthouse on the beach in the late afternoon. It was so pretty.

I'm holding a little crab that we found in the tidal pools among the rocks. Funny story - Jed and Ryan were both betting each other to pick it up, and they were touching it timidly and then chickening out every time. When I walked over and saw it, I shamed them both by immediately picking it up. GIRLS RULE! :)

We hung out at Nate and Kylie's home on Sunday. Jed and Nate enjoyed watching clips of Office highlights together. Benjamin sure enjoyed it too! He wiggled in between them until they made a space for him too.

New York City (vacation part 1)

Leaving for the East Coast... Let's get this show on the road!

We left for the East Coast on June 27 for a week and a half of family visiting and fun. :) We drove to New Jersey first and arrived just as Jed's parents, Ryan and Michel, flew in. The following day we met up with Nate (Jed's bro) and Kylie (who live in Connecticut for law school) and headed out on the train for a day in New York City. We walked from Penn Station to Times Square, Madison Square Garden, Central Park... We even passed the Naked Cowboy. I begged Jed to let me get a picture with him, but alas... :)

Benjamin is pointing to an approaching train. Look at what a cute Daddy he has. Jed is holding Benny up and sharing in his excitement. These train rides to and from NYC were very exciting for Benny!

The highlight of our NYC travels: the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked! :) Here's Nate, Kylie, Ryan, and I just before the show. Jed and Michel babysat the kiddos at Central Park for awhile, and then hung out in a hotel lobby while Ben and Eliza both slept and it poured rain outside. They were sweet to forgo the show. (Michel had tickets to see it later in the week during Ryan's conference, and Jed didn't mind babysitting so I could go, as he's seen three broadways and this was my first. Sweet husband!) It was a clever play and very entertaining. The experience was awesome! Thanks Dad, for taking us to a Broadway!

Here's Benjamin and Michel playing at Central Park.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make LEMON GRILLED CHICKEN!

I was asked to do a 'Summer Dining' Cooking Demonstration for the ladies in my church a few weeks ago. I decided to do a Citrus Theme, since I love using fresh lemons during the summer. We made Spinach & Strawberry Salad and I demonstrated how to make the tangy Lemon Dressing that goes with it. I passed out servings of my all-time favorite homemade Lemon Ice-cream. Then I demo-ed how to make the marinade for Lemon Grilled Chicken, how to make Jamba-style Orange-Strawberry Smoothies, and then we discussed the secrets for delicious muffins. Everyone got to sample the icecream, salad, chicken, smoothies, and lemon poppyseed muffins, and take the recipes home. (Click on the link for the recipes - some of them are already on my sisters' and my cooking blog, The Sisters Cafe.)

It was lots of fun - I seriously LOVE to cook, so it was fun to get to talk about it and discuss cooking with the ladies in our ward. Now I know what my sister Melanie means when she says that doing cooking demonstrations is a lot of work. It certainly is! But it was definitely a blast too. :)

a day at the park

We're back in town! We had a great trip, but before I post pics of our vacation, I want to catch up with some activities we did before we left...

We recently discovered this cool park nearby. In June we went with four other families for a picnic. We played with the frisbees, fished and explored. After we were there for a few hours there was a sudden cloud burst and it started POURING! We had to run to our cars in a torrential downpour! Michigan weather is fascinating - it will be hot and sunny one moment and then pouring cats & dogs the next moment. It's kind of cool. Anyway, our Saturday at the park was fun! :)

Video: water gun wars... in the house!

Lately Benjamin has been saying funny things. He uses real words to describe sounds. For instance, he will say, "I will hit this bat and it will say 'SWING!'" and then he will swing the bat in the direction of the door and say, "I will say 'SLAM THE DOOR!'"

The other day he showed me a mosquito bite on his cheek and said, "One of the mosquitos eat my head. It went, 'buzz.... EAT!'"

During one of our conversations earlier in the week he said, "I can turn into a I-couch." I said, "What's an I-couch?" "It's kindof like..... a I-couch. It says, 'Ah! Eye! Eye!'"

He got an ear infection on Sunday and on Tuesday morning he said to me, "My ear hurts. My ear says, 'HURT! HURT!'"

This morning during breakfast I was telling him the story of how Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and showed him where he hid the gold plates in the Hill Cumorah. He asked me to tell him the story again, and then at the end he said, "And then Angel Moroni went to bed. And Joseph Smith went to bed. And the gold plates, the scriptures, went to bed." I thought that was funny, because when I tell him stories at bedtime I always end with, "And then they went to bed." It's his cue that the story is over and he is going to go to bed now too. So now I guess all stories end with going to bed. :)

Just now while I was typing this he came up and said, "I'm using my bat, so I can cut the bad mens' arms off. I cut one of their arms off." Yikes. I always thought scripture stories were a little gruesome. I try to skim over the gory parts of the stories, like Ammon cutting the Lamanites' arms off, but sometimes the real story comes out! Think of David chucking a rock at Goliath, hitting him on the head and killing him, and then getting cheered for it. Hmmm... mixed message to a child, perhaps? :) Anyway, then he said to me, "I'm cut your arms off now." Then he lightly touched the bat to my arm and said, "CUT!" Then he said, "I just cut your arm off." That's just wrong. :)

smattering of pics

Eliza playing with the exersaucer that Jed got for her. He found it on Craigslist and brought it home for a surprise. She loves her toy, and her daddy. :)

Father's Day. Eliza was zonked in her crib, so it's just Father & Son in this picture.

This is how I find our cheese sometimes. Benjamin has reached a whole new level of independence.

And these are some pictures of a playdate we set up with some other ladies in our ward. We all met at the park and played in the water fountain all morning. We packed lunches and had a little picnic too. It was very fun. First time Eliza's worn a swimsuit. This is her 4th of July suit. :)

Discovering a big beetle was a highlight of the day. Kids are so funny - all gathered around the poor creature, poking at it and flipping it over...

Couldn't pass up including this photo. Benjamin's classic "BLAAAAHHH!" face.

eliza rolling over

About two weeks ago I got this footage. I didn't catch a real roll, but it's still a cute video.