news news news!

Well, we have news to officially share!

We're expecting a baby in March! We are really excited to add a new little addition to our family. I'm 20 weeks along, so, we already know the gender...

Keep in mind that out of ten grandchildren, Eliza is the only girl in the family. So, in keeping with that masculine tradition, we will be having a

BOY!!

Now we can say that out of 11 grandkids, ten of them are boys in our family. So crazy!

When the ultrasound technician told Jed and I that it was a boy, I was SHOCKED. I just couldn't believe it! Which means, that out of our three kids my 'motherly intuition' has been wrong every single time. Sheesh! But of course we are both so excited about another boy!

When I went to pick up the kids from my friend's house after the ultrasound, Ben immediately asked me, "So, Mom, what is it?" I asked him what he thought it would be and he promptly (and predictably) answered, "A boy!" I told him, "Yes, it's a boy! You're right!" He was very excited and pleased about that! He has been firm about thinking it was a boy all along. Next time I will rely on his opinion instead of my own gut feeling. :)

Toledo Zoo fun!

I planned a zoo trip with some friends on October 1st. Jed and I bought a pass to the Toledo Zoo in May and then we never went back! So I decided I had to try to get my money's worth out of it, and I was glad that three friends wanted to come along with me. It was such a blast! I really love this zoo. It started out as a pretty cold day, but by noon time is was beautiful! We had a GREAT time.

In the picture above we were on the train ride, seeing the Savannah animals. Isn't that a funny face Benjamin is pulling? It makes me laugh every time I see it. He is so weird! Reminds me of his Daddy. :)

And this is just a random picture I took the other day. I thought it was cute how they were both reading books, side by side. Benjamin has always liked doing this, and it's not uncommon for me to discover him looking at books. Apparently Eliza is watching and learning!

Detroit River boat ride and flying kites

We went on a boat ride down the Detroit River a few weekends ago, in September. It was fun to see the American side of the river and the neighborhoods on the Canada side of the river. Some of the houses on the islands in the middle of the river are huge!

There are my two cute boys!

Ben kept asking me all morning if it was a REAL boat we were going on. After telling him ten times that it WAS really and truly a REAL boat, I finally understood that he was confused where the water was that this real boat was going to be floating in. :)

Jed had a Saturday morning off work and left the house mid-morning to go run some errands. But before I knew it, Ben and Jed were outside flying a kite in the air instead! Apparently, Jed got sidetracked with the windy day and decided it was perfect kite weather. He is such a fun guy!

Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay out long. It got progressively colder and more overcast until we had to run into the garage to get out of the rain.

Eliza had fun just watching from her wagon, where she was all bundled up.

We can't wait to pull out the kites again. This week is promising to be nicer weather, so we'll see!

September in a nutshell

September has been a fun month! Let's see...

- Watching BYU football games every weekend has been a major highlight of our month. Jed and I are huge fans and look forward to BYU football all year. We get together with other friends here in Michigan and watch it in groups. We usually are able to put Eliza to bed in a pack-n-play, and Benjamin just gets to stay up WAAAAY late on Saturday nights. :)

- Jed has been able to play city league softball on Wednesday nights this month with guys from the ward. That has been a fun thing for him to look forward to and for me and the kids to go and watch. He's always really busy with his residency, so this is a great activity for him.

- Jed and I went raspberry picking this month as a date. It was so fun! We picked four quarts of raspberries and it took us a mere 35-40 minutes. It was really fun! (Last month we took the family blueberry picking and that was a blast too. I love the U-Pick farms in Michigan.)

- I enjoyed a marathon morning of Mom2Mom-sales one Saturday. We had three Mom2Mom sales in the area, all on the same morning. I had a blast shopping for the kids.

(That's an understatement, by the way. But if I were to admit that shopping at these sales is so THRILLING and EXCITING that I think about the Mom2Mom season all summer long, dream about it and plan for it, and when I come home I make my husband look at, admire and discuss

every purchase with me, and then I describe in detail to my mother and sisters all about what I bought and how much I paid...... you would

probably think I was utterly NUTS. So I'll just leave it as "it was a blast.")

As an FYI, Mom2Mom sales are like garage sales but JUST of kids stuff, all under the same roof. And the clothes and toys are in pristine condition for really inexpensive prices. They only have sales in the spring and the fall.

(For example, in the picture I bought all those clothes (many of them are from The Children's Place and the Gap) for a total of $15 at one of the sales. I took this pic for my mom. See - I'm crazy about it!)

- We went on a boat ride on the Detroit River as a family. That was fun. I'll post some pictures soon.

- Jed finished Benjamin's sandbox. He filled it with sand, he and Ben resurrected all our sand toys, and then they played in it for a long time together. Benjamin and especially Eliza LOVE THIS SANDBOX.

Benjamin and Eliza are getting a ride in the wagon! Jed has taken them for a few long rides around the neighborhood in their wagon. What a good daddy!

Mackinac Island

For our 6 year anniversary, Jed and I went on a trip to Mackinac Island, an island in Lake Huron between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. It is a quaint and beautiful little island, where no motorized vehicles are allowed and the streets are dedicated to horse drawn carriages and bicyclists. We left our kids in the care of our friends, Ben & Jen, and soon they will go on a trip and we will take care of their kids. Great trade, huh?

We stayed in a little bed & breakfast type of place called The Inn on Mackinac. Isn't it the cutest building? Of all the beautiful little turreted and balconied hotels lining the streets, I thought ours was the cutest. :)

We took a ferry from the mainland to the island, and brought our bikes along. One of the first things we did was bike the 8 mile trail around the island. We took a break to sit on the beach and skip rocks. Even though the water was cold, Jed talked me into wading in with him. The water was crystal clear, so we spotted a big rock up ahead that we made our goal. Well, while we were picking our way to the rock, Jed saw a crawdad and we watched it for a moment. Suddenly I realized that the waves were reaching my rolled up pants and they were

already soaked by a couple inches! In

a panic, I raced for the rock to try to get onto higher ground, but I overshot it and went even farther than our rock. My pants were definitely

drenched by now, and as I was freaking out in my effort to get BACK to the rock, I nearly fell down in the water! Luckily I staid aright, but my pants were totally wet. (and the last half of the bike ride was about a million times harder than the first half, because of my sticky wet pants clinging to my knees!) What an oaf! Jed was dying laughing at my shocked expressions as I kept going in deeper and deeper!

We took another stop on our bike ride to hike up to Arch Rock, a geological phenomenon where the rock eroded away leaving a natural limestone arch.

After our bike ride we played some putting golf on the beautiful grounds of the Island Resort. That was very fun! Jed beat me on the first 9 holes and we tied on the last 9 holes. One time I got very close to getting a hole in one and some people walking along the boulevard near us started clapping. :) We didn't realize we were being watched by passers-by. Later another friendly couple asked us who won at the golf course because they said they had been watching too. I wish I had really whooped him!

The next morning we went to the Butterfly House, a fun indoor conservatory where they have over 800 butterflies fluttering around. They gave us an identifying chart with little squares to cross off once we spot that type of butterfly. Jed and I had such a fun time trying to identify the different butterflies and crossing them off our chart. I loved it, and Jed got into it too because he loves me so much. :)

One of the best parts of our stay on Mackinac was when we snuck onto the grounds of the Grand Hotel. :) Yes, we were trespassers. You have to pay $10 to get past the front entryway, even to walk on the carriage road beside it. This is a famous hotel, and they don't want tourists descending on their patrons all over the grounds, which is understandable. BUT, as Jed and I were biking up the road to see the Grand Hotel, we saw a little forest bike path leading off the road. We took it for fun and wandered through some pretty ferned and cultivated forested area. We came to a bike rack, so we parked our bike and followed a walkway that led right through the fence and into the grounds. We passed people at the entrance but no one stopped us. We walked right onto the grounds and, to our great pleasure, we discovered that they had games of bocci ball and croquet set out for their patrons to use. No one was playing, so we started playing bocci ball. Some friendly Grand Hotelers came and chatted and took our picture for us. Others appeared and sat on the benches. We started playing croquet after our bocci ball game ended, and by the time we were done lots of people were playing bocci ball and hanging out at the benches. I think we must be trend setters. :) Little did anyone know that we actually weren't rich patrons of the Grand Hotel. :)

Jed was about to jump into their fountains, but luckily thought better of it. :)

By the way, the Grand Hotel is famous because (other than the fact that it is huge, old, has beautiful grounds, and has a golf course and other resort-type amenities) it was the filming location for the movie A Moment In Time with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. The whole island is obsessed with the movie (in a quaint, funny way) and the movie plays over and over on its own dedicated channel at most of the hotels. :) (With that being said, may I warn you, I thought the movie was a bit slow. I watched it when I first moved to Michigan because, after all, it is Mackinac Island's claim to fame, but I was't that impressed by the end of it.)

After our games on the lawns we walked up the staircase to the hotel itself and wandered to the front of the hotel and looked around in the floral shop (where they make all the fresh floral arrangements for the hotel) and the golf club house. When we were ready to go back to our bikes, we tried to go the way we came and the 'guards' stopped us, saying we had to pay $10 if we wanted to go any further. Hmmmm.... So, we turned around, walked down the hill and turned at the forest path and retrieved our bikes. We laughed about how we should go back across the lawns and up the staircase and past the 'guards' as we were walking OUT of the grounds, and say, "Goodbye!" :)

We stopped at a bench in the woods to eat our lunch before we headed back to the wharf and boarded our ferry off the island. (What a handsome guy with such a studly bike!)

We drove to Bellaire, a town near the tourist center, Traverse City. We stayed at the Shanty Creek Resort, where we are friends with one of the managers there, and stayed in The Kings Court room for a great discount! :)

When we were driving to Bellaire Lake and nearby Torch Lake, our GPS was taking us for some wild rides! We were going on deserted dirt roads that wound through the thick forest, and we even had to skirt a fallen tree at one point! I made Jed stop the car and take a picture of me on our adventurous travels through the woods!

The next morning we were scheduled to play in a golf tournament with our friend on the resort's nice course, but we got rained out. Instead we went to an Arts Festival on the shore of Torch Lake. This lake was rated as the third most beautiful lake in the world, according to National Geographic. (I'm standing in front of it in the picture above.) The Arts Festival was SO FUN! Again, Jed enjoyed it with me because he loves me so much. :) There was jewelry, painting, woodwork, pottery, and all kinds of other creative things. We saw some amazing furniture (Jed enjoyed the wood artists the best) and I almost bought a ceramic serving bowl that was pretty cool. Anyway, I was excited that the Arts Festival just happened to be going on that day, and that they didn't cancel it even though it was drizzling all morning.

And that's our trip. We had a great time! It was nice to be together, just the two of us. Happy Anniversary, Jed! I love you! You are the best husband in the whole world!

August happenings.

Benjamin and his friends, Preston and Abram, had a lot of fun playing in a few cardboard boxes one day. Aren't they cute?

We had a summer block party for our subdivision. It was very fun! The firetruck came and let the kids hold the water hose.

Benjamin saw Jed go up into our attic the other day (Jed stores some stuff up there) and asked to go up there too. Jed lifted him up and showed him around for a minute. Ever since then, Ben has been wanting to go back up in our attic. So one night Jed told Benjamin that if he stayed in bed and earned all his pennies (an incentive we implemented a month or so ago) then he would get to "buy" a trip up into the attic with Daddy to read a book.

Well, Ben earned his pennies and got to buy the coupon to read a book with Daddy up in the attic. He was so excited! So they read a book of his choice up there. It was quite the exciting adventure. :)

Jed and I celebrated our 6th anniversary at the end of August. To celebrate, we planned a trip for the following week up to Mackinac Island, just the two of us. (Pictures will be coming.) In the meantime, we celebrated by having a date up in Benjamin's fort after the kids were asleep. :) We brought pillows, blankets, and treats up in the fort and then set up a movie on Jed's laptop. It was actually VERY fun!

Young Womens Girls Camp

In July I went to Girls Camp with my Young Women. I was the only leader that went up to camp. I had to make arrangments with four of my good friends to take care of Benjamin and Eliza for the four days that I was gone. Pretty much they just rotated the kids between them, and one of them even had the kids sleep at her house every night, because Jed was working 80-90 hours/week that month. I am so grateful for what kind and serving friends I have.

My camp experience was SO FUN. I seriously loved it. I was a little bit apprehensive about going, just because I haven't been to camp as a leader before, I didn't really know what to expect and all that. But seriously, I had such a fun time and met some really cool adult women and also was able to get to know lots of youth in our stake. It was so fun to hang out with the girls! I honestly want to go every summer now. :)

Funny story... While I was eating lunch with some girls at a table on the 2nd or 3rd day, one other adult leader said, "Sister Walker, do you have any children?" I said, "Yes, I have two kids." The girl sitting next to the adult leader looked at me with wide eyes. She was one of the only girls from her ward that came to camp, and she didn't have any adult leaders from her ward, plus she was very shy, so I had been hanging out with her a lot on our hikes and activities. I smiled and said, "Are you surprised?" and she nodded, still wide eyed. Then the adult leader said, "She thought you were a 3rd year camper!" Now it was my turn to be surprised! This whole time she had thought that I was one of the 14 year olds in her group!!! What makes it even funnier is that earlier that day I had been pestering her and a couple other girls to get their scriptures out and start reading them when we took a break on our hike for personal scripture study. And she didn't even know I was a leader at the time. :)

And this happened again.... My friend, who was also an adult leader from another ward, told me that she and a young girl were watching a group of us out the cabin window and they saw me running to the office to get something. The girl next to my friend said, "Isn't she a first year?" When my friend told me that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - She thought I was TWELVE YEARS OLD??! Holy cow! I know I was enthusiastic and joined the girls in games of volleyball, canoeing, bracelet making, singing camp songs, and playing with the kareoke machine, but did I act like a 12 year old? I sure hope not! :)

I guess when you're an adult you don't mind making a fool of yourself singing camp songs and acting in skits. My readiness to join in games must have made me look like one of the girls. :)

Here I am with my Laurel President. We had such a great time. I'm glad I was able to go. :)

Benjamin is FOUR years old now!

Happy Birthday to a big FOUR YEAR OLD!

Benjamin turned 4 on July 5. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday the 4th. It was a fun day for a party - everything was patriotic (even the music) and it was all decked out in red, white, and blue - including the balloons, streamers, confetti, all the cute little girls' clothes, and even a big plastic flag displayed across the wall! :)
It was a water party and the kids played in the blowup pools, with water balloons, and in a big blowup trampoline.

The only pic I got from the party was of the kids around the cake (thanks Ashley!). When you've got a dozen or more children running around, and you're clearing up their lunch of PBJs, watermelon, strawberries, and punch, while also bringing out the cake and icecream, you don't have much time for taking snapshots!

The next day, on Sunday his actual birthday, we took some pictures together...

4th of July Summerfest

On the Fourth of July, we went to the city's Summerfest. It was super fun! They had a whole bunch of blowup toys that were FREE, and Ben had a blast going through them again and again and again.

The fire station was giving away free snowcones and cotton candy, and they even had an old totalled car that boys were paying $2 to get three big whacks at it with a sledge hammer. :)

Benjamin got to aim the fireman's hose at a fake fire. Look at his deep concentration.

The best part of the festivities was when the firemen lit the old hammered-up car on fire. They waited until the flames were consuming every inch of it and then they descended upon the fire with their hoses and dressed in full fireman gear. It was an impressive sight.

last post about Utah - Tracy Aviary

Well, this is my last post about our trip to Utah. Yeah, it's taken me way too long to document it all.

Anyway, one of the last things we did was go to Tracy Aviary in Sugarhouse. It was actually a really fun little excursion. I lived right next to Liberty Park for over a year and never went there. I really wanted to go see what it was like while we were visiting.

On the picture to the right we were watching a bird show.

(Jack, Mindy, Ben, Eliza, me, Wesley)

Mindy, Eliza, Wesley, Brittany and Gabe checking out the pink flamingos.

At the beginning of our walk in the aviary, little Wesley spotted a peacock and started running to it. Amy ran after him and then when she saw the peacock he was running for, she said aloud, "Is that REAL?!" It was so funny! Here is Benjamin leading his little cousins after the peacock, who quickly retreated when he saw the oncoming attack. :)

Later in the day, the peacocks all congregated near us and spread out their feathers. It was so cool! There were about 5 peacocks in all their glory, strutting their stuff right next to us. :)

Eliza and I posing in front of a very ugly vulture.

After we went to the Tracy Aviary, we met a bunch of our Sterzer cousins at the play structure at Libery Park. It was so fun to get together with them and see all their kids! All the adults are pictured, but only with a fraction of the children. The rest were running wild. :)