A REAL LIVE MERMAID!

Here are some pictures of our day spent by Lake Erie.  We may or may not have seen an ACTUAL mermaid while we were there.  Take a look:

Eternity. . . by Calvin Klein (said whisperishly -- if that's a word)  Hunter started rolling around in the sand by the waves.  I thought he was trying out for the next Calvin Klein ad campaign.

Tralee's not bad at splashing around in the water either.

Jim took Tralee far out in the vast unknown of Lake Erie.  They worked on swimming.  Tralee has a mean doggy paddle, but needs to graduate to a more prestigious swim stroke--side stroke, breast stroke, back stroke, anything other than what she's doing now:  doggy-paddle-doggy-paddle-doggy-paddle-go-under-sink-sink-sink.  We're working on it.  Hopefully by next summer she'll have a mean butterfly stoke happening.

 You are now entering into mermaid territory.  Keep reading and you'll see the most beautiful sandy mermaid you'll ever lay your eyes on!

I even took a video of her to boot:

I think (fingers crossed) I'm almost done posting our Ohio adventures.  Next up is Wisconsin.  After that we're smooth sailing right into the present.

Just Some More Pics from Ohio

Stinky Tralinky

Kisses from Grandma

My dad and Jim golfing

I was going through some old things and came across this picture of my feet when I was in K5.  I told Tralee to stand on it to compare our feet.  Awe!

This is a picture Tralee drew for her Daddy.  In case it's not completely obvious to you, the picture is of Jim holding a BIG BIG plate of spaghetti.

Hunter sitting in a crib I used for my baby dolls when I was little.  Now my REAL baby doll is sitting in it.  Let's get another "AWE!" going on up in here.

Can you tell I'm getting bored with all the catch-up posts?  I'm writing less and less, and just shoving a bunch of pictures in your face.  At least the subjects in the pictures are cute.

Sunday in OH

Our Sunday in Ohio was nice.  We went to church, ate a yummy meal made with fresh veggies from Grammy Char Char's garden, we relaxed, Jim came back from a business trip, and we ended the day with a fire and s'mores.  We had a nice day.

Park and Bubbles

One of the nights we were in Ohio, Grammy Char Char and I entertained the kidos with bubbles and a trip to the park.  We came home later and Grandpa made everyone popcorn.  It was a nice night.

Hunter made this weird face when he gave me this flower, and said all gremlin-like, "Here, I got this flower for you."

Grammy Char Char can swing on the swings like nobody's business!  Hunter makes cuter sound effects though:

Hunter going down slides was one of the highlights of the night.  On one in particular, he kept landing on his bum.  We thought it was funny.  Funny enough to take a few videos of it:

Hunter getting tickled by Grandpa Jim

Thanks for the great night Mom and Dad!

Nicey the Snake

The first morning we were in Cleveland, Jim and Hunter were outside searching for golf balls (my parents live on a golf course, the 16th green is in their backyard, thus lots of lost golf balls show up around their property) when I heard Jim laughing.  I went outside to investigate what was so funny when Jim said, "Did you see what Hunter just did?"  I had not.  Jim explained that as father and son were walking about a little garter snake slithered on by.  Jim wasn't sure how Hunter would react, so he just sat back and watched for Hunty's reaction.

At first Hunty excitedly pointed and shouted, "Wook!  Wook!  Wook!  A snake!"  Jim calmly responded, "Yup, that's a snake."  Since nobody was screaming or overreacting (probably what would have happened had Tralee or I had been present) Hunter picked up on Jim's calm demeanor and furthered his last comment with, "Yeah, a snake.  It's Nicey-the-Snake!"  Then he chased the snake down, picked it up, and threw it in Grandma and Grandpa's fire pit (no fire was present).  Each time the snake escaped, Hunter would grab it by the tail again, and put it back in the fire pit.  By the time I arrived, Hunty had developed quite a decorum with Nicey-the-Snake.  I decided this relationship must be documented, so I ran back inside, grabbed the camera, and took a few videos and pictures.



I like the part in the above video where Hunter starts hopping after Nicey.  Funny little boy!

When Tralee made it outside, she reacted much how I expected.  She wanted nothing to do with the Nicey.  In fact, she was afraid to walk in the grass in case the snake would try and bite her.  I think if Tralee was around when Hunty first spotted Nicey, Hunter would have picked up on Tralee's fear and developed his own dislike for his new slithery friend.  Hunter screams every time he sees a bug (although, he hasn't been doing it as much as of late), because that's what his big sister does.  I'm glad Nicey-the-Snake was discovered by a father-and-son duo because the result of a mother-and-son or sister-and-brother discovery would have been so much less fun--except the snake probably would have enjoyed it more because he would have been left alone.  Oh the poor snake!  I'm guessing he had quite the head ache (if snakes get headaches) after his morning of being man-handled by Hunter.

After the snake was finally left alone for a bit, the rest of us played on the golf course until the golfers started playing through.

We had a fun first morning in Ohio.

Flying to Cleveland

We arrived home from Salt Lake on August 22nd.  I did a little laundry, mowed the lawn (because the lawn mowing company that should have been coming while we were away NEVER showed. . . our grass was VERY overgrown!), and packed us back up again so we could fly to Cleveland, OH on August 23rd.  We lucked out as far as airplane population went.  We practically had the whole plane to ourselves.  Jim took a row, I took a row, and the kids went back-and-forth.  It was pretty nice.  My munchkins have been on airplanes quite a bit in their short little lives, so they were very well behaved, and before we knew it, we touched down in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jim traveled to Detroit and Maryland for work the first part of our visit, while the kiddies and I just played.  Good times.  

Temple Square

I took the kids to Temple Square in SLC one of the Sundays we were in Utah.  We wandered around, took some pictures, and talked to some nice missionaries from all over the world.  The weather was above 90, so we didn't stay too terribly long.  The heat made both of my munchkins pretty sluggish, and both of them wanted to be carried instead of walk on their own.  I had the diaper bag and camera slung over my shoulder, and no stroller, so carrying either child was not an option.  Tralee and Hunter were not thrilled about this.  It didn't help that I planned our little outing right before dinner, so to add to the sluggishness of my babes, they were also complaining about hunger.  Not my best planning moment.  The good news is, we did make it through the North and South Visitors Centers (which were nice and cool -- Thanks goodness!), and Tralee was able to see where Mommy and Daddy were married.  This was both of my kids' first trip to Temple Square.  I showed my munchkins some beautiful art work, taught them some of our Church history, and tired them right out.  Not a bad Sunday.  I mean, besides the empty tummies, tired little bodies, and unreasonable heat, we had a nice little outing. 

This is one of those shots where I said, "Okay, turn around and let me get your picture!"  Tralee cooperated, Hunter wasn't feeling it.

I kinda like this one.

I think we spent more time at the bubbler (for those of you not familiar with Milwaukee vernacular, a bubbler is another word for drinking fountain) than we did anyplace else. . . except for maybe the fountain pictured below.

Playing by the fountain 

This was towards the end of our short visit.  Tralee DID NOT want to move.  It was nice, cool, and comfy inside the Visitors Center.  I let her rest here for a bit before we went on our way.

I thought this was cool, they have a little model of the temple that shows you what the inside looks like.

Where Jim and I were married and sealed forever. . . yup, he's stuck with me.

Hunter. . . doesn't he looked siked to be there?

Tralee, equally siked.

At the end of the day, we picked Jim up from work, took the kids to a fun restaurant, where they ate a nice hearty meal, and fell promptly asleep once back at the hotel.  Hooray!