Family Lake Vacations

July 20-25 we were at Hamilton Lake, Indiana with the Beck family. We enjoyed time with family, relaxation, and being outside. Olivia loved being with all of her cousins and having them push her around in her Coupe car.

Olivia loved playing in the sand and water. Here she had already gotten all of her clothes wet by deciding to get into her pool with them on so then once they were off she moved over to the sand. Her diaper was HUGE with all the sand and water. It's a wonder it didn't explode!

Here she is in the pool with all her clothes on! By the way, I had just changed her shirt because it was a little wet and then she did this!


Olivia (front and center) was having a snack and watching a Baby Einstein video. Slowly all of her older cousins trickled into the cottage and sat down and joined her!

Uncle Reggie has his arms full reading books to Olivia, Jaret & Leah.

Olivia and Clara sat in the hammock clapping their hands!

July 27-August 2 we were at Bankers Lake, Michigan with the Huber family. We enjoyed camping, boat rides, and swimming. Olivia loved running around outside!

Olivia enjoyed playing in the tube.

We borrowed a 5th wheel camper. Olivia loved to run to the front of the camper and say "up" at the stairs because she wanted to play on our bed.

Olivia's first tubing experience. It was so exciting she messed her pants!

Olivia loved the bubbles. She would go up to the picnic table and grab the bubble wand and bring it to someone saying "bubba".

The bee swing is another thing she would often walk over to and say "up" to.

She loved to go out on the dock but wanted to be Miss Independent and DID NOT like it when we made her hold our hand to walk out on it.

Baling

Jaret & Olivia ready to unload another wagon.

Jaret & Olivia riding in the truck to pick up another wagon of bales.

Checking out an injuring little pigeon that was found in the elevator.

Olivia loves watching the bales go up the elevator.

Playing in the straw!

raspberries, puppies, gator, and a hog roast...

Although July is not over, it has been filled with friends, family, and fun! Olivia is officially a busy body! She loves to walk. You'll often find her just walking around the house just because she can! Aside from signing "all done" she now says "ah don". She can tell you where her toes, tongue, fingers, and hair are. She understands when I tell her to go get or go do many tasks. She continues to love having me (mom) grab her toes and do "This little piggie.." When I get done doing it she'll grab my hand and put it back on her toes and say "Dis" (for THIS..little piggie) and want me to do it again.

We went to Art & Donna's for lunch one Sunday and this is Olivia's face after eating raspberries.

Olivia loves having the blow dryer blown in her face!

We took a visit to Fred, Elaine & Katie's to see their puppies and cows. It took Olivia a little while to warm up to the puppy but she loved to tease them and by the end of the visit was rolling around on the floor letting them lick her face.


Who knew that a Kohl's magazine could be SO exciting?! "Great" Uncle Fred added a lot of excitement in his voice while showing it to her.



Olivia LOVED riding on the gator to go see the cows. She would squeal whenever they drove close to them.

We had a hog roast at the park and invited a lot of our friends. There were SO many little kids running around. They had a blast playing!

Where did June go?!

Father's Day

Where has June gone? So far this summer Terry has been busy packing up one classroom and moving into another. He will be teaching 4th grade this Fall. He also took a week long class (Multicultural Education) at Defiance College. We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on June 17. We've been busy being with family, walking across the street and watching some baseball games, taking many bike rides and walks, playing outside, etc. My summer hobby is garage saling! Can you believe it?! It's SO addicting. I get my newspaper on Wednesdays and circle the ones I think I'll "find" something at. No...I'm not just picking up junk! I have been specifically looking for outdoor "big" toys. I have had some luck with it! Olivia is getting braver and walking some. She'll take about 10 steps to someone. Olivia also is using some sign language consistently now. She most frequently uses "more" and "all done". She loves to blow kisses, give kisses and now rock her baby. She particularly likes to play with the cow and horse out of her Little People barn and loves to say "moo" (quietly of course) and have the horse gallop. Olivia is successfully down to one nap a day and no longer needs that bottle at bedtime. Now to tackle the paci at naps and bedtime!! (I think I'll wait awhile for that one.) She definitely is no longer a baby! (sniff...sniff)

Olivia liked pretending to be a "bee".

Playing in the new children's discovery area, Nature's Neighboorhood, at the zoo.


#2 zoo trip, July 1, 2009



Taking a break from playing for some juice.



Being silly!

Swimming in her new pool.

First Zoo Trip

Watching the baby monkey!

Giraffes!

On the way to see more monkeys!!

A very tired little girl after her first zoo trip!

We decided to get a zoo membership this year, so we tested it out this morning at the Toledo Zoo. The animals were very active this morning! Olivia particularly liked watching the polar bears pace back and forth, the baby monkey climbing and swinging around, the sloth black bear pacing, and the female elephant eating a whole watermelon! We decided we didn't want to push our luck on the first visit so we didn't see everything and the new Children's Zoo is not open yet. We'll definitely be going back many times this summer! On the way home Olivia chowed down her chicken nuggets and french fries and then zonked out the last 15 minutes of the trip home.