We Love Our Trampoline 2009

The trampoline in our backyard was one of the best purchases we ever made for the kids! They love it and play on it for hours and hours at a time. They especially love when we put the sprinkler underneath. Fun times!!

Summer Swimming Lessons

Jessica, Alex and Logan just completed a 2-week swimming class. Alex and Logan took a class together and did very well. Logan is so confident in the water, which rubbed off on Alex too. I'm glad they were in the same class. I can now say that they are swimmers! They just need to work on their freestyle and backfloats so they can swim for longer periods of time. Jessica took a "stroke improvement" class and passed with flying colors!! She needs to continue practicing her diving so she can get better at it, especially since she's considering joining the swimming team in middle school. Then, this last Monday, the pool sponsored an evening family swim party for those who just completed the swim classes. We went to it for our FHE. We had a really fun time swimming together as a family.

Jessica is treading water with other members of her class
They had to tread water for 10 minutes straight, using a variety of kicks

Jessica swimming under water

Alex and Logan listening to their teacher

Logan doing the backstroke

Alex doing the backstroke

Alex loves to swim!

Logan is walking on water

For a reward on Fridays, they let the kids go down the waterslide

July Friday Fun Days

Every summer, the kids and I go out on Fridays and do something fun together. We call it our "Friday Fun Days". Three of our 'fun days' in July were waterpark Fridays. We had a BLAST!! Here are some pics --

TURTLE COVE WATERPARK
July 10, 2009 - A sunny beautiful day in the morning, and overcast in the afternoon. We thought it would start to sprinkle, but it never did. We got ice cream at the concession stand on the way out. It was a fun day!

Spencer coming down the tube slide

Alex coming down the body slide

Logan in the kiddie pool

The other kids swimming in the big pool

1...2...3... DUNK!

All four kids having fun!

Coming down the slide

Spencer getting wet

Jessica and Logan racing on the slides

..... about to be drenched!!

Fun day at Turtle Cove!

ROLLING HILLS WATERPARK
July 17, 2009 - My camera batteries died at the park, so I was only able to get one picture of us eating lunch. Rolling Hills is a lot like Turtle Cove, but it was bigger, and Logan was tall enough to ride the water slides, and it also has a wave pool that the kids loved.

We ordered some hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch at their concession stand grill

LAKE ERIE METROPARK & WAVE POOL
July 24, 2009 - We got a late start b/c of our morning swimming lessons, but we spent the majority of the afternoon at the wave pool. When we got tired, we wandered over to the playground next to the pool. It was a unique and fun playground. The kids played for a long time there. On the way home, we stopped at an A&W Drive-in for dinner. The kids thought it was fun to eat in the car.

Waiting for the waves to begin

Jessica helped Logan while Alex braved the waves by himself

Alex jumping the waves

Jessica and Spencer

The tubes were fun in the wave pool

Poor tired Logan - He fell asleep

We played in these cute little houses on the playground

There were many little buildings on this playground

This was a castle with a maze inside

Logan finding his way through the maze

A Michigan lighthouse

Jessica on a climbing structure

Dolphins on the playground

Fouth of July Weekend

After Josh and I returned from our anniversary trip, my parents stayed with us for the July 4th weekend. I'm glad they did. My kids had seen them for two weeks, but this was my first chance to visit with them while they were in Michigan. We played games, ate out, went to see a movie, had a July 4th BBQ, played a round of mini-golf, the kids had a swim at their hotel pool, and we shot some fireworks off on our driveway. It was a fun weekend, and I was sad to see them leave on Sunday.

I am so lucky to have such amazing, helpful parents who were so willing to come and watch our kids while Josh and I went on our 2-week trip. I know it was a tremendous sacrifice especially for my dad since he's been having some back problems .... but they came anyway! It meant so much! Thank you for EVERYTHING you did for our children and for us! We love you!!

Eating at Red Robin

Playing games at home

Our family playing miniature golf

Grandpa and Grandma with the kids on the golf course

Jessica, Grandpa, and Spencer watching the fireworks

Julie and Joshua - 15th Wedding Anniversary

I've FINALLY finished posting everything from our 15th wedding anniversary trip, and put it all in chronological order. Sorry it's taken so long to finish. We've been back from our trip for a month now. But because we look at this blog as our family journal, I wanted to make it as detailed as I could.

Our trip to Los Angeles and Hawaii really was amazing! Josh and I had so much fun - The time of our life! We really felt like we were in paradise. This trip will always be a wonderful memory for us.

LOS ANGELES

LEAVING FOR LOS ANGELES

Joshua and I left on Thursday, June 18, 2009 for our most anticipated two-week 15th-wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii, with a side trip to Los Angeles first. Before we left, we met my parents at the airport. They were coming to watch our children while we were away. (The kids did many, many fun things with their grandparents and had their own vacation while we were gone. Check my Mom's blog HERE to see what they did.)

It was a little tricky getting off because just as my parents were coming in, we were checking into the airport for our flights. Josh dropped me off at my airport terminal first (there are 2 different Metro-Detroit terminals), then he drove to the other terminal to pick up my parents and give them the car & house keys and the minivan. Josh wished them luck and they left for our house where our kids were waiting for them. Then Josh checked into his airline. We boarded separate planes in different terminals. I got a free airline ticket back in January when I was coming home from Orlando in bad weather and involuntarily got chosen to get booted off the plane. But in return I got a free ticket, a hotel stay that night, and an airport food voucher. Not too bad... So I used the free ticket to fly to California. We decided the $600 for Joshua to fly with me on my flight wasn't worth the extra money since we found a $300 flight to L.A. on a different airline. (But we did fly together from L.A. to Honolulu and back.)

Our flights got into L.A. pretty late. We got a rental car and drove to Anaheim to check into our hotel, which was just across the street from Disneyland. We were so tired the next day, and slept in. Afterwards, we spent the day exploring Downtown Disney, and enjoyed the pool at our hotel. The day after that was a wet and drizzly day, and we spent it at Universal Studios Hollywood. It's much smaller than the one in Orlando, so we were done with everything in the park by mid-afternoon, so we decided to explore downtown L.A. on the way back to our hotel. We went to the Graumann's Chinese Theater which had many handprints and footprints of the stars. We also explored the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Towards sunset, we took a Hollywood Star's Home Tour up through the Hollywood Hills, Mulholland Drive and Beverly Hills. It was very interesting to see these gigantic, gorgeous homes. We saw Jay Leno in his car driving around the Hollywood Hills.

The next few days after that, we hit the Disney Parks -- Disneyland and California Adventure. We could walk there every morning from our hotel. I am a HUGE Disney fanatic (if you didn't already know) and neither one of us had been to Disneyland since we were teenagers. I've been to Disney World in Florida over a dozen times, but Disneyland is much farther away and always seems so far out of reach. So much had changed since we went as teenagers, like the addition of California Adventure, so it was practically a new experience for us. I love NEW Disney experiences, so I was psyched! We had a grand time exploring, running around, riding rides, watching shows & parades, meeting the characters, and staying at the parks from the time they opened until the second they closed -- This made our days very loooong.... But most definitely worth the time and fatigue!

It was sad to leave Disneyland, but we were eager for the next leg of our trip -- Hawaii -- which we thought was far more exciting! Early on Wednesday, June 24, we took a flight out of Los Angeles and headed for Honolulu!

Julie and Joshua at Universal Studios Hollywood

Julie at California Adventure's Paradise Pier.
The rollercoaster behind me is "California Screamin". A really fun coaster!

California Adventure is currently under construction for some new
rides and attractions coming next year.

In front of Grizzly Peak, a river raft ride at California Adventure.
This is us before we went on the ride and before we got really wet.

Joshua posing in front of a model of the San Francisco Bridge at California Adventure.

Our first ride at Disneyland was "Splash Mountain".
No lines, so we rode twice, but got soaking wet!
(I'm not exaggerating! We were wet for half the day!!)

In front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.
(This was my hairstyle the rest of the day because of Splash Mountain)

Joshua in front of the Indiana Jones temple.
We rode the "Indiana Jones Adventure" ride 4 times. Really fun!

The Haunted Mansion
(and still wet from Splash Mountain!)

Trying to escape from jail in Mickey's Toon Town

Inside Mickey's House in Toon Town, Joshua is singing
a song and playing a tune on the piano.

They've changed the theme on Tom Sawyer's Island to "Pirate's Lair"

Next to a treehouse on Tom Sawyer Island

On the swinging bridge in Tarzan's Treehouse

Leaving Disneyland ... sniff, sniff...
(On my head are some flashing Mickey ears that Joshua bought me for my birthday while we were waiting for the night-time "Electrical Parade. I wore them the next two nights we were at Disneyland too.)