Our last week in Michigan

We feel very fortunate that we could have a vacation in Michigan long enough to warrant two blog postings!  We went somewhere I've never been before...my sister-in-law's family has a cabin 3 hrs drive north of my parents on a lake called Starvation Lake.  Kind of a strange name but it was a beautiful place to visit.  Very relaxing.  There were tons of things to do.  We rode the quad bike/arv on some trails on state land.  We also were able to go out on the pontoon boat to swim/fish, and there was a speedboat for tubing.  One surprise of the weekend was that the boys were excited to play with badminton raquets.  They played badminton a little but then the game turned more into baseball.  Ezra used the raquets as a guitar and sang for us.  He got pretty comfortable and put on quite a show.  He is not my shy child.  My mom and aunt put together all the food for the weekend so it was more relaxing for me than a normal camping experience.  The cabin we stayed in had indoor plumbing and 2 bedrooms and a kitchen so we were not roughing it.  My parents and brother and sister in law were with us and we all had a lot of fun together.  We had picked up Tim in Detroit 2 days before.  So good to have him back with us again.  We also had a family picture session on Lake Michigan before we came back home.  Don't have the pictures back yet but hopefully I'll be able to post them somehow.

Adventures in Michigan

We arrived in Michigan Aug 4 and have been busy trying to fit in all the things we like to do out here.  For anyone I might have mentioned this to, we did get a good thunderstorm this weekend!  I was hoping for a good one during our trip.  We just don't get them back home!  One of the highlights for the kids is riding the lawnmower with grandpa.  C and A were enjoying running behind and "attacking" with foam swords.

 We celebrated C's 6th birthday with a Star Wars cake and lots of relatives.  Thanks to you all for coming over and making it a special day for our sweet boy.

 My dad likes to take the boys fishing.  They go out to the compost pile in the yard and find lots of worms. 

 We also found this great toad.  He had burrowed himself about a foot down in the compost pile.  What a  find!

 One of my favorite places on earth, the beach at South Haven...

 ...which is also home to some of the best ice cream on earth, at Shermans.

 We got to spend one night with my aunt and uncle and visit another aunt, and make donuts!

 This is the city pool in GR near another aunt's house.  We have been blessed with perfect weather and way too much fun.  I enjoy swimming too.  Ezra went down the waterslide with me about 15 times.  I'm not sure I'll have the courage to go down alone someday when he's too big to want me to go with him!  My mom went down though and we were all very proud of her!

 A and C got to take a horse riding lesson at the ranch where Aunt E rides every week.  They came away from it saying we now need to buy a horse (they were sure we could keep it in the dog pen in our back yard!)

It has definately felt like we are on vacation.  My mom has given me a nice break from cooking and there's not much cleaning that has to be done, since we are outside so much.  What a blessing.  We are all going to go through a little culture shock when we have to go back to our normal routines at home.  We have really missed Tim though and look forward to picking him up from the airport tomorrow night!

Austin's 9th birthday party

Last night we had Austin's birthday party.  His actual birthday is the 15th, but since we leave for Michigan in the morning and will be there for his bday, we celebrated with his friends before we left on our trip.  Needless to say, its been a little crazy doing a camping trip, a bday party 2 days later, and leaving for Michigan 2 days after that.  Its all fun stuff though and we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves!  There is much excitement in our house.  Austin's party was a reptile party.  I met this wonderful friend, Bonnie, when I've subbed in the school where she works and have gotten to know her over the last 2 years.  She is a reptile enthusiast!  She has a whole room in her house dedicated to her creatures.  We visited her house last summer and it was the highlight of the summer for the boys to get to see and hold so many interesting reptiles.  Bonnie graciously agreed to pack up a bunch of her critters and bring them to our house for the party.  It was a lot of work for her, but I think its safe to say she enjoyed showing off her animals.  She even went so far as to catch a "deposit" from the tortoise to save it from landing on my carpet! 

The weather cooperated beautifully for pizza in the backyard.

 This is a ball python we borrowed from a new friend at church.  I met her when I was asking around for someone that had a snake we could use for the party. 

 The snake cake...

 Bonnie and her tortoise...

 My favorite, the chameleon named Frankie...

I don't know how to spell this one's name, its something like euromastix.  They come from Saudi Arabia/Egypt. 

 The frilled lizard named Lacey

 Lacey was so relaxed she would lay on her back...

 I think this was called an ornamental horned toad.  It will grow to be the size of a dinner plate.  It looks a lot like a puddle...

 Blowing out the candles...

Camping at Kanaskat Palmer State Park

We were able to go camping this past weekend with our small group from church. What a blast! We had 4 large tents on a site intended for two, but we all managed to fit. All together there were 8 adults and 10 kids there for most of the time. We hiked down to the river every day and played there. The water was icy but everyone got in anyway. The rest of the time we mostly hung out at the campsite. The kids could ride bikes and play on the rope swing Tim concocted. We felt very blessed to have this time with our friends.

life with 3 boys

Here is how the boys were entertaining themselves last night as I tried to make dinner. Austin is on the counter in the kitchen.  The wall between the kitchen and the living room on the other side does not go to the ceiling.

There is a pile of candy on the piano bench, if you can see it.  Austin was throwing it piece by piece over the wall into the living room where the other 2 boys were catching it.  I have to give it to them - they are creative.  And they did pick it up afterwards without arguing with me for not letting them eat it all!

Westport

We had the opportunity to go to the ocean with Tim's parents.  We stayed in a condo owned by some friends of theirs who very graciously let us use their condo for the weekend.  It was a last-minute trip but a fun adventure!  The ocean out here is very different that going to the lake in Michigan, which is what I'm used to.  No one really swims in the ocean out here - its a very rocky beach, very cold water, lots of wind, and huge waves.  We totally soaked up the sunshine though and there was a pool in the complex that we were in a LOT.  This is the view from the deck of the condo.

 Walking to the beach from the condo took only 3-4 minutes.

 There was this great "cliff" the boys could have jumped off for hours...

 Lots of interesting things to look at on the beach.  Cool seashells, rocks, sand dollars and even a jellyfish!

I don't have any pictures of the other stuff we did, but it was fun just to hang out with Grammy and Pa, go out for ice cream, and also to fly kites.

Some of our favorite things...

Since this is a new blog, I thought I'd post some pictures of some of our favorite things/activities.  Its a little peek into what we enjoy (almost) every day.  Of course, Star Wars is very popular with the Brinkley boys.  Star Wars lego people and light saber duels are their favorite play activities.

 This is our bearded dragon.  The boys hold him every day.  He rotates between Austin and Christian at night for their reading time in bed before lights out.  He was given to us by a friend of mine that has a whole lizard room in her house.  He is 5 years old and came with the name "Fat Boy".  We have not changed that.

 This is still one of my favorite things.  Our house.  It is such a huge blessing to our family and sometimes I still can't believe we have it.  Its a long story, but we certainly didn't think we'd be living anywhere like this 3 years ago!

 Funny faces.  I wish I could post the yelling that goes along with all the silliness.  There is never any shortage of noise or craziness with 3 boys in the house!

 I have really been enjoying planting flowers in our yard this year. 

 We are always on the hunt for bugs.

We also paid for half of 2 Seattle Sounders season tickets this year.  It has been fun to go to the games.  They average about once a month - its about an hour's drive to get to the game.  Tim is in his glory of course.  We let Austin and Christian choose one of the games that Tim would take them to.  They had a blast.  Austin and Christian can tell you all the names of the players as well as the number on their jerseys.  We are now big time Sounders fans!

There are many other things we enjoy that I could post.  Hopefully more of that to come in future posts!