There was a LOT going on this week!

Wow, there was a lot going on this week, especially after such a low-key week last week! 

On Sunday, we had some new friends over for dinner after Church. That was our first friends-over-for-dinner-in-Michigan.  Everyone knows how much I love entertaining, so this was fun for us.  Unfortunately, Austin was on-call all weekend, so he went in to the hospital first thing in the morning, was there through church, and didn’t even get home until our company was already at our house. Luckily, he didn’t get called back in and we were able to spend some fun times with new friends!

We have an outdoor mall fairly near our house and it has a little play place and splash pad in it. On Monday, these same friends invited us to meet them (and another mom and little girl) at the splash park.  Within two minutes of being there I remembered something important—my kids HATE having water splash on them and in their faces! They wouldn’t play at the splash parks in Arizona, they wouldn’t play in our sprinklers last week, and they wouldn’t play in this water! I tried my best to get them to enjoy it, but they wouldn’t come near the water.  Finally, I PICKED Makenna up and stuck her right down on the water! She flipped out, screaming and crying!  But I just kept working with her and eventually, she would play a little—still not letting it really splash on her, but putting her hands in it and running beside it. 

This was as close as they would get for a LONG time:

   

Eventually, Makenna would splash her hands in the water (although Max still ran away from it):

   

Max thought playing with a post was more fun than playing in water, ha ha:

   

Then they started just running BESIDE the water, but not actually letting it touch them:

   

Finally, after over an hour, they felt comfortable enough to kind of play in the water (at least a little bit) with their friends:

      

After playing, we dressed the kids and walked to a Taco Bell for lunch.  The kids held hands the whole way—SO cute! (It’s also so funny to see these three little girls… and then Max.  He doesn’t know he is a boy! Ha ha, we have to find him some little boys to play with!)

 

After lunch, we tried to play at the play place but it was already just too hot.  But it was still such a fun time and exciting to get to play with friends again (and we also made HUGE progress in getting the kids to play a little bit in water!).

Austin got home from the hospital pretty late on Monday so we were up a bit later than usual.  At 10:00 p.m., I got a phone call from my mom.  “Are you awake.” “Umm, yes…” “Well you had better be! We are almost at your house!” : D My parents and little brothers had dropped my sister Hollee off at EFY in Kentucky earlier that day… and then kept driving north! So we had surprise visitors on Monday night!

On Tuesdays, we have beach day.  Perfect! I thought that would be a fun thing to take my family too, so we all headed to the beach to play and have lunch.

When we first got to the beach, Makenna and Max just played with their friend Emma and my brothers.  My dad isn’t really supposed to be in the sun or heat, so he stayed up at the covered picnic tables.  After lunch, however, my dad decided he would play with the kids in the water for a little while.  Oh my goodness, they LOVED playing with my dad!

        

Attempting to teach Max to swim:

 

And Makenna’s turn:

    

Then they took turns being spun around in the water:

      

My poor little brothers! They wanted to play with their Dad, but Makenna and Max demanded all of his attention! But Logan and Gordon were sweet to share him!

   

Makenna and Max just lined up in front of my dad, “My turn, Granddad! My turn!”

   

My dad tried to go off by himself for a few minutes to swim.  He couldn’t get away from these crazy kids wanting his attention though!  They followed after him wherever he went, even if the water was over their heads!

 

What were my mom and I doing during this time? We pulled our chairs into the water and sat watching them! : ) (By the way, it is a lucky thing my mom doesn’t have internet at her house, because she would probably kill me if she saw I posted this, ha ha)

We stayed at the beach quite a long time, so afterwards my kids took a LONG nap.  While they were napping, my family did a little roaming around the town.

That evening, I had this great idea that we would all go to a baseball game to watch the Detroit Tigers play the Oakland A’s.  So me and Max waited on Austin to get home, and everyone else headed downtown.  After Austin got home and changed, we headed on our own way.  After we were almost there, I got a phone call from my mom.  They were sold out of all of the inexpensive tickets. So no baseball game. : ( So we headed back to Sterling Heights and had a late dinner.  After dinner, my parents took Makenna and Max out for ice cream and me and Austin took my brothers to see Cars 2.  We didn’t get out of the movie until almost midnight and we were SO tired when we finally crawled home and to bed (and Makenna and Max didn’t get into bed until after 10)!

On Wednesday, the kiddos woke up too late to really get to do anything in the morning, so we just hung out at home.  Then that afternoon, Max took another super long nap.  So I stayed at home with him while everyone else went bowling.  My parents took pictures on my dad’s phone, so hopefully I will get a copy of them soon.  They were SO cute! I guess Makenna loved bowling.  My dad would help her carry the ball, but she would roll it.  And then she would jump up and down clapping her hands when she hit the pins.  Ha ha, so definitely I want to take her bowling again!

The Tigers were playing baseball again Wednesday night, and this time I bought tickets online before we left! Once again, Austin arrived home pretty late.  So my mom and dad and brothers and Max left before us and Makenna and me and Austin followed later.  We actually had pretty good seats!

 

Not too shabby for $10 tickets! : )

Oh man, the sun was shining and it was 96 degrees and soooo humid! Within seconds, we were all burning up and sweaty! And we stayed that way the entire night!

Despite the heat, we were all really excited to be at the game:

 

Except Max.  Ha ha, that guy was still pretty whiney and tired from the day before.  So he wanted to stay in his Dad’s lap the whole night (look at his pouty face!)!

 

But I was still impressed with how great the kids did at the game.  The game ended up being over 3 hours long and it was pretty hot and miserable out there.  But Makenna just played her video game:

And watched and cheered for the “white boys” (they had white uniforms on, ha ha):

We had dinner before we left our house and brought plenty of water to the game with us, but Makenna just kept begging for a Sprite! So we bought some (for 4 darn dollars a piece!) and she DOWNED it!

Afterwards, she and my brother Logan used the bottles to pretend to be baseball players batting!

Max just stayed right with his Dad the whole time:

        

Poor Austin! It was just too hot to have to hold a kid the whole night!

Anyway, the kids did surprisingly well at the game and we all enjoyed it.  However, at the 9th inning Max just lost it and started crying.  It was VERY understandable.  It was hot, boring for the little kids, and much past their bedtime.  So my parents took him home and we (me and Austin, Makenna, Logan and Gordon) followed after the game was over.  Once again, we didn’t get home and to bed until about midnight!

When we woke up on Thursday morning, my family was gone! My mom had said they would start heading home on Thursday, but I didn’t realize they were going to be leaving so early! It was such a fast visit, but we were so glad they came! We really had so much fun!

Max didn’t get up on Thursday until 10:30 am! He was a tired boy! When we finally heard him, Makenna went and opened his bedroom door for him.  This is how he came out:

 

Backwards hat and tennis shoes.  He put those on all by himself, ha ha.

Oh my goodness! I could eat that guy up! He looks so stinkin’ adorable!!!

Thursday we just hung out at home and tried to recuperate all day.

On Friday, we headed to the park for park day.  It was at a different park this time because of a craft fair at our usual park, and Makenna learned another new skill at the park.

She would climb the ladder:

 

And then go down the big pole:

She is getting so big! It is so crazy to see it!  She is NOT a toddler or baby anymore! Even though she is only 3, she is all around big girl!

And just so he isn’t left out, here are a couple of the Mr. playing:

 

We only stayed at the park a couple of hours because Max was still so, so tired.  Austin ended up working until 9 pm that night, so it was a long day for all of us!

And that was our week! Crammed pack! Hopefully we will be rested and ready to start it all up again on Monday! : )