Summer Activities

As you can tell from the heading...we're behind on our postings. I still wanted to show some of these pictures from the summer and yes, his birthday pictures are coming! Excuses aside, here are a bunch of pictures from July and August that we hope you enjoy.

Riding in the "Burley" (thanks Pomeroys!) - he actually loved wearing his helmet.

Playground adventures. He's definitely not scared to try new things or climb up high.



Here we are at Meijer Gardens - the bouncy bridge was very entertaining.

Fountains at Meijer Gardens - we discovered that we should have had him in his bathing suit because he got soaked by the end of the trip.

More fountain fun...

Trying to take apart and put back together the sail boat.

Uncle Mark's house - Mark has lots of fun "toys" for kids, including Carter's favorite - the trampoline! (A perfect excuse to buy a trampoline...it's not for me, it's for Carter!).

Time out, have to bring mom a bug...(gee thanks)

Lots of jumping!

After we tore him away from the trampoline he finally tried out Uncle Mark's cool pool. His favorite things were the water guns on the side.

Sean and Carter playing with the water guns.

Carter trying to shoot Bridget.

More water guns...

And finally, we got together with the Douglas and Hepner families (Paula and Kim from MSU). From left to right: Paula with Grace on her lap, Me with Carter, Logan (Hepner), Isabelle (Douglas), and Kim with Wyatt. We had a lot of fun catching up and watching the kids play!

Our First Trip without Carter

Dave and I went to Ireland for 9 days at the beginning of August. Our good friends, Jake and Luise, got married in a tiny town outside of Dublin, Ireland. We took the opportunity to see this beautiful country and be a part of their wedding. We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend our vacation and celebrate our own 5th anniversary as well! It goes without saying, we missed Carter terribly, but we were able to have a good time knowing Carter was home with Grandparents having a great time himself.

The first three days of our trip Carter stayed with Grandma Baldwin and Grandpa Pries. Dave and I spent our first three days on the West Coast touring Killarney, Dingle, the Ring of Kerry, and more. The second three days Carter spent at our house with Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt, we spent those days in the little town of Blessington (about 45 minutes outside of Dublin) for the wedding festivities. Carter spent his last three days at home with Grandma Webb, while Dave and I spent them in Dublin.

It was really hard being away from our little guy for so long, but we received rave reviews that Carter was a good boy for everyone. We know Carter enjoyed his three trips to the zoo, numerous playground visits, going out to restaurants, and nonstop doting (not to mention the gazillion light switches he must have turned on and off while we were gone...as evident from his obsession to do so when we got home).

Here are a few pictures from the trip...we took over 400 in total so this is a very quick glimpse of the gorgeous scenery and cool areas we visited.

It was very chilly during our trip...maybe a high of 58 if we were lucky. We took this on one of our first days touring the Dingle Peninsula.

A quick stop at the Cliffs of Moore.

West Coast scenery - this is on the Dingle Peninsula as well.

Castle in Cashel.

Dave took this picture as we were speeding along the tiny roads on the Dingle Peninsula...not bad for sticking his hand out the window while driving stick.

A great view during our trip around the Ring of Kerry.



We met more sheep than people.

More views along the Ring of Kerry.

The hiking was gorgeous...get as close to the side as you want!

Jake and Luise, just married!

Touring the Guinness Factory in Dublin.

We want to thank all the grandparents again for all their wonderful care given to Carter while we were gone. We absolutely would not have gone on this trip without knowing he was in such great hands. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Love, Dave and Ellen

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We had gorgeous weather all weekend and we had a great time hanging around the house with our long weekend. We went to the parade in Cascade on Friday morning - Carter loved all the fire trucks and large vehicles that made lots of noise. He also thought it was funny when parade people would throw out candy and all the kids would scatter to grab a piece. He grew antsy after a while so we only stayed about an hour (it lasted at least another hour after that!) but he got the idea. He also thought the huge American flag pictured above was really cool. They lifted that between two big fire trucks right near our curb spot.

Feeling antsy...

Jim, Betsty, Tyler, Drew, and Kayley came over in the late afternoon on Friday for a barbeque. The kids loved playing together and really enjoyed eating at Carter's picnic table.




Saturday was exciting when the drain field guy came to start digging the huge hole in our backyard. Carter loved watching the backhoe dig and push dirt around our yard. He loved it all the way until Dave took him to sit in it when the guy had finished for the day. Carter wasn't as thrilled with the excavating machine up close.

Carter loved being outside basically the entire weekend. Lots of time to investigate bugs. Here he is posing with his new friend, "Hopper," which he proudly carried around on his thumb for a while. I'm still getting used to Carter loving bugs, at least this wasn't a spider.

Hope everyone had as wonderful a weekend as we did!

Summer Days

Things we've been up to so far this summer...

Going to the zoo with cousin Elsa

Playing with the dogs

Going up north to visit Henry

Lounging in the sun

Lunch dates with Grandpa and Grandma J.

(and checking text mail on the cell)

Baseball

and working around the house!

Settling In

We moved in our new house a little over a month ago and we're feeling fairly settled at this point. It's a great house with lots of room for our family. One thing we're really enjoying is the setting - our house is out a ways into the country but not too far from everything. Dave loves his new 5 minute commute to work and my commute is only 15 minutes. Our neighbors are wonderful, very friendly - one family has two boys in their early teens and they are already bringing Carter some of their favorite old toys that they've outgrown. The other family has a daughter at the perfect babysitting age...we couldn't have planned it better!

Carter loves his new freedom in the house (as I mentioned before, the stairs are a favorite) and he absolutely adores his huge backyard (3 acres). He's really getting into his four-wheeler outside and rides it everywhere in the yard. He also loves the huge "sand area" for digging and playing. Now that it's warm out we also set his pool in this sandy area and it's like his own beach. This sandy area is also a favorite place of the dogs. At some point when we tackle the yard and landscaping this area will become grass, but for the time being its a big play area for anyone who wants to get dirty.

Some other news: Carter is actually eating! Yes, believe it or not, he's been eating more than fruit the last few days! Before this new found hunger, Carter has seriously been worrying us with his non-eating habits. Some days we'd be lucky to get some blueberries and watermelon in him. He just doesn't ever seem hungry...until a few days ago! Yesterday he ate spaghetti, peaches, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a nutra-grain bar, and more. This probably seems like we're making something out of nothing...but if you've tried to feed him lately you will appreciate our extreme excitement.

Dave has been hard at work cleaning up our garage and making room for all his great new tools and wood working equipment (thanks Kenny and Carol!). We already have a huge list of projects that we would like to tackle. Carter really enjoys "helping" Daddy outside in the garage when any sort of project is going on. Here they are making a cool Carter-size picnic table.

The helping by Carter mostly consists of taking tape measures and hammers and hiding them (sound familiar Grandpa Jernstadt?). But Carter seems to be genuinely interested in what Dave is doing so I definitely have another handyman in the house.

Here is the finished table, it only took them a few hours. I don't know if you can tell, but Carter is playing with his "Bob the Builder" tools at the new table. (We had to bring it inside that first day due to rain and the fact that Carter wouldn't get out of the seat).


We have such a grown up boy on our hands now! We can't believe he'll be two years old at the end of the summer!

Catch-up

Hello everyone! Sorry for such a long delay in our postings lately, as most of you know we moved a few weeks ago so things have been busy. We love our new house and hope everyone gets a chance to come out and see it soon!

Carter posing amongst all the moving boxes.

Updates: we just finished swimming classes, he loved the pool and didn’t mind putting his face in the water by the end of the class. We hope to start a new swim class or possibly get him into a gymnastics class this summer. He’s talking a ton now – he can put about 3 words together to make some sentences. He loves bossing Shady and Maisy around, we often hear “No NO Shady” or “Move May” (we’re working on manners). Outside is his favorite place to be, when we go inside after playing we often have to endure a fit of anger and lots of pleading…”outside, pwease!”

Overall Carter is adjusting really well to the new house. His room is upstairs and farther away from us but he hasn’t missed a beat with sleeping at night. He also loves going up and down the stairs as many times as possible during the day. He never got the chance to do stairs at our old house so this is a new adventure for him. There are lots of new things to explore and do so he’s quickly helping us toddler-proof this house.

Below are some pictures from a recent visit from Lee and Elsa. They came across on the ferry and we loved having them stay with us! Carter and Elsa were so cute together – they would talk to each other and I think they really picked up on new things by being together. I know Carter is talking a lot more because he heard how much Elsa was talking! He now says “dinner” all the time (a favorite word of Elsa’s) and even though he doesn’t actually want dinner, he still says it when he sees food or his high chair. I was hoping he’d pick up on her good eating as well…maybe next time.

Taking a ride in the new yard.