Reunion.......

Today we went to my husbands family reunion. It was at Duck Lake in Interlochen. We normally go to the other side of the park and seldom to this one so we were not prepared for swimming. That was fine by me we didn't have to watch the kids so close. There was enough of a playground for them. They had so much fun. There were organized games. Tristen won the first race. I think he was the only one in the group who knew "ready set go" he was off and running before the others thought about it. Was so happy to get a prize. Was not so happy with egg and spoon race because they used ping pong balls that kept blowing away.
We had a great picnic with all the dishes to pass, you know what that's like. Tristen is the one in the red tee shirt


Tristen was in heaven he had both his uncles home. Justin, Carrie and Teal came down from the Upper Peninsula. Here is Justin, Reina and Tristen playing catch with a baseball mitt on the beach.


This one is of Reina and Tristen.


I will have more pictures later when everyone posts theirs and I will add them to this post.
Gabrielle and Cooper came with us so that Carrie and Justin could meet Cooper for the first time. Tony joined us later.
Jason came home as well and got to hold Cooper for the first time

I love these pictures. Cooper is cutting two front teeth and sucks his fist a lot

A close up of Cooper

Thats all I have today, but will be getting more pictures probably so may yet add to this. I love it when the kids are all home. Laura lives close to us so we see her all the time. Tristen loves his family and Auntie Carrie brings him gifts. Both my boys pay special attention to him and Reina so they love their uncles and aunt Carrie. Everyone is staying at the house. Tristen gave up his bed for Teal. He is sleeping with me and Gerry. I am wondering if we will be able to winkle him out of our bed tomorrow night haha.........will let you know

Today...........

Today did not begin well because Tristen was up at 6am and was soon cranky. He would not get dressed and was getting beligerant. So back to bed he went hollerin and screamin......I shut and locked the door. After about 10 minutes of screaming and throwing stuff around he began to settle down and decided he was done. So I asked if he was ready to get dressed. He said he was and came down for a snuggle. All went well for the rest of the day..........I went and got my hair coloured, Laura took me and Tristen got to watch. He had the 3 stylists amused. He sat on me as my hair was being washed, I mean he lay with his head next to mine and screamed "Nanny your hair is blue" when Missy put the shampoo on...........he was happy when it was washed off. They all laughed and we now know he knows the colour blue. A man came in for a hair cut and after that he helped Jake sweep up the hair. When we were done he gave each one a hug and kiss. We went to Laura's for lunch. He played on Reina's swing set. After that we went to the park and he saw someone he knew from school. He was amazed. Then he saw a lady with two black labs and asked her to hold his coat while he played with the dogs. What a nerve, he has no qualms about people. That could be good or bad, I am not sure. I don't want him to be afraid of people but.............I think it's a shame to spoil the innocence. He completely took over, the lady showed him how to use the ball sling or whatever its called and the dogs had a blast. Notice the ball in the air.............. He played a bit on the playground equipment but loved the dogs most of all. Then to get him to leave..... our next visit was to Grandad's work. He loves the big equipment Then he found the mud......... It sucked his shoes off........Laura and me were looking for rocks, and found Petoskey stones. We had wanted to go for a walk but getting him away from the piles of dirt was impossible and we dare not leave him because there were a few mud holes and I didn't want to risk him falling in, or a cave in so we contented ourselves with rock hunting Imagine the state of his pants and feet, now minus shoes and socks. Laura not much better the mud sucked us in. Here is Tristen minus one shoe..... We headed home next to clean up and he took a two hour nap. We are paying for it now as he cant get to sleep. This is a view of our town from above on another subdivision. Its a shame it's hazy because you can see both arms of Grand Traverse Bay The colours must be near the peak. That was our day today............tomorrow school for Tristen and I must catch up on my work while he is gone.

To the Park............

We took Tristen for a drive. It was a cooler day than it has been so we figured we would just have a look around and see what we could see, He was a little grumpy at first but soon got into the swing of things. I want to try to make every day of his life a special day. I know that's impossible but well he will certainly get out and about. First we just drove in the direction of Maple City. We decided we would go through back roads and see what we could see. We stopped at the park out there for a break. First of all we must check the swings for rain water and bird poop........he was right on that. Lets climb next Little boys must get out that energy. He was running from one thing to the next. Not quite as much fun as when Reina is along but he did OK. Down the slide and on to other things. Tristen loves to throw balls and things, he loves to play ball. If none are available then a rock will do. SO throwing a stone over the net was fun for him Well he is still "potty training" and so we have to remind him to let us know when he has to pee. SO...........Gerry showed him what little boys get to do when out walking in the woods. Or when its necessary to go outside. He loved this. first find a good spot Then get ready......Gerry of course is just talking not actually showing him. We left the park and drove around a bit on the way to Cedar. We saw these two ladies out catching bugs. We stopped in Cedar at Pleva's market for some Polish cherry pecan Brats......they are awesome I walked over to the ice cream shop and Good boys get a cone with wonderful rainbow sprinkles on it. Now does he look like he is enjoying that or what? He was one sticky little critter by the time we got home. But he had a great day out and so did we.................notce he is wearing different clothes. Well Gerry was showing him how to wash off his feet at the park, but Tristen is not good at following instructions and he turned on the old fashioned water pump and it got him right in the middle. We had taken an extra set of clothes with us, its always a good idea.

April Afternoon....................

Laura came and got Tristen yesterday, she took him to play at her house while I took a shower and did a little work. A nice opportunity for them to share some Grandma time together. They came back around noon so that we could go to the park. We went for a walk first because we thought once he saw the playground we would not get a chance to walk much. So we set off into the woods. It was a nice cool day but bright and sunny. A bit cool down by the ponds, especially when there was water both sides of the trail. Too muddy yet to walk along the edge. We met a very nice lady on the walking path, she was walking her lovely dog. Tristen loves big dogs and she let him throw the ball for her. He was delighted that the dog kept coming back for him to throw them again. He sort of wanted the bat and said "I need that" and so we had to direct him over to the playground. We found a tree with two holes in it. Something a little boy would just have to explore. He just had to stick his hands in through the holes We found this Holly bush. Well I thought it was Holly but I didn't know once I saw the yellow flowers. I must look it up now We went on over to visit a Killdeer and show Tristen her eggs. She was very nice about it and once she knew we intended no harm she waited till we had viewed her nest from a safe distance and then settled back on the nest. I have posted pictures in my Garden Journal. We also showed him a big ants nest and I think he may have been a little more intrigued with that. He certainly would have stuck his hands in if we had allowed it. After we left the park we took him to visit Granddad (Daddy to him) and he was thrilled to look around the house being built. He will have fun going over there this summer watching the house being built. He loved getting on the back hoe and it was a job to winkle him back out again. Granddad had to get aboard and pry him loose. After a long afternoon out they dropped me off at home to start supper and Laura took him home to play with Reina, she had been a bit ticked to have to go to school while Tristen got to go out. Well he stayed for supper there and came home a very content and tired little boy.