Chicago. Our second home.

We’ve been to Chicago a lot this summer. We fly in and out of there, so every time we go anywhere, we go to Chicago as well. Plus, with doting grandparents only hours away, it’s hard to keep Tennyson away for long.

This one time we went to an arboretum. They had the most awesome children’s garden I’ve ever been to. And Tennyson loved finding his way around the maze.



We’ve also been to a couple of zoos. Tennyson got to touch his first snake (and loved it).

 

We went swimming.



We visited an aquarium.



I finally got to take a spin on my dad’s Harley.



Oh, and we helped out around the house. We aren’t moochers.

Oh, sweet fall!

It’s autumn time again!

This is my absolute favorite season in Michigan. We ushered it in by going to our favorite cider mill and doing some apple picking. We missed the apple picking last year due to an early frost, so we went as soon as we could this year so that didn’t happen to us again. Plus, Mike’s favorite apples just came into season.

The pumpkins aren’t quite ready yet, but they are getting close. We can’t wait!

Tennyson was really, really into apple picking. I didn’t think he would be interested at all, but he picked almost half of our apples for us. He loved it!

He also loved just walking up and down the trail. He found this stick while we were walking and carried it with him through the rest of the day. He’s such a funny kid! We love him.

While we were there, we got our favorite treats in the whole wide world… apple donuts and cider! Tennyson even got to try them out this year. They are delicious.

Not even five minutes after getting into the car we turned around and saw that Tennyson had fallen sound asleep. He obviously had a blast.

We love the fall. It’s the best.

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago, our family officially became a family of seven.

We went to court and my three youngest siblings legally joined our family (even though they had already been part of our family for a year through foster care).

   (Please don’t mock my overalls.)

In November, we sealed it for time and all eternity. That day is numbered right up there with the best days of my life.

We have loved having them around.

Sometimes I can’t believe how time flies.

Happy ten years to Ashley, Josh, and Amanda!! Thanks for joining our little family. We were incomplete without you.

Summer Vacation: NH Seacoast

Finally, the last chapter in our New Hampshire trip series. We packed so much in!
So the last two days we were there, we stayed at this super quaint little inn by the sea. We actually found out that it was the same inn that Mike’s grammy stayed at when their family first moved to New Hampshire a long time ago… it was really awesome.

The first morning we stayed there, we went and visited the Seacoast Science Center. It had a lot of tide pools we could walk around and it also had a touch pool inside that we could play with.
 
Tennyson got to touch a sea urchin and a starfish. He held the sea urchin for a while, but didn’t like the starfish as much and tried to throw it on the ground. Poor little starfish.

During Tennyson’s morning nap, we drove all around the Portsmouth area and got to see some really cool things, including the Portsmouth naval yard. We rolled down our windows and could hear the bells and morning announcements.

Then we walked around the shops of downtown Portsmouth and stopped all along the way to look out at the tug boats and fishing boats.
 
Later that afternoon we were able to stop by the house Mike’s dad grew up in and the graves of his uncle and grandpa. It was really nice to be able to visit.

Near the house and cemetery, we saw a cute little farmer’s market, so we decided to pull off and visit! We decided to buy some maple cream soda to try. I didn’t know if I’d like it, but it actually ended up being very, very delicious! (I figured Mike would love it since he used to drink maple syrup as a kid.)

Then that night we went for a nice little walk along the beach. Tennyson was still scared of the waves. But it was the perfect ending to the day.