Warren Dunes

Guess what guys??? Kaylie and Derek are in Chicago this summer. This means they are within driving distance, especially if we meet up halfway. And that's exactly what we did on Saturday when we went to Warren Dunes.

Still rocking the front-facing car seat

The drive there was pretty good. I mean, we listened about a dozen times to the Sheep song from the "Stories of Jesus" CD my mom just sent Joseph, but it could have been about 180 times if he had had his way, so we lucked out there. Once we got there, we decided against going on any trails (it was just sand) and just hit the dunes and the beach.

We had heard from some friends that it was fun to ride down dunes in cardboard boxes, so we brought some along and lugged them up the dune. Once we got to the top we found some blessed shade so we hung out there for a bit before sliding back down. While we were there a park ranger came barreling up the dune in his four wheeler. Was he going to tell us off for trying something fun? He looked into our souls for a good ten seconds, looked into the souls of some nearby teenage boys for about thirty seconds, and then sped off, leaving a pile of sandy dust in his wake. Well, he didn't say anything, so we figured we'd give the cardboard sledding a try.

Um, it didn't work. At all. That is probably why he didn't tell us off. We decided to just sprint down the dune carrying the cardboard and then abandoned it forever in a trash can. And then it was time for the beach!

Thanks to the coldest winter since before sliced bread, the Great Lakes are still absolutely frigid. Even at this beach down at the bottom of Lake Michigan, I don't think the water was much more than 50 degrees.

Which meant, naturally, that Joseph loved it.

I took this right after he got in. Although it's ambiguous, that is a very happy face. Also probably hypothermic.

It wasn't enough for him to get in, though. He continually coaxed us to get off of the burning sand and poky rocks and "stam up" in the water.  Kaylie was best at following his orders.

Oh, that looks cold!

Hey Derek

Selfie!

He liked to fill this bucket with rocks. He also, predictably, liked to throw rocks in the water.

After a few hours of alternating between hot sand and frigid water, we decided it was time to head out and eat something. It was pretty hard to get Joseph to leave.

I think he's either saying "ride bus outside" or "get in the water" which has also joined his lexicon of "escape phrases"

This is when it finally set in that we were leaving.

I don't think a camera can capture the curvature of that frown.

We had to get a picture in our matching shirts. Joseph had one earlier but it got really wet.

Thanks for playing with us! We'll have to meet up again soon!

Birthday birthday

Today, I had this conversation while Joseph and I were riding the bus made of chairs and blankets to Grandma's house.

"Bus cake."
"That's right! You had a bus cake for your birthday! How did it taste?"
"Dat der. Candles."
"That's right! Your cake had candles on it."
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you."

And it reminded me that I should talk about Joseph's birthday a few weeks ago.

Like other kids his age, Joseph recently turned two. We decided to keep it kind of low-key, but it ended up being a pretty fun-filled day as it was.

We started with presents. We decided that instead of wrapping them all, we would cover some with blankets, put some in pillowcases, and wrap the remaining ones.

We marked the blanket covered presents by stuffed animals so he would know where to look.

And the aftermath! Lots of puzzles!

Then, he and Kevin went to a nearby parade while I took advantage of the cooler morning weather to make the cake. When they got back we hurried over to a barbecue/pool party where we were the only ones there for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so I never caught the perma-grin Joseph had the whole time he was in the water. Every time he stepped a bit further in and got colder and wetter, he would just giggle in delight. It was hard to get him to go.

After his nap, we went to a nearby creek to throw rocks in the water. Although he was as excited about this as he was for the swimming pool, he was down to business here, and it was hard to get a smile.

Ready to drop a rock in

Best buds

He kept going for bigger and bigger ones

I can't blame him for wanting to throw so many rocks in. Look at that splash!

It was really cold water. But it was really hot out, so it worked great.

When we were about ready to have dinner, we realized that we had forgotten to buy candles or balloons (although, conveniently, the streamers were still up from my birthday as well as our March party, since we never take decorations down on principle). All Joseph cared about when it came to his cake was candles, so Kevin ran to the store to get some. Meanwhile, I worked on decorating the cake. As Joseph mentioned today, it was a bus cake. To say he loves the bus is an understatement. If he ever gets upset about something, say, his milk is in the wrong color cup or something and we encourage him to "use his words" to sort out the issue, his immediate response is usually "ride bus outside." Wakes up in the middle of the night? "Ride bus outside." When we do ride the bus, he likes to walk down the road a bit to watch it come. When he sees it at the end of the road, he starts to shriek and laugh with excitement. It's pretty great. And then once he's on the bus, he's usually pretty stoic until we're off. Then, "Ride bus again?"

He actually couldn't tell what it was until I told him repeatedly. It's okay. Like I said, he cared mostly about the candles and tried to eat them as soon as Kevin brought them home. I think he thought that was the point of candles. (Candy, candles, same thing, right?)

Then, after dinner (he wanted pasta, raisins, and crackers), it was time for cake!

He liked it. Especially the frosting.

And, just like that, we had a two-year-old!

We sure like him.

(And, if you're curious, here are some videos. The first is him trying to sing the Happy Birthday song. The next is the time we put a bonfire on his cake and expected him to blow it out [who knew two little candles could look so epic on video?]. And the last is some birthday prep we did about a week before his birthday. It has taken us about til now for him not to say "almost two" when we ask how old he is. And no, I don't feel bad for doing a bus cake instead of a dinosaur or ice cream cake)

Hooray for Joseph!

Camping

It's the time of year when people start talking about camping again. This means that it comes up in normal conversation with questions such as "So, do you guys like to go camping?"

The problem with my go-to answer for anything that isn't my favorite thing ever ("No, that's the worst thing ever") is that people generally want to know why it's the worst thing ever, or how many things can even fit into the worst thing ever category to begin with.

So I have to come up with more excuses.
"It stopped being fun when I was a teenager."
Why?
"Because . . . I'm a girl."
So?
"Um . . . I didn't like Girl's Camp."
Why not?
"(Don't get me started.) Uh . . . I didn't like waking up stiff and cold and wet and early."
 Well, then you were doing it wrong!
"Kevin doesn't like it either."
Why not?
"I don't know."

To be honest, there are plenty of reasons I haven't gone camping in years, the primary one being that I have no equipment. That combined with the general lack of clean bathrooms (I was once so terrified of port-a-potties that I did not use the bathroom for an entire overnight trip), smoky smell, mosquitoes, and the hard work it takes to make a campout happen has prevented it from happening.

But all this interrogation has made me realize the main reason I haven't enjoyed camping since I was a kid -- I haven't found a campground with an amphitheater. (Granted, I haven't looked, either.)

I mean, what good is a camping trip without an appearance from Thistle Woman? Or Cinderella? Forget the starry sky and roasted marshmallows -- it was the amphitheater at the Guinavah campground in Logan Canyon that kept us coming back year after year.

When we weren't going on hikes or preparing meals, my sisters and I would spend the days planning plays at the amphitheater. It had a stage that was just perfect for dancing or doing comedy sketches, and we would rehearse until it was time to show off to our parents. They would dutifully watch, even my dad, probably because he had forgotten to bring his book along.

The best skit we did was Thistle Woman. Leslie was the writer, director, and star. She called herself Thistle Woman because she would dot her shirt with thistles. I guess these thistles made her good at solving crimes, because that's what she did for her job. Kaylie and I would be her trusty sidekicks, although I don't think she ever let us actually help save the day from the imaginary villains. They had to be imaginary of course, because someone's feelings might have gotten hurt if they had to be the bad guy. But this meant that watching a panicky Leslie yelling "Avenge me!" while she was dragged off the stage by imaginary villains was a bit underwhelming and bizarre.

After her clever escape (hey, maybe Kaylie and I helped with that after all), Jennie and Kiana would get up on the stage and sing Veggie Tales songs and the ABCs. And then maybe Spencer would crawl across the stage for good measure. And then it was time for dinner.

To me, camping is synonymous with awesome skits, and perhaps I'm afraid to spoil the magic by going camping and knowing for sure that it's instead synonymous with not sleeping well. Nor do I think that going to a campground with an amphitheater would fix things -- the skits would be ironic and nostalgic instead of real.

But maybe when we have kids that are old enough to enjoy an amphitheater, we can go camping again. I imagine the world will need the skills of Thistle Woman again by then.

Open it!

This morning, we set off with our sunscreen, new zoo pass, and slightly overtired boy to check out the Toledo zoo.

He can't hide how happy he is about being front-facing. He let us know about every vehicle in front of us.

As soon as we arrived, Joseph woke up from his 8 minute nap to point out what incredible wildlife we saw in the parking lot ("School bus! Another school bus! School bus!"), and he probably would have been fine to go home and get more sleep after such a beautiful sight as elementary school field trips.

But Kevin and I were still interested in animals, so we decided to go inside. Our first stop was at the seal exhibit, and after staring at the swimming seals for a few seconds, he asked, "Get in?"

And thus it began. No matter how many times we told him we weren't allowed to get in the water or we couldn't get through the glass, he insisted that we do more than see the animals. I guess it was kind of flattering that he thought we could do that.

"Open it?"

His face for most of the morning. He was tired. Also sniffly nosed.

"Open it?"

"Get in?"

Once he found doors that we would open if he asked, "Open it?" he got pretty excited and wanted to run through them more than looking at any exhibit.

Escaping the aviary!

Funny faces

Lemurs! This was one of Joseph's favorite exhibits.

They play with the same toys as Joseph!

His first smile! He was pretty excited.

After we left the monkey/lemur exhibit, we decided to take a break and let him play at the playground. So for about twenty minutes he went down the slide again

and again

and again

until we somehow convinced him to go see gorillas. And then he started smiling a lot!

"Get in?"

"Open it?"

"Shoes off? Shirt off?" he is obsessed with water.

A few otters, hippos, elephants, tigers, crocodiles, snakes, rhinos, and lions later, we were ready to go, but not without looking through the window at the hippos one more time and asking, "Open it?"

We've got to get this kid to Africa someday.

ps: Here are some lemurs and penguins being cute.

Spring

As far as springs go, this one has been pretty normal, if a little late. Some days are crazy hot. Some days are crazy cold and rainy. Some days are windy. Some days are perfect.

Regardless of the temperature, the general direction is always toward green. Looking out at the woods, it's almost like an entire sheet of vibrant green with a couple of tree trunks interspersed between the grass, moss, and leaves. No matter what the weather brings, it just keeps getting greener, almost defiantly.

It looks greener in person. I guess the green hasn't reached the top of the trees yet, but it will soon.

Although we were fairly confident spring would eventually come, we had our doubts. When a few solid weeks of 60-70 degree weather occurred at the beginning of April with only a few buds to show for it, Kevin and I wondered if maybe the arctic winter had killed some of the trees and bushes.

But we didn't have to worry. Spring came slowly, but it came.

And it's been great! We've spent a lot of it outside sans camera, so that is one reason why I haven't blogged all month. (The other reason is that I keep writing deep thoughts without knowing where they're going so I have like a billion drafts.) But now I think it's time to play catch-up, so here is my Ernest Hemingway-esque tri-annual 6-word recap.

Easter
He is risen! So spring comes!

(This was a beautiful day. Church was great, weather was great, food was great, and hiding 5 Easter eggs for Joseph was great.)

"Joseph, can you say 'Happy Easter'?" "Happy Easter Eggs!"

Anniversary
How are we this old? Indian food.

Here we are on Easter. 4 years!

End-of-year Potluck
Lots of counties in the state.

It only took me three conference talks to make all the flags, and I won a Symphony bar at the ward potluck.

Stake Dance
Thank goodness for the samba routine.

(So, other than the samba which was drilled immutably into our brains, Kevin and I kind of have forgotten most of our dance moves and all of our technique. I think right now Joseph is the best dancer in the family. But we had fun, especially when we realized we were accidentally dancing circles around an older couple [okay they were all older except for like 3 of them]).


Birthday
Best day ever. Kevin is great.

(on the off chance I don't blog about it for real, here's the synopsis: Kevin took the day off of research and made pancakes, then we went to the botanical gardens, then the art museum, then walked around central campus, then ate lunch, then I made my cake, then watched neighbor kids, then decorated the cake, then went out to eat, then ate birthday cake. The weather was perfect and many trees were gorgeous. [so pretty much this birthday was brought to you by Mom Explores Michigan because it gave me the idea for the gardens and the museum]).

On a trail at the botanical gardens

This is cool looking

The view from the art museum. The art was pretty too!

Hogwarts, MI

Pretty good cake

Music party
Laundry basket full of song books.

(So I decided in the middle of the night one night that what I really wanted for my birthday was to play piano for people. This morphed into a sort of talent show that I was in charge of and late to and accompanist for. I think people had fun. Yay for being around people who appreciate nerd fests!)

Garden
I like dirt. Joseph likes mud.

(We are sort of helping our neighbors with their garden. Mostly I wanted the excuse to pull weeds and eat free food without having to set up anti-animal defenses myself.)

Mother's Day
Don't need Instagram. Chocolate. Brownies. Cookies.

(I learned in Sacrament Meeting that Instagram is all about making moms feel bad for not giving private flying lessons and we are good moms as long as kids are fed and clean. And I was inundated with chocolate. And we drove around looking for pink and white trees. And talked to Jennie and my jetlagged family. Good day.)

Also, when I went into nursery to pick Joseph up, this is what he was doing. It was a sweet gift to see him being so tender.

Rackham Family Night

Everything is awesome! Except full-length features.

(Joseph did not get the Lego movie. And so Kevin and I got turns not getting to see it.)

Arboretum
Kevin humors my hunt for pink trees.

(And we found some! And rhododendrons! But no peonies yet! And oh my goodness my soul loves seeing so much green. And I keep not taking the camera because I want to be "fully present" or something [and most pictures are blurry anyway] but then that means I don't have any to show or look at later.)

Anyway, it's been a spring full of lots of happy, beautiful things. I'm glad it finally showed up.