Early birthday 8.20.13

Oops, I forgot these photos!  So these are actually the last of our photos from our time in Michigan.  On the last night there we celebrated Jeralyn's birthday with my dad and family.  Kelly bought a chocolate cream pie from this really amazing pie shoppe.  Here is Jeralyn during the birthday song:

Sneaking some licks before the candles are lit.

This is her "why are you all singing?" face.

And some more sneaks!

Mmmm!

Family August 16-21, 2013

Well, I see I am getting behind on posting pictures, so I'm digging deep for some motivation to do so.

Here are some photos that captured our time with my dad, Kelly, and younger siblings when we were in Michigan.

Katie and I waiting outside at an outside mall in Rochester Hills.

My sisters and I at the beach.

Jeralyn LOVED the beach!  I think she really enjoyed playing in warmer water (compared to Alaska).  She kept on asking about starfish, which was cute!

Uncle Jacob and Jeralyn playing a game together on the iPad.

Aunt Amanda and Jeralyn riding "donkeys".  This was all of Jeralyn's idea of pretending they were riding donkeys.  Hilarious!

On our last day in Michigan we went to the mall Great Lakes Crossings.  They have a play area in the middle of the food court and that's where we played for awhile after lunch.

This was taken more in the beginning of our stay at their house.

Both of my sisters are in swim.  This was Amanda at practice.  I love watching her swim!

My dad, Jeralyn, and I watching Amanda swim.

After swim we went to a playground for a little while.

Everyone was playing!

Amanda, Katie, and Jeralyn shucking corn.  After Jeralyn shucked her corn she started eating it raw.  It was hilarious!  She ate almost the whole thing!

And that, my friends, is the last of the photos of our trip to Michigan.  Jeralyn and I traveled back home in one day, our longest flight being 4 hours.  A very kind lady switched seats with us so Jeralyn could sit in the empty seat beside me.  What a blessing that was!  Now she will have her own seat when we fly...whew!  She did great with flying, but it sure was exhausting for this mama!

Lost & Found July 20-August 1, 2013

I don't know how I missed these photos, but I found them today in RAW format.  So I edited and here they are fresh off Photoshop:

7.20.13: Aunt Natasha reading Jeralyn one of her favorite books: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

7.22: Lots of silliness between these two ladies!  Oh, and Shelly!

7.24: Playing with rice and her animals in a sensory bin.  I have come to the conclusion that this is a messy endeavor that ends with lots of sweeping.

7.27: Jeralyn colored on the wall with a green crayon.  I was in the room when it happened, but I was so focused on what I was working on that it took awhile for the 'coloring on the wall' sound to register in my brain.  Good thing for Magic Erasers!  She was happy to wipe down the wall!

7.29: Apparently, Jeralyn doesn't like having her teddy bear in her backpack.  She said, with tears, "All done teddy bear!"

7.29: Jeralyn visiting Tigger while he was in his carrier on the porch.  He still doesn't really appreciate her poking her fingers in there, but he's becoming more tolerant.

7.29: She likes to dump water on herself while playing with her water table.

7.30: Testing out her headphones for our travels.  I wanted to make sure she could stay focused on the video and keep her headphones on.  Success!

8.1: When she eats a snack, she knows she has to sit down while eating.  I can tell she was in mid-play before asking for a snack this day.

Grandparents August 14-16, 2013

We made our way back down state with the help of my sister-in-law, Natasha.  We enjoyed spending a couple of days with my grandparents and aunt Mary.  Such wonderful memories!

Jeralyn and Great-Grandpa playing.  After awhile Jeralyn was following Great-Grandpa around. It was really sweet!

My grandparents and Jeralyn.

And the addition of me...

What a sweet photo!  I love this one!

Great-Grandpa put a flower in her hair, which actually stayed in her hair for a surprisingly long time.

After this we were off to my dad and Kelly's house.  Stay tuned for more!

Montmorency County Fair 8.13.12

I was really excited when I heard that we were going to be in Atlanta, MI when they were having the county fair.  It brought back all of the wonderful memories I had at the fair many years ago with Mikaela and Nate.  We had so much fun!  So I was looking forward to going to the fair again with Jeralyn...not so much for the rides, but for the animals.

Our first stop was to say hello to the elephant.  It even trumpeted for us, which was super cool!

Jeralyn loved seeing the elephant!

This is a sign on one of the buildings dedicated to Quent's grandparents. They played a very active part in the 4-H activities.

Jeralyn saying hello to a goat.

And saying hello to some ducks and geese.  They were a funny bunch!

Grandma and Jeralyn saying hello to a horse.

I asked this young man if I could take a picture of him hugging his goose.  I never thought about hugging a goose before.  I thought it was so sweet!

Saying hello to a bunny.

Super cute!

And finally, saying hello to a calf.  Jeralyn was more confident than it looks in this photo.

And this was all of the pictures I took when we were up north (with my Canon camera).  Natasha was sick this day.  It also was colder this day and felt like fall.  I couldn't get warm, which was weird for me since I'm from Southeast Alaska and I'm used to colder temperatures.  We left the next day to drive back downstate.

8.12.13

These are some pictures we took this day:

Jeralyn coloring with Grandma Smith.  I'm cracking up at Jeralyn's choice of seat.

My niece Zion and I.

Grandma helping Jeralyn get dressed.

Uncle Chad giving the kids a wagon ride!  They had a lot of fun!

We visited Natasha's club house.  The kids enjoyed coloring with markers.

Mikaela and I.

Josiah had fun coloring himself...

Silly little guy!

Cousin Bath 8.11.13

Time for a bath!