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!

Moo! 8.11.13

After nap we went for a walk to see the cows:

Here's Jeralyn running down the driveway..."Wait for me!"

I LOVE this picture of Josiah!  Those blue eyes!!

Here they are watching the cows.  The cows didn't come close enough for them to get a super good view.

My mom joined us at Smith Acres.  In the background of this picture Uncle Chad is moving the cattle to another pasture.

I just love Smith Acres!  So beautiful!

Cousins 8.11.13

We traveled the 4 hours up north to Smith Acres where we were greeted by Grandma Smith, Uncle Chad, Aunt Mikaela, and cousins Josiah and Zion.  The next day, which was Sunday, we went to church, had a quick lunch, and then off to nap!

Here are Jeralyn and Josiah enjoying their lunch together before their nap.  Every so often they would take something off of one another's tray or give things to the other.  So cute!

Papa's 8.10.13

Before heading up north to Smith Acres we stopped by my dad and Kelly's house.  My brother and his family were going to be there late morning and I thought it would be great for my dad to see all of his grandchildren at one time.  We stayed long enough for photos and lunch.  And then we were on our way up north.

Isaac, Samuel, and Jeralyn with Grandpa.

And then we added my sisters Katie and Amanda.

And what would a family photo be without funny faces?  I asked Jeralyn to stick her tongue out.  And she did!  She's hilarious!

And here's everyone, except for my brother Jacob.  He was at band camp.  Should I Photoshop him in somewhere?  Ha!

From left to right: Jessica, Matthew (with Luella), Katie, Issac, my dad (with Jeralyn), me, Samuel, Amanda, Kelly

Grandpa Al 8.10.13

Before we left my mom and Al's house I took this picture of Jeralyn and Grandpa Al since we had failed to take pictures of them together earlier.  And of course Shelly is in the picture too!

Brother 8.9.13

On Thursday evening Natasha came to stay the night because the next day she had a wedding to shoot in a nearby city.  She would be driving us up north a couple of days later, so it worked so well that she could stay with us a couple of nights.  Jeralyn was pretty excited to see her!  Natasha borrowed my camera for the wedding, so when my brother and his family came on Friday evening, the only camera I had on hand was my iPhone.

Jeralyn and her cousins playing together.

My brother and my niece Luella.

Grandma and her grand-daughters.

Grandma with all of her grand-children.

We had a nice dinner together and the cousins played together.  We ended the night with sparklers.  It was a great evening together!

Backing Up 8.4.13 & 8.5.13

I found some pictures on my phone that I wanted to share...

This is my friend Rhianna's daughters and Jeralyn (in the middle).  They were all drinking some water before bed.  They got to play together for a little while after we arrived before it was time for them to go to bed.

And then Rhianna and I stayed up too late talking.  I said we should take a picture together before we forgot.  This was taken quite late.  I really should have gone to bed sooner...  Oops!

And this is Jeralyn and I on our last flight to Detroit!  Almost there!  A flight attendant offered to take our picture.

Friends 8.6.13

And so it is time to finally post more pictures!  Not sure what happened between July 20th and August 6, but these are the pictures I have to post.  If I find some left behind pictures I will be sure to post them.  Quent also has a bunch of pictures to post, but I will leave it up to him to post--so stay tuned for that.

Jeralyn and I started our travels to Michigan on August 4th.  We stayed overnight at my friend Rhianna's house in Seattle (which I will post pictures of later).  It was so wonderful to see her and her family again!  I went to her house last year for the Baby Wise meet-up.  We continued our travels early morning on August 5th and arrived in Detroit that afternoon.  My mom and Al picked us up from the airport.  We stayed at their house the first 5 days or so.

Jeralyn did wonderful with all of the travel.  She had her own seat 2 out of 3 flights, which was a huge blessing!  Kids fly for free under the age 2, as long as they are on your lap.  Well, my 30-something pound girl was a LOT for my lap!  Ha!  So we were thankful for extra seats!  The only time she fussed was in the Seattle airport that morning.  She is my little traveler!  She slept over 12 hours the first night in Michigan--it was great!

The day after we arrived my friend Carrie and her sweet daughter Maggie visited with us at my mom's house for the afternoon.  We enjoyed their visit so very much!  Jeralyn loved playing with Maggie!  Such sweet friends!

My mom and Jeralyn.

Maggie and Jeralyn holding hands.  So sweet!

Carrie and I.

Jeralyn, Maggie, and Shelly.  Ha!