finger painting

this is what art looks like at our house

invisible children

on friday night the boys played at an invisible children benefit concert. we had a great time hanging out with our friends Reilly. the sound was great, the songs were great, and the lights rocked!

hard at work

we've been working hard in our backyard and owen has thoroughly enjoyed the dirt. our patio is just about complete, we just need the wall built. then we'll move onto the beams that will go on our ruin, and then a fence! oh how i'm looking forward to a fence. somehow i have become the neighborhood babysitter and it is not fun. ha.

gus

"owen, tomorrow gus is going home."
"mama, gus is at home."

Welcome Jude Peter

Jude Peter Manni was born on Wednesday July 23rd at 5:40am, weighing in at almost 8lbs. Congratulations Katy, Pete and Ava!

maine

driving 19 hrs for a surprise

enjoying fireworks over the water
building a pirate ship
swimming in the lake
reading books with nana
sitting on the dock
throwing rocks
shopping in freeport
watching polar express 2x a day for a week
going to bed at 10pm and waking at 7am
relaxing

michigan

our trip this summer started in michigan, before and after we enjoyed canada. it was so great seeing my grandparents. owen had a blast driving around in this old firetruck that my grandma found a few years ago at a yard sale. all he wanted to do was ride on it. he would collect pinecones and rocks in the back of it.

just before we were heading out to maine, brian and owen and i drove down to see my moms grave. it is in a beautiful area, with a huge tree next to it. a great spot. tyler ended up seeing our car and pulled in to visit my moms grave too. we had a great time visiting and meredith, owen and i are traveling back out to michigan in a few weeks.

MI to Canada

the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of excursions. we all left a few weeks ago to visit my grandparents in michigan and to wait for my brother and my dad to meet up with us, where we rented an RV and traveled to Canada to spend time rv'ing it. we first headed up to lake huron where we spent a few nights enjoying the beach, but then headed up north to lake superior provincial park. it was a very beautiful park. it was there, where my parents took their honeymoon. its great place and i can see why my dad wanted to bring us there. the shoreline was tumbled rocks of all shapes and sizes, and cliffs lined the beaches.

we we able to hike a bit and i was amazed at how much owen loved it. he especially enjoyed the rock cliffs and getting to walk "by myself mama." when we would hike through the woods, i would tell him to cover his face, so as to not get poked in the eye by a branch, i didnt mean it literally. i'm sure it's not the best or the safest way to go hiking.

tyler found a spot where he wanted to jump off the cliffs into lake superior, did i mention it's not the warmest water i've ever been in. i couldnt let him just jump by himself. i didnt want to hear about how he was the only one to jump, for the rest of the trip. so somehow i worked up the courage, over the span of 10min, after my dad kept repeating that the battery to his video camera was dying, and after the fact that my 2yr old is yelling "jump mama" over and over again, i jumped. ty did jump from a spot twice as high as i did.... twice.... very cool.

owen enjoyed himself so much, but wondered why we wouldnt let him swim in the 50ish degree lake water. he busied himself by roasting mashmellows (aka: burning them), drinking coffee (aka: hot chocolate), climbing rocks, and throwing stones into the lake.

on our way home we stopped at a special place to celebrate my mom by spreading her ashes. it was a quiet, yet healing moment in some ways, and a most perfect place to see her off. it was the reason why we all came on this trip.

growin up