Swimming, swimming and more swimming

It has been excessively hot here....and there have been many days where our only relief is the water.  Lily has become quite the little swimmer: kicking her feet, attempting to blow bubbles and putting the back of her head in the water.  Lucky for us, water is typically only a 5 minute drive away no matter where we are.  Here we are at Aunt Megan's pool.

The sunsets on our lake are still beautiful.  However, our stay here has almost ended.  Our offer on a house in Brighton was excepted and we should be closing in the next week.  The house needs ALOT of TLC, mostly cosmetics, so for the next month we will be packing up the lake house and getting the new house move-in ready(titled "The Big House," somewhat of a misnomer but that was the distinguishing factor for Lily).

For the 4th of July we went up north to Colin's folks house/the Nye cabin.  My family has a gathering every year around then.  Most of the Aunts, Uncles, cousins and new cousins were there.  We had a great time visiting and swimming.  I love this picture because it shows how much Lily looks like Colin.

Lily swam every second we could.

Here she is kicking the distance.  By the end she was walking in deep water and jumping off of the dock.  It was so fun to see the transition.

She made it.

Filling her pool.  Who doesn't need a lake and a pool?

We took all of the dad's to the Tiger's game this weekend for Father's Day.  It was an incredible game.  We had good seats and lots of fun.  Mimi stayed home and played with Lily.  It was such a gift for Colin and I because we have not had an evening out since April.  I know Colin was in heaven.

The group under the Tiger.  (Left to right: Chuck, Dad, Kalie, Julie, Colin, Megan, Drew)

Bleacher seats in the very hot sun.  We were packed in there.

Tiger's won 7 to 1 against the White Sox!

Then we went out for dinner and had some great food.

Strawberries and balloons!

Our days have been packed over the last month.  We have been on a bit of an emotional roller  coaster.  We have spent what feels like every waking moment looking for a home to buy.  There is not much on the market right now and so when something does come on it is gone within 24 hours and typically much higher than asking price.  We first placed an offer on a house we both fell in love with in Ann Arbor only to learned we were out-bid by $15, 000.  We looked at what seemed like 100's more houses and then we found one that was at the higher end of our price range, in a decent neighborhood but was really priced high for the type of house it was.  We submitted an offer, both felt awful about it and so we withdrew the offer.  Then 2 days later we found another place that we have submitted an offer on, the place needs a lot of work but is in a good location.  We just learned that there are at least 2 other offers on the place.....so the saga continues.  Sometime in all of this we spoke with the landlord and he agreed to let us stay in our current location month to month, then 1 week later he called saying nope we needed to move by the end of July.  Colin convinced him to let us stay until the end of August.  So for now we are hoping that we are able to find a place and move by 8/31 or we will be knocking on the doors of those near by with our bags packed!  There is nothing on the rental market at this point either.  So our schedule has been at the mercy of the homes coming on the market.......when a new one comes on, we drop everything and go and take a look.  If we are not physically looking at the house we are scouring the web for new listings popping up.  I am pretty sure our real-estate agent is about to kill us.  In our free time we have been up to see Mimi and poppi in Gaylord, pick strawberries and a few other things in-between.  The strawberry picking, tractor ride and park has been Lily's highlights.  It is so cute how she, even today, continues to recount the day (this was 3 weeks ago).  This is her version: go pick strawberries, Aunt Megan, Mama, dada and Lily; go on a tractor ride; go to the park; pick strawberries; see goats.  I also reminded her today that we had donuts!  Yes all at the same farm, who could ask for more?

Such a big girl!

We went at 9 am.  It was so hot so we finished picking by 10.  I realized that crouching in the hot sun pregnant is NOT my favorite thing, it made me very nauseous.

Testing the goods.

Aunt Megan and Lily

This weekend was the Howell Balloon Festival.  It is quite a sight, 40 balloons take-off at set times,  together all weekend long.  Saturday was Aunt Kalie's birthday and so we woke to find 22 hot air balloons rising above the lake for Aunt Kalie's birthday.  Lily LOVES hot air balloons,  Curious George has a story about hot air balloons and the come over the lake frequently and so this weekend was so exciting - not only getting to sing Aunt Kalie happy birthday but also getting to see the balloons take off.  If you click on the picture you will be able to see the balloons better.

Watching the take off.

Who can look at the picture when there are so many balloons back there?  Hello?

A picnic for the babies.  She was feeding them each gold fish and making sure they went in their mouth.  It was so sweet.

Too much fun!

I have not had a chance to add picture or videos for a while because we have been having way too much fun.  So here are a whole bunch of photos from the last few weeks.  more cute videos to come.  Here is Lily in her new bathrobe after a long swim in the lake.

Mommy's little helper.  Yes, of course she picked out the hat to wear.

We had a great Birthday dinner for Grampy May 17th!  We even got to eat on the deck.  Happy Birthday Grandpa!

It has been so much fun, Lily is finally starting to get into pretend play......she has been making her baby and Colin and I lots of new food.  Grandma Carol made all of this amazing felted food for her and now it is getting a lot of use.  Thank you Grandma Carol.  Here the baby is eating eggs, pizza and gold fish.  A well rounded diet for anyone.

Colin, Lily, Roxy, Aunt Kalie and I made it up to the cottage for Memorial Day weekend.  We met cousin Katie and Mike and their new addition to the family Will!  William was such a good baby and we had so much fun playing.  Roxy was in doggy heaven running through the woods and all of the trails with her new friend Olive.

The first swim of the season - well Lily got in 2-3 weeks ago but this was the official first swim here.    

We finally managed to make it camping.  We use our new 3 person tent......yes we will need a bigger tent soon.

We all had a blast and Lily did amazing for waking up at 6 am and going to bed at 10.  I forgot how light it stays here until waaaay past bed time.    She even got to use her new sleeping bag.

We stayed at Warren Dunes State Park.  It was a beautiful beach filled with dunes that allowed for sand in every possible spot on Lily. Here I am half way up one of the dunes.

More dunes to go and Lake Michigan in the back.

3/4 of the way up and Lily and Colin are the speck you see 1/3 of the way up.  The height was deceiving.  It was quite tall.

Colin at the top.

We made pizza on the fire from real dough!  It was the best pizza I have ever had.

Lily, Kalie, Seth and Kalie's friend Lisa from Colorado.

Good morning!

More beach, could not resist.

Lilybean prints!

Cold, cold water!  Our second trip to Lake Michigan, last weekend Lily got in the Traverse City Bay.

The beach lines pretty much the entire mitten of Michigan.  It was so nice to be near the water.