Be vewy, vewy quiet, we're hunting Chwistmas Twees

Yes, we went Christmas tree hunting today.  It was a much colder field trip than in previous years, but we bundled up with the appropriate clothing, including reindeer antlers, and drove a half hour into the country in search of the perfect tree.  Calvin was far more impressed with the hay ride from the parking lot to the tree patch than he was with the car ride from the breakfast restaurant to the tree farm.  The farm had a lot of beautiful trees and it didn't take long to find the one we wanted to bring home, and that's when Calvin really started to enjoy himself.  He thought it was pretty funny that his grandpa was crawling around underneath this tree, and that it was down right hilarious when the tree fell.  We cut two trees, one for us and one for grandma and grandpa, and both times Calvin just laughed and kept saying "boom, boom, boom" over and over again (his new found voice has been a great source of comedy for us).  he thought it was just as funny that when we got home we brought the tree in the house, and who can blame him?  After spending hours trying to get our old lights working to no avail, we wondered the same ourselves.  So the decorating will have to wait another day, but our house is already filled with the wonderful, Christmassy smell that is the fresh cut pine tree in our great room, and we know the season of advent has begun.

More hunting pictures are in the Dec 1-7 photo album. 

The food we celebrate

What is Thanksgiving if not a holiday about food?  Sure, we know it's about giving thanks for those things which we cherish in our lives, but food on the table and good company is a really good place to start.  In our house Thanksgiving is also a sort of kick-off day of preparing our home and our lives for the upcoming season of advent.  So first thing in the morning, while enjoying a yummy family breakfast, we bring all the Christmas decorations out of storage and begin the job of dressing the house for the season.  It's a tad early this year (we won't have a tree until next weekend) but Calvin greatly enjoyed removing each and every seasonal trimming, twice finding himself stuck head first in one Christmas bin or another (be sure to note the santa hat).  Which brings us to the great food and company that we celebrated later in the day, where Calvin enjoyed being the center of a universe that consisted entirely of his devoted followers:  two grandmothers, two grandfathers, an aunt, and an uncle.  Oh, and two parents, too, of course.  Calvin took this celebration of food and thanks to a whole new level with his grandmothers:  he continually conned his gram into giving him snacks from the kitchen, and his grandma brought him the most brilliant set of wooden food we've ever seen, complete with stylish cutting board and knife (it's needed to cut apart the slices of healthy food that are velcroed together), which kept the entire household entertained the whole evening (whether because of the toy or the Calvin, we can't say). 

Pictures, for which are thankful, are in the Nov 17-23 album.

From fiery to frigid

It's hard to believe that less than a week ago we were sweltering in the ninety degree heat of a sultry Indian Summer.  At least it would be hard to believe if this wasn't Michigan, the place where you don't pack away seasons of clothing because you just might need those shorts in January or that sweater in July.  In reality it's not all too surprising, seeing as that it is now mid-October and wasn't it this time last year that we were seeing our first snowfall of the upcoming winter season?  In our family we welcome the changing of the season, with it's colorful leaves and brisk air, warm hats and fuzzy mittens, the warmth of the fire pit at the tailgate, and the sound of the first crackling logs in our fireplace at home.  We celebrated other seasons of change today, too.  Our football team finally played and won a decent game, which was a welcome change from the past month or so of
disappointing losses and bumbling, less-than-redeeming wins.  That alone provided us with enough reason to party the night away, but we also partied to celebrate a special milestone birthday (which milestone we will not give away) at Calvin's grandparents' house, where he entertained all with his increasingly complex dancing skills.  It is truly amazing how time and season march on and bring so many blessings with the days.

There are pictures galore, as always:  Oct 13-19 Photo Album 

Did you miss us?

Probably not, but we just got back this evening from a week long trip to Harbor Springs, Michigan.  Harbor Springs and Petoskey are our favorite summer getaway:  The bay is just beautiful, the towns are both quaint, and the beaches are relaxing, not to mention that we have family and friends there that we love to get to see.  This year our trip had more family in it than usual because we kicked off our week with Cortney's cousin Pauline's Western Wedding, including a rehearsal dinner on Friday and an event wedding on Saturday, and we do mean event!  The wedding was held on a family member's farm and following the relaxed yet elegant western style wedding itself there were "pony" rides (Calvin's first time on a horse!), hayrides, horseshoes, roping, and an open fire for roasting corn and other fun things.  We had a blast, and so did Calvin, who was amazingly well behaved for all of the five hours we spent hanging out with family, and then went to bed really quickly so we could continue our party with a bonfire back at Lonnie's.  It was a great chance for Calvin to meet some far flung family members, like Cortney's cousin Abby from California and her aunt and uncle from Washington, and we spent as much time as possible with them before they left on Sunday.

With the wedding behind us, though, we returned to our normal vacation activities, such as putt putt golfing at Pirate's Cove (Calvin loved the varied terrain of the course), lunch at the Noggin Room, and walking along the pier and beaches in Petoskey.  And while the highlight of our week was really the wedding, a close second was our trip to Mackinac Island.  We had both been longing to go for a number of years, but were never able to take the time because we could only leave Diamond alone for 6 hours during the day, so in a tribute to her memory we decided to go.  Calvin, unfortunately, did not share our enthusiasm.  Though he thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride over he did not enjoy riding around the island in the bike trailer (something he was very vocal about) and quickly tired of being carried around as we toured the city.  After a short nap in our arms he cried most of the boat ride back, breaking only to flirt with a very nice lady sitting across the aisle from us.  We really enjoyed the trip, but we'd have to say that it was exhausting, so for our last full day of vacation we kept things a little more low key and took Calvin to play on the Sturgeon Bay Beach in Wilderness State Park.  That was a far greater hit than the Island had been and he enjoyed running in the waves and digging in the sand.  He also enjoyed the baby sized ice cream cone (really frozen yogurt) that he got after dinner in Harbor Springs, and feeding the deer at the deer park. 

We had a really wonderful time, but we are, admittedly, glad to be home. 

And, of course, there are tons of vacation pictures in our August Vacation Photo Alubm.

Happy Four years to us!

We are a bit behind in getting to this, but that's just how much fun we've been having this summer.  Thursday of last week, July 26th, we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary.  It seems strange that it has only been four years when we stop to think about all the fun things we have done in that time.  So many jobs, so many vacations, so many new things to try.  Oh, and Calvin, too, of course.  We celebrated the milestone a couple of times:  We were treated to a really grand lunch at Zingerman's Roadhouse by Jon's parents (good American pulled pork and potatoes, followed by Root Beer floats!), and then to a fancy Australian dinner on the Huron River Front by Cortney's parents.  Where else besides Ann Arbor could you enjoy a multi course meal complete with linen, china, glass, and "silver"ware atop the standard wooden park picnic tables?  No where, we tell you.  This was a picnic dinner, The Aussie/New Zealand Cook-off put on by the Ann Arbor Tasters Guild that focused on tasting several different Australian dishes, such as green lipped mussels and Kobe beef sausages, not to mention the lamb, and several different Australian wines, of course.  All under the picnic overhang alongside the Huron River in Island Park.  The style of the meal, several small tasting courses each with a different wine, was just like that of the special meal we shared on our honeymoon at Emeril's in New Orleans, which brought back great memories.  How appropriate.  And what a gorgeous dinner on a gorgeous night.  It's hard to say who was more amazed by Calvin's stellar behavior, us or the other partakers, as he sat in his stroller and tried each new food throughout the whole 2 hour meal!  That was our anniversary gift from our son, and a good one at that.  What a wonderful day, with two fantastic meals!

And, as always, an overload of pictures can be found in the July 20-27 photo album.