Weekend Getaway

Months ago Alec and I put this past weekend on the calendar for a weekend getaway for us; we decided we would go to Mackinac Island and lined up my parents to come and stay with Brie and Josie.  Well of course we made no more planning than that, and didn't book a hotel until 4 days before we left......needless to say hotel space was limited at a tourist destination in the middle of summer!  But we found a great hotel in St. Ignace (just on the other side of the bridge in the UP).  We had such a good time; we realized it didn't matter where we went, just getting away from every day life and being with just the two of us was amazing!  

We left Friday morning and returned Sunday afternoon.  It was the perfect amount of time away, any longer we would have missed Brie too much!

Friday afternoon we arrived and walked around Mackinaw City.

The Mackinac Bridge is seriously so amazing; it is 5miles long, connecting the lower and upper peninsula.  Doesn't it look amazing all lit up at night (pardon the awful iPhone picture....but you get the idea!).    We went to a little museum about the bridge above a pizza place we ate at.  It was so cool to see all the facts on the bridge and just what went into building it in 1954.  A couple guys actually died building it, crazy. 

 Saturday we woke up (on our own, with no toddler telling us to get up!), got ready and headed over the boat to take us to the island.  The boat we took actually took an indirect way to the island, taking us under the bridge!  It was amazing to go under this huge bridge while cars and trucks are whizzing over us. 

 Under the bridge!

Arriving to Mackinac Island.  This is the Grand Hotel, it costs about $400/night to stay there.  We won't be staying there anytime soon....but maybe someday!

Fort Mackinac.

Once we got on the island we walked around to the different shops a little bit, sampled some fudge (the island is KNOWN for their fudge!), and then headed to tour Fort Mackinac.  I love olden day stuff, it is so cool to imagine that is how people lived.  They had some re-enactment stuff that was cool to watch, including firing old muskets (they were LOUD).  

We ate lunch at a place called The Pink Pony, they had great food and their own signiture beer (which Alec said tasted like a better version of Oberon).

I enjoyed a good ol' fashion Coke.

 We took a carriage tour of the island in the afternoon.  Our horses' names were Tim and Arnold.

One of the stops on the carriage was Arch Rock, and we got a great overlook of Lake Huron. Northern Michigan is so gorgeous, why would we ever vacation anywhere else (at least in the summer time!).  The weather was absolutely perfect, 77 with very little humidity. 

Who knows when we will be able to getaway with just the two of us again....probably not anytime soon with a baby coming.  But we so enjoyed our time away together!  Now don't go feeling sorry for Brie, she had a vacation of her own here!  Having Grandpa and Grandma all to herself..... She got to enjoy the pool, go to the fair, and have endless attention!  So thankful my parents were able to come and stay with her, it was MUCH appreciated!!

20 Week Comparison

I found a picture when I was 20wks pregnant with Brie, and wanted to compare it to now!  It is hard to tell if I am the same or bigger now.  The pictures are taken at slightly different angles.  And for some reason I didn't record how much weight I had gained at 20wks with Brie, so again hard to compare.  But at least I am not hugely different now than I was the first time around!! 

(seeing the old picture really makes me miss our Milwaukee house.... I like our house now, and the location, and how it is a little bigger....but I really really liked our old house)

Camping at Hoffmaster

Every year the DeKruyter family camps at Lake Michigan.  We were at Hoffmaster State Park this year.  My parents and grandparents were there for an entire week; Alec, Brie, and I went for 3 nights.

It was bizarre weather, very chilly!  We wore jeans and sweatshirts most of the time.  We did thankfully get one beach day in, which was wonderful!  Brie did pretty good camping, I was a little nervous.  The first two days she slept great at night and took decent naps each day.  Night 3.....now that was another story!  It was AWFUL!  She would not go down to sleep, so Alec and I just kept taking turns trying.  We finally got her down; but then she was up from about 3am-4:30am!  And not just up, she was up and screaming and crying.  We were those people in the campground.....oye.  It was a really good thing that didn't happen the first night, because that would have been the only night we stayed!  

Our home away from home!



She certainly loves her 'o-gurt' (not sure why I was getting bull eyes here...)

We did a lot of sitting around the fire day and evening since it was so chilly!  But it was so relaxing, good to spend some quality time with family away from home and work. 

Brie loves to 'wing'!  This was at the best ice-cream shop called, Whippi-Dip.  

 

The water level was the highest I have ever seen it, there was significantly less beach than in years past. 

She loved the beach!

She had no problem just walking right into the water.

Good thing her warm jammies still fit her, it got down to low 50s at night!

Brie Update

If I could sum up Brie's most recent developments I would say.....TALKING.ALL.THE.TIME!!!!!

She says anything and everything, putting 3-4 words together, basically talking in full sentences.  It really kind of seemed like it happened over night.  She went from sometimes putting 2 words together, to stringing together multiple in the course of a few weeks.  She starts almost everything with 'a'; so any sentence or many words she puts an 'a' in front.  Some of the phrases or words we hear the most are:

• 'A fall down' - Anytime she falls or anything drops this is said, usually numerous times. 
• 'Under da bridge' - loves to walk under our legs, or under anything and says it is a bridge
• 'A baby' - loooooves her baby dolls
• 'Me watch George' - its really the only show she watches, Curious George, thank goodness there are numerous seasons on Netflix!  

There is just so much talking, it is non stop all day long.  If you ask her to say a word she doesn't know, she will either take a stab at it or just say 'yeah' if she thinks it is took hard. I guess with how big of talkers both Alec and I are I should not be surprised she is a little motor-mouth!

When we have people over, she usually takes a little bit to warm up.  But usually after a rather short period of time she is hamming it up and showing off! 

We seem to be over the awful sleeping thing.  Just recently things have calmed down and we are all getting much more sleep!  No more having to sleep in her room, no more getting up in the middle of the night screaming, and she goes down pretty easy for both naps and bedtime.  AMEN!  That was a rough 6 weeks that I do not care to ever repeat.  But I am glad we didn't do anything drastic and just let her work through it on her own timing. 

When she is mad she does what we call 'Bull-Eyes'; where she furrows her eyebrows and squints her eyes.  So we all say 'put your bull eyes away!'.  Well she has started doing this funny thing where we mimic her face, and go from 'bull-eyes' to 'happy-eyes' and back and forth as fast as she can.  It is seriously hilarious.  I should get a video, but here are some pictures of each. 

Bull-Eyes:

Happy Eyes:

We are outside quite a bit, especially with all the garden picking I have been doing recently.  She tends to just go from one thing to the next, comes in a checks in on me every once in a while in the garden.  She doesn't really like going in the garden, the plants rub on her and she tends to get yelled at for stepping on plants.  

20 Weeks

Half way (ish) through this pregnancy already!  Some days I can't believe how fast it is going, and other days I feel like it is still a REALLY long ways off.

I have been feeling the baby move much more recently now, we are all set on the name, and I made our 'To Do Before Baby List'!  The list is pretty ambitious but I think we can accomplish it.  It includes a few more house projects, such as getting new carpet in the two bedrooms downstairs, painting the guest room, and painting the master bathroom. 

Here is our little peanut at the ultrasound Friday.

 The belly is growing and growing!

Mike and Allyson's Wedding

The highly anticipated day of Mike and Allyson's wedding finally arrived!!!  Everything went great, we got amazing pictures (obviously, it was my mother in law taking them!), and everyone had a great time! 

We started the day off at 0900 at the church for hair and makeup.

(Of course had to start the day off right with Starbucks!)

 

Our fearless leader!  Put up with all the craziness all day long! Including dodging rain drops, an uncooperative toddler, and huge wedding party that struggled to pay attention.....

Such a gorgeous dress....and here is a little money saving tip for those getting married out there......she borrowed it!

Just like Alec and I's wedding day 6 years ago, it was raining.  Thankfully not near as bad as it did then, we were still able to go outside intermittently and get some pictures.  We just alternated outside and indoor pictures at the church, it actually worked out perfect!  The original plan was to head to Calvin College to take some pictures with their great landscape, but we nixed that since the weather was so on and off.  It actually turned out great though because this way we had tons of timing and there was no pressure for timing, we got lots and lots of indoor and outdoor pictures. 

Quick getting Briezy ready before our family pictures.  She did ok....didn't really want to smile or pose for pictures.  

Love my sister :)

Brie LOVES her  'Auntie' and 'Mikes'  (especially Uncle Mike....she is going to miss her housemate!)

The ceremony was gorgeous and so wonderful, Mike's brother-in-law is a pastor and married them. 

We did bubbles on the way out, which really lead to some cool pictures!

We stopped at the river inbetween the ceremony and reception to take a couple pictures, and they turned out great! 

A fun way to celebrate our 6 year anniversary!