Sweet Camy

I love my car! 

On September 4, 2001, I bought my very first new car. I'd been driving a white 1992 Toyota Camry for a while but the brakes went out over Labor Day weekend, so the day after the holiday I bought a new car. I was a year into my graduate school program so I decided to get a reliable vehicle that I could do all my driving in without worrying about breakdowns. (I was living near Lansing but driving to Battle Creek and Grand Rapids 3x per week for classes.) 

Me and my (then) 11 month old niece, Delaney, with "Camy" the day I brought her home with less than 50 miles on the odometer. This was at our house on Kenway Drive in Lansing.

I worked hard and paid it off five years later in October 2006. This is Delaney (6 years old by then) standing with me at my parents' house in Grand Ledge on St. Joe Hwy the week I made the last payment. 

On June 20, 2013, my car odometer rolled over to 200,000 miles! A little worse for the wear  (a dent on the lower left front and a hubcap I need to replace) but still running great.  I took a few photos of my car (and odometer -which was now cruising past 200,000) to show how well she's held up.

So many miles!  This car has taken me everywhere. Classes and internships. Traveling with friends in my single days. First jobs. Second jobs. Now that I'm a mommy, my girls (and Nathan) come with me. My backseat is filled with car seats, toys, and books. I love it. And I love that I still get to drive my favorite car. 

Next goal - 300,000! :)

Weekend Antics

We had a busy weekend! Around lunchtime on Saturday we drove up to my older brother's house to celebrate Father's Day and our dad's 69th birthday. We had lunch, opened gifts, and then spent the afternoon outside letting the kids play in the backyard. Chloe's favorite was probably the slide. After she got over her fear, she would slid down and clap and dance wildly from excitement. Her other favorite things were the wading pool and mini car. Megan loved running around and playing in the pool. That night we stayed with my Dad and Chris - got the girls to bed and had pizza for dinner.

Sunday was my brother-in-law's graduation party. It wasn't until the afternoon so we had a leisurely breakfast and then the girls helped grandma and grandpa water the flowers. They could have done that all day and I'm pretty sure some rocks got watered, too. Chloe would say, "He was THIRSTY!" after she would dump her water on the plant. It was soooo cute. Megan generally followed her around tried to steal her watering can - just like any good little sister would do!

The girls were SO tired when we got home - Nathan and I were, too. Unfortunately, our power randomly went out about 20 minutes before we got home and was out for 2 1/2 hours. UGH. I hate being without power! Plus it was 90 degrees so the house was quickly getting hot. We packed up a few things and then hung out at Nathan's parents' house for a bit before coming back home.

So by now we were beyond tired! Fun weekend but we were all glad to crawl into bed that night!

Adirondack Chairs

I love Adirondack chairs - always have - so when I was at my in-law's house a few weeks ago, I commented that I liked their chairs on the deck. My father-in-law said he had made them and he could make us a few with his leftover wood.

Whoo-hoo! What person in their right mind would say no to an offer like that?

We ended up with a total of 5 chairs - two big white ones, two small white ones, and one big chair that's stained a natural color. We spend so much time outside now that we have someplace to sit on our deck!

June Randoms

Finally some nice weather! We had a fun Father's Day weekend and some relaxing late-June days at our house. The girls helped Nathan make blueberry muffins. They are very into blowing bubbles and playing with sidewalk chalk in the driveway these days so we spent a lot of time outside. We usually try to take a walk around the neighborhood once a day to get the extra wiggles out (this is where we found Sparty in our neighbor's yard). These are the days we look forward to all winter!

Visit to Ohio

The weekend of June 8-10 the girls and I took a trip down to Ohio with my Dad and Chris to visit my brother and his family. It's about a three-hour trip so we tried to make it as fun as possible for the kids.

We left mid-morning - Nathan took our first trip picture for us (he had to stay home to work on Monday - boo!)

We drove about half way before stopping at a park so the girls could get out their wiggles. 

We made it to Steve & Jen's just in time for a very late lunch/early dinner. They had grilled veggies, hotdogs, and burgers so we feasted on that while the kids ran and played in their back yard. Kaitlyn had a ballet recital that night so  a few hours after we got there, everyone but me and the girls got ready and left for the ballet recital. (It's a good thing we did not go - it was 10pm before they got home - Chloe and Megan would have been beyond tired.) But, Kaitlyn looked adorable in her costume!

Sunday morning the girls played in Kaitlyn's room while the rest of us got ready for the day. 

Jen's parents invited us all over for breakfast. Our meal was delish! Eggs, potatoes, pancakes, breakfast (fake) meat, bagels, fruit, and juice. It was a beautiful morning so we ate outside on the back deck. The girls ran and ran in the yard.

Once we were all fueled up, the next stop was the zoo! The girls got to see animal characters plus all the real animals. We fed birds, saw kangaroos up close, saw bats, took a train ride, fed goats

After the zoo we had dinner at Fiesta Jalisico - yum! We were starving and it tasted so good!

Then to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams for dessert. (We have their ice cream cookbook so I was excited to taste their flavors!)

After we fueled the girls with sugar, we had more wiggles to release so we stopped at park for about 45 minutes to let them loose. Chloe loved it. She literally had a big grin on her face the whole time (evident on every single photo!) Megan went down her first slide with grandma.

After the park it was time for baths and bed! The next morning we had to head home, but we had one last meal together at Scramblers. Such a fun trip!