Michigan

Wednesday after Hector got home from work we headed up to Michigan for a long weekend with Hector's family.  It was a 12 hour drive, we left our place a four so we drove through the night.  The kids did great.  Natalia and Sienna watched five hours of Peg + Cat before they fell asleep and Estelle slept most of the time.  Hector and I took turns driving and we did pretty well, but we both needed naps the next day at the cottage.  

Estelle sleeping during the drive

The girls watching TV on the iPad like zombies

 The house we stayed at had a beautiful view of Lake Michigan.  It was awesome!  Hector and I took turns napping and playing at the beach with the kids.  The girls had fun with Hector's cousins' Hannah, she is eight, and Nick, he is fourteen.  They were both really nice to my kids and my kids just loved them.  Hannah loved Estelle and wanted to help with everything.  She really was sweet with her.  She even got Estelle to take some steps to her at one point.

Lake Michigan was freezing, but we all had fun testing the water and building sand castles on the beach.  These are the steps down to the lake from the house.  The girls kept loosing their shoes through the stairs.  I think they did it on purpose to see us climb through the bushes to retrieve them. 

The second and third day we were there we went to a little cove just down the beach where a smaller lake feeds into lake Michigan.  The smaller lake was 20 degrees warmer than lake Michigan so we did some swimming and played in the currant, the girls loved this.  There was tons of sand and we built even more sand castles.  Estelle loved the sand and the toys and she had a blast just sitting and digging and getting dirty.  

Unfortunately it never got that warm and the sun stayed hidden behind clouds most of the time, but it did not stop us from having fun.  We were chilly at times though.

The last day we were there Hector's Aunt Anne had to leave.  Natalia just loved her.  She was super fun and up for anything.  Andy, Anthrea, Eli and Luke came though, so we had more fun playing in the sand with them.  

Anne and Natalia

It was a really fun few days.  We played tons of games over the three days.  Hannah, Nick, Grandma Marge and Anne were quite the fans of Grandpa Beck games.  We played lots, but it was really fun...and funny.

Sunday morning we drove back home.  Natalia and Sienna had another TV marathon.  They watched shows all 12 hours.  Estelle did really well until the very end; I think everyone was happy when the drive was over.  

We had such a nice time in Michigan.  We were so glad that we could go.  It was nice to finally meet Anne and to spend time with Grandma Marge, Ellen and her two kids.  We were glad that Ron and Lourdes could be there the same time as us too.  It really was pleasant and relaxing and fun.  The girls had a great time, they would go back in a heartbeat; we all would.  I loved Michigan, this was my first time going.  It is very beautiful.  Thank you, Grandma, for a wonderful trip!

Five years and Fifteen months

Natalia and Estelle had doctor visits.  Natalia is five years old.  She is ready for kindergarten and growing and learning and loving life.  She was so happy that she did not need shots this year.  She was very brave and did everything that she was asked to do by the doctor.  She is three feet 8.5 inches tall.  That puts her in the 83.5 percentile.  She weighs 42.5 pounds and is in the 66.4 percentile.  She is very healthy.  She liked having her blood pressure taken and she kept trying to peek when they checked her eyes.

Estelle had her fifteen month appointment.  She did have to get shots and she did not like it one bit.  She is 31.75 inches tall.  This puts her in the 87.5 percentile.  She weighs 21 pounds 12 ounces and is in the 59th percentile for weight.  Unfortunately has not gained any weight in the past six months.  I think she is fine.  She was sick the few days before the doctor and did not have much of an appetite and she was sick the last time we went to the doctor too, but her lack of weight gain coupled with her lack of walking means we get to go back to the doctor in a month just to be on the safe side.

Estelle is a cute little fifteen month old.  Because she has no hair and she does not walk yet, she seems much younger.  She finally learned how to come down the stairs today!  I love that I do not have to hover anymore.  She loves to climb things.  She loves to pretend that toys are phones.  She throws all her unwanted food on the floor the moment she is done eating.  She has taken some independent steps.  My dad got her to take some when he was visiting and we can get her to do five to ten steps if we get her going and then she is walking to someone, but she is definitely not a walker yet.  She sucks her thumb when she is tired and likes to snuggle.  She loves to wave.  When she is ready for bed, she starts waving.   She can say mama, dada, done, uh-oh, den-do (thank you), no and a whole bunch of other stuff that we are still trying to interpret.

West Virginia

We have a had a busy summer.  The weekend after my dad left, we headed to West Virginia with friends.  I did not take many pictures, but that was because I was too busy having a good time. We left as soon as Hector got off work Friday and came home late Saturday night so that we could go to church the next morning.  

The girls had so much fun running around with their friends at the cabin.  They get all dirty and love it.  Hector cooked his dutch oven pizza the first night we were there.  Saturday afternoon we decided to float down the river.  I wish we had pictures, better yet, I wish we had video; it was quite the adventure.  We started with eight adults and 12 kids, all under age seven..that alone is a sight to see.   There were little rapids right when we started and most the kids were flipping out.  Natalia was screaming like crazy...I think she thought she was going to die, I promise we tried explaining that the water was only a foot deep.  She eventually calmed down.  Ben and his two girls did not make the first rapids before they bowed out, so we were down to 10 kids...three of them being babies.  Our float was only suppose to be an hour...it took us three.  None of us were prepared to be gone that long with our babies (no food or water), but they managed pretty well.  Estelle took two naps, one on me (she woke up when it started raining on us) and one on Hector at the end with Sienna sleeping on top of her.  I wish I had a picture of that.  It was really cute.  

At one point the river split, it came back together eventually, but I am fairly certain we took the wrong way.  I am certain that every kid cried at some point, I mostly laughed.  When we were finally close the ending point some people felt sorry for us and picked us up in their pontoon.   Those things are so slow, we would have made it faster if we had kept floating, plus we were so close, but it did add some more adventure to the trip.  In the end...I would totally go again.  Even though my kids all cried at some point, they had fun...and we all got in some good laughs.  We gave the kids cookies and ice cream when we were done and they forgot all their troubles.  

We left at 8:00 to drive home.  It is about a two and half hour drive.  Natalia watched movies the whole way home.  I could not believe she was still awake at 10:00.  We were about five minutes from the house when her movie ended and she asked in a bubbly voice if she could watch another one.  I said no and two seconds later I look back and she is sound asleep.  She is such a cute kid.  It was hard waking them up for church the next morning, but everyone sure took good naps after church...mom and dad included.