jaxon's first camping trip & a visit with grace

Last weekend we went camping with the youth group. Jaxon & I stayed in a trailer which was wonderful....since it POURED early in the morning (and all the next day!). Jax & I slept in this bed which was super comfy. We both slept really well!




Dish duty :)


Since Dan's been gone all week....I tried to keep busy. On Wednesday it was SUPER nice outside...I think it was 25c which was amazing. Jax & I went to visit Grace & Marissa.

Jax loving the swing with Marissa :) He loves outside, just like his mamma & dad!


He would have LOVEd to go all the way in. He wasn't timid about the water at all.

a lesson on appearances

I admit it, I am the kind of person who judges a book by it's cover. I know that's a bad thing, but it's so true! I somehow believe that a book with a pretty cover and nice artwork, and a good font means that what's inside is better than a book with a boring cover with bad artwork and a lame font.

This also applies to restaurants. To me, it seems like the food tastes way better in a restaurant with a nice atmosphere. Part of the whole experience of eating out for me is enjoying the surroundings.

Where am I going with this? Last weekend when we were away for our anniversary we stayed a night in Mackinaw City in a hotel. We all know that websites make the hotels look way better than they really are. We were surprised to find that the "hotel" was set up more like a "motel" with all the entrances to the rooms on the outside of the building. When we went into the lobby to register, the employees were wearing jeans & hoodies. The decor was 70's with a twist of "antique".

Then we get into our rooms and see that nothing's been updated for about 30 years. Oh boy. Did I mention that I also have a bit of an issue with hotel rooms? The first thing I do is rip the comforter off the bed (you know, since they only get washed about once a year and who knows who has done what on it!) but thankfully I decided from the start that I was going to have a good attitude about it and just make the most of it. One cool thing about the room was that there was a GIANT jet tub. It was the biggest bathtub I've ever seen. So we skipped the pool and just had a "swim" in our tub. :) Jaxon thought that was great.

It was close to supper time so we decided we'd check out the "buffet" restaurant that was right across the street from our hotel. We were excited about the thought of a buffet....we've been to some amazing buffets in Michigan that have just about every kind of food you can imagine and leave you extrememly full. Well as soon as we walked in I had to chuckle to myself. It pretty much matched the theme of our hotel room. Very dated and retro. Hickish would be a good way to describe it.

I was leary as I walked up to the buffet counter to get my food...as it was the most retro buffet counter I've ever seen....and it seemed as though the standards for cleanliness weren't quite as high as I was used to. At this point I was still disappointed about our choice of restaurants but I bravely scooped some stuff onto my plate. When I got back to our table Dan and I kinda laughed about it...how it was nothing like what we expected and how we were kinda scared to eat the food. Thankfully we both had good attitudes about it and just decided to have fun with it.

Throughout the meal we realized how surface we are, and how bad it is how much we base on appearance. The food was actually REALLY good. It was home country cooking and was delicious, it just wasn't presented the way we expected it to be. The host and waitress were SOOOO friendly and kind, and that made us feel a little guilty for the attitude we had coming in. We left the place satisfied and realizing that we need to work on not letting appearance affect us (especially me!) so much.




I pretended I was taking this picture of Jaxon but really I was taking a picture of the fancy buffet table behind him. :)

5 year anniversary!

On May 8th Dan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! In some ways it's hard to believe it's already been 5 years, but in other ways it does feel like 5 years have gone by. When I think back to what our first 5 years of marriage has held for us, it makes me wonder what God has for us for the next 5 years. And the next 5 after that.

We decided to take the weekend and get away somewhere. We have friends (Scott & Amy) that live in Michigan that we're really close to so we decided to go visit them. On the way back we stayed in a hotel in Mackinac City....which I'll post about later ;)

We had a great time visiting with them. They are great friends and it's neat that Amy & I are friends and Dan & Scott are friends....so it usually ended up being Scott & Dan off doing their thing and chatting and Amy & I doing our own thing and chatting. They have a little boy Taden and it was neat watching him & Jaxon interact.

While we were driving we were talking about ways we can stay connected during these parenting years. You hear of a lot of couples who's kids grow up and leave home and then the mom & dad realize they don't know each other anymore. I can totally understand how easy it would be to let that happen with the busyness of everything and the attention and focus that kids take...and that scares me! I really don't want to be one of those couples. At this point Dan & I are best friends and I really hope to be able to say that in 20 years.

One thing we decided to do is to go on a date after Jaxon goes to bed once or twice a month. Even if it's just for an hour or two.

Another thing we want to try is have "couch time". I found this in a book. The idea is to commit the first 15 minutes that Dan gets home from work together on the couch, to talk about our day...free from interruptions and distractions. Once the kids are old enough to understand, we'll explain to them that that time is our time and they can play with Daddy when we're done. I think this will be hard to get into the habit of, since I'm usually making supper and/or feeding Jaxon when Dan gets home, but we really like the idea and we're going to give it a try. I don't know about you, but habits (good ones) are really hard for us to implement so we'll see how it goes :)

havin a little nap in the car


Jax chillin' out with Dad. He was so content to just lay on the couch (watching sports of course).



they're special.


little buddies :)





Jaxon's first bath with a friend!

visit with the Otts

Last week we were so blessed to have my sister Karen and her family come visit us. Even though Karen & I are 9 years apart in age, we have grown very close as friends. I miss seeing her regularly and just hanging out. We're the type of friends that can just be ourselves around each other and be honest and even chat about just about anything. I'm so thankful that we're sisters! Here's some pictures from our visit:


the boys playing together. They were so good with Jaxon, and Jaxon LOVED them. He enjoyed having constant entertainment.


We stopped by our friends' cabin that we'll all be staying at this July!

teething necklace

Last week we received our amber teething necklace in the mail. I heard about them from Stacey's blog a while ago and after Jaxon's rough week teething 2 weeks ago I decided to give it a try.

They can be very expensive, but I found one on ebay for $12 so I was pretty happy about that.

So far it seems to be helping! Jaxon just cut his 4th tooth (upper front L) and his teething symptoms weren't near as bad this time. He hasn't tried to chew on it or pull it off yet so that's good. We try to keep it tucked under his shirt so he forgets it's there.

If you want to know more about how these work, I copied & pasted some info below.



a good view of his 3 teeth!


I found the information below at this website.

"Amber is a natural analgesic and when worn on the skin, it releases healing oils that helps babies and young children to stay calm and more relaxed throughout teething. Amber necklaces are a great natural remedy and can eliminate the need for over the counter drugs.

Worn close to the skin, the body's heat helps release minuscule amounts of oil from the amber, which is then absorbed into the blood stream.

Baltic amber has be known to reduce acidity in the human body in a totally natural way. By having the baby wear the necklace everyday it helps reduce the common symptoms related to teething such as; redness in the cheeks, swollen gums, diaper rashes and fevers."