A little vitamin Z......

Sunday was our first ever visit to the Detroit Zoo!  We got a nice little dose of vitamin Z (per the adds for the zoo:)) and some vitamin D from the gorgeous weather!  Although Eli didn't really understand what he was looking at when we were visiting the big animals, I'm sure he knew what he was looking at with the meerkats, prairie dogs and penguins.  I thought Eli would really understand the animals since he kisses all the animal's in his zoo book, but no such luck!  Either way, we had a fantastic time!  Enjoy photo's from the day!

Fun Photos!

Close up!

Enjoying a nature walk with Aubrey

Snooping on the painters painting the neighbors house

Ben installed a new paver walkway!  It looks phenomenal!

Eli befriended a turtle....until he got a little too close to the turtles head!

First real bite of a whole banana!

Hanging out at the Tiger game 8/19

Nature walk!

Snooping again!

Splash pad, sans splash pad clothes!

LOVED the blue ball

Not sure he wanted to go back in!

Soaked...with the blue ball

Waving to the Tigers

Ann Arbor Hands on Museum

Saturday, we decided to take Eli to the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum for children.  This has been on our list of things to do with Eli, but always seem to run out of time (others include the many zoo's around us, the DIA, etc....)  So, we went and we conquered!  Eli LOVED in and so did we!  The foam block room was exceptionally fun and has us thinking this is what Eli's playroom is missing!  

I included the beautiful double rainbow this morning because it made me happy on a gloomy Monday morning!

What can Eli do?

Quick run down of what Eli is up to:

• Flap his wings (aka Arms)
• Kick his piggies (aka Legs)
• Pat his belly
• Pat his head
• Stick his tongue out
• Find his ears
• Show his teeth
• Find someone else's nose....not so much find his own nose!
• Smile HUGE when you ask him is he's a happy boy (see video!)
• He loves bringing us books to read.  In fact, I think I read Brown Bear Brown Bear to him no less than 12 times last Saturday night.  I LOVE that he loves books, I was a book junkie growing up!
• He and I love a game of chase around the island....he squeals with delight when I finally jump out and shout "BOO"
• He likes to sit on the step and kick his feet....he looks like such a grown up sitting there relaxing
• He now gets Skype and Facetime:  the other night, Eli was acting SUPER silly and we FaceTimed with Nana so she could witness his silliness.  He was trying to feed her tomatoes and green peppers through the phone, pointed at her lots and showed her his silly smile!
• He's obsessed with the vacuum....he forces me to use my Dyson on an almost daily basis (anyone who knows me, understand how much I actually enjoy this!

Long Family Vacation!

Sunday, July 22nd, we embarked on our second family vacation.....this time a much longer vacation.  We headed out to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes first and let me tell you....BEAUTIFUL!  Do yourself a favor and go there!  Eli was such a trooper in the car for the 4.5 hour drive, I couldn't believe it. He slept most of the way and didn't get antsy until we were almost there.  While we weren't exactly prepared for the "big climb", we did it....in flip flops and Ben carrying both a back pack and Eli.  While we never made the two mile trek to Lake Michigan, we got up a little ways and snapped some beautiful photo's.  It was an amazing place!

After a sweaty day at the dunes, we headed into the city where we stayed at a great little place on the beach.  Eli's never experienced sand (or a beach), so it was rather funny to see him not know what to do.  It didn't take long for him to get used to playing in it as well as crawling into the luke warm water of Lake Michigan (global warming isn't an issue?  REALLY?).  After playing in the water for a while, we headed to a fabulous place on the water for the most amazing dinner we've had in a while!

While Traverse City was awesome, we had to say good bye and head up to Mackinaw.  We spent the day in the town just walking around taking the slow paced way of life in.  Eli got to enjoy lots of people watching!  That evening, we headed over to St. Ignace for dinner with Nana and Grandpa D.  Count this as the first time Eli's been over the Mackinaw Bridge!

Tuesday, we headed over to the Island!  And....because Nana was awesome and watched Eli for us for a week, we treated her and Grandpa D to lunch at the Grand Hotel.  Talk about a fantastic meal and way to spend your day!  I highly recommend this to everyone.  Even Eli indulged in the delicious food!  After lunch, we headed down to the town and took a nice stroll while Eli napped.  Then, it was time for a carriage ride around the Island.  What did Eli like the most?  The horses, of course!  I was surprised at how chill he wast he whole ride.  Again, if you haven't been to the Island in a while, GO!  

Wednesday, we were supposed to head to Pictured Rocks in the UP, but due to the rain, we kept on going to Duluth, MN, our final destination.  I love Duluth, what more can I say.  It's a great place to relax, it's on the water and we have fantastic relatives there!  While we got in rather late, we were still able to grab some dinner before hitting the hay.  

Thursday was the day everyone arrived, so we spent the morning wandering around and concluded the day with a fun BBQ at Aunt Linda and Uncle Jim's!  Food was again, AMAZING!  It was so nice to be able to relax with the bride and groom before the big day.  it's also fair to mention that this was the first time Eli had seen Aubrey in over 2 weeks.  Needless to say, he was excited to see her (and I also think it's fair to say she was excited to see him!).  These two have a bond like no other and it couldn't make me more happy!

Instead of recapping all of the wedding festivities, I'm going to just share tons of photos and video's!  Long story short, we had a fantastic vacation and concluded with the union of two very important people in our lives, Dustin and Aubrey!

PS....July 29th was Eli's first plane ride with just me:)  We had one flight from Duluth to Chicago and another from Chicago to Detroit.  The first plane ride was a disaster and only worsened by the man next to me turning on the light, which I couldn't reach and Eli wanted to repeat turning on and off.  The second was't so bad, Eli slept the whole way!

Alright, as promised LOTS of photo's!