This one is dedicated to Grandma Jamie

Benjamin's mom said that after Abigail was born she had the song On Top of the World going through her mind and so the song especially reminds her of Abigail. Well, Abigail has recently become a fan of the Carpenters (along with the Cranberries and a number of other musicians) and so we all thought you like to see how Abigail keeps herself busy on long trips...

...And here is one from the Cranberries:

House Sitting and poison ivy

We have been house sitting for some friends of ours for the past week. Abigail and I have loved the backyard and animals. Benjamin has suffered because of the backyard and animals. Confused? Let me explain...

Two weeks ago Benjamin camped on the property of the house that we are staying at. He somehow got into some poison ivy and has been miserable ever since. I guess once you've had poison ivy you are super sensitive around it. So when he plays with Abigail outside on their awesome swings, he gets itchy and uncomfortable, poor guy. He is also allergic to their cats and dog, so he hasn't been breathing very well.

As much as it has been hard to be here for Benjamin, Abigail has loved it! Abigail loves animals and our friends have a dog, two cats and a parrot. She has had fun feeding them, walking the dog and playing with them. The dog has become my new alarm clock. At an early hour everyday he comes in and licks my face until I wake up. Abigail and I take him out with us on our daily stroller ride. His name is Caleb, and he is a really sweet dog. Abigail is always giving him hugs, chasing him, trying to feed him carrots and graham crackers, and chasing him around. He puts up with her.

We have spent a lot of time outside enjoying their big back yard and long driveway. There has been a lot of wildlife. They have pond with lots of frogs that Abbie likes to through grass in. We have seen lots of deer and rabbits.

We got to go to Grand Rapids for a Danish Festival with some friends. We had a really fun time. They had some children's activities that Abbie enjoyed. She made a crown and has been wearing it a lot the past 2 days. It is really cute. Her favorite part was an inflatable slide they had there.

Benjamin had his birthday last week and we had fun celebrating. Abigail was really excited to tell her daddy what his gifts were, the day before his birthday :), and to hide his gifts.

We have watched some of the Olympics and that has been fun. Abbie went bowling for the first time and had fun. Benjamin starts up the semester soon, so we will get back into the swing of things. We have had a wonderful summer.

Enjoying Summer

These are some pictures of us camping in New York with my brother and his cute family. Abbie had her birthday that week, thus the hat.

We've had a lot of fun things the last few weeks. Benjamin hiked at Pictured Rock National Park in the upper penisula of Michigan for a week with the young men he used to work with. They hiked like 25 miles in some really beautiful areas. They had some mean racoons, but Benjamin was able to protect the group with his sling shot skills which he learned under the tutelage of his brother-in-law David. His camera was out of batteries by two hours into the hike so there are no pictures besides the one we copied off of the Pictured Rocks website. He has been writing a proposal for a conference and his comps. So that has kept him busy.

Abigail and I have done lots of fun things together. We have been swimming a lot and been to a lot of fun activities. These include a dairy expo, county fair, story time at the library, tricycle rides, parks and a water games activity. Last week I helped with the youth games for a Pioneer Celebration. It turned out well. We spray painted rocks and did panning for gold. That was a favorite. We have really enjoyed summer.

Abigail really enjoys playing with her dollies, toys and blocks. She had so much fun at the petting zoo that was at the county fair.

Grandma Grow sent a tea cup set and Abigail has really enjoyed it.

Abigail had a little birthday singing session with her new toys.

Benjamin's girls in red.

One thing Abigail loves to do is dance on our bed while her Daddy plays music for her. I think all would agree that we need a trampoline for this girl!

Western New York

We had a wonderful week visiting western New York. We saw Niagra Falls and the church sites. We camped the whole time and that was fun. We had some rainy days and wished we would have spent more money on a tent. It truly is not fun to sleep in a wet tent! Abigail loved being outside and digging in dirt.

My brother David and his family spent the week with us. It was really great to spend time with him. We really look up to their family. Their two kids are really cute.

We saw the Hill Cumorah pagent and enjoyed it. I would recommend to anyone to go on the dress rehearsal night. There was a less of a crowd. Of all the sites my favorite was the Sacred Grove. It really is a special place.

June 29, 2008 The past week

This has been a great week! We have done a lot of fun things.

Abigail and I picked strawberries with our friends. I told Abigail we were going to go pick strawberries and she wanted her purple gloves on to assist. I thought that was pretty funny.

The humidity has crept its way into the summer so we went swimming twice. Once at the pool at our apartment and once at Lake Lansing. We love Michigan's lakes!

I hosted a book club at my house. We discussed one of my favorite books- Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. We talked about what makes a family and marriage happy.

Benjamin, Abigail and I have been trying to walk everyday for 30 minutes. It has been fun to talk. We have seen deer, a skunk, a fire truck and lots of bugs.

We went to the library in DeWitt this week also. Abigail really loves reading books and the library is great, because we get to read a variety. One of the books we got was about tractors. She was telling me about them, so I pulled out the camera.

She has been getting better wearing her big girl panties. Potty training is great! Her potty treats have included suckers, gum, waffer cookies, Junior mints and chocolate chips. Don't worry grandmas! We are brushing teeth :)

We also posted new pictures on flicker http://www.flickr.com/photos/8641664@N05/

We lost our camera for some of the trip out west, so we don't have pictures for all of our time on vacation. We sure enjoyed seeing everyone!

Benenemenabby

We are happy to have a blog, so that we can keep our friends and family updated on our lives!

This last week Abigail has been taking big strides towards being potty-trained. We are very proud of her. She is growing up fast.

We just got back from a great vacation visiting family out west. It was really fun to be with family. Abigail loved having so many people who were willing to play with her.

I hope to update this weekly and learn how to add pictures.

Funny quote from Abigail:
She was asked to pretend to be a tree and she got very serious and started waving her hands high above her head back and forth while calmly saying, "Sway..." It was great.

Benjamin is sad that the Netherlands lost in the European sports cup.

my first

look at me