going to the "beach"

Monday morning, Abby gathered her things to go to the beach. When I told her that it was too cold to go to the beach, she informed me that she was going to the "pretend beach"...

Frankenmuth

This past weekend we were in Frankenmuth. Jon had a Rotary conference so the girls and I tagged along. We stayed at Zehnder's Splash Village which was really fun. Friday we got to the hotel and then had to be at dinner, which of course was at Zehnders. Family style chicken dinner...yum! Then we left a bit early so that Abby could go to the water park. She had a great time exploring and even went down the kiddie slide a few times. I sat with Audrey while Jon went with her. He said each time she went down she had a look of terror on her face. But then she would run up the steps to do it again!

Saturday Jon had meetings to go to in the morning so the girls and I walked over to Bronner's. Abby picked out Audrey's 1'st Christmas ornament and an ice cream cone ornament for herself. After lunch, we all went back to the water park for a few hours. Audrey had her first dip in the pool. At first she fussed but after a while she was ok.

Once Audrey had enough of the water, she took a nice long nap...

Saturday evening we did some shopping and then had dinner at the Bavarian Inn Lodge. Once again there was chicken but they also had other offerings, including a really good baked salmon. Then for entertainment they had the group Three Men and a Tenor. I had never seen them before and they were really good. Abby enjoyed dancing to the singing. Then, back to the pool Jon and Abby went before we had to check out in the morning.
Audrey reached a milestone on Saturday...she slept thru the night!!!!! 10pm til 8am!!! It was wonderful to get a full nights sleep without having to change a diaper or feed her! Of course, last night, she got up to eat, but at least we have one under our belt. Hopefully, there will be more of those wonderful nights soon!
Sunday morning, Nana and Big Bear joined us at the hotel and then we all went to St. Lorenz Lutheran church for service. I didn't realize the history of that church. 15 people started that church in the 1800's. After the service a gentleman from the church gave us a tour of their museum and a replica of the first log cabin church that the founders used. Its an amazing place and the people there were very nice and inviting. (I'll include some pictures below).
Then we went back to Zehnder's for Jon and Nana's birthday dinners. We had chicken dinner again but did the buffet so there were also other things to choose from. Abby was excited to see the Chicken and had her picture taken with him...

So that was our exciting weekend. It was actually a lot of fun and I would like to take Abby back to the water park again someday.
Here are some other pics...
Audrey in her ducky cover-up before going to the pool...look at that smile!

Abby playing in the water...


St. Lorenz Lutheran alter and stained glass windows...

Fun!

Abby, Audrey and I have been away for the last few days. Which means Jon had a couple of quite nights at home. He was nice enough to do the dishes and pick up some stuff around the house! Anyway, there was a mother/daughter dinner at my parent's church last night so we went to their house for a couple of days. Got there Wednesday and hung out with my dad (Papa). Then Thursday morning, we got up and went to the Toledo Zoo. Its a really nice zoo...not too big, not too small. Papa and Abby rode the African Safari train and got to see all kinds of cool Animals. (unfortunately, the pic is a little blurry)

Then we walked around the zoo, ate lunch, and ran thru the rest of the zoo due to the rain. But before the rain came, I got a couple good shots of our fun...

Abby is a butterfly! How cute!!!

And Audrey slept...

Then we went to the Mother/daughter dinner which was very nice. It was great to see my Aunt Kathy and my Grandparents as they were able to attend. I was so happy that we were able to get a 4 generation picture...

Then we had a sleep over in my parents living room which Abby really enjoyed. She liked it so much that we might do it at home every once in a while as a treat. Today, we went to the park and to Ikea. That place is crazy. They make you go thru the whole thing to get to the check out. But we found a couple of short cuts and skipped a large part of the store. I was looking for a toy chest for Abby's little toys so that Audrey wont be able to get to them as easily once she starts crawling. But I was really disappointed with their selection. there were only two and they were both expensive but cheaply made. Oh well!
Tomorrow is Jon's birthday and then Mothers day is on Sunday so we have a weekend of celebrations ahead of us. I'm sure there will be much to write about next week!

Is the weekend over already?

Even though I'm home full time, I somehow still look forward to the weekend and am a bit sad when it's over. Probably because that is the time that we have together as a family. This weekend was spent with our small church group on Friday evening, at 2 birthday parties on Saturday and then the ballet on Sunday. Saturday, we went to Seth's first birthday party. unfortunately, we weren't able to stay very long but Abby had a great time while we were there. Then we were off to Nana's birthday dinner. (Jon's mom) We went to Maggiano's restaurant in Troy. It was very good and we had a very nice time. Happy birthday Nana!! Sunday, I took Abby to the Children's Ballet Theater of Lansing's performance of Sleeping Beauty. Since she is in dance class, I thought it would be fun to go. Little did I know that it was a 3 hour long show. That's right...3 hours. There was no way that Abby was going to sit that long. Plus, I'm sure she thought that there would be people talking and it would be more like the movie. About a 1/2 hour into it, Abby turned to me and whispered "Mama, will the princesses be done dancing soon?". So needless to say, we went out into the lobby for lots of breaks but she actually made to about the 2 hour and 40 min mark. I have to be honest, by that time, I was ready to go home too. It was a very nice ballet and the kids dancing in it did very well, but that's a long time for anyone to sit with toddlers!
Here are some recent pics...



This picture cracks me up. I never noticed it before and it was taken last fall...