Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to my little unicorn!  Despite horrible weather (rain all day long!), you had a great halloween with a party at day care and some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  We went to 3 houses and you were so excited on the walk up to each house saying 'trick-or-treat' the whole way, but the second we got to the door, it was "up, up, up" - you were ready for Mama to hold you and you wouldn't say a word or even look at our neighbors...maybe next year.

Checking out your "purse"

Going through your loot.

Michigan Mini-Vacation

Ever since Eric and I moved to Michigan everyone has told us that we need to visit northern Michigan.  So, for our 7th wedding anniversary (which was September 2), we decided that we would head north for a long weekend.  There are so many places "up north" to visit, but we decided to focus only on the Traverse City area and did our best to time it around the peak of the fall foliage…it did not disappoint!  For anyone who has never been to northern Michigan, you need to add it to your travel list.  With white sand beaches, crystal clear deep blue waters of Lake Michigan and several other lakes, wineries, and more, it is a gorgeous area.

We arrived Friday afternoon, grabbed lunch, let Graecyn burn off some energy and then loaded back into the car to start our sightseeing.  We headed north to the Old Mission peninsula, a narrow peninsula with views of royal blue waters on either side, lush green grape vines, cherry orchards, and vibrant fall leaves.

At the tip of the peninsula is the Old Mission light house and a rocky shoreline that during low tide, unearths numerous rocks that visitors stack in various formations. 

Saturday was another busy day of sightseeing.  We headed west to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, which was the main reason we decided to come to Traverse City; when the government shut down happened, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to see it, but I did some research and found that while the park and it's 8 mile scenic drive would be closed, its hiking trails would still be open.  We got to the start of the scenic drive, met the road closed barriers and found a nearby parking lot that was still open; we loaded up Graecyn in the jogging stroller and headed out in search of the hiking trails...which were no where to be found.  Rather than give up and turn around and go home, we decided we'd just walk the scenic drive for a little while and take in some of the beauty of the national park.  Well, "a little while" turned into 3 hours and over 5 miles walked!  We did run into a few other hikers and bicyclists that had the same idea as us, but for the most part it was just the 3 of us with an entire national park to ourselves.  It was so peaceful and beautiful…absolutely amazing.  While it would have been much easier to drive the scenic route, I am actually thankful for the government shut down because without it, I would not have been able to get pictures like this…*

View of the dunes and Lake Michigan in the background

View of Lake Michigan

Front of the dunes; we drove around the government barricades with the rest of the visitors, but with a sleeping toddler in the back of the car and tired legs from our 5 mile trek, we opted not to climb it this trip.

*Note, I am very much an amateur photographer who got so excited about the beautiful backdrop and completely forgot to check all of my camera settings (ugh!) and once I realized the problem, had a toddler (and husband) who no longer wanted to cooperate.  I did the best I could to fix some of the blur in my photo editing program and hope it will be a lesson learned to triple check my settings in the future (and remember to slow down and not get too anxious over getting the perfect shot). :-)

After our gorgeous 5-mile hike, we grabbed lunch and then headed north to the Leelanau Peninsula (the pinky finger of the Michigan mitten) where we passed a road sign letting us know that we were exactly halfway between the equator and the north pole!  Another gorgeous drive with views of clear blue waters to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

It was a busy weekend and Graecyn did awesome; thanks to Barney and Elmo on the iPad, she traveled great!  I can't wait for our next trip up north!

21 Months

Dear Monkey,
You are learning so much each and every day and continue to amaze us.  The highlights of the past month include:

• Talking...constantly.  It is so nice to be able to communicate with you.  We do struggle at times to understand what you're trying to say, but for the most part, you talk really well.  Two words that you struggle with are frog and flag - they come out more like another word that rhymes with truck, but is not as nice.  You're working on talking in sentences and while you can say the words individually, once we try to get you to string them all together, it comes out sounding more like French.  Some of your current favorite sayings are, "I love you" or "I, too" (I love you too), "see ya", "here go", "where are you/where go?".  If we ask you where something is, your response is always "there" (i.e., where's mama? there.  where's your milk? there.)  The most recent thing is responding to a question with "mmhmm" - it has become a regular response from you.  You are very polite - saying "peaz" and "tank tu"all the time.  You love to have me sing to you and are starting to sing along with me - your favorite songs (that you know the words to) are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "If you're happy and you know it".
• Dancing - you love to dance and will start moving anytime you hear music. You also learned to stomp your foot and jump/hop.  
• You love to take Daddy or me by the finger and pull/lead us around to where you want us to be. Sometimes saying "come here" in the process.
• Foods - you love to dip foods and recently discovered chips and salsa.  We have to hide Ranch dressing from you otherwise you won't eat anything but the ranch (you would eat it by the spoonful if we would let you).
• You are still obsessed with blankies and have to sleep with one every night.  You also prefer to have one nearby at all times.  Fortunately, it doesn't matter what blankie it is, which is nice.  You prefer to have it over your head and it often takes you awhile at night to get comfortable before you will go to sleep (sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and get scared if the blankie is still over your head).
• Long and lean - you are still long and skinny.  We had to take you to the doctor last week and you weighed in at just over 22 lbs and were 34" long.

You love to be silly and make us laugh each and every day; I can't wait to watch you grow and see what new things you learn over the next month.  You bring so much joy to our lives! 

"I too",

Mama

You have to sleep with a blankie, dolphin, elephant, monkey and lamb

You always take your socks off and tuck them neatly into your shoes.

You love your sunglasses