Sunday, May 28, 2017

First Family Vacation!!! - part 1

We are back from our successful and fun family vacation to Hawaii.
As the trip got closer we were more and more worried about traveling with August, the flights, and the time difference, but he was awesome. We had a flight to Seattle which he was semi-fussy, but had brought several toys and a mirror and these fun rattle socks, so he was actually very good. Then the flight to Hawaii was fine. Today we flew back, red-eyes, and he slept the entire way. The time difference didn't seem to bother him too much, Hawaii was 6 hours behind so he was waking up around 6 (at sunrise) but that would've been noon our time, so I don't think it really made a difference.
As usual our typical vacations were busy with lots of things we did and saw, but we had a good time. Our first island was Maui, we had been there before. Our "to-see" list was the Road to Hana (again, to find out who had the best banana bread, and to spend more time at the spots we were too rushed at last time), a glass bottom boat tour, snorkel, see a sunset and stars from Haleakala (the volcano, we saw a sunrise last time)
sunrise view from our condo
walking in a nature preserve by our condo
looking at plants with daddy
eating shaved ice in Lahaina, none for Mr. August
The Road to Hana, a scenic winding road along the North coast of Maui. "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey." Although Hana did have a food truck with the BEST coconut curry squash I'd ever had.
This photo board was at Halfway to Hana which won my vote for best banana bread after our 4 bread taste test, the pineapple coconut bread didn't do anything for either of us unfortunately for that $7
so many waterfalls along the way
we found this spot the first time we did the road to Hana on our honeymoon, crawled through a cave to the opening encircled with Banyan tree roots, did it again with the baby backpack!
Hike on the black sands beach
the trees were just crazy huge jungle
the state park along the road
hiked to the red sand beach in Hana
the seven sacred pools past Hana
One thing we did differently was instead of reversing the route from Hana we continued all the way around the eastern part of Maui. The road was at times a mountain cliff on one side, and ocean on the other. It was beautiful.
they weren't kidding about the cattle crossing signs
That was a little nerve wracking as the sunset and we drove along a dark, narrow, winding road while keeping our eyes peeled for cows! We made it though and it was fun to see that side of the island.
The banana goods, my winner: Halfway to Hana, Doug's winner: Hana Farms
Alright, I'm tired from not sleeping much on the plane and have to work tomorrow, to be continued

Thursday, May 18, 2017

park walks

I love that our neighborhood backs up to a park. August and I have enjoyed several walks lately enjoying the sun and fresh air.
My cousin had given me her stroller with the warning that we might need a couple tires as she walked the heck out of that thing. And sure enough, the other day, one tire popped! It was scary loud. Anyway, it turns out finding a new stroller tire to fit isn't as easy as it sounds. So we are down to the one stroller that he can only use with his carseat and it's not quite as nice. Oh well, Doug is on an ebay mission to find me new tires.
Happy baby
The other night was book club, we enjoyed the sunset on Liz's deck. August was sitting on Miss Molly's lap
We haven't read any good books in awhile, dud after dud. The last book was I'm Down which looked funny, and I could almost relate as I was raised until 10 in Detroit as the only white girl, however, it just seemed sad in the way her parents were raising her aka almost to the point of neglect and I just couldn't read more than a few chapters. Oh well. The next one sounded promising, but I don't know if it will come in to the library before the next book club, I miss the huge library when I was living with Jill. (and miss girl time living with Jill *Jill shoutout :))

Monday, May 15, 2017

my first mother's day

Thank you August for making me a mother.
I had to work, but Doug took good care of the little guy and they had a nice pile of goodies waiting for me at home :)

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

around the house

spring!!!!
I tried my hand at fermenting. It's supposed to be good for the gut, all the friendly bacteria.
This bacteria didn't end up looking too friendly.
It was supposed to be a Beet Kvass. I don't know what I did wrong, followed the recipe. But I'm not about to drink visible mold. I did try a beet from the bottom of the barrel, but it was a strange texture and didn't taste pickled or anything, so spit it out.
Bummer. Waste of time and money.
Maybe I'll just stick with probiotic pills if I want to do that again. I do like those premade drinks, not Kombucha, but Kevita is tasty, just at $2-3 a bottle it's pretty expensive.
I made our favorite veggie burgers with a side of roasted potatoes and fresh asparagus from mom's garden.
We bought another garage freezer for the storage of the breast milk. We had a 5 cubic feet one, but with regular food and the breast milk it was too full. So we got another one, 7 cubic feet, just for the milk.
I've lost track how much is in there. Doug took over the storage and rotating of the milk. I was getting too overwhelmed everytime I'd open the freezer and a pile of milks would come cascading down and falling out. It looks like a lot, but it would really only last about a month and a half if that was all he had. Hopefully we can keep going another 6 months.
This past weekend we went to Water Hill music festival in Ann Arbor. It's pretty much a day when talented people in the neighborhood go out on their front porches and play music and everyone walks around listening to the different groups. It has really grown. The events are staged around the neighborhood so you can walk around and hear different ones at different times in the afternoon. We went last year and this year. A bonus is hanging out with my aunt and uncle who live there, and we also saw 2 out of their 3 kids. They are vegetarians and make the best food!! We stayed for dinner and had a delicious salad (with radish sprouts), veggie lasagna, and brownies with raspberry gelato. Mmmmm.
Aunt Mary enjoyed meeting August. She was dancing with him and keeping him warm as it was getting chilly. Great times!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

May Bible verse

My church had this great new song last Sunday, I loved the lyrics, this is my prayer for my life:
Build my Life by Housefires
Worthy of every song we could ever sing Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for You
Jesus, the name above every other name Jesus, the only one who could ever save Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for You
Holy, there is no one like You There is none beside You Open up my eyes in wonder Show me who You are And fill me with Your heart And lead me in Your love to those around me
Worthy of every song we could ever sing Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for You
Jesus, the name above every other name Jesus, the only one who could ever save Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for You
Holy, there is no one like You There is none beside You Open up my eyes in wonder Show me who You are And fill me with Your heart And lead me in Your love to those around me
Holy, there is no one like You There is none beside You Open up my eyes in wonder Show me who You are And fill me with Your heart And lead me in Your love to those around me
I will build my life upon Your love It is a firm foundation I will put my trust in You alone And I will not be shaken
Holy, there is no one like You There is none beside You Open up my eyes in wonder Show me who You are And fill me with Your heart And lead me in Your love to those around me
Holy, there is no one like You There is none beside You Open up my eyes in wonder Show me who You are And fill me with Your heart And lead me in Your love to those around me
I will build my life upon Your love It is a firm foundation I will put my trust in You alone And I will not be shaken
So true! My God is a firm foundation!

Monday, May 1, 2017

6 months!

August is 6 months. I can't believe it's been half a year already!
"cuddles" pretty much only when he's asleep, haha
(I didn't even realize we got the 'full family' shot with September asleep on the back of the couch there, awww)
He's a good boy.
Still exclusively breast fed, we know he CAN roll over both ways but he doesn't really do it very much, just rolls to his side. He still can't sit up alone without tipping over. He's grabbing EVERYTHING and putting it into his mouth. One not great thing is he's almost back to waking up every 3 hours at night, noooo! Pretty much like clockwork he's up at 12:30, then 3:30, then around 7 when usually I just put in his binky and pray for one more hour of sleep. I can't seem to handle any more wake ups by then. But overall a good little buddy! And mostly happy and smiley, we really have been blessed.
He enjoyed his first time in a swing
He loves his daddy
He was enjoying a stroller ride until a wheel popped and we have to figure out how to buy a replacement tire??
And he loves rides in the backpack :)
We went to Ben's 2nd birthday fiesta and August pretty much hung out in the backpack most of the time which was really nice for mom and dad to be able to hang out and eat and chat. Good times with baby boy!