Pure Michigan 2014

This year we tried to make our Michigan trip a little earlier to avoid some of the bad weather we've experienced the last 2-3 years.  So we packed up the car on Labor Day weekend and headed to our spot with our best friends Ana and Sid and their mom and dad, Steph and Colin.

It was more of the same this year - apple picking turned into apple and peach picking; due to the season only a couple apples were available...

Pax picked his first apple ever. And for the first time in his life he could walk around picking things up off the ground and eating them and it was actually okay.

Took a little break up at Crane's for some donuts, apple cider and tomfoolery.

Then on the way home we were having a couple meltdowns when Dad laid the hammer - "Listen! This family may be a democracy but once in a blue moon your mother and I would like to do something that WE would like to do. Now we've never been blueberry picking, so the crew in the back seat is going to get it a grip on themselves and we are going blueberry picking!!" (There might have been a goddammit thrown in there for good measure.)

So we landed at a blueberry spot and it happened to be free picking weekend because it was the last weekend of the season for blueberries. It's a short season - July 3 through Labor Day, but we hit the mother load because only two other people were on the whole farm so we picked and picked to our hearts delight.

First stop - get your buckets!

Then it was out to the farm.

And then it got me thinking, "Boy, we've been doing this Michigan trip every year for quite some time." so I thought I'd throw in a couple pics from 2010 when I was two and Mae was a wee wittle kid who was just learning to stand up.

Ah, memories. Well, back to 2014 - next day we took advantage of the beautiful weather and hit the beach for most of the day, then the rest of the weekend consisted of breweries, parks on the water and ICE CREAM! Michigan 2014, you will be missed, but we'll see ya next year.

A Duet

You've heard of Ebony & Ivory, Simon & Garfunkle, Hall & Oates... we'll they've got nothing on these two (except for several #1 singles, millions of records sold and a much larger bank account).

Back to School 2014

So it was back to school the other day, which turned out to be fantastic. After a long and fun summer, I was ready to get back to my old stomping grounds.

After a good breakfast we got the two school birds posing for some pictures.

It was Mae's first day after dropping out of preschool last year. And she not only had a good first day but she had a great first week. I think the little bird is ready.

And then, after basically pouring a bowl of oatmeal down the front of his diaper while trying to eat it and then taking a bath in the kitchen sink, well, we got photobombed by a streaker.

After we got a diaper on the little lad he wanted to say cheese for the camera.

Got to school and low and behold I saw about 15 kids from Ms. Matus's class last year who were in my class again...

Including my bestie, Nadia. Yep, this is gonna be a good school year.

A Great Day in America

So I got a certificate for a free ticket to Six Flags Great America from school for finishing 100 hours of reading over the course of a month or so, so off Dad and I went to Great America.

Not a lot of pictures in this one because we were busy conquering rides. I was an inch and a half too short for some of the bigger roller coasters but we took advantage of the three I could ride on. In case you don't recognize the overhead harness in the photo below, that's the Demon, my friends. Conquered it... nine times (no exaggeration). Rode in the front row, the back row and several rows in between.

And here's a list of the other rides we went on:

Three roller coasters

-Demon (nine times)

-Dark Knight

-Whizzer

The rest of the list includes:

-Fiddlers Fling (4-5 times)

-Hometown Fun Machine (2ice)

-Orbit

-Triple Play (three times, naturally, since it's called Triple Play)

-Condor

-The new water park in the middle of the day for a few hours where we went on several big water slides

We went on some of these rides multiple times because they were just so much fun. Couple side notes, though...

Orbit: Didn't get a chance to watch this one first, we just saw the line still open with no one left in it and ran in... got a little spooked when we went airborne while spinning in a small container. Note to self, watch the ride at least once before you get on.

Condor: This one Dad wanted to go on, til we got way the heck up there in the air - again, in a small container - and he was like, "WHAT?!!" Needless to say, we only went on that one once.

Milly-Vaw-Kee, Day 2

So day in Milwaukee was just as good, if not better, than day one. We hit the Lakefront for some summer fun.

But before we get to our day, check out these photos from two years ago when we did much of the same. Here is me at 4 and Mae at 2 years old.

Alright, now that we've got that covered, we took to the park and at the end of a seriously long game of Base (which is like tag only there is a home base where you're safe) I found myself far from Base with Eli chasing me. Well, as you can see, I gave him quite the run for his money. He eventually got me but then collapsed to the ground and stayed there for about ten minutes. Girls rule, boys drool buddy.

Got out our kites and flew 'em high. The Milwaukee lakefront is the perfect spot for flying a kite. The wind comes off the lake and next thing you know, you're out of string and you can barely see your "flag," as Mae likes to call it.

Meanwhile, Pax was getting into some yoga in the park with a little "downward dog" yoga posing on his mat.

And then it was time to hit up the group bikes. We got all six of us on there - Mom and Dad pedaling in the drivers seat with Eli in the middle and the three birds up front.

And here's pretty much mom and dad's favorite picture that's ever been taken.

Milly-Vaw-Kee, Day 1

That's what some people call Milwaukee... and by some people I think it's probably just my dad.  Anyway, we made our annual trip up to the Great Escape but the Lake last weekend on the 4th of July.

Brought along my homeboy, Eli, too. First stop was the zoo. Rode trains and carousels, saw amazing animals, had a peacock storm our lunch picnic. All in all, great stuff.

Okay, so wanna see something cool. Other than the fact we forgot which animal we were on two years ago, check out the below. First shot is May of 2012 and the one below is last weekend.

Before

So what was Pax doing? Well, first he was checking out the brown bears and giving them his "rowr" sound that he basically does most of the time he's awake (strong possibility he actually thinks he is a wild animal).

And then the coolest thing of the whole trip happened. So we went down underneath the polar bear spot to watch the seals swim. So this huge daddy seal would swim by slowly upside down and then he would do a loop and he would swim STRAIGHT for Pax. It was like he was staring Pax dead in the eyes as he would swim toward him all the way up to the glass and then he would swim up and rub his belly against the glass. He did this twice and then Dad took Pax up to Mom for a switch and while Pax was gone he didn't do it at all. Then when Mom came back with Pax and he did it two more times. Then we left and we looked back to see if he would do it again and he didn't. Dude was in LOVE with Pax.

And since you weren't there we're bringing it straight to you just like it happened, compliments of my lovely and talented and always bursting with fruit flavor photo editor, Dad.

 Slightly creepy, right?

So that was it for day 1. Day two of Milly-Vaw-Kee is coming up.