Grandparents are Great!

Two nights before we left Michigan, we were able to get together for dinner with both sets of Davey and Charlie's grandparents for dinner. It was so nice to have all of our parents together with some time to chat and let the boys enjoy being with them. We met at Max & Erma's in Birmingham. It's a great place for kids because they have an ice cream bar you can bribe them with to eat all their dinner! :)

Davey was so excited about the BLUE whipped topping they had.

 It was blue-raspberry flavored... kind of strange if you ask me.

Afterward we chatted and enjoyed the beautiful evening and Davey enjoyed throwing coins in a fountain, always a favorite pass-time for him.

The boys with their grandparents!

Each of our parents were very helpful with the boys and spent some nice quality time with each of the boys. Grandma Adams was especially helpful with Charlie and Grandpa Adams indulged Davey a lot when Dave and I didn't want to take him outside. Grandpa Paulson was able to spend more time than usual with the boys, cuddling Charlie and playing ball with Davey, since he took some extra time off while we were there and Grandma Paulson thoroughly enjoyed the boys every chance she got and giving me breaks whenever I needed one.

(Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the boys with G & G Adams... :( it seems like I just go in spurts of sometimes remembering to take pictures when we're on vacation...)

Grandpa Paulson with Charlie

Grandma Paulson gave Charlie almost all of his baths while 

we were in MI. It was so nice!

Grandpa Paulson made his famous whole wheat pancakes and 

home made syrup for our whole gang. They were a hit with the 

kids since he catered to them and made blueberry and chocolate

chip pancakes too!

As happy as we are living where we are, there is a big part of me that wishes we lived closer to our families so we could spend more time with them. We always thoroughly enjoy it! We love you Grandmas and Grandpas!!

More Fun with the Romneys

When we got back to SE Michigan, we had a couple more days of fun before heading back to Texas. Davey has really gotten into sports in the last few months, so he was excited to go see a Tigers game with his Daddy and Ada and her Daddy, Mark. 

Showing support for the Tigers!

The two don't seem to tire of each other.

The next day we headed to one of our favorite spots when we return to Michigan: The Original Pancake House.  Their food is sooo good. Davey and Ada got a little familiar while we were waiting to be seated...

Hey! You two aren't even three yet!

Afterward we stopped at this great park in Birmingham, Booth Park. We'd never been there before but we will definitely be adding this place to our usual stops when we're back. It had so many fun things to do!

There is an astroturf hill you can really get going

down fast sitting on some cardboard. So fun!

Davey and Ada had a blast on the tire swing. 

They were all giggles and laughs.

As you can imagine, Davey loved driving the train.

It was sad to say goodbye to Michigan, and we could have still spent more time and seen more people we would have liked to have made time for, but it was also nice to return home. I'd say 4 weeks is a good length to visit. We love and miss Michigan but we also love Houston. Davey was so excited to see his toys again and Charlie seemed a little surprised by where he was, flipping his head back and forth to look around when we walked in the door and I took him up the stairs. It was also a happy reunion with all of Davey's friends.

Up North!

Another exciting part of our big summer trip to Michigan was the week up north with Dave's family. They have a great cottage on Mullett Lake with lots of fun water toys, a beautiful beach and spot on the lake, wonderful clean air alive with earthy smells and always promises a relaxed pace. We all had a lot of fun with the Adams side of the family...

One of the main highlights was a visit from Gigi Featherly

who came to visit for the 4th.

Uncle Mark, Aunt Debbie (in this pic with Charlie) and

Lisa also shared a nice visit with us on the 4th.

I was so excited about the chance to go Up North this year - especially since I wasn't pregnant and would be able to take part in the water skiing, tubing, wind surfing, etc. - but the weather just totally didn't cooperate. It was cold and windy almost every day. I didn't even get on the ski boat or put my swimsuit on while we were there... :(

This is the best day we had - Dave gets in the water

no matter how cold - he's so crazy!

Despite the cold, however, Dave was able to get in some good sailing and we had some fun on the kayaks and paddle boat.

Dave's Aunt Kay and Cousins Brian and Beth and their families were able to join us for a barbecue one afternoon. It was so fun to see them again, catch up on their lives and see their growing families.

Davey having fun with Emma

Charlie hanging with 2 1/2 month old Abigail

Whenever babies are getting attention, Davey is always

right there, ready to join the fray.

We had a fun dinner at Vivio's in Indian River - great pizza!

Davey got a hold of the parmesan cheese shaker and dug in...

and went a little overboard when his Aunts Kiki and Katie thought he was funny...

Licking the cheese from his elbow

Davey and Charlie had so much fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa Adams and Aunts Kiki and Katie and Uncle Bryan. And Dave and I did as well! We miss you guys and hope we see you all again soon. The week went by quickly and the last day after everyone had left but us and Carrie (Kiki), we decided to venture out to the big bridge and search for a good pasty.

The 5-mile long Mackinac Bridge

Davey thought it was pretty cool.

We found a great little park on Lake Superior in St. Ignace to let Davey play.

Mackinac Island in the background

He enjoyed throwing rocks into the water.

Of course when we got up to leave the next morning the weather was warm, still and clear. It was so hard to leave!

Flip City

With Kelly expecting her new baby fairly soon, she and Colter decided to take a few days away for themselves while they were in Michigan. After Desiree and Harmony returned home (boo hoo hoo), they took off and we had fun helping my parents watch the boys. We kept busy with trips to the park, various indoor play-places, and the most fun of a visit to a gymnastics place called Flip City...

All of the boys had a blast! Amy brought her daughter Ada as well, so she and Davey had a good time playing.

Davey loved jumping on the large trampolines, but he especially liked the long tramps with the foam pit at the end. Watch this video... no fear!

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The cousins were so cute together...

Ready and...

JUMP!

Happy Reunion

It was so much fun to be together with all of my siblings and (most of) our families again (Jared and John didn't join us). 

All of us Paulson girls had a fun shopping trip to the local outlet mall where we didn't do any shopping for kids -- just us! It is so much fun to hang out with my sisters. I wish we lived closer to each other so we could me more a part of each others' lives.

Lacey hangin' with Davey and Charlie in a dressing room.

It was great to have the adults outnumbering the kids!

Davey had so much fun hanging out with his cousins - and even got to meet a new one this trip: Desiree brought her new little one Tommy (John Thomas) who was only 6 weeks old. He is such a beautiful, sweet little baby. 

Lacey and Ben admiring Tommy

Davey was excited to be inducted into the Paulson grandkid dollar store trip tradition. Grandma and Grandpa Paulson take the grand boys (as they call them) to the dollar store and they each get choose $5 of merchandise. Davey had a blast! (The pictures turned out a little blurry, but they're still fun to look at!)

Serious shopping (and already lots in the basket!)

Michael, Peter and Joseph... decisions, decisions!

Davey enjoyed wearing this hat in the store but it didn't 

make the final cut.

Wow, this is overwhelming.

The weather was great while we were in SE Michigan, 70s and 80s, so the boys spent most of their time outside playing. Davey was in heaven to be always outside and have playmates.

Adventures on the playset Grandpa built for us when 

we were kids.

Peter pushing the boys on the rope ladder

Somehow one of the boys got a hold of a bottleful of plastic be-bes from Ben's be-be gun. Davey and his cousins had hours and hours of fun playing with these things. It was amazing to watch how busy it kept them. Ben would scatter them in various places - on the driveway, in the grass - and they'd have fun seeing how many they could pick up. Then they'd make games out of rolling them down the slide in various ways and trying to catch them.

They're so small you can't even spot them in the picture,

but Davey is proud of his cupful of them!

The Family Buggy

On Wednesday we were all excited to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Adams at an Adams family tradition: The Family Buggy. The boys enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa and sitting with the Buggy Bear!

Afterward, we hung out for a while at their apartment. Davey enjoyed exploring the outdoors with Grandpa while Charlie showed off for Grandma...

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Charlie loves to do what Grandma Adams calls "crowing," a loud squeal/scream that is usually happy. (He was doing a ton of it for Grandma but of course stopped when I started taking the video above....) Apparently Dave did it all the time when he was young. And my mom tells the story about how when we lived on the base in Iceland, my dad would hear me screaming like that (though not happily) 1/2 a mile down the road on his walk home. So I guess one of our kids was bound to be a screamer.

We had a really nice time with them and it made us more excited for our week up north with the Adams!

Obama's Health Plan

Here is an email that Dave sent out today. I thought it was worth posting here. I am planning to call our congressman and woman to let them know I am seriously opposed to this health plan and urge you to do the same. You can find contact information for your congressmen/women here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt. Generally you will just leave a voicemail for the, so it only takes a minute to do.

"I am really sorry to bother you with such a long email. I hope you find it worth your time to read.

 

"OK, let me first admit that these are preliminary thoughts about Obama's Health Plan. I don't know every detail on this (and frankly neither does Obama) but so far I don't like what I see. The debate is heating up as competing Senate and House bills are weighed but with Dems hot to get a bill passed soon we all need to be aware how our health care will change. So research it for yourself but here is what has me extremely concerned at the outset;

 

• First - Health Care Rationing - Dems voted down a measure to prevent "health care rationing" in the current legislation that Republicans offered. This means (and the President and others have conceded) that your care can (under proposed plans) be rationed with decisions being made in DC. So suppose you have say a rare disease with a funny name. And suppose surgery is available to fix the damage from said disease. Well, it would be up to the Government to decide if you are a good use of rationed health care. Is this example a little to specific? Let me try another example being used.

 "You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?

 

"Apparently most ethicists (i.e., the types of folks that will be hired to make such decisions) agree that your continued life might not be worth that much. Or at least that such costs and benefits are best weighed by your government. But the issue at hand now isn't about whether health care should be rationed. Some argue (perhaps accurately) that health care is now being rationed by it's high cost. But as a solution, do you want our Federal Government to ration that care? Is that more fair? A government that still can not locate my FBI application, pays $1,000 for a hammer, and is completely immune to lawsuits! This is the best solution to high costs that are a barrier for some?!

• Second - You Can Keep Your Current Provider - This is one of those "true lies" of the health care debate from what I can see. According to the current legislation Government run health care would be "managed care". Do you currently have "managed care" aka an HMO? I don't. So what they aren't telling you when you hear "your provider doesn't have to change" is that the provider may not change but the form of coverage will. So if you are like me with a PPO, gone is the ability to select any doctor and see specialists at my discretion. Sure, I'd still have Aetna but not Aetna PPO. I'd be forced to use Aetna HMO. This is necessary to keep costs in line with what the government thinks it can afford. Apparently the current billl provides a brief "grace period" before you are forced to convert.

• Third - Care for Seniors - Do you happen to know anyone who is retiring? Well, then as you may know their primary insurer automatically becomes Uncle Sam (Medicare - other insurers are always secondary). The current bill intends to trim overall Medicare spending 10%. Not a huge change but at the same time those cuts take place, Medicare will see a 30% increase in their participant rolls. Huh? More people but less money for seniors care? I wonder how they will pull that off (you might ask)? Well, apparently we don't have to wonder. As one example, the current plan intends to enforce limits on care for dementia. This is more of the fun "rationing" described above. Apparently the doctor tasked by the White House with health reform (Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel) has spoken publicly about severly limiting seniors care, specifically the care for dementia. He feels that those who are of a certain age aren't the best use of limited health care resources.

"So do you like what you hear so far? Well if you don't then the next item may be the coup de grace.

• Fourth - Who is Exempt from Participating in Federal Health Care - Think about this one for a minute. Who might be allowed to skate on participation in FEDERAL health care? Who would our legislators favor in such a way that they are not required to participate is such a bad plan? That's right, themselves! Our elected officials have written into the current bill that THEY do not have to participate in a Federal Health Care program. It won't be their care that is rationed. It won't be thier kid with a rare disease whose life hangs in the hands of someone in DC. Gee, if their plan is so great, why not participate?

"Last, if you are wondering how you and I will be forced into a government run plan, I am not completely sure on the details (like I said, I am still looking at this). But from what I understand, the idea is that as employers are offered the option of a federal plan that is (on the surface) much cheaper, they will likely shift in droves. Afterall, can you really imagine a company like GM declining the opportunity to offload much of it's health care burden? further, in Canada private insurance that competes with goverment offered insurance is simply not allowed. Do they intend to do the same here? I don't know.

 

"Look, can I see that some in our society go without important health care? Sure. Is this the best solution? Not in my opinion.

 

"Maybe you know someone who is old and may suffer from dementia. Maybe you know someone who is young and has a rare disease. Maybe you know someone about to retire. This isn't a hypotherical exercise in an Ivy League course on the benefits of socialism. This is for real and it will impact us all. So what do you think?

 

"Dave"

(7/21)

My Brother Ben

I know I'm partial, but my little brother Benjamin is the best. He is such a great kid. He is definitely someone worthy of the honor that comes with being an Eagle Scout, which was the reason for the timing of this trip to MI (to attend his Court of Honor). The evidence was strewn all over this trip.

Even though I was in Michigan 2 weeks before Dave arrived, it still felt like a vacation for me. I didn't think it necessarily would in the beginning because I knew my mom would be super-busy finishing up all of the details for the Court of Honor (she goes all-out for an event like this), but it still did, largely due to Ben. He was such a big help, not because he was necessarily trying to help, but he spent a lot of time with Davey and Charlie. Even his friends Brad and Eric came over several times just so they could play with my boys. What great kids!

I needed to do some shopping for myself and my friend Amy and I have started a tradition of shopping trips to Birch Run when I'm home. My mom watched Davey for me for the day and Ben gladly agreed to come along to help with Charlie. He was such a life saver, though I'm sure it was boring for him.

Davey woke up several mornings to find new, elaborate train track designs for him to play with...

You can imagine his excitement!

They were way better than anything we've ever

built for him.

Ben also set up this pirate set for Davey to play with

to help Davey with his imaginative play. So thoughtful!

I caught this picture through the kitchen window

 of Ben spending time with Charlie.

Can you imagine a better uncle?

Cincinnati

About a week into our Michigan trip, I loaded the boys into my parents' van and drove to Cincinnati to visit my brother, Colter, and his family. We arrived late Wednesday night and stayed through Saturday night. I was nervous about the drive (5 hours with stops) but it went very well. Davey watched a move and Charlie slept, waking at just the right time when the movie was over and both Davey and I needed to use the restroom. I fed him and then both boys drifted off to sleep.

Thursday night, we all went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. It was a wonderful concert! We arrived early and got seats at the front of the lawn and the boys enjoyed playing around together.

Our gang waiting for the concert to begin.

The choir.

Thank you  Colter & Kelly for such a treat!

The next day was Joseph's 8th birthday! My parents drove down in time for the party and Davey enjoyed playing with the balloons.

Joseph loved his "cake." It was delicious!

I can't believe Joseph is eight! He is such a smart, well-behaved boy.

Saturday was Joseph's baptism. It was neat to be there for that special day for him.

Colter and Kelly with their boys

Jospeh, Michael, Peter and Enoch

Joseph all dressed and ready to be baptized.

Davey liked watching him go under the water and kept saying that he wants to get baptized. I'm sure we'll be there before we know it!

After the baptism, we hung out at Colter's and were able to visit with Kelly's brother and his family who live in Dayton. Davey and Charlie had fun playing on the floor together...

My two boys look quite different from one another,

but something about their expressions in this picture 

looks similar to me.

Such silly boys!

We had a wonderful visit with Colter and Kelly and the gang. Kelly definitely impressed me with the running of her household of 6 with baby boy #5 on the way! Davey absolutely loved playing with his cousins. Luckily goodbye wasn't for too long since they joined us in MI less than a week later. Thank you for a wonderful visit!