Up North

A couple weeks ago we went way up north to Christmas, Michigan on Lake Superior with all the Donoghues.  It was incredibly beautiful, I had never been that far north before.  We all stayed in a great house on a smaller lake, with Lake Superior just a couple minutes away.  It was such a nice escape from work, and I love spending so much time with my fam.

Had to get some family shots:

The Donoghues feeling silly

Originals

Grandbabies - super psyched for photos

Love my family

The highlight of the trip was seeing the pictured rocks.  Really cool rock formations overlooking the stunning lake.  We did a boat tour one day, and then went back to one of the beaches on our last day. 

Pure Michigan

That's a keeper

Lost her legs

Going to explore the rocks with Daddy

Mid-fall?

Violet showing off her moves

 
We had some relaxing time at the house too, enjoyed the back yard and canoeing on the lake.

Always there for her sister

Daddy's got his hands full.

It's freezing.  Come in!

S'more goodness

Oh you

Jamie took me for a canoe ride under this sky -
one of my favorite moments on the trip

My cutie husband

Ahoy

We tried to stick all the kids in the tub for a cute photo... turns out Violet and Ben are a bit young.

Can you get them out now?

The tub had jets.  I added too many bubbles.  It got pretty nuts.

We took a road trip to Marquette one day so Jamie could check out a brewery with Ben and I took the girls to the Children's Museum.  We had a delicious lunch and later visited my cousins Chris and Linda and their amazing dog Tyger.  The girls were in heaven!

Getting a relaxing shampoo

A truly disgusting climbing wall.

Coming in for a landing

Maggie's trying to figure out how we can take
Tyger with us

Playing in the park

Don't make us go!

Last weekend Maggie and Luke had a sleepover at Bobby's house, and we took the three little girls at our house.  It was a fun time, Evie and Maggie were in heaven... until Sunday when sleep deprivation caught up with them...

We did tie-dye shirts with the girls... got a picture of'
Claire, but then we both had our hands full watching over
the little girls who were a little less cautious

Sunshine crew

Claire loves Ben Ben

Finished product, not too shabby!

Park fun

 

Ferris Wheel fun with Luke!

 Ben is now 6 months old!  He is definitely our third child as we still have not managed to get his "blanket" photo and I think we're probably a bit too late to do it now... He is still a very happy-go-lucky baby, though he’s a bit fussier with the joy of teething.  He really enjoys eating baby food and has liked everything we tried except some kale/vegetable option, and I can’t blame him for that!  His giggle is the best, and he also has a little duck-quack cackle that he does.  He can roll over both ways, but has no interest in ever doing it.  He sits pretty well, but usually topples within 30 seconds. I had to stop using our baby bath tub because he kicks his legs so much and splashes half the water on the floor – now he takes a bath in our big sink and he’s been really enjoying the water.  He’s mister chubby thighs and is currently 19 lbs and 28 inches tall.

Happy boy

I’m about to lose my mind with sleep issues… we’ve been trying really hard to get rid of his middle-of-the-night bottle.  It worked at first, but required letting him cry and going in to soothe him with a pacifier every 10 minutes, 4 or 5 times.  Next I tried just letting him cry all the way back to sleep… which is about an hour of grinding my teeth in bed while I listen to him wale.  I can never get back to sleep after all this, so I’ve been a zombie lately.

A few others:

My Detroit soccer team after our last game...
not a great season, but it was fun!

Wonder Woman - furious that she had to take this off for bedtime