Hatch Family Fun

We have felt very blessed to have some of Tyler's family here to visit this past weekend. On Wednesday Tyler's parents and his sister, Jezerea, picked up Mariah from her mission in Minnesota. Thursday they made the long drive from there to our home (still a much shorter drive then from AZ though). They arrived late Thursday night and though both boys wanted to stay up and wait for them, only Steven lasted. Steven got really shy as soon as he saw them and almost immediately determined it was time to go to bed, it really has been TOO long!

That night we stayed up late, sitting on the porch and chatting. It pretty much made me feel even more homesick, reminding of how much I love hanging with family; reminding me of all the we are missing out on by being so far away.

The next morning Lucy was shocked to find these strangers in her house and she became pretty clingy. She also became a super quiet, unanimated child and it wasn't until late Saturday afternoon that she finally began to be her normal crazy self around these "strangers".

When we were all up and ready Friday morning, we took a trip to Greenfield Village. Tyler and his dad had fun geeking out over all the ancient machines and the glass blowing, as always, was a hit. We still didn't make it through the park though, us girls tire easily of seeing machines apparently.

After Greenfield Village I cooked up some dinner and then we walked downtown for some ice cream. This place was slow as all heck at getting us ice cream but that just meant lots of fun quality time together:

On our walk back to our house, they happened to have a little concert happening so we stopped by to listen:

After the concert, we spent the evening on our porch chatting, catching fireflies and arguing over what color fireflies flash. It was ridiculously fun!

The next day we headed to Spicer's Orchard to pick some blueberries and raspberries. This was a new experience for all of us and the kids really loved it, even if they don't actually love to eat them. The boys had fun learning which ones were ready to be picked and helping their Poppy find "the mother loads!" and Lucy enjoyed picking them up off the ground and playing with them.

After Spicer's Orchard we stopped at a deli for some sandwiches and then headed home. While Lucy was napping, I walked downtown with Tyler's sisters and mom to do some shopping. More like window shopping because all those boutiques are ridiculously over priced... We found these super cute dresses for only $75...dream on! I managed to get crazy dizzy at one store which cut our shopping short. I think I had been doing a little bit too much walking in the heat that weekend and not enough drinking water. Lame me. So we went home and I took a little rest.

That night we tried out a new restaurant called South Lyon Hotel. The food was good, nothing spectacular but good. But what we really liked about it was that there was no wait to be seated and it was noisy so the kids blended right in. After dinner we went back home and the kids all had some fun with some Sparklers their Poppy Hatch had gotten them. 

Poppy Hatch also got them so EXTREMELY LOUD fireworks that will have to be saved for a day when Tyler can take them out to the woods to explode them. I don't think our neighbors would appreciate them.

Sunday we all woke up and had some fresh blueberry pancakes and then headed off to church. I don't know how we managed to get all 9 of us their on time but we did, it was miraculous! The kids behaved better than they ever have. They had so much fun being there with their grandparents and aunties. Sadly Tyler's family could only stay until Sunday School and then they had to head off to the airport. It was much too short of a visit and we hope they will come back and visit us again! 

  

Long Summer Days

It is weird to me how time passes.One summer day can feel endless as I await the time Tyler comes home but then I go to the library and I'm shocked to realize the books we just checked out are due in August. August can't be that close! And I'm shocked to realize that Tyler's parents and 2 youngest sisters come NEXT week- NEXT WEEK! Time is a strange thing. Anyways, here are some tid bits about our week:

Lucy had some fun playing mommy. She stripped down all her dolls and then proceeded to wipe them with baby wipes. After she was done with that she even attempted to put diapers on them. It was pretty adorable:

The weather this week was exceptionally cool. Note the cardigan on Lucy above and the temp of 57 degrees in our van below (picture taken at 10am). And though some people are complaining that after such a long winter they just want to feel hot- I oddly do not agree with them at all. I just want to be outside comfortably and I am finding this weather quite comfortable. It is so nice to not be roasting at 8 months pregnant! 

Thursdays we went to the zoo with some church friends. Just like the last time we did this, it wasn't the most pleasant experience. Mostly we did a lot of waiting on people who were late to show up and that made Benny whiny, I think it gave him more time to think up "how hard" it is to be Benny. But we survived with no huge melt downs. 

Friday we met up with church friends again but this time it was more fun. We met up at Mercer Beach, a beach off of Walled Lake (about 20 minutes away).  They have clearly missed being in water and they spent the whole time trudging the shore and collecting seashells. I am a little confused how seashells exist on a lake beach but I am glad they kept my boys entertained. Lucy, on the other hand, did not love the feel of sand on her feet and spent a majority of her time on the pirate boat playground or sitting on my lap. 

And today the boys and I walked down to Central Park, where they did some playing and then walked around the river a bit. Steven spent most of the time endlessly grilling me about bees (can they sting your face? why do they like flowers? have you ever been stung by one? would it make you cry?...). That child is very good at asking questions.

Another week down

After our fun trip in Tennessee, it was hard getting back into the swing of things this week. I missed having Tyler around all day to help me with the kids. It is harder for me to get up the umph to take the kids out to do things when I am by myself these days BUT if I don't, these long summer days really seem to drag. So onto these summer days...

Tuesday I went to the Doctors and was given a scare. He told me my stomach was measuring smaller than the last time I was there. It was possible I was leaking fluids so I was told to get an ultrasound ASAP. Of course the soonest appointment they had was the next day so I had to spend a night worrying about my little Penny.

Thankfully, the next day everything checked out. Her heartbeat, blood flow, fluid and growth were all on target and though her face looks mushed like clay it was still so cute to watch her smile in my tummy: 

Recently I was on the hunt for a newborn photographer for Penny and after much internet searching and pricing out, I found someone who was not only decently priced but they also took great looking pictures. And to top it off they had a package deal that includes a maternity, hospital and newborn photo shoot for what a lot of places would charge just to do newborn pics. So that meant that on Wednesday I had my first ever maternity photo shoot. After some clothes hunting in Tennessee with Pattie, this is the outfit I ended up with for pictures, a $15 Walmart dress & $3 scarf:

It was fun getting pictures, but I will say I was shocked with how young the photographer seemed-- I'm thinking 20? She made me feel so old! But she did some cute shots and hopefully my kids behaved for long enough that some of the pictures will actually turn out. They were so uncooperative! It hurts more when they're naughty and you actually have to pay for the pictures. Makes me miss having Tara as our photographer! Our new photographer did post one preview picture online in which we are all blurred. Hopefully that isn't because she couldn't find any cute shots of us non blurry... 

On Thursday, Tyler went to help out at Girl's Camp. I knew the day was going to seem even longer with him not coming home so we got ourselves out of the house a lot. In the morning we went to a park and in the afternoon we took a long walk. The kids love walking down to this fake little waterfall: 

After a walk we grabbed some treats at the bakery and then headed back home. Thankfully the night went well despite Tyler being away. Lucy was obviously in a fun mood that night:

Summer here apparently has been mild, probably to make up for the awful winter we had. We have had hot humid days mixed with beautiful cool days. I'll take it for as long as we can! 

31...Is Not That Exciting

Tyler turned 31 on Monday and unfortunately it was a pretty lame-o day for him. I have just not had the energy to do much of anything lately (besides grow a baby of course) so I did not plan an exciting birthday bash for him. I suppose we don't really have anyone to invite anyways so that's make it ok right? 

I did, however, put forth a teensy bit of effort and arrange for a babysitter that night. For dinner, he chose the Cheesecake Factory. Thankfully since it was a Monday night, we had literally no wait (compare that to the 2 hour wait we had when we went last). And then since he had given me literally no direction on what to buy him, we went birthday present shopping at some sport stores where he picked out some camping gear. He is determined to do some Michigan camping sometime in the near future with the boys. We ended our date night with a stop at Dairy Queen where I got asked for the first time this pregnancy if this was going to be our first kid. Do we really look that young?

The next day we celebrated with the kids and some pie: 

Happy 31st Tyler!

The 5th of July

Our 4th of July was spent driving back from Tennessee and by the time we got home we were just too pooped to stay up for fireworks or do anything fun (especially since fireworks don't start until 10pm here). So we celebrated the 5th of July instead (after all that is my dad's birthday so still a very important date). We picked up a pack of fireworks and sparklers and had our own little fun at 8pm that night. Yes, it is still pretty bright out at 8pm but that was as late as I was going to let the kids stay up. And yes, we are all extremely dressed up-- in our PJs :)

Lucy did not like the "fireworks" at all...

Until her daddy picked her up and made everything all better...

Another Hike & Bowling

On our final day in Tennessee we decided to take another hike in the Smokey Mountains. We did not make it more than 300 feet before we stopped at the river so the kids could throw things in it and that was pretty much our hike. It was so perfectly relaxing to just sit back and watch the kids be kids. A super fun (and beautiful) little hike:

After our hike, Tyler went to Climb Works (where Brian the big "GM" works) and went zip lining. Since Pattie and I are both pregnant and the zip line lasts for about 2 hours, we took the kids back home for naps.That means no pictures of all that excitement. Although, apparently it was a little awkward. Tyler got placed in a group of 8, in which they were all family, and so he was the odd man out. Apparently, the mom treated him a bit like a child too and would tell him how proud she was of how brave he was being, too funny!

That afternoon we went out to dinner and then took everyone bowling. Needless to say it was a little crazy with our total of 5 kids but I think they all had fun. Steven would light up every time he hit pins and run around expecting to get high fives from everyone. Benny asked me at one point, "Are you proud of all the points I've gotten?" And it was super cute to watch how excited Brice got when it was his turn to hold the bowling ball (Lucy couldn't care less). The best part was we pretty much had the place to ourselves so when the kids did get crazy, there was really no one to bug. In the end Tyler & Brian rocked it, Steven came in next, and then came me, Pattie, Ben & the little ones. Pregnant bellies really don't help with bowling scores, let me tell you ;)

The next day we headed back to Michigan. Once again the trip was pretty much smooth sailing. It may be tiring to leave around 4:30 in the morning but that really seems to help the trip go better. I am so surprised at how quickly it went and how little melt downs there were. At one point we did almost get stuck in CrAzY stand still traffic but after sitting in it for about 15 minutes Tyler saw an alternate route and a way to get to it and we were on our way again. In the end, it was such a perfect trip! SO few melt downs from the kids and lots and lots of fun! I am so grateful to Pattie and Brian for all they did to help us have such a good time! 

Parrot Mountain

Wednesday was by far one of our favorite days! We all went to Parrot Mountain and had the neatest experience ever with one of our favorite creatures- birds!!!

In the beginning I was a little wary of getting close to them. After all these ones that were all over the park had signs that warned that they might bite:

But then we got to the part of the park that was specifically for holding and feeding birds and I warmed up to them. The one I am holding below, we were told is a baby bird, and he was super friendly. He literally hopped right onto Tyler several times as you'll see in the pictures below: 

Lucy afraid of the birds at first:

But with some time she got more comfortable around them and even helped feed them:

Benny never got comfortable enough to feed or hold the birds at this part but with some time, Steven warmed up to them:

The next stop in the park was an exhibit full of Rainbow Lorikeet's. We were each given a cup of what I think was nectar and then we got to feed the birds. It was super fun! At first Steven didn't want them on him again but by the end he had them perching on his hands:

The last part of the park was the nursery. The nursery was full of baby birds that you were allowed to hold (at your own risk). You weren't, however, allowed to take pictures of them. So we didn't get any pictures which is unfortunate because Ben at last got brave and decided to hold some birds. And he also decided that he loved holding them and wanted to stay in the nursery FOREVER. It was so fun loving on all the baby birds!

And though Lucy never got brave enough to hold a bird, she had fun watching everyone else do it. So I think we can call that a fabulous day!