Last Month of Summer Fun!!

Well, August was another fun filled month for the King Family!! We started off the last week of July to the 1st week of August up in the North woods!! The first stop, Winchester WI where my Mom and Tom are living. As usual the weather was cool there so unfortunately we weren't able to advantage of the lake as much as we would have liked to. We did get a fast ride, 60mph in Grandpa Tom's new bass fishing boat!! We also celebrated Grace's bday with the Ghiloni family which was a first and a wonderful time. I was so happy Grace got the chance to celebrate with my extended family!!
That Sunday, Aaron headed back home and myself and the kids stayed through the week. On Sunday night my Step Brother Mark and his family arrived. Owen and Grace adored my older nephews Matt and Phil. They were so good with both of them and I think the kids may have wore them out! On Tues. Mark took us all on a canoeing expedition on the Manotowish River that ended up to be quite the adventure. What was supposed to be a 4 hr. tour ended up to be a 7 hr. tour by missing our turn on another river. We didn't set foot on dry land until almost 8:30pm when Tom came to rescue us at a boat landing on the Turtle Flambeau flowage!!! It was a really fun trip despite the numerous nightmares running through my head at about the 5-6hr. mark! Grace rode in the canoe with Matt and Phil. This provided us with at least 3-4hrs of entertainment with the boys portaging the canoe over a big tree and tipping the canoe with Grace hanging in for dear life, quite funny I have to say!!! This will sure to be a story that will be told for many years to come. Poor Mark isn't going to hear the end of it!!
Wednesday we attended Loon Days in Mercer and had a good time checking out all the unique crafts and enjoying some great treats!! The kids got to swim at the little beach by the house in the afternoon that has been there for decades. It was SO cold but the still enjoyed splashing around. It reminded me a lot of my days at the cottage as a kid. It is so wonderful to be able to bring my kids there to experience the same joy!
The week went by fast and before we knew it Thurs was upon us and Dad was coming to pick us up to head to the U.P. of MI. We couldn't leave though without a little more fun added in by Mark. Late that afternoon we set out for a quick fishing expedition onto N. Turtle lake. Mark had rigged up cane fishing poles for Grace and Owen to teach them a thing or two about how to catch a fish. Well, they didn't need much help. The minute the bobber hit the water they were pulling in fish faster than we could get them off the hooks. Turned out to be one of the best fishing expeditions I have ever been on! The kids loved it and Owen was SO excited and amazed by the whole thing!! What a wonderful experience!!
The next weekend was spent at my Dad and Holly's cottage on Little Lake in the U.P. We go here every year with Nate and Nicole for the guys and kids to ride the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike race. Friday we took a drive over to Marquette to play at the Children's Museum and had lunch at a neat old soda fountain shop. Sat. was race day. Nicole and I headed in late morning to see the guys cross the finish line. We were starting to worry when it was going on 2 hours since start time and we hadn't seen any of them cross the finish including Nate that is the fastest rider and wanted to finish in 1:30. Aaron was the first to cross at about 2:20. We all raced over to find out where Nate was. Come to find out he endured 2 flat tires!! Aaron had a good race finishing just a little faster than last year. Later that day they did the kids races. Grace rode in the 4 mile race where she once again beat her older friend Grace Suiter by a couple of seconds! Owen did the Littlest rock 50 yd. dash on his new Strider bike which was a huge hit with the crowd and he had a blast!!
Sunday we got to stay and finally enjoy a late afternoon on the water with a little swimming. Later that evening we had a fun spaghetti dinner with some of my Dad and Holly's friends!
So.... the rest of the month..... we tried to sneak in some home time and fun time. We actually had a couple of weekends home with odd trips here and there. After our jaunt up north we dropped Grace in Rapids for a little horsing around with my Aunt Linda, Cousin Kay and Abby. They own 3 Ponies of America horses that they show around the country each summer. Grace was invited to come and experience the fun this summer. She spent the week with my teenage cousin taking horse back riding lessons and playing around. On the weekend they attended a show where Grace competed in a variety of events. She ended up coming home with 4 1st place trophies, 2 2nd place ribbons and 1 4th place ribbon!! She was SO excited and didn't want to come home, surprise:) So, I guess now a trophy case is in order, ha!!
The Sunday after the horse show I came to town to pick Grace up and attend a bridal shower for my longtime school friend Carol Koch. It was a great time seeing her and a few other good friends from high school!
The next weekend we enjoyed our Sunday at Noah's Ark with passes Aaron got in a silent auction package he won. We did a kid swap with my friend Kim and took her daughter Becca who is also Grace's friend and dropped Owen with her. We had a great day of water park fun and rode the Jet Boat which was a blast!!! Great way to wrap up the summer!! School starts next week, YAY!!!

Owen Antics

I just wanted to write with some of the silly and creative things that Owen has been doing and saying over the last couple of days!
Today Owen was going around the house saying "bucket". Soon I found him in my bedroom taking my dirty laundry out of a clothes basket and saying "lay in bucket with Thomas". In other words he wanted to lay in the laundry basket with his Thomas pillow!

Earlier in the week on a night I had to work Dad told Owen as I was leaving that they were going to have dinner then go outside to fix the lawn tractor. Aaron said after dinner Owen went right over to his toy tools, put them in the tool box and said "Owen fix tractor"!!

This last week we have been traveling quite a bit. Everytime we go by water Owen says "Owen swimmin now"!

Owen is starting to really put sentences together in the last couple weeks and it is so fun to hear him trying so hard to find the right words!!

Erica's wedding and weekend in Milwaukee

American Girl Place

On June 28th Grandma Marilee took Grace, Taryn, Amy and I to downtown Chicago for a trip to American Girl Place. As a present for Grace and Taryn's birthday we were treated to an afternoon of shopping with a personal shopper and lunch at the cafe'. Both Taryn and Grace also got to pick out a new doll. We started off first with help from the personal shopper choosing a doll for Taryn and Grace. Taryn chose Gwen a friend of the Girl of the Year Charissa. Grace chose Julia one of the historical dolls from the 1970's, despite Mom's coaxing to have her get Charissa. Gma Marilee even tried to help with saying that Taryn's doll was Charissa's friend in the book and they could have dolls that were best friends. But, despite the opposition Grace had her mind made up on Julie. All in all as long as she is happy that's all that matters!!
After we chose our dolls Grace picked out the skating outfit she had wanted along with a yoga outfit, doll carrier and some hair accessories. Next up we dropped Nicki, Grace's other doll off at the beauty shop to have her ears pierced. The ladies said Nicki was very brave and she came complete with a collection of tiny silver earrings!! After our hour and a half of shopping we headed to the cafe for lunch. It was so cute with amazing decor just perfect for an afternoon luncheon for both dolls and girls!! We had a 3 course lunch complete with appetizers, choice of entree and dessert!! Marilee told them we were celebrating Grace and Taryn's birthdays so the each got a candle in their cupcakes and sung Happy Birthday.
After our lunch we met up with the guys who had been down the road at Lego Land. The little guys and I think big guys all had a blast! Owen got a mailman set that came with a motorcycle from Dad and a digger set from Gpa.
It sure was a nice treat and a very special day had by all! Thanks Gma and Gpa!! Thanks for making more great memories for us to cherish!