Happy Campers!

The campsite

Happy campers

Joel set up the tent in the backyard.  It took a few days, but he finally got a day off, so he and Kyper camped in our backyard.  We even had a campfire.  Kyper was so excited!  He actually went to bed super well in the tent--maybe we should set it up in his room and it will solve all our bedtime drama?  ha.

Recent Happenings

Joel has been rotating through the Neuro ICU.  Most months when Joel has short call during the week, which means that wen he is on-call on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, he is only at work until 9:00pm and then can come home.  If he is on-call Friday or Saturday, he is on-call overnight.  That is super nice, because it means I will get to see him every week day even on call days.  The reason they do this, is due to how they organize nights.  Joel will have to do four weeks (2-2 week blocks) on night-shift this coming year.  All that to say, Neuro ICU is a little different--he is on-call overnight every 4 to 5 days.  I have to day, I don't like not having him home to help with bedtime, but it is pretty nice to have him around early afternoon.  He is normally able to sleep at the hospital for a few hours when he is on-call, so he only sleeps a few hours in the morning/early afternoon.  Since, this means he has been around some weekday afternoons we have had the opportunity to do some fun things with the kids.

First up, the zoo.  This trip we took Kyper' best friend, Frank, along.  The kids had a lot of fun.

Frank and Kyper popping up in the Prairie Dog exhibit.

Kyper talking to a prairie dog

Posing with the turtle statue after seeing all the reptiles.

Watching the gorillas

The polar bear swam while we were there!

Second up, the village.  There isn't to much to say about the Village.  We rode the train and the carousal.  We also watched the glass blowers make a glass bowl.

Anja and I

Kyper and Daddy

 Another fun thing we did was go to Eastern Market.  We did this on a Saturday when Joel had off and my parents came out to visit for the weekend.  We have lived in Detroit for a total of 6 years and just did this.  I think we will go back; it was fun.

Kyper and the big pumpkin

Kyper and Grandpa Herk

Clean House and Cuteness

I had a huge work project at the end of August, so I was at the project site for 5 days straight for about 11-12 hours the majority of those days.  And, well Joel is a 2nd year neuro resident, so he has crazy hours too.  Needless to say, our house was a disaster.  I was home this past week, so I motivated myself (and Joel helped when he was home) to clean!  Our entire house from basement up is now clean.  I know it won't stay that way with two little ones in the house, but man it feels so good.  Kyper helped us clean too--he helped spray the windex on the windows, he loves to help put the "bubbles" in the dishwasher and washing machine, and he loves to wash the table.

As we were cleaning our upstairs, I realized I had never posted pictures to show my readers our office space and bedroom.  (I know--only over a year late.)  So, here you go:

Office Area--we love the built in shelving. The door leads to some attic space (we have a little attic on each side of the room).

Bedroom--the verse above our bed is "He will quiet you with his love" Zeph. 3:17

Dresser

Closet

To end, I just needed to post this...isn't she the cutest?!

Playing

Labor Day Swim

We found something cool at the lake today.  Listen to the narrative as we let "Snapper" go.

PS: Aren and JP, "I caught a turtle once."

Young

So a few weeks ago, I had a free weekend, and it happened to be the last weekend of the annual 2 week trip to Young State Park in Boyne City.  My family has been camping there for close to 25 years; this is the first year our small Phillips family of 4 could make it.  The last time Julie and I spent the night up there was 2007, and there were no kids.  It was our last vacation before plunging into medical school.  We had circumnavigated Lake Michigan, and this was our southern leg heading back towards Iowa.

 This time around, we had 2 kids.  I have been wanting to introduce Kyper to this tradition since he was born, but we could never get away.  Now, both kids have experienced Young and both are great campers (I think its genetic).

We left after work Friday afternoon, and drove through traffic, then through rain all the way up.  It took us 6 hours to get there, but that was because of when we left.  Its always a bad idea to leave Detroit on a Friday night to go up north; everybody else is doing the same thing.  We had sent a tent up with my parents, so when we got there, they had it already set up.  I can't imagine trying to set up a tent in the dark at 11PM with 2 small, tired children.  That pre-planning really helped.  

My parents recently bought the Camping Van--a full size sprinter van converted into a camper, complete with all the amenities--after finally getting rid of our 30 year old pop-up camper.  This became our base for the weekend.  It is so nice to have a potty right on the site, when you have a three year old.  All four of us slept comfortably in the tent with no major issues.  The first morning, Anja woke Kyper up at 5, so I took them both down to the water and we were swimming by 6AM. What a true Phillips, you can never start the beach day too soon!

David and Cara were camping with their parents that weekend as well.  Cara is a great friend from my church growing up, and her family had been doing Young for several years as well.  They had their three kids up; Kyper enjoyed playing in the sand with Zeke and Lex.  Caedence is only 9 months old, and was pulling herself up on everything.  Maybe she will be good friends with Anja some day.

David and Cara, among other things, have gotten into photography.  They typically do senior pictures and weddings.  When I heard they were coming up for the weekend, I asked for a short session on the beach, so we could finally get some professional pictures of Anja, and Kyper had not had any recent photo session either.  They were happy to oblige.  Julie insisted on family pictures as well; they turned out amazing.  We got some pictures with blue water in the background, others in the dunes among the beach cherry, and some great ones in the cedars.  You should check their website out at awakenedimages.blogspot.com.  Julie may post some of our session later on.

I got a great sail in with my mom on Saturday afternoon.  The wind was nice and steady, and the waves were just perfect, a few becoming white caps.  Mom enjoyed getting out on the water, since Dad had the boat most of the week, taking as many people out on the water as he could.  Julie and I had some good Kayak rides, with of course diving off the kayak into the crystal blue waters of the north.  

There was a great sunset, and Kyper got to get ice cream from the general store--that was the highlight of his day.  He got "plain chocolate".  The campfire was great, but nothing like we remembered from growing up.  In years past, there had been enough people camping together that there would be an adult fire and a kids fire...typically 20 adults and 30 kids.  The adults traditionally tended to be the louder group.  Probably because us Phillips boys kept the kids fire busy with our pyrotechnic displays (burning milk jugs, nondairy creamer, heating up rocks to boil water...).  So the fire this year was quite subdued.  There were only 7 others...my mom and our friends' parents from church.  It didn't matter anyway; we were in bed by 10:30--completely exhausted from playing with the kids all day.

Going to bed early meant we missed another great Young tradition.  That is, watching the meteor shower on the beach.  This tradition usually involves being real quiet, so the rangers don't find you and kick you off.  Julie got to see some pretty neat stars when she woke up in the middle of the night, though.  Our sleep was definitely more important at that point.  Maybe next year.

On Sunday, Dad and I had a great sail.  Good, steady wind, and whitecaps.  It was wilder than the sail on Saturday with Mom.  Unfortunately, this was the sail to the the boat launch, traditionally, the saddest sail of the year, as we have to say good-bye to Lake Charlevoix.  We were sailing great, on an awesome tack over towards the launch.  The color of the water changed as we sailed over to the shallow side of the drop off.  I warned Dad to watch the centerboard.  It was a good thing we were watching that.  It popped up and we were in 6 inches of water!  We ran out of lake before we were done sailing.  We ended up having to walk it in from the launch.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

We got the kids packed, and drove home.  It took a lot less time to get there, as people stagger their times to get back from up north on Sundays.  Anyway, here are a few of the pictures from the short weekend.  Maybe next year we will take a whole week.

 

Denver Adventure

We are such jet-setters.  At least it seems this way with the summer we have been having.  While Julie was off having vacation in Seattle with her mom and Anja, Kyper got to stay with Grandpa and Grandma Phillips for the week.  This is because I was in Denver for my roommate's wedding (Dustin).  It was a quick trip.  I flew out on Friday night and was back in town already Sunday evening.

My friends Tim and Melanie were invited to the wedding as well, so this became the beginning of their 2 week road trip out west.  Timing worked out perfectly that they picked me up from the airport as they drove through Denver to the hotel in Lakewood.

Tim and Melanie had a Jacuzzi room

We got to the hotel and met Chris, Jon, and Canaan--all friends from college.  Chris, Jon, and I shared a hotel room to split the cost; it was just like collage again, having roommates and all.  Later that night, we headed over to Dustin's house to meet the rest of the guys who were going to be in the wedding.

The next morning, the guys (plus Canaan and Melanie) took Dustin out to breakfast.  Melanie commented, "Wow, the groom's morning before the wedding is a LOT less stressful than the bride's!"  Seriously, I think anyone would take bacon over a makeover when given the choice.

The wedding itself went smooth, especially since 2 of us groomsmen were unable to make the rehearsal and one of those didn't realize he was in the wedding until the night before.  Jon just thought Dustin had funny dress code.

The wedding was outside, at an inn in the mountains.  The bridal party had to cross over a bridge to get to the ceremony, while the congregation watched from the near side.  Pictures turned out great after the ceremony.

Canaan

Chris (he also left his family at home)

Tim and Melanie

College Friends!

Afterwards there was a great reception with good food, it a quiet mountainside atmosphere.  Some of us got wet in the creek, and everybody had a fun time.  Too bad Julie couldn't make it.

Somehow, after the party, Dustin and Megan's apartment got filled with balloons and ribbon, not quite sure how that happened.

In the morning, Rick and Monique (our friends from IA, who recently moved to CO) picked me up from the hotel and we had a good morning catching up over a hot breakfast. They are studying to become marriage and family therapists.  They make a great team! Then, it was off to the airport and home.

Julie finally came home from Seattle on Tuesday and we were one big happy family again.

Kyper still says he missed us.

Me, crafty? Why yes!

One of my best friends came and visited last week.  It was so much fun!  The night before I had done a little shopping since we were going to get the kids' pictures taken.  I only went to Target and they really didn't have a lot of options, but I did find a nice shirt for both Kyper and Anja.   Kyper's outfit was complete, but Anja's was missing something.  An accessory!  My friend who came to visit is one of my go to people in regards to fashion, so I thought that she may be able to help.

I showed her the outfits I had and told her I wanted a little hair accessory, but I didn't have one.  I had thought that we may go shopping for something or with her creative side that she may have another idea.  After a couple hours, an idea struck her!  Why don't you sew buttons on to some of your headbands you have.  I had a few headbands for myself, which I hardly ever use.  So, we dug out my sewing kit and found some buttons.  As she prepped a salad for her next activity, I went to work and started sewing.  Here are some pictures of my craft and my super cute model!

Thanks for the great ideas Steph!  Anja looked super cute in her picture outfit and headband.  And, I felt like a pretty cool momma that made a fun girly accessory for her little girl!