Beach Day

My friend's Denise & Max and Marcy & Drake invited Ethan and I to go to the beach with them a couple weeks ago. I hadn't taken Ethan to the beach yet and was excited to see what he would do. I knew it was going to be a lot of work and was a little nervous about tackling this by myself, but I was off without any hesitation....they wanted to go to Oval beach in Saugatuck, so it was a bit of hike for us, but we made it in about 30mins. Unfortunately, the weather didn't quite cooperate for us, but we made the best of it. At first Ethan just picked the sand up and poored it out, picked up and poored out - on me, the blanket, the cooler, then finally his toys! After a while Max decided to come play and he was really cute. Everything Ethan would do, he would do, we got some water in the bucket for him and they were pooring sand in it, well after a few mins Ethan didn't want Max to "help" him and got a little upset, but we got through it! I sat him near the shore for a while and let the waves crash on his legs and he just squealed in delight every time a wave would hit him. It was awesome! I left my camera in the car initially (rookie!) and didn't get any pictures of it - this time, I'm sure we'll catch it one of these times! Once we decided to go, I was completely unprepared. He was wet and full of sand, and I had a dry diaper, but no change of clothes. I don't know what I was thinking! The water was pretty cold and I didn't want to go in to rince him off so, thankfully my friends watched him while I halled everything to the car then came back with a towel and a diaper. My next challenge was to get him up the stairs and the bathrooms where I could use the shower to get the sand off....yeah, that went over like a lead balloon! Ethan flipped out and I ended up just doing the best I could getting the sand off with the towel, throwing his diaper on and wrapping him in another towel to ride home in! I, of course, was covered in sand as well at this point. I tried to pull myself together once I got him strapped in the car - my friends, who know what they're doing, were long gone by now, which was probably a good thing, b/c it would have just been a good laugh I'm sure!!! Anyway, I'm way better prepared for the beach now! I've even done it a couple times since....I look like a pro now too!

Here's when Ethan's attitude changed....can you tell??

Family Fun

As usual, I'm a little behind in my blog posts, but I'm trying to catch up tonight!

This July, as nearly every July, my Aunt Ruth (Mom's baby sister), Uncle Don, and usually their 4 kids (Samantha, Isaac, Hannah, and Zofia) make the trip from MN to MI for a week of family fun in the sun! This always involves "Aunt Sue's Pool" several times. This year, Samantha was out of state working for the summer, but the rest of the crew came. We got together for a BBQ and here's "Chef D" grilling for everyone (with my Uncle Don in the background)!
Family photo in the pool!

Here's Ethan having a blast with Grandma Sue!

Here's my super cute Grandma "Oma" and Grandpa "Papa"

Here's Zofie with all 3 of mom's dogs...you can hardly see Tika, she's a teacup, the blond one is Chico and the black one is Quincy. Last year they wouldn't come near her so she was excited to have them all on her lap!

This only lasted about 5mins, then he was ready to get out. It was fun while it lasted!

Ludington

The entire Eade clan headed to Ludington for the Gander Mountain Offshore Classic fishing tournament. Once again we proved that Team Pier Addiction is a force to be reckoned with! The "Lovely Lady Linerunners" (as Brian calls us!), fished the lady's tournament on Friday and had an absolutely perfect day (even though we were short a team member; you were missed Heidi)! Ethan brought us lots of good luck! He was such a trooper, we got him up just before 6am and we pulled lines around noon! We had to catch 3 Salmon and 2 trout in order to get all of the points possible, then it was up to the weight of the our catch to see where we placed. We had our limit by 9:30am!!! We were so excited b/c so many times you can catch a ton of salmon, but not the trout. We had 3 pretty nice king salmon's, a Lake trout and 2 steal heads, so we decided to keep fishing to try to get some even bigger salmon since were were allowed to sort our catch, but we could only weigh in 5 fish total! Our last fish was our biggest salmon and we were satisfied with our catch so we came in early. We ended up finishing in 6th place out of 60 boats!!!! We were so proud of ourselves! Last year we finished 9th, which was still in the $ and very respectable, so we were very proud to have improved at all this year!

The guys also had a great weekend. Saturday was a tough start especially after how well we did on Friday. The steel head weren't where they were on Friday and the guys were 31st at the end of the day on Sat. Sunday they had a complete comeback and ended up 13th over all!! What a huge improvement! They even won $ for being one of the most improved boats from Sat to Sunday! Our total winnings for the weekend was $1100! Way to go Team Pier Addiction!

Mom and Dad Eade rented a BEAUTIFUL condo for "the crew" for the weekend that was walking distance from the marina! It was soooooo nice! On Sat, Bonnie, Sara and I were just hanging out in the morning trying to plan our day when Ethan looked like he was about to let go of his toy and walk to the window! He didn't, but that prompted mom (Grandma Bonnie) and I to see if he's take a few steps between us (Derek and I have tried this a few times, but he wouldn't take any steps w/o holding on to one of us). He did take just a couple steps b/t us, but then would get to excited (probably b/c we were so excited!) Then when we left him alone, he just did it!!! I was so bummed that I didn't have my video camera with me, but then remember that my pocket camera has video, so I hoped you enjoyed seeing Ethan's 1st steps!!!!!

I've Been Tagged

I was reading my friend Denise's blog after she was tagged and thought it was fun to read so here goes.

The rule is you have to answer each question with only one word, then you're supposed to tag 4 other people (but I'm doing that part b/c I don't know that many other bloggers!)

Where is your cell phone? Counter
Your significant other? Integrity
Your hair? Long
Your mother? Strong
Your father? Patient
Your favorite thing? Motherhood (sorry Denise...it's true!)
Your dream last night? Questionable
Your favorite drink? Jager
Your dream/goal? Comfortable
The room your in? Basement
Your hobby? Scrapbooking
Your fear? Death
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Moved (But still in Holland somewhere!)
What you're not? Pregnant
Muffins? Blah
One of your wish list items? SUV
Where you grew up? Holland
The last thing you did? Ate
What are you wearing? Comfies
Favorite gadget? Cannon
Your pets? Needy
Your computer? SLOW
Your mood? Happy
Missing someone? Yes
Your car? Small
Something you're not wearing? Makeup
Favorite store? Target
Like someone? Lots
Favorite color? Green
Last time you laughed? Today
Last time you cried? Period

4th of July

What an AWESOME weekend we had!! I can't remember the last time we had such a fun weekend - where the weather actually cooperated every day too! On the 4th, Daddy went fishing (shocker!) and Mommy and Ethan hung out in the morning. We went roller-blading, then took the dogs for a walk (that's my new exercise routine) and of course played in between snacks and lunch! Then Ethan went to Grandma Bonnie and Papa Denny's for the rest of the day and to spend the night. Derek and I were invited to go fishing on a friend's boat and then watch the fireworks. Their boat actually had a little engine trouble, so we didn't fish, but we had a great time anyway! We anchored the boat and a few other friend's rafted off of us and we all hung out until the fireworks! Here's some pictures of Ethan in his Patriotic attire! The Shirt under the bibs actually has a bunch of stars on it too!

So Silly! This is Ethan's favorite toy right now! He almost won't play with anything else!

Ethan with his prised possessions: the spinner and his puppy!


On Sat, Derek and I did some shopping in the morning, then he took me for a ride in his parent's Dinghy! It's was so relaxing, soaking up the sun cruising around the marina and Lake Mac, just my hubby and me. I loved it! Grandma Bonnie called when Ethan woke from his nap and we couldn't wait to go get him. It's amazing how much we miss him after just one day! On Sunday, we took Ethan for his first boat ride this year! Grandpa Denny has a 37' Sea Ray (which Derek fishes all of his tournaments on). Ethan was only about 4 months old last year, so we wanted to see how he would do. He loved it! Loved looking at the water, although I'm sure he really wanted to go in....he's such a little fish! He was even able to play with his spinner while we were cruising along!! He must have inherited those "sea legs" from Daddy, I sure don't have them!

Here he is on his tippy toes looking out at the water when we first got on the boat.

This is fun Mom! When do I go in!!

Ethan up front with Grandma Bonnie and Papa Denny

Taking a snack break

I think he likes it!

Playing with Daddy

Ethan playing with his spinner as we were cruising pretty fast!

Signing

I've been teaching Ethan to sign for several months now and it's so neat to see him really understand what he's saying. I think the 1st thing I taught him was the sign for milk. I'd show him his bottle and then show him the sign and after a while he'd repeat the sign, but I never really knew he got it until one morning after he got up he started doing the sign for milk and when he saw his bottle he'd get really excited. One day, he saw me pumping and then did the milk sign to me, I about fell off my chair laughing, but he was absolutely right!! (Obviously, that was a several months ago). Anyway, he now knows the sign for "more" and "drink" and "eat" and I think it's so cute! Today, I was blowing bubbles for him and was about to put them away when he started doing the "more" sign so I'd blow a few more and the second I would slow down he'd do the sign again! Verbally, he's not saying much more then "Momma and Dadda", although I think he's trying to say Daisi now. He'll point or wave to her and it sounds like Dye, Dye or sometimes Dizzy. And we're not sure, but we think Grandma Bonnie maybe "Nanna" hard to tell, but we'll keep ya posted!

Busted!

Ethan LOVES to empty drawers and cupboards now! Here he is emptying "his" tupperware drawer!