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This post is way overdue, but better late than never.
Towards the end of June, Ben, Will and I joined my family on a vacation to Hot Springs Village, AK. We stayed in a beautiful lake house in the gated community of Hot Springs Village. It was wonderful as within the community there were multiple golf courses, pools, lakes, tennis courts, etc. You name it, it was there...
On Sunday, we decided to head to downtown Hot Springs so we could actually see the Hot Springs. While downtown, we took a duck tour on both land and water, and did the touristy things like mini golf, go karts, and visited the wax museum. We also took in a little history of the city at the tourists center and felt the actual Hot Springs water. Of course, the idea of the hot springs was neat, but being that it was in the upper 90s there anyway, just a dip of the finger in the water sufficed for us. That afternoon, Ben, Will, and I rode the elevator to the top of the observation tower which overlooked what seemed like all of Arkansas. Will enjoyed running around the circle at the top and giving Ben and I both near heart attacks.
During our stay, we also took a side trip to Magic and Crystal Springs Amusement/Waterpark. The crowds were minimal, and the rides were so much fun, which made for an amazing day. Will enjoyed the kiddie rides, but his favorite was sliding down the kid water slides into the pool below. He was so cute. Thank goodness he enjoys amusement and water parks as much as his parents do :)
Another day was spent on Lake Balboa, which was one of the lakes located within the village. We rented a pontoon boat and spent the afternoon tubing, swimming, and just cruising around the water. The lake was crystal clear and the temperature was absolutely perfect. Will much preferred riding the boat to the tubing, so he spent most of his time in Nonna's lap.
Towards the end of the week we visited a Science museum that was very cool and the kids had a wonderful time.
In between all of our fun activities, we spent a lot of time swimming in the lake at the house, and fishing. The men played quite a few rounds of golf, and most importantly, we just played it low key and relaxed.
A fun vacation was had by all :)
Enjoying the view from the tower... after feeling like vomiting while riding the glass elevator all the way up.
History buff.
Nothing's more exciting than a Duck Tour. I mean what beats a truck/boat that has a max speed of 20mph on land and 2 mph in the water? Hold on to your hats!
The cousins by one of the hot springs. Yes, the springs are very hot!
Bonding in an old dirty bath house!
The water felt great, despite his face.
Swimming in the lake. We were the only ones doing this. Seeing and feeling our "lake itch" at the end of our visit, we now know why.
After striking out during our last fishing trip, Ben was the big winner this time!
High speeds on the water and a nine year old Eli behind the wheel.
Great time, but it was a bit cramped. Our driver did a fantastic job!
Will's favorite spot on the boat.
Poppa and Ezra "The Dare-devil" Hoover.
The big lake was much nicer than the small one.
Bebe fixing her hair on the tube. Let's just say we weren't flying around the lake.
We love school! (When Mommy is teaching it)
One of the many perks of being a stay at home mom is that I get to play a major role in Will's early education. In the beginning, when trying to teach Will new letters, numbers, sounds, or what have you, I found it very difficult as he naturally would not be able to focus for any amount of time, as was expected of a very active toddler. As a result, I decided to start playing school with him and his little stuffed friends, which has proved to be very effective.Each morning, Will and I go into his room and pull out his various classmates that he enjoys learning with. Spongebob is always the first chosen, followed by Barney, Orange Man, and Curious George. We line them all up against his bed and Will sits in line with them, always covering himself up with a blanket. We then begin our so called lessons, identifying and sorting shapes and colors, reviewing picture cards, and reviewing letter sounds and completing our alphabet puzzle and counting items. As we go through our routine, I always ask "the class" the questions and Will answers for them. He then takes whatever is in my hands and passes them out to his friends accordingly. Once school is over, which basically happens when Will decides it is over, he typically throws his friends back in their basket and they don't come out until the next school session. Hopefully he will find school just as exciting when he actually starts going with real classmates:)
Working on the letter "A"
It must be nice to go to school in Toy Story pajamas!
Last Halloween I bought Will a pumpkin mask from the dollar section in Target. Little did I know it would become one of his favorite things to play with to this day. Depending on when and where he stumbles upon his mask, he puts it on (usually backwards and upside down), then jumps towards me and growls like a monster. As I play along with his cute little game and scream, he quickly pulls off the mask and says sweetly, "It's jus me Mom...Willwum Poose." I'm so in love with this kid...Pics to come...
I've been wanting this for a long time, and I think its now safe to say, Lulu has excepted Will as a member of the family. It's not that she was ever mean or skitish around him, it was more that she was always super jealous. She has now become a lot more tolerant of Will as he has gotten older. I'd say that this is due to two reasons. The first being that she realizes that he's not going away, and the second that Will has gotten a lot sweeter and softer around his big sis. Gone are the days of pulling her hair, ears, and tail (though an occasion poke to the eye still happens, it did tonight), and now are the times of gentle rubbing of her back and belly and whispering in her ear that she's a "Goud gurl." With Will getting older, it also seems now that he feels a responsibility for taking care of her. He jumps at an opportunity to fill her dog bowl and feed her a treat while making her shake or stay. He hates when she is left inside when we are out and makes it a point that we let her out to join in the fun. He even likes to let her in on a little space on the bed in the mornings. He knows that he runs the roost and that its okay once in a while to let her get some attention, because he knows she won't steal his thunder. Hopefully he'll have this type of compassion for his parents when they need taking care of!
This never would have happened before.
Copy cat, or copy dog in this case.
As most of you know, Ben's parents retired at the end of May and moved up to Whitehall, Michigan to be closer to their parents and families, and to spend their golden years at their favorite place in the entire world, the Pierce family cottage in Pentwater.
It still seems so weird that they no longer live here in Lafayette, and I still don't think it has truly set in with us yet that they have really moved as Ben and I still tend to wonder if we are doing dinner with Grammy and A-Paw this week, then quickly realize probably not considering they are 18 hours away...For now it still seems as though they are on their yearly summer vacation, but once Fall comes around, I think reality will finally set in for all of us.
Though it's been hard, we have already seen Grammy and Apaw once this summer for Carrie's wedding (post to come) and will be going up to Michigan at the end of the summer to see them, which we are definitely looking forward to. And we all know that they will take advantage of having children who live in the South once the snow starts to fall.
Just wanted to write this post to say we miss ya'll so much already and hope your retirement is everything you dreamed it would be. Enjoy this time in your life together! We love and miss you!
Will loves his Grammy and A-Paw!
Just a sweet photo of our little boy. What can we say, every little kid has his or her own speaking quirks. Though some can represent developmental issues, others are just hilarious things that our children pick up from their parents. For instance, our niece Elena responds to everything you tell her or ask her with a quick "What?!?" Obviously she picked that little quirk up from a household that is always full of excitement and tends to be hard to hear at times. With the noise comes a lot of people responding to conversations with "What?"Will's speaking quirk is a bit different. Instead of saying "What?", a phrase that is used heavily in the English language, Will tends to lean on the phrase "Ah man." Let me clarify that he does say many many other things, but when confronted with a problem or if he's corrected for doing something, an "Ah man." is always his go to saying.We've been struggling to get Will to identify his colors. He seems to know everything else but them. Either he's stubborn or he just doesn't quite understand the concept yet. Regardless, up until very recently, he get's a lot of them wrong when we ask him which color we're holding. Just the other night I had a blue block in my hand and Will told me it was green. I responded by telling him that the color was actually blue. He then proceeded to take the block out of my hand and said, "Blue block. Ah man." This happened with almost every color. "Yellow block. Ah man." "Red block. Ah man." etc. etc. etc.Thinking back, he must have picked it up from me while we play sports. Whenever he misses the ball or has a poor throw I must say a lot of "Ah man." If that's the worst thing he picks up (fat chance), I think we'll be alright.
Such a goof ball!
Not a very long post, but topic is well worth being noted. Lately Will has been talking up a storm, and one of our favorite things to hear him say are people's names, especially his own. When asked, "What is your name?" He sweetly responds with "Will-wum Poose" and as you can imagine, while saying his last name his little lips pucker out so far.
While I'm on the topic, I will try to do the best I can to show how he says everyone else's names:
- Me: Momma, Mom, or Kitty
- Ben: Dada, Daddy, Baen (with a twang of course)
- Nonna: Nonna (pretty easy to say)
- Poppa: Poppa Don or Poppa Smooch...It's funny to me that the man who gives everyone their famous nicknames now has his own.
- Missy: Beebee or Mitty
- Corey: Awncle Cahwey
- Stacey: Tatey
- Philip: Awncle Phi-wip
- Eli: E-yi
- Ezra: E-yee
- Elena: Lena
- Grammy: Ammy
- Grandpa: Ampa
- Carrie: Tear-ee
- Ryan: Wyan
- Lulu: Ulu
