Nina Tells A Story
November 14th, Nina told the following story through facial expressions and body language.
*I’ma tell you a story, k daddy?* See this image larger.
*Once upon a time there was a guy joggin’.* See this image larger.
*And this other dude was drivin…* See this image larger.
*And the car dude ran over the jogger guy’s foot and the driver said “Ooooohh!”* See this image larger.
*Hey, you ok jogger guy?…*See this image larger.
*…I hope your insurance covers that!* See this image larger.
*(pause)*See this image larger.
*An’ then they ate POPSICLES!!!* See this image larger.
Bathtime!!! 
Awesome!!! 
My favorite from this set… I like to mix it up a little bit! 
There’s two toofies! 
Have fun with the rest of your bath, Nina! 
Ian built this entirely and proclaimed that it is his camera. Pretty inventive, really. 
And here’s Ian taking “pictures” with one of his favorite books! 
November 13th, I wish I could have taken a shot a little faster — Ian’s expression while watching this series of shorts was priceless. 
In this particular short, Mater from Cars was in a space shuttle, going to the moon… This is a combination of about four favorite things, so he was in seventh heaven! 
Nina tries on Daddy’s new hat! 
My old one blew away after I left it on my car and drove off with it up there… you know… while dealing with getting kids in the back of my little Honda. Peekaboo Nina! 
I personally find it funny that my old video game themed hat said “role model” and my new video game themed hat says “game over.” A fitting change for 40 and 2 kids, no? 
Why yes, yes apparently our phones ARE capable of decent pictures! No photoshop on this, I got three smiles from my beautiful family! This one’s worth looking at bigger by clicking here -> 
Nina tries out her… alright I think I’m going to call this the “Baskin Robins” one piece… at the hotel pool! 
It was heated, and indoor/outdoor! 
Nina had had enough, so it was time to get bundled up! 
The shallowest part of this pool was well over Ian’s head, so it was sink, swim, or get a ride. 
Considering what I typically feel about pools in general, Ian and I had a blast! 
We swam around for what felt like hours… 
I tried to teach him a bit about how to float, and maybe a bit of how to trust. 😉 
Eventually we had enough of the pool and checked out the rest of Boyne Mountain. Turns out there’s not much to do in the off-season during the week… 
Ian discovered some fake snow… and then we decided we’d had enough of a break. It can actually be a little depressing there in the off-season… had a sort of “The Shining” flavor to it. No, I’m not suggesting you watch that movie. Time to head home! 
Inspired by the quiet peace of our trip home, Nina and Ian spontaneously form a band and begin playing tunes! 
Ian’s drumming on the baggage, and Nina’s on lead guitar. 
But then it was showtime! Nina wore her awesome watermelon one-piece. 
We got to the waterpark, time for some family shots! Ladies first! 
And then little man! 
And finally Daddy pulls off an everybody shot! (Not bad for getting all four of us in the picture!) 
The waterpark was huge! I don’t have a good picture of all of it — I do have a video but it doesn’t have any of the kids in it, so forget it. You’ll just have to look at this picture of the central tower. See that mountain at the top? About every 15 minutes there is a warning alarm and then hundreds of gallons of water gets dumped out of the mountain. 
So you can probably imagine how that warning alarm struck fear into the hearts of every waterpark guest. Eventually that sound would no longer frighten Ian, but that happened later. 
Was Nina afraid of the mountain? Not sure. Here she considers crying after having to see Daddy in a bathing suit, however. 
Ian and I took it easy at first on this rapids ride. 
And then we worked our way to the top of the tower… (there I showed Ian that we were safe in the tower during the water dump, and he was much more calm about the whole arrangement.) 
Ian and I went down one of the waterslides together. Suddenly he couldn’t have enough! We went on the slide over and over. Before you ask, YES I let Melissa go on the slide with Ian a few times!!! Eventually we went to a pool area where the water was up to Ian’s armpits. I was surprised when Ian stumbled at one point and went under… mostly I was surprised at how it wasn’t nearly as horrible as my nightmares since he was born. I just reached under and scooped him up. Granted my nightmares usually involve the ocean or something, but whatever, let’s not get into it. We left the park eventually. 
That night at dinner I was confronted with this sign. It said one of two things, but I was sure it was my door, regardless. 
*What say you bust me outta here and we can go back to the waterpark?* 
One of our cute pieces of luggage included this adorable little girl! 
Our room had its own fridge, as Ian pointed out many times, with or without a camera present. 
This is why I love my iPad… Ian needed to sort of calm down and do nothing for a bit, so we watched an episode of one of the shows he likes over WiFi. 
Nina bundles up for our post-dinner outing. 
Dinner included a one-woman band — Ian was infatuated with her guitar playing, and she noticed him pretty quickly — she flashed a big grin when he applauded before anybody else. 
That night, smores by a campfire, brought to us by Boyne Realty… you can live next to a big mountain where it is colder than polar bear spit for just $70,000! 
And then a good-night story (provided by the hotel!) with milk and cookies! While we listened and watched, there were two milk accidents, and I’m proud to say that neither of them belonged to my family. 
Flap your wings, kiddo, fly like a bird!
Y-M-C-A!
The floor is lava! 
Here we’re leaning a raft to move in a direction down some rapids. I’m not kidding.
In this game, Mommy and Daddy are actually trying to plug some leaks in an underwater room. Ian’s trying to plug up his nostril, apparently.
Look out, broadway.
November 3rd, Ian gets his first homework assignment! 
Mommy helped! 
He had to count out 20 of something, in this case Goldfish crackers — hopefully he didn’t eat any of his homework. 
Hi, pretty girl! 
*Huh?* 
I think this was the last of the head tilting on this particular run of it… hopefully the last. 
November 4th, Daddy gets another new toy, the Xbox 360 Kinect. It uses your body’s shape as a controller. You can’t see it here, but it is just a camera that looks at what you’re doing with your limbs and interprets that into motion. Come on over sometime, I’ll show you how it works. 
Ian attempts to pet a virtual kitty on the screen. 
Here Ian attempts to teach his pet kitty, which he named Connor, how to do a trick that involves rolling on the floor. I know you’re thinking “how cute,” but it actually works. 
June 8th, 2010. Doctor’s visit for Nina, likely. 
Melissa said Ian sat right down on this thing, picked up the controller and had at it like he was born to do so. 
I’m not sure where he would have acquired such skills, but I will have a stern discussion with daycare to find out. 😉 
June 11th, 2010, I think he might be at the zoo. 
Same. 
August 11th, 2010. After a bad dream Ian spent the night in our bed and apparently used me as a pillow. 
August 13th, 2010. Sleep like an egyptian. 
August 15th, 2010. Nina looks like a little bucket of cute! 
Same, but with Grandma Barb! 
September 3rd, 2010, now we’re starting to catch up! 
September 3rd, 2010, back at home! Cute imitates cute! 
November 2nd, 2010, Nina’s first trip to the local Library! 
June 18th, 2009 — with the daycare kids at a local park. 
Same. 
June 23rd, 2009. 
October 13th, 2009… Ian’s first trip to a Chinese restaurant. If only we knew what it looked like. 
Yay! 
November 7th, 2009. Ian at Meijer Gardens. 
April 18th, 2010. Ian falls asleep in my arms at Cinqo De Mayo. 
April 19th, 2010. Believe this is the only trip to Playworld that I missed! Go kiddo go! 
April 24th, 2010. Going for a ride on Sandy! 
May 1st, 2010. The Very Angry Caterpillar. 
May 23rd, 2010. It is when he knows enough to be scared and he isn’t that it becomes apparent how brave little man can be. 
May 23rd, 2010. It helps when there’s a super fun happy slide at the top, though. 
I had to wait a few hours for the new camera battery to charge up, so in the meanwhile I tried out my new “glass.” (That’s photographer slang for lens.) I knew immediately I had not wasted my money. She’s worth looking at in a larger image if you don’t mind clicking. -> 
This shot wasn’t as good, but I had to get used to it. 
Finally I got the battery in place and it was time to test out the camera. Some of these are the new lens, some are not — it isn’t a good lens for all situations. I took a picture of the cat as my first real picture to keep with tradition. After all, there was a point where he was probably our most photographed child. 
Self portraits, ahoy! 
Maybe a bit too much detail on this one. Guess I should grabbed a wipe. 
This one’s a beaut, look at it large by clicking here -> 
Yup, not bad…. 
Pretty good smile, maybe a little too much cheese, kiddo! 
Nina gets bashful! 
