Wrapping Up July in Pictures
July 28th, Alright so… see that thing in Ian’s hands? He built it completely by himself. It is basically a backwards bow. The black dot where the two yellow things meet is a bolt with threads. The yellow parts are pushing out and away from each other, locking the threads of the bolt in place until the lower yellow part is pulled back… the more one pulls it back, the more the yellow bits become bowed, ready to spring forward; also the more aligned the yellow bits become, the less friction holding the bolt, until suddenly the yellow bits fling the bolt across the room. Genius? Prolly. See this image larger.
A better shot of the bow. See this image larger.
Ian about to deploy the bolt into my liver. See this image larger.
Ian and I decided to try a little camping in the sunroom! See this image larger.
There’s an Aero inflatable bed in there, the tent was extremely inexpensive and a perfect fit for the room, and for the bed. I do think we’ll try this outside at some point, to answer the question that’s on your mind! 😉 See this image larger.
Ian enjoyed seeing the stars and moon out the windows! See this image larger.
There was plenty of laughter, book reading, flashlights and then sleep! See this image larger.
July 30th, Sometimes the kids just… play. They play together quietly and, sometimes even with the same toy, and there is nothing but joy. (And then sometimes there’s screaming and freaking out.) See this image larger.
Hi! 
Also sometimes the kids just want to be alone and make up adventures and stories! See this image larger.
So cute! See this image larger.
July 31st… Here, Ian is… you know I don’t… I’m not even sure what’s going on here, so uh… next slide, please! See this image larger.
Ian drew an EXCELLENT picture of Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba! Well done, kiddo! See this image larger.
Nina made this one for her Ian! See this image larger.
I think Ian took this one, I’ll have to ask him what it is! See this image larger.
July 27th, Aunt Dissy did Kaylee’s hair for the day. 
The kids were excited about the prospect of another day of fun! 
Did I mention that daddy cut Ian’s hair? 
Here comes a tackle hug! 
I warned you! 
Remember that thing I said earlier about being excited about another day of fun? 
Here we’re at the park that’s behind the fire station. 
After a brief weight distribution issue the teeter tauter becomes more fun! 
This slide must be 20 feet off the ground did that scare Nina? Nope. 
First Ian. 
Here comes Nina! 
No problem! By the way if you’re wondering about Ian’s orange shirt/green shorts combo… he picked out his own clothes that day. 
Mommy partakes in the fun. 
Kaylee and her Aunt Dissy helped shorten the line by carpooling. 
Strong girl! 
This slide was much easier, by comparison. 
Ian added a little wiggle in his walk. 
*Look how strong we are!* 
So big already! 
Then on to another adventure! 
Love this shot… Connor was really great with Nina the whole time, once again. 
Great shot! Our family visitors all together! 
We can’t visit this park without visiting the General Store… I think Melissa or I have been customers every time we’ve come here. 
Nina shares some of her “fries” with a confused pre-schooler! (They were wood chips.) 
No amount of coaxing made Nina smile for this one… 
Ian riding side-saddle… 
Connor riding back-saddle… if it looks at all like Connor’s ready to go; it is because we all were, pretty much.
Dark clouds started to gather, so we started heading toward the car, albeit one ride at a time! 
Always good to have the kids hang out near trees and up in playground equipment as lightning is rolling in… 😉 
Cute, now get down here! 
Ian and Kaylee chase each other around the park for a bit… 
Time for a ride on the merry go round! 
And here’s where Daddy screwed up… Ian said to give him the hardest push that I could. So I did. He ended up with a bloody lip and he cried all the way home and I felt just horrible. It turned out not to be too big a deal, but I was really disappointed in myself. 
Back at home, the kids watch TV while it pours outside! 
Kaylee maintains focus. 
Wow, what a pretty smile! Thank you, Kaylee! 
Nina posed for a nice one here. 
And tried something a little more squinty when the flash went off on Aunt Mel’s camera! 
Connor seemed like he could use a little escape from reality, so I showed him how to play a game called Minecraft on the Xbox. 
If you’re wondering about what Minecraft is it is a little bit like playing with Legos only you’re doing so virtually. Here is a castle that I built for Ian… since this screenshot was taken, we’ve added a wall and a bunch of other stuff. 
July 26th, another day, another visit to someplace cool! (Again, I had to work… sorry kids.) Today it was back to the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum! (Consider this image a sort of title image… it happens later in the timeline.) 
I think Connor had been here maybe two or three times before. As far as I know this was Kaylee’s first visit! 
This time they had these cool gigantic flexible tinker toys! 
They had the usual exhibits there as well… big bubbles… 
Even bigger bubbles! 
The tunnel of mirrors… 
They had a place for the kids to stage a bit of a play, or perhaps a modern dance! 
Here Kaylee expresses feelings of impending autumn and the turning of leaves… I’m kidding, I have no idea. 
Nina the rockstar made a brief appearance. 
Fans were treated to an encore from her fourth album, a heartfelt ballad entitled “I Made Yellow in the Potty.” 
Finally, the kids got to experience the prestige and honor that comes with being a grocery store cashier. Ladies and gentlemen, the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum! 
July 25th. As you may or may not know, there are some dunes behind our house in the woods and over a little… I’ve never been there, believe it or not. Not a big fan of sand, in general. But these kids? Love it! They’d eat it for breakfast if they could, or in this picture’s case, wear it in their underwear. 
Connor brought along a sled from our garage… good call! 
Nina goes for a drag! 
Ready to go? 
Safely landed. 
Nina digs for buried treasure. In Rockford we call them rocks. 
A bath to wash off the sand. 
Ian and his friends had had such a blast at Jester’s Court during a friend’s birthday that I think it will become our go-to place for inflatable indoor parks. Mommy and Aunt Mel took all the kids to let them give it a try! 
I mentioned many moons ago how fantastic Nina was at this kind of thing, and she’s only gotten better. 
I got a text from Mommy while I was working that said “Nina is fearless” and I knew exactly what was happening. Later I asked Aunt Melanie what she thought of our little girl doing such big girl stuff and she sounded impressed as well. Nina’s walk and even her run became steadier as the week progressed too. 
Nope, that’s not the time-out box! 
You can get a sense of the scale of this place by looking in the background… and it is nice that they have TVs scattered throughout the place for parents that want to keep an eye on their kids and the latest sports scores or whatever. 
Connor is consistently brilliant with Nina. I’m impressed with him on so many levels! 
Ian adds a little drama to his descent! 
The girls’ club! *Hey, let’s keep running around and then talk until we can hardly stay awake, what you say, girl!?!* 
… 
I made cookies. They were great for about 24 hours but this batch quickly turned on me. Sorry to those of you who had a cookie after the first day, not as good as I’d have liked. 
July 23rd, Ian stands on his hands for Tumble Time, and flipped in excitement that his cousins and Aunt Mel would be showing up the next night! 
July 24th. The kids are willing and wanting to help more often… Nina’s always been helpful, Ian seems to be coming around nicely. 
Look at these guys go! 
It would have been perfect if this image was Ian kicking me out of the kitchen, God knows how many times we have to do that to him! 
Aunt Mel and the kids showed up, and it was time to eat! Nina ate corn on the cob, and just in case she never eats it again, I took this picture. That’s what happened with Ian, at least for a little while. 🙂 
Ian takes a tight turn on the ol’ moped styled big wheel. 
*Tree!* We got all the kids outside because everybody, particularly Connor and Kaylee after their long drive, had energy to burn. 
Love this shot of Connor! He’s such a great kid! 
Connor conquers the climby thing at the park! 
Nina’s hair is fine enough that a slide’s static electricity really gives her some lift! 
See? 
Isn’t she adorable? 
This would probably be a good time to give her a haircut. 
Let’s all take a turn on the tire swing, all at once! 
Nina climbed this by herself, if you could see the first step, you’d be more impressed. 
The younger kids hit the swings! 
Peanut! 
One last run on the slide and then let’s go home! 
Wow! 
On our way home… 
Nina’s shoes seem to be a bit oversized, hmmm. 
Trying to get them all synchronized… 
There we go! Nice, guys! 
This picture is fun to study… Who is showing teeth? Who has wide eyes? Who has arms around their cousin? 
What a crew! 
July 11th, just had to take this shot… she hasn’t been taking her shoes off during a trip nearly as much as she used to, it seems. 
July 14th, Nina put together this picnic one color-coordinated item at a time! Nice! 
Same day, the kids went to Mr. Scott and Miss Elena’s to play with Rowen and Baby Jimmy. 
Looked like fun! I didn’t go again because I had work. 
I’m putting this in for kicks… I got this shot from Aunt Mel, and am just really impressed with Connor’s pitching stance. He’s getting so big! More on their visit soon! 
July 15th, Nina and Ian romp around the yard. The work we had completed on the landscaping involved some new soil and grass-seed. I’m a bit gun-shy with growing grass after having basically lost an entire lawn at our old house, but this came in fine. I mention this because it was what I was doing whenever I wasn’t working or taking pictures of the kids… watering, watching and worrying. Particularly on a hill, it is a race against the weather… the roots need to take hold before the heavy rain, or the whole thing washes away. 
Anyways, back to our cute daughter! 
This is a nice one! 
Nina apparently hopped right on her bike (with training wheels) and started pedaling. Given that she really only seemed to “get it” in the earlier entry of her on a big wheel, this was very impressive! You go girl! 
Nina pretends Ian’s baseball bat is a congratulatory bottle of champagne. Mommy pretends she didn’t just erase all of the contacts on her phone. 
Oh, hi cutie!!! (Check this one out big, so cute!) 
🙂 
🙂 
Hey, HEY… WHO JUST RANG OUR DOORBELL?!?! 
As sweet as she is cute! 
🙂 
Don’t we have a second kid? Where’d he go? 
There he is! Hi, Ian! 
Camera time, Nina, let’s see your cutest face! 
Wait, what’s that? 
Mommy gives piggyback rides, despite it being hot out! 
Ian too! 
Sorry about the blur, turns out shooting a moving target in low light is difficult! 
July 17th, weird clouds started rolling in… a very strange sky! 
It looked a lot like the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 
I know, I know, where’s the kids in this picture? They’re inside brushing their teeth. (Sorry Sweetie!) 
Alright, last one, back to the kids! 
July 20th, and Ian poses in the bathroom with his daddy! 
Alright kid, back to brushing your teeth! 
July 22nd, At Meijer, riding on Sandy the mechanical rocking horse! 
July 10th, Mommy took the kids to the Reagan Marketing + Design Garden Gala. I did not get to go. I will explain why in a moment. As usual, I can only guess from photos what really happened, so you’ll have to take my captions with a grain of salt. Overall, the Gala appeared to be some kind of hedonistic romp on par with Woodstock. Did you get a tattoo, little girl? Maybe twelve? (love this pic!) 
Ian – *Ok, the coast is clear… fill your diaper.* 
*ALL DONE!!!* 
It turns out that Ian is actually pretty darn good with a hoola-hoop. Mommy said he’d use his body to stop it from dropping, giving himself further opportunities to get some spin. Impressive! 
It takes two to tangle. 
At some point, the dancing and chanting turned the children into traditionally war-painted Native Americans. Here, Ian points out a smilie face that he was awarded for helping Giggles With Cuteness to achieve a higher spiritual level. 
This is Giggles With Cuteness. 
Just before the police arrived and busted up the party. (I’m kidding.) 
Everybody came home, and Nina took off on a very small big-wheel. Melissa bought this one for a buck or so. 
The pedal reach was good at the time, and she went from having some difficulty to really doing quite well! 
Nice job, little girl! It is fun to watch her gaining control over her legs… more on that later. 
I had to stay home to watch over the guys doing our landscaping work. They hit our underground sprinkling pipes with a trench machine… the guy that repaired them then reversed these two, so he then cut them in the middle and swapped them. We now have eight connections where we used to have zero. The actual work that needed to be done was completed, and after three storms I can, at present, say that they did a nice job. (This is to alleviate the situation that caused our basement to get some water in it.) 
The day we went to the movies down in Ohio to escape from the power-free zone… we also ended up at Tuscora park over in Tuscarawas county. You might think I needed Melissa to tell that to me. You’d be right. It may or may not have been June 30th. I think it was. 
There’s a train ride, and a number of other rides, it is pretty impressive! 
Guy in the back is chillin’ 
Alright now if that’s not the cutest thing! 
This didn’t last long, Nina wanted out of this one in a hurry! 
That night, at Aunt Mel and Uncle Ben’s house. We did help some neighbors gather branches for a bit, but then there was some time for play. 
Pretty nice shot… amazed this slide didn’t break! 
Love this one, nice job Aunt Mel! 
Hi Kaylee! 
That night, we melted again into sleep! 
Nina loved playing with this castle! 
Just thought this one looked nice! 
July 1st, believe this was during the good-byes! 
One more great smile and then we hit the road! 
July 9th, woke up, got the kids dressed, and started heading for the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum! On the way there, what a sight to behold, but the north end of a cow heading south on 131. What was really strange is that my friend Brandon had posted a picture of this same cow only days earlier on Facebook. 
I wasn’t actually worried about it, until it started following us! Mooo… Mooo………Mooo… Moo……Mooo, moo. Mooo, mooo. MooMoo MooMoo MooMoo MooMoo (Grampa Dave already got that Jaws reference, the rest of you needed this little hint. 😉 ) 
We got all the way to the Children’s Museum, and put some quarters in the meter, when a man with a beanie on his head stopped us to ask if we had our member IDs ready. When I said that I did not because we aren’t members, he gave us the speech. “Today,” he said “is Members Monday, but I can’t turn away your lovely children, one of whom is picking his eye, and the other picking her nose.” Some people would be partially offended, and screamed something like “JUST TAKE MY MONEY!” but again, this man was wearing a beanie, which means all of his social commentary is moot. First thing to check out? Car! 
I liked this one too. 
This one’s been photoshopped a bit. 
When Ian was Nina’s age, he used to play with this exhibit… you drop golf balls and they hit school bells on the way down. 
There’s my awesome kids sharing again! 
Makin’ great big bubbles! 
Nina came up to the play ultrasound machine and said “scary.” This is sort of ironic as real ultrasound machines have conveyed pure joy and terror to Melissa and I over the years, particularly in regard to Nina. Hard to believe that it was three years ago when an ultrasound resulted in a whole lot of relief and Mommy seeing our little girl waving hello from the womb. Scary? Only sometimes, little girl. 
These were cool magnetic transparent building blocks. 
Ian helped me build a great castle-like building, including corner towers. I built the right half, and he mirrored it for the left! He’s been taking a liking to Minecraft lately, so maybe that’s why we did this. If you don’t know what Minecraft is, I’ll show you a picture in a couple entries. 
As much as I love these kids, and I really, really love them… two is enough, thanks! 
Nina plays to the beat of her own drum, that’s for sure! 
THAT’S my girl! 
World’s biggest light-bright set? Sure! 
Ian creeps through a mirror tunnel! 
Wherever she looks, a friendly face! 
She got to live out a bit of one of her favorite books here in the farm section of the museum. The book is about how a small girl goes to the Apple Orchard a couple times a year and picks apples. 
The lighting was great here, so I took a bunch of shots. 
Wish I could have gotten a smile out of her, but these will do! 
She could see outside to downtown Grand Rapids, and city life was interesting to our little girl. 
Nina tries a hard-hat on, near the construction area. 
She moved these out into the walkway herself, and put hats on them like a little family. 
If you’re a pedestrian, I assume a sight such as this would cause you to freak out in abject terror. 
Afterwards, we ate at Panera. Because this was a Monday, I was by myself with the kids all day. These meals are always a challenge. For example, if one kid needs to go potty, you need to take both kids, and any valuables, leaving the food at the table. Here Nina shows off her soup technique. I showed her how she could sit on her knees to make the straw not have to bend… moments later she sat back down normally, pushed the bowl until it was much further away, and the straw didn’t have to bend either. (Yes, I know I could have cut the straw, but it needed to be a certain length to work appropriately.) 
That night, by the light of the pink-ish hued light in Nina’s room, stories were read to happy children. 
Here the tale of Snow White is absorbed with interest. 
Love this shot, it was an accident. I don’t mind the lack of focus other than I wish SOMEBODY was in focus. Otherwise, nice shot! 
Hello, beautiful family, time for bed! 
Ian’s big grimace. 
Daddy really needed to take a shower… 
July 6th, Nina looking super cute in her daisy top and matching skirt! Love this shot! 
Inspecting the front yard! 
She’s checking out the “Miss Dig” flags and counting them nicely! 
This is why I refer to the previous owner of our house in less-than-glowing terms at times… perfect example? “Hey, let’s plant a tree directly on the gas line.” 
July 6th was also Seth’s birthday! He is 16 years old!!! According to several websites, he’s over 80 in cat years. 
July 7th, the kids pile into a cardboard train! 
Nina packed a lunch. 
July 8th, Nina noms at dinner. 
She’s such a living doll, she arrives in packaging! 
All giggles! 
Hey cutie, think outside the box!! 