Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a great birthday. We went camping with Ryan and Elizabeth Elder and Phil and Noelle (my brother and sister-in-law). We went to Warren Dunes State Park. It was great. This is the first real camping I have been able to do since we camped at Yosemite when we were engaged five years ago. We had a great campsite. It was shaded and right next to the bathroom and a park. We had electricity so we were able to plug in a griddle for cooking breakfasts. MMMMMMM. Plus Warren Dunes is right on Lake Michigan, so we spent two days at the beach. And the best part about this beach is that it looks like the ocean, but since it's a lake it is fresh water. No salt!! We got up there Thursday late afternoon, went to the beach for an hour or so, came back, made a super yummy dinner of VeriVeri Teriyaki chicken, asparagus, and new potatoes and corn. For my birthday dessert we did those huge chocolate Cosco muffins. They are practically cake anyway. The next day we biked to the beach, and played a bunch. We had burgers and then the next morning we packed up. The Elders took off and we went back to the beach and then to lunch at Panera. That night was Phil and Noelle's one year anniversary so I made them Veenstra salad and they went to Gallup Park and paddle-boated around and walked and listened to music. Mike picked up flowers and had them waiting for Noelle when they got back and then we did fondue. The next day at church we all struggled to stay awake. Brayden fell asleep at church for probably the second time in his life and Mike and Caleb fell asleep also. Then a family in the ward had us over for dinner because their oldest son just was called to the Hong Kong mission where Phil served. We were in charge of dessert and so we brought fondue. Again. Next time we get together with Phil and Noelle we're trying fondue on Oreos. I think that would be really good. Anyway, pictures will be forthcoming. Sorry about the novel. :)

Happy 4th!

We had a great fourth of July. We planned on meeting Phil and Noelle at the zoo in Toledo, going to dinner at Champion House for my birthday and having a smashing time; unfortunately, none of our plans worked! But we still had a pancake breakfast and went running in the morning. Bastian family tradition is to run the 6 or 8 miles to the ward pancake breakfast, but I felt like we were keeping with tradition even though we only ran two miles. It even sprinkled in the morning to remind me of Seattle. Phil and Noelle still came up, so we left so I could get movie star sunglasses and since Champion House was closed, we went to California Pizza Kitchen in the mall, which was open. Super yummy. We finished the night off with chocolate fondue back at our house. It was a great day.

A sweet neighbor

Our neighbor Barbara is a nice, spunky old lady that had a pet bat as a little girl, is a master gardener, has a cat names Don Juan (named after an old boyfriend) and loves to always stay busy. Several times she has seen us leave for a family bike ride. One time Mike told Barbara how Brayden doesn't like the bumps. So she made Brayden a pillow for his bum so it wouldn't hurt when we hit the bumps. It was really nice. Brayden always wants to take his "soft pillow" out whenever we go for a ride or jog. By the way, his bum never hurt when we rode, he just got scared jogging with Mike one time when it was really bumpy and the fear has stayed with him. Ironically, the pillow does seem to help.

A Mini Mike

Caleb is a mini Mike in the making. He loves electronics, he is always happy, he is becoming loud and now he is becoming the handyman. Here is Caleb "helping" Mike fix Brayden's trike.

Church Shoes

A week ago Mike and I were rushing to get ready for church (of course we were running just a wee bit late) and Mike asked Brayden to go get his church shoes. Brayden decided that his slippers were his church shoes and we came downstairs to Brayden in full church garb and slippers. It made us laugh. So of course we stopped to take a picture. We were already late, what was another minute or so?

Boys and their toys

Mike was dropping off one of the young men after an activity, and his family was having a garage sale. They have two boys who are now significantly older than our boys, so they gave a bunch of stuff to Mike. The one thing Mike was most excited about was a monster tricycle. It has HUGE tires and is sturdy enough that Mike can ride it with Brayden--and he does! Brayden has to swivel his hips a little bit so that he can reach the pedals, but he does a really good job of pedaling. He fell a little bit, but he's pretty good at catching himself. So all in all it is a good toy. Brayden is quite agile. He is also getting pretty good at climbing the poles in our basement. It's really quite amazing. Caleb is working on his skills as well. All in one week he has mastered crawling, pulling up, babbling, etc. He's figured out how to turn the TV on and off and accidentally turns movies on and off. He's really starting to explore everything. One of the funniest things (I think) that he does is when he wants us, usually Brayden, he calls "Ah. Ah." He usually does it when I'm trying to put him down for a nap. He calls for Brayden and then Brayden comes in and gets Caleb laughing hysterically. I'm sure it does wonders to calm Caleb down right before going to sleep. Cute boys. Including Mike.

It makes it all worth it . . .

Yesterday, while I was trying to get Brayden and Caleb down for a nap, I heard Brayden running all around my bedroom instead of lying in bed sleeping. The last week or so, he's been asserting his independence and trying to fight sleep. So I went upstairs to see what was up. He had pooped, not a big deal. So we went downstairs, changed his diaper, and then I went out to the dumpster to throw it away. When I came back in I was feeling kind of disgruntled that Brayden wasn't asleep and all too soon Caleb would be awake, but when I walked in the door Brayden said "I like you Mom. You're pretty." It made me laugh. It was nice to have a sweet little comment rather than tantrums about sleeping. And we walked right upstairs and he went right to sleep. Yeah for napping sweet little boys.