Photo Session & Fall Festival

 

I bribed the girls to go take some photos - they did pretty good considering Willa decided a few minutes earlier that she did NOT want to have her picture taken! Grr!

 I love this pic! I have no idea why! :)

 

 On the way home we stopped and visited Grey. Violet took this picture! I don't think she's ever taken a picture before where everything she wanted in the picture, she got! Grey's ears are even up!

 I love this pic of Willa and a random horse - they were pretty fascinated with eachother!

 We also went to a local Cider Festival - it was really fun! I am glad we gave it a try, I think it's going to be a new family tradition!

 They got to go on a tractor ride together.

 

You will never guess what happened. Violet actually PET AN ANIMAL in an actual PETTING ZOO! I was pretty proud of her, because usually it's just ME petting all the baby goats!

 They also took a burro ride. You can see how incredibly thrilled Willa's tiny burro was about his job! Apparently this little burro is the mascot for the School of Mines!

Violet rode on this bigger burrow who was a little happier about his job. I was so proud of my girls to get up there and ride by themselves! And (don't tell Jon) Violet did ask today if she could have a pony. Ha!!

Michigan Trip 2011

We went back to Michigan in August - Violet and Willa were SO SO excited to hang out with the COUSINS!! Here are Claire, Violet and Anna right after they first got to see each other at a family reunion. Violet was SO happy!

 

Anna, Willa, Claire, Violet and Ethan (aw!) all snuggled up watching a movie together.

 The girls were SO excited to see Oma! They got to stay at her house for a few nights and she had so many fun things for them to do!

 

Violet LOVES baking! Check out this yummy chocolate-covered cake she made with Oma!

 

We also got to go up to Glen Arbor and visit my Grandma - I miss her a ton! We took her on a whirlwind tour of Glen Lake - we only had one day and we had to fit it all in! 

 

 First the girls looked at the Crystal River and waved at all the canoers and kyakers.

 

They even got their suits on and went in the river. Aren't they cute in their matching pink ballerina suits? 

 

We climbed up Sleeping Bear Dunes - and ran down, of course! Violet went up TWICE by herself!

 We also stopped out at our cottage on Glen Lake and Violet got to pilot the pontoon on a quick trip across the lake. It was pretty funny because she really was steering, and she just kept going in veeeery tiny circles.

 

 We can't go up North without visiting Max! He looks great (and fat) as usual, and Willa was happy to brush his leg.

   

Violet & Willa each got a ride around the pasture too! 

 

 Back in Grand Rapids, we did tons of fun things with "the cousins" including visiting this nifty new zoo...

 And visiting MORE horses! They are both brushing Roy, my friend Sue's horse.

Denver County Fair!

The 1st ever (can you believe it?) Denver County Fair was a few weeks ago and we had SO much fun! I had my Hip Violet bibs there in both the Denver Handmade Alliance booth and the Tomte Craft booth so that was fun. Here is Violet in front of my little display at the DHA booth:
The girls got to do all sorts of fun activities. Here they are decorating their own chickens!
Violet and a pirate
I entered some artwork into the Children's Wear competition at the fair - here is my triptych of baby bibs!
Later we came back to find a 1st place ribbon pinned to it! Yay!

We also went to the petting zoo where *I* was the only one who pet anything, including these sweet newborn baby goats.
We lucked out because next door was a reining show! I took the girls over and they loved watching the horses spin and slide. I LOVED it!

The girls snuggled up together in a single stroller :)

4th of July in Montana!

Warning - there are a TON of pictures here! :) We went to Montana last weekend to visit my new baby niece Fern! She is SO SO cute!! I could NOT stop taking pictures of her! She is 2 months old in these pictures.
Violet and Willa LOVED her! They are in the midst of a big "baby phase" where they play babies ALL.THE.TIME so it was great timing! Violet was so excited to get to hold and snuggle with her a lot!

Baby Fern gets a Thumbs Up!
And lots of kisses!
So sweet!
Violet is holding her hand

Willa pretending to sleepJon got his newborn snuggle time in two. It made us both miss those days a little bit!
The picture above reminded me SO much of this picture of Jon with Willa and Violet when Willa was just a few days old!
We went to a great 4th of July parade in Ennis, Montana. It was so cool and very "out west"... although I really enjoyed the fact that everyone was drinking Bloody Mary's! New 4th of July tradition around here I think!

Kelly, Brett and Fern snuggled up in her carrier.
The happy family :)We went to Kelly's sisters house in Ennis for lunch. They have a FANTASTIC view of the mountains!
Uncle Brett, Willa and DaddyBack in Bozeman at night, we went to Brett's old house to watch the fireworks. He lived for years in these converted grain silos!
Violet tried out a sparkler (she was pretty scared of it - boo hoo!)Jon and Brett went up the hill behind the silos - you could see for MILES and MILES and Jon said he saw hundreds of fireworks! It was a little too steep for us to try with the girls - maybe next time!
My brother works at the local hot springs, so we got to go test it out with the girls! Willa LOVED it. It was too hot for Violet but she did try it near the end!

Violet thinking about taking a dip. Nice tan-line Jon!
Violet wearing Daddy's hat and sunglasses while we were out for lunch.
Saying good-bye to Fern (and Brett & Kelly) was HARD! I am going to miss that little lady! Luckily we have Skype and more road-trips coming up!