A bridge, an island, a wedding, baseball, and some carsickness :)

We spent last weekend on a mini-vacation in Michigan. Aaron's cousin Vanessa got married in Gaylord, MI - which is about an hour south of the Mackinac bridge that connects the Upper Peninsula to lower Michigan. I was very excited for this, because I've never been anywhere other than Aaron's hometown area in the U.P., so I was excited to see other areas of the region!

The trip one-way takes about 10 hours, so we decided to break things up a bit. We drove 6.5 hours Thursday night to Escanaba, MI and stayed over...got up and drove 2.5 hours to the bridge (my first time crossing it!) and parked in Mackinaw City to take a boat over to Mackinac Island for the day.

The Mackinac Bridge (this pic is taken from the island)

Poor little Addy threw up literally as we were pulling into the parking lot of Shepler's - which is the boat that took us to the island. Her timing with throwing up is quite great these days (another blog to come on that entire topic!)...but it is for certain that poor little Addy gets car sick. But, she was a super happy little girl after she got that nasty feeling out of her tummy.

But...Aaron and I were a little nervous about the boat ride that we were about to take considering the waters can make people sick...and she had just thrown up...so we had her wear her bib on the boat just in case!

About to take the ride to the island...as you can see, she's a happy girl now that the 'icky's' were out of her tummy! The bib in the pic makes me laugh!

Approaching the Island

Mackinac Island is VERY cool/unique. No motorized vehicles are allowed on it, so it seems as though you are stepping into the "Olden Days". Your only options were to walk, bike, or ride the horse-drawn carriages to where you wanted to go. We mainly did some walking - but we did rent bikes for about an hour to go to another area of the island and also biked the main area from one end to the other.

There is so much to do that we have already talked about going back when we are done having kids and they are all old enough to ride bikes. With Addy's age - we couldn't see all that we were interested in, but that was okay with us because we didn't have a ton of time to spend there anyway.

Walking, biking, or horses! This is a picture of the main area

We rode our bikes to Arch Rock - which was about a mile from the main area. Addy didn't really nap that day, but she managed to take a quick snooze on our trip to Arch Rock. She had fallen asleep in the stroller when we were in line to rent bikes...and we were able to transfer her with no issues!

Just taking a little snooze in the bike cart...she looks pretty comfy!

Arch Rock - geologists believe this is made from water/ice passing through the rocks thousands of years ago. I did read on the island that there is an Indian Legend that this was caused by tears of a maiden whose father forbid her to be with the person she loved...

Getting ready to leave Arch Rock! As you can see in the background, the road to get there provided us with some nice lakeside viewing, as it was right along the shore of Lake Huron.

Prego mommy on a bike! I was a little nervous about riding around, but wanted to take advantage of the place we were at, so that is why we decided to rent them for an hour!


Checking out the ducks below, waiting to get back on the boat to go back to Mackinaw City. Next destination: Gaylord, MI - only a 1 hour drive from where we were!

Alex and Vanessa got married on a resort with 81 holes - it is known for its golfing (Treetops Resort). They got married overlooking one of the golf courses - the scenery was very beautiful!

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The view from our seats for the ceremony

The 'Minnesota' Anderson's before the ceremony!

Alex and Vanessa facing us during a reading...Vanessa looked BEAUTIFUL! We are very happy for them. Congrats Guys!

Quincy (Alex and Vanessa's little guy!) giving Addy a hug on the dance floor :) Too Cute

Addalyn was really good at the ceremony and the reception. She LOVED dancing and being on the dance floor. If she would get up the courage to let go of our hands and walk on her own...she would've been ALL OVER that dance floor. She was having so much fun.

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Look at that smile!

Who needs to dance on their feet? Crawling around and bobbing my head to the music is fun too!

Ironically, our nephew Jeffrey was also playing in the Little League State Tournament that weekend in Gaylord. So, we got to see him play on Sunday before we left town. His team lost the game we watched, but Jeffrey did really good (from my perspective, I don't think I am too biased!). He got a really nice hit that got him to 2nd base (sorry, I'm not good on my baseball lingo!) - and did really good defensively when the coaches had him playing outfield. So proud of him and very happy we got to see him play!

#7 on 2nd base :)

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After his game, we started our trip back to MN. We stopped again in Mackinaw City and had lunch with Aaron's family, and walked around for just a little while with his sisters (oh yeah, and purchased some fudge!). From there we drove 4.5 hours to Green Bay, where we stayed at Aaron's uncle Gary's and Aunt Sue's house. We didn't arrive there until about 7:30 at night, and we still had 4.5 hours to go, so it was very nice to break up the ride.

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We got to see Aaron's cousin Derek, who couldn't make it to the wedding, and his wife Amy and their kids Tyler (2) and Cooper (4 weeks old!). Little Cooper is a cutie-pie, and Oh My Goodness Tyler is a RIOT! He is too cute! He had some very quick one-liners that I wish I had my video-camera to record, because me trying to tell you about them would not do them justice!

We did get some good blackmale photos of Tyler and Addy in the bath. But I'm only putting one on here...where Ty was scrubbing Addalyn's back. Seriously, too cute!

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We got up early Monday morning to finish our trip back to MN. As always, it is a great time and goes too quickly - but we are happy to have had the time we did with the Anderson family :)

Parade-ing!

We have attended a few parades this summer - and Addalyn really seems to love them! Her first one of the year was in June, at Pine Island's Cheese Fest Parade (that is my home town). She attended her very first parade EVER at the same parade last year, when she was just 11 days old...so I was excited to see how she'd be this year :)

Her very first parade last year...slept through the entire thing!

One year later - same stroller: up and ready for some FUN!

Seriously...this Gorilla freaks me out!

Addalyn really liked the parade, she was very interested in everything that went by and very content just sitting and watching. Aaron and Addy are really into whatever was passing by in this one!

The highlight of the parade was probably when Addy tried her first sucker - and LOVED it!

Aaron got a good action shot of her licking her sticky lips!

She wouldn't let it go until there was absolutely NOTHING left...she did really good eating it, I was impressed :)

Aaron tried to take Addalyn to her 2nd parade with Ella, Rachel & Jeff (the Scheel's) while I was at my cousin Jared's wedding --- and they had gotten settled and were waiting for the parade to start, but it got cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather in the area. Bummer!

But...we attempted to take the girls to a parade together again a few weeks ago - this time a success! This parade was in Mazeppa. Ella is peaking down at Addy in this pic!

Parades are definitely the one thing that keeps Addy pretty tame and content for as long as they are. Typically she doesn't sit still for very long (like any one-year-old)...but parades are different for her!

She's doing her version of waving here at the entertainment in front of her. She sometimes waves "hi" with her hand like this! She also was clapping when everyone else would clap -- it was pretty cute!

The bikers are sort've crazy!

And of course...we had another sucker while we were watching the parade. Mmmm Mmmm good :)

Paci-Free!

Addalyn is officially free of the pacifier! The transition actually went VERY smoothly! On Tuesday, 6/23, we decided to try it at night - I told myself I would go check on her if she cried over 10 minutes, but she cried for less than 5, fussed a bit...and then went to sleep. She had it still at daycare the next day - but not at night again, and cried for even less than she had the night before. On night 3, she only fussed, no crying - so we haven't gone back. YEAH ADDY! I'm so proud of how well she adjusted :)

Big girl :) (that is teething, so likes to chew on her finger!)

Sooo funny when daddy tickles me!

...and he's at it again while I'm playing!

And to think, less than a year ago, she was thinking this: http://babyanderson7.blogspot.com/2009/08/popsicles.html

Seven/Seven and Ninety-nine

Today is our 3rd anniversary! We were able to go out on a 'date' because Grandma Jean (Aaron's mom) is staying with us until Friday - THANK YOU! Jean is here watching Addy while our daycare is closed. The timing worked out pretty good for us! I actually don't know when we have gone out to eat with just the 2 of us since Addalyn...maybe once or twice.

Three years down...and baby number two on the way!

Addy claps "yeah, Happy Anniversary mommy and daddy!"

Today also marks 99 days until my due date. DOUBLE DIGITS! I will be 26 weeks tomorrow...it is going really fast. I'm feeling pretty good. The biggest question I get is how this pregnancy compares to Addalyn's - and really I feel like they are pretty similar. I've heard a few people say I am carrying differently, but for me it feels pretty much the same.

We had a check-up last week, and my doctor told me that based on the heart-rate that day, she says girl. I remember her saying the EXACT same thing with Addy when I was about 38 weeks pregnant with her...so my doctor might know a thing or two about the heart-rate telling you a thing or two! Who knows though. It was actually jumping between 130's to 150's :)

Me and my babies! The other night Addy was cuddling with me in the dark...and at the same time I could feel the baby moving and I could have sat in that moment FOREVER. Sitting in the darkness with Addy cuddling on my shoulder and her little brother or sister joining in on the mommy moment...it was awesome!

26 weeks!

We've been doing lots of fun things this summer - and posts will be coming to share some photos of all the exciting times we've had so far. We also have some fun events coming up as well...we are loving the summer!