Kalamazoo County Fair

Kalamazoo county fair 2009.. we had a great day... started out looking at the animals.. They loved the pigs best and Casey was afraid of the horses.. A nice 4H boy took out a duck for them to pet and gave them a little lesson on how to tell if it's a boy or girl duck.. the one with the loud very distinct "Quack" is the female... I learned something too.. They were not interested in petting the duck.. The laughed when the turkey's all gobbled at the same time..

We did rides to this day.. it was $5 wristbands for unlimited rides, what a bargain..The picture in the dune buggy w/ the boys (friends of ours), Carly would yell to me everytime she came round "mom, I---Smell---french----fries!!!".... and after the rides we got a super snack of french fries and some hand squeezed lemonade.. ahhh, summer county fair heaven....

Early August fun

Friends from Urbana came to visit us... we went for dinner downtown Kalamazoo and took a picture at the fountain on the mall....Elie & Lucas Dixon...

Pfizer family fun day.. Carly has watermelon, ice cream, and a very frosted cupcake! takes after her mom.. she was in heaven.....

Bowling at Pfizer family fun day... she loved the shoes and, well, uhh, bowling, not so much....She lasted 3 or 4 frames...

Just a cute sisters picture.. Gotta snap these moments quickly.. they don't last very long or happen on a regular basis...

Carly colored her legs and arms w/ wet sidewalk chalk.. she said she was "pinkalicious"!!!! Pinkalicious is actually a favorite book of hers, it's a story of when a little girl eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink...

Spin the Cat

Carly and Casey were so pleased to meet George and were even more excited when uncle Bill told them George was their cousin!! George was a good sport and I had seen him spin before, several years ago, I can't believe he still does it! He was very interested in the girls and didn't hide from them at all. They enjoyed walking around outside with him...

George is Cousin Michele's cat (Michele is in Korea teaching right now and so George is living the life in the suburbs! he was a Chicago cat about a year ago..

Visiting Uncle Bill and Aunt Laurie

Carly decided this was the perfect kids table and the ate lunch pretty good there. Except for the occasional "kick" of the table by casey...

Doing art outside in the gazebo - very happy girls! the weather was beautiful and so nice to be outside...

Carly in Bill and Laurie's driveway, "chalking" it up! and in her pj's too! she's in heaven

At the elementary school playground in their neighborhood - the girls really enjoyed this.. we told them how their cousins :Michele, Kyle, & Ross went to this school and played here when they were little...

Uncle Bill helping Carly across, by winding the bar the little pink platform travels back and forth.. Princess Carly!

more Chicagoland

My favorite picture of casey on the train, we tried the upstairs seats out.. as you can see, she loved it!

Carly and Daddy trying out the upstairs seats, she thought that was pretty neat..

The group outside Shedd. It was crazy busy that day, but what fun! The line was HOURS long, but we were able to join the shorter 30 minute stroller line.. whew! and we saw the dolphin and beluga show.. very cool..

Carly and Casey took their first taxi ride..No carseats! I did ok, but still couldn't help but worry.. We all fit into one taxi and took it to Union Station to catch the train back to Libertyville. As the picture shows, Casey was exhausted! Seriously, who falls asleep in a chicago taxi!! Proof of a very busy and exciting day!

August, a trip to Chicagoland

Uncle Bill and Aunt Laurie on the water taxi to Shedd..

Our water taxi on Lake Michigan, we went from Navy Pier to Shedd Aquarium..

The water taxi that took us to Navy Pier on the chicago river..beautiful views of the architecture. We sat on the top just behind the captain.

The girls loved the train ride into the city.. Each time we stopped at a station on the way in, Carly would say "hey, i thought we were going to Chicago".. she was very anxious:) It was a blast!

Our little deer

Our favorite wildlife coming for a visit...Check out the video below:) Casey is saying "she's walking" and pretty excited to see twins:)