Chew Slowly

October began with Sterling turning

8 months old.

This milestone came with new skills including;

a fine singing voice and a good taste for music

(we find him chewing on it under the piano daily),

an early interest in the military

 as he is already practicing his soldier combat crawl,

feeding himself with his "pincer" grasp, which dramatically increased the variety of his diet since he can now help himself to whatever he finds on the floor,

and...

sleeping through the night!!

(on occasion, but still a great improvement).

October also began with the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We love 'Conference,' it is a holiday weekend for us. We started it off with a tasty breakfast; waffles, homemade raspberry syrup (using raspberries Trevor and I had picked), fresh whipped cream, maple sausage and OJ. Yum! I was trying to chew slowly so I could savor every bite.

 Breakfast was the physical feast in preparation for the spiritual feast. We also got to 'chew slowly' as we listened to four wonderful sessions of truth. We were enlightened and uplifted. The kids enjoyed doing their "conference packets" and Bingo games. We tried a new, impromptu listening activity and had the kids draw pictures of the stories that they heard. It turned out to be very effective, and soon we had a door covered with pictures they had drawn about conference stories. We also did some more physical chewing on a new snack/treat we tried out: fall popcorn. I flavored the popcorn with butter, sugar and fall spices (cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg) and then added candy corns. Delicious...and dangerously addicting.

 Between sessions on Sunday we took a walk to get some wiggles out and enjoy the beauty of the fall leaves starting to change.

After the cold season last year, I bought several matching things on sale for Ry and Trev.

 They love to match, because they are "Best buddies." I thought Trevor would really miss Ryan when he went to school, but he hasn't mentioned missing him yet. He is very much a middle child these days, so all he says when the big kids leave is, "It's just you and me now, Mom. Let's play together!" It's been wonderful to have time with Trevor, and he enjoys free reign of the house for a few hours too. But, he's always happy to play with Ryan when he's home on the weekend!
 

 Ellie made sure all six of her babies watched Conference with her. She's such a wonderful, little Mommy.

 We will always remember the night Sterling learned to clap.

It was a normal week night at the dinner table, and I don't know how it started exactly. We found ourselves saying, "Yeah!" and clapping and Sterling was copying us, even trying to mimic the sound of "Yeah!" while he clapped. It was adorable.

Here's a picture I snapped of him, so tickled with his new trick.

 Trevor, Sterling and I loved our Preschool Field Trip to the Plymouth Orchard. We joined the 4 year old Preschool group for the trip, so we had a good size crowd.

Trevor buddied up with Olivia. They were both wearing hats and Olivia had to put hers on backwards like Trevor. 

 We'll call it a tractor ride, since there wasn't any hay.

 The "buddies" trying to find which apple to pick.

Yes! The perfect one...with a big spot on the side! 

 Pumpkin picking time!

 Sterling wanted to pick the weeds instead.

 The day was so warm and sunny!

Perfect for a fall outing, not great for pictures.

It's all good.

We then had another opportunity to 'chew slowly' with cinnamon doughnuts and fresh apple cider. The apples from the tree were yummy too.

 I love the fall for so many reasons!

 There's a Trevor worm in this apple!

 Do worms really have tongues?

 Sterling's first fall!

 Ok, so have you ever seen a worm with TWO HEADS?

 Beware the black cat...

 Such an adorable, little pumpkin.

 Trev and the girls, making scared faces...Boo!

 Watch out, a three year old is driving that tractor!

 We were all plumb tuckered out after such an exciting outing.

In an earlier post I mentioned how Ryan wants to be a drummer like his uncles when he grows up.

Well, helping Mom bring in the groceries turned into a Rock concert! 

I got it all on video, he played his drum set of cans and bottles for a solid half hour. 

Rock band Ryan! 

I think we'll start with piano first, give him the basics of music, and spare the neighbors...for a little while longer anyway.

 

 The first week of October, Rob and his two fellow 3rd year residents hit the road for a three day road trip to The-middle-of-nowhere, Iowa for a conference on club foot surgery. While he was gone, I took the kids to the date-night babysitting and went out to dinner with friends! They had planned a Friday night out, and I could actually make it (with Sterling in tow, but he slept through the excitement anyway).

 It had been months since I had made it to a neighborhood dinner party, and I loved catching up with everyone. Angela (the one on the left in the picture below) recently moved away to a home right on the waterfront of Lake Eerie (and we're all jealous). Since she was in town we planned to get together. We met at our all time favorite restaurant, Ginger. Yes, definitely a place where 'chewing slowly' would be a good idea, it's good.

The Saturday that Rob was gone, the kids had fun playing together and doing a concert for me in the basement while I made Creamed Broccoli Cheddar Soup and rolls for a baby shower. In the evening the kids watched a movie at our friends house while I attended the shower. The baby shower was for Rob's fellow resident's wife, Mays, who is from Iraq and doesn't have any family around here. She was adorable opening the gifts. She kept saying, "I wish I were a baby!" Babies do have the life, don't they? 

Slow chewing is a must when you have such a spread as there was at this baby shower! Baby shower's in Iraq are a very big deal I guess, so we all pitched in to make it match the expectations, and it sure did! Lamb, MIddle-eastern pastries, salads, rice dishes, and the most amazing multi-layered raspberry, chocolate cake I have ever tasted! Mays' sister-in-law came in town from Maryland for the shower, and she did a lot of the cooking.

Chewing sure can be fun, when eating delicious food in good company.

Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City

We had a wonderful, spontaneous, two day trip up north the last weekend in September. Getting use to the new blogger uploader has been quite the ordeal, I think I'll like it when we figure each other out. I just want it to read my mind! The person who invents something that can do that will really be on to something.

So, our plan was to drive up and see

Traverse City

(which Trevor calls TREVOR City)

and the

Sleeping Bear Dunes.

We ended up first stopping for lunch at a unique little bakery called Muffin Tin Cafe.

The kids picked out super, yummy muffins

(pumpkin cheese cake and chocolate cheese cake) and smoothies for lunch.

The bakery was right on the shore of the beautiful

Torch Lake 

We enjoyed walking along and looking at it, even though it was overcast.

 One fun thing about our drive up was we stopped for a potty stop at a church school, and they were selling rainbow popcorn for 50 cents! It was the perfect pick-me-up snack and treat. And, no where else could we buy our family a treat for that price.

It was beautiful

and very windy!

It reminded us of Hurricane Deck at Niagara Falls! 

  On our drive up we ate bagels in the car (a "tradition" for road trips, only because I did it once and now the kids think that's just what we do), read "Man of the Family" a Ralph Moody book, and played our first good "ABC" game, looking for the entire alphabet in small rural towns. It really was fun because the kids were old enough to really play! The best part was when we got to Z, and we were on a small winding residential road without any other cars in sight. Ellie said, "We just need one of the street names to be named Zuckerman's or something." and low and behold, within two minutes of her saying that there was a small green road sign named, "Zimmerman's Way."
What good luck!

When we got to Traverse City it was sprinkling and pretty cold, but we stopped at a great park filled with different ships and dragons

right on the East Arm of Sleeping Bear Bay.

After driving Downtown Traverse and looking at all the unique and interesting little shops, we stopped at the Fishery to watch the fish jump.

One really scared Ellie when it jumped right next to her!

It was pretty funny the Salmon jump.

We also bought our absolute favorite Honey Crisp apples at a small stand by the side of the road. They were better than candy!

One more half an hour movie, and we were at the quaint, charming, vintage (you could use the term old school if you want to, I prefer quaint)

Maple Lane Resort in Empire, Michigan where we had reservations to stay.

The Carriage house we stayed in had a back porch swing!

Gratefully, we were able to play outside on the swings and roast marshmallows before the heavy rain started.

They had these cool, tire swings shaped like horses!

Darling Sterling.

We tried roasting marshmallows with a Whopper chocolate candy inside.

Tastey, but I think next time I'll try a Milk Dud.

Sticky goodness.

Then we headed in for pajamas, watching "Cash Cab" on TV, and playing our new favorite family game, "Skip Bo."

With the smell of the fire, the rain, pot pies for dinner, and card games we felt like we were in a cabin, and we basically were.

In the morning the weather was too cold and wet to go canoeing as we had planned so we ended up doing puzzles in the 'Gathering Room' while Daddy loaded up the car and checked out.

We stayed in a the lower level of the

"Carriage House"

which was apart from the regular motel rooms and more importantly it had beds for everyone (which is a big deal for us, normal hotels don't take us anymore! They say we need two rooms for a party of 6! Six is a party, that's for sure).

 

Ry and the Skip Bo table 

(Ellie won again by the way. She has her dad's math mind). 

 It also had the perfect location!

After checking out we went on our favorite part of the trip,

Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.

As we pulled up to pay the $10 fee for the drive there was a sign that said,

"Free Fee Day!" Sweet, we'll take that!

 
The lookout points were breathtaking.

 They overlooked Glen Lake and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, which are miles of sand dunes right on Lake Michigan.

 The dune just over Lake Michigan looks like a blast to run down, but my neighbor's say that it's a 'bear' (no pun intended) to climb up, and every year, despite the signs that say not to go down the steep dune, they have to rescue people who can't get back up!

Dune jumping, a boy's paradise.

 Sterling thought the wind was hilarious! He was loopy with giggles!

Lake Michigan.

 Despite the wet sand, my adventurous kids and I took off our shoes and did the Dune Climb!

The best part of climbing up is running down!

It was seriously such a blast.

The view from the top was amazing! Lake Michigan on one side, Glen Lake on the other.

 

Once wasn't enough, Rob took them up for a second run down.

That wasn't enough either. Ryan, Ellie and I went up a third time and climbed the dune higher than the one in the picture too.

Seriously the most fun I've had in a long time. I highly recommend it.

 After homemade ice-cream in downtown Traverse City, I busted out the surprise new movie I had bought for the trip, "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue" which was so good the kids watched it twice on the drive home while I read out loud to Rob and enjoyed watching the colors blaze past us.

This was our kind of trip. We love escaping daily life to the beauty and majesty of nature. It was rejuvenating to have time away from everything to just enjoy being together.