cedar point

months ago i was talking to justin about cedar point. he's never been so we decided to plan a trip once jessica and he were back in michigan. we really only had a couple of dates to pick from and we ended up going on sunday which was the last day of the season. for whatever reason, they have found that most people don't like riding roller coasters in the snow. so after having a surprise welcome home party for jessica on saturday, we all woke up way too early on sunday and put on our winter coats, hats and mittens and headed to our friend bobby's house.
bobby owns a limo company so we were able to use one of his limos for the trip. jessica, justin, dave, myself, tina taylor, bobby and brianna flowers and mallory artman all piled in and headed off around 7:45am. but first, a stop at the tim horton's drive-thru was needed for those coffee addicts, and believe me, the person at the drive-thru and all those behind us weren't so happy to see us. poor dave had to do all the ordering and even had to get out of the car to get everything from the window. we learned our lesson and when we were headed home, we just went inside the restaurant:


bobby has a rule that he won't stop for bathroom breaks, and i'm so totally down with that. however, he ended up stopping anyway for those that really had to go. i was glad i went inside since the hardees was now serving blueberry biscuits which has now become my most favorite saying "great blueberry biscuits!" hanging outside the rest stop. mallory, tina, justin, jessica, bobby and brianna:
bobby tried getting a driver for us so he could ride in the back with us, but it didn't happen. maybe next year. thanks for driving bobby! i love the expressions on all three of their faces in this picture:
we finally made it and the great pumpkin lady and black crow were there to welcome bobby and brianna:
mallory, bobby and brianna in line for the rapture:
i don't go on rides that spin around. and for whatever reason, everyone else thought it would be a great idea to ride on the monster. so i stood back and took pictures and tried not to puke just by looking at it:

this one is just a reminder for mom that, JOHN DENVER IS DEAD:
tina, jessica and justin at the "hitchin' post" in line for the maverick. it just opened this year, so the line was the longest out of any of the rides. probably about an hour and a half, which would have been doubled if it were the summer. it was well worth the wait though, cuz that ride was great. even jessica agreed after she almost puked from fear while in line. oh, and jessica later lost this hat going on the iron dragon of all rides. they tried finding it, but it was never recovered:
bobby and dave waiting for the maverick:
justin after the maverick. i'm totally buying him that hat for christmas:
so i went to cedar point 2 years ago as a leader for a church youth group. i went on every roller coaster except the top thrill dragster. the kids begged me to go on it and they all went on as soon as we got there. after all day of begging me, i finally decided i'd do it. why not? i go on everything else. but the line was so long and we didn't have enough time. i wasn't that heartbroken. so this year we go, and tina and the boys can't wait to get on this thing. once again i decide against going. at the time they were only taking 7 people in each car so it would have been a super long wait. everyone decided to wait until later in the day to go. after talking jessica into going on several roller coasters that she swore she would never go on, i decided i had to take my own advice and go on the dragster. so at the end of the nite, in the dark, i finally rode on top thrill dragster.
this ride is incredible. there are grandstands that people sit in to watch this thing take off. the whole ride only lasts 17 seconds. it goes from 0 to 120 miles per hour in 4 seconds. it shoots you basically straight up and then you come pretty much straight down. it wasn't so much the hill that scared the crap out of me as it was the speed. but just as i knew would happen, i loved it and will be going back on it again at least once next year. maybe i'll even talk jess into it.

here it is. top thrill dragster. in the dark. i mentioned i went in the dark, right?!:
dave rode in the very front car and somehow kept his hands up the entire time. he said it actually hurt at times to keep them up. that's dedication:
tina and myself waiting for the light to turn green:
dave was able to get this picture right when it was taking off. insanity i tell you:
after a long day, here we all are. jessica, justin, tina, brianna, mallory, bobby, dave an myself:
out of all of the roller coaster jessica rode, i think i'm most proud of the fact that she is finally eating MEAT!:

i think i forgot to mention that brianna just turned 9 years old. she went on everything except for the top thrill dragster. that girl is a machine! we all had an amazing time and have already talked about next year's trip. i highly suggest going late in the season like this. the lines were short and it was so nice being able to wear jeans and sweatshirts. the nite got a little cold, ok, maybe a lot cold, but it closed at 8 so we weren't out there in the cold dark for too long.
thanks, mom and dad, for watching the boys. thanks again bobby for driving, thanks teens and boys for getting me to ride dragster. thanks cedar point for the buy one get one free cotton candy. thanks mallory and brianna and bobby and dave and tina and justin and jessica for going and for making the day super duper!

this just means winter is right around the corner

it's fall time here in michigan which means only one thing. winter is coming. and we're not looking forward to it. but before winter comes there is raking to do. hayden has been asking me for weeks now if there are enough leaves on the ground to make a big pile. finally, there were. so after his bowling league on thursday, jessica, justin, hayden, talan and i all went outside to rake and play in the leaves. justin had never raked leaves before as he lives in florida. i'm sure it's the most exciting thing he's ever done. it was great to have someone to help me out. thanks for the help, justin! i can't wait to have you come over and shovel my driveway and scrape my car off this winter!

i think justin was asking hayden "what the heck is this thing?":
so hayden demonstrated what to do. although, for whatever reason, he thought the best place to make a big leaf pile to jump in was on the concrete:
ahhh. he gets it now:
jessica helped too. she made sure talan and dante were well taken care of:
talan's first fall. autumn i mean, not as in falling over:

hayden liked to eat the leaves his first year too. it's like a family tradition:

the piles were formed and the fun began:




he was not so happy to find out we had to bag the leaves for the compost man that was coming the next morning. we told him we would put him in the bag and the compost man would come and get him. the threat didn't work. he begged us to let him sleep out there in the bag. "i'll stay warm in the bag" he told us. i thought about it, but for whatever reason, decided against it:
and now, 4 days later, we have a bunch of new leaves to rake. maybe tomorrow....justin, whatcha up to tomorrow?!

the "pumpkin patch"

we waited to go get our pumpkins until jessica came home. so on monday, after a big family dinner, we all headed out to pick out our pumpkins. the past several years dave and i have gone to basically this house that sits on 8 mile. the front yard has pumpkins spread out all over and they have all those blow up halloween decorations. so it's not really a pumpkin patch, but it's also not picking a pumpkin out of a box at meijer either. i'm not sure how happy the employees would be at meijer is i stuck both of my kids in the box filled with pumpkins for some photographs.
so anyway. they didn't have super big pumpkins so we got the biggest one we could find hoping that we'll be able to shove talan in it for a few pictures once we have it all scooped out. hey, hayden had to do it, now it's talan's turn.
hayden, once again, was terrible about getting his picture taken. he was too busy running from dancing decoration to spinning bats inside a globe decoration to giant blow up pumpkin decorations. i did manage to get a couple though. at one point he just said "but i'm tired of getting my picture taken." you think he'd be used to it by now.
the carving will commence on monday evening. so expect to see pictures shortly after that. for now, here's pictures of the great pumpkin patch on 8 mile.

hayden refused to sit next to them:
at least i have one that will cooperate with the camera:

look! actually a picture with hayden in it:
rainah and talan:
talan looks like he has the vampire hair going on in this picture:
they both pretty much have the same look on their face:

hayden just wanted to play with all the decorations. something we have to do whenever we go to target. he has to push EVERY button in the halloween isle:
this was the best i got:

finally, life will be back to normal

we have been counting down the days until jessica came home from haiti since she left back in early may. hayden and grandma made a chain and hayden would rip one off every morning and get all excited about how few days were left.
jessica's flight got back to michigan at 10:05pm on sunday evening. we all had told jessica that jenn would be coming in from grand rapids on monday and i would come over to the house with the boys after hayden got done with school. instead, we all decided to surprise her and show up to the airport. mom and dad waited for her at the gate as we all hid around the corner. we had hayden run up behind her to give her a hug as we all followed behind him. i tried to take some pictures but they turned out pretty dark and grainy. i'll probably keep them forever for myself, but they just weren't worth posting. she was so surprised to see us all and we were all so happy to be able to just hug her once again.
hayden skipped school on monday and we all hung out at mom and dad's house with jessica all day long. we saw some of her many pictures and heard a few stories. it really is inspiring to see everything she did for those people. i know that they will all miss her, but we certainly are glad to have her back home.
i'm so excited to have life back to normal again. i can't wait for catan nites with jessica now involved and to see her once again just falling asleep on my couch when we have nothing to do. and i'm most excited that the boys have her back in their lives.
welcome home, jessica. you will never know just how much we really missed you.

minutes before running out to jump in jessica's arms. this is the card hayden made for jessica:
getting to see the babies for the first time since they were 1 and 4 months old:


this is more like it:

super bowl

friday nite ledco had a bowling nite to say goodbye to a fellow co-worker who was leaving. i brought the boys up so we could all get our bowl on again. i realized that i really wish hayden didn't have bumpers in the league that he's in on thursday's. it took him a little bit to warm up, but by the end he was bowling better than several of the adults. i'm putting him on the bowling circuit soon. talan just hung out and was passed back and forth between people and eventually he just fell asleep in his car seat.

what form:
and again i say, what form:
if the ball went in the gutter he'd turn around and yell "ahhh, come on!" it's scary how much like me he is:
when he'd knock a bunch of pins down he did this intimidation dance that i can't even describe. he stuck his lips out like in the picture, he did this crazy "come and get it" type gesture with his hands and he moved sideways in a circle like a crab. he had everyone laughing until he milked it a little too long like he usually does:
end of the nite scores. we prepaid till 8pm so we weren't able to finish out the game. had hayden closed one of his next frames he would have gotten over 100. i wasn't doing to shabby myself:

fun in the tub

tonite was bath nite in the skiver house. dave usually takes care of hayden and i take care of talan. the past several times i have said, yeah, we probably won't be able to bathe talan in the sink anymore, and tonite was definitely the last time for that. he likes to just put himself up with the help of the faucet and knobs and sprayer and at times it looks like he is about to pull himself completely out. not to mention the splashing this kid does. the kitchen was soaked. so i guess from now on he'll be in the little tub placed in the big tub, or perhaps he's even ready to move into the bath spinning seat. most of these pictures didn't come out so great because of the all splashing he was doing. so there were lots of unfocused ones. this is basically what he did the whole time:



while i was taking pictures of talan dave ran in and said "where's the camera? can i use it?" so i handed it off and he showed me what they were doing in the bathroom. please know that hayden did not pee in the water. it was simply a crayola color tablet. we limited him to one color tonite vs. the 7 colors he used the other week which made the water look black: