Traverse City in August.

Our family vacation this year was spent on Rennie Lake, just outside of Traverse City. The home we stayed in was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the lake wasn't as great. We've nicknamed it "Muck Lake" since taking a step in it revealed that you'd sink practically up to your knees. We ended up finding a really nice public park in Traverse which is where we went to swim, play, and bbq.

Here's the walk out to Muck Lake. On the bright side, they had a nice, sandy beach with a fire pit that we got to use.


Here's a pic of the house from the road. Really a gorgeous place.


Here are my little sweethearts on the porch.


Here's Linc enjoying a s'more made for him by his mommy. The kid has my love of treats!


Cassie in the water...


And Cass on the swings...


All in all we had a great vacation. The weather was good nearly every day (not sweltering like it has been in Livonia). We had fun with Yia Yia and Papou and are grateful for their help with the kids during the trip. Vacationing with two little ones just isn't all that relaxing since they have endless amounts of energy. We're already looking forward to another vacation in, what, another 365 days. The countdown begins...

To check out all of the pics (unedited) from our vacation, go to Snapfish at: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2705516023/a=148984633_148984633/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

we like to eat!

I don't know why but it cracks me up to see a little kid eating big people food. Cassie has recently gotten the hang of taking bites from food, like pizza, watermelon, corn on the cob. Less for us to cut up, which is nice. She's really becoming a big girl...and this girl surely likes to eat.

Here she is with a big slice of watermelon...


and enjoying corn on the cob...

and here is Linc trying to take a mammoth bite of pierogies...i think he did actually get 'em all in his mouth at once. Yes, this is what dinner is like for us. Always some sort of competition for Linc. Who can eat more? Who can eat faster? Who finished first? Who gets a treat?

4th of July at the zoo.

This year on the 4th of July we spent the day with the animals at the Toledo Zoo. We had never been before and thought it'd be fun. It was a hot day, but we had a good time nonetheless.

We were most excited about the elephant exhibit since the Detroit Zoo doesn't have one. We all loved seeing these big guys.

And then we liked to pretend to be an elephant ourselves. Below, Linc is seeing what it's like to look through the eyes of an elephant...

And here is Cassie practicing her roaring skills with the Tiger head.

And here are dad and Cassie checking out the elephants.

summertime fun in the backyard.

Summer is flying by and it sure has been a hot one! Typical weekends for us include yard work and playing in the sprinklers. Here's what those things look like in the Gough house.

Linc loves to help cut the grass. Here he is gathering some real grass clippings to mow with his mower.

And here he is ready to throw the clippings in the camera lady's face!

Bubbles are always a good time as well. Here, Cassie and Yia Yia are having fun together.

And this is Linc trying to blow the biggest bubble ever.


Linc loves running through the sprinkler, while Cassie isn't all that fond of it. I think it's the freezing cold water. Cass prefers to play in a little bucket of water with her hands and feet instead. Below you can see Lincoln trying to coerce Cassie into running through the sprinkler with him.

She did try it out when we turned it down super low. So cute.

four.

Happy 4th Birthday, my baby boy (yes, I'll be saying that forever...he'll always be my baby boy)!

Pics from Linc's birthday celebration...

Toy Story cake. To Infinity and Beyond.

This year, Linc got off of his chair and walked around to the side of the table to get a better angle on the candles. Nice work, buddy.

One of his gifts was a weed whip. When he was done opening gifts, this is the one he wanted to play with right away. The rest of the kids went back to playing baseball in the yard while Linc proceeded to weed whip the entire backyard just like his daddy does. Too, when he first started using it I went over to see how he liked it and he said, "Mom, it's not cutting the grass." I had to explain to him that it was a pretend toy and that a real weed whip is too dangerous. I think he was slightly disappointed but continued on with his yard work anyway. Cute, cute, cute.

Here he is with his new Lightning McQueen bike. He picked it out at Toys R Us. It was the first bike he saw and the only one he even wanted to entertain buying even though there was a Spiderman bike and a yellow bike (one of his favorite colors). It was this one all the way. He was so excited that he rode it all the way through the checkout.

Here are Linc and some of his birthday party gang. I'm not exactly sure where Linc got his bada-- pose. (!)

Here he is the next day (on his actual birthday) eating some leftover cake and showing us just how old he is.

ahh...the outdoors.

We love spending time outside and are so thankful that we've had some lovely spring weather. Actually for a while there it felt completely summer like. We enjoyed every moment we could.

Here is Linc on his swing set. Our goal this summer is to get him to pump his legs on the swings so we don't have to push him all the time. He's working on it.


Here, little sister is pushing big brother in the Cozy Coupe. They seriously had a ball with this for the longest time. It's so nice when they enjoy each other's company.

Little sis and big bro lounging together on the patio.


While Linc enjoys playing in the sprinkler (and stopping for a quick drink)...

...Cassie enjoys making mud pies and then chasing after the camera lady.

mommy's day.

Lincoln's class did a wonderful little Mother's Day program last week. Each child got to come up and deliver a line about mom's (scary stuff for 3- and 4-year olds). Lincoln's line was something like "Mommies take good care of us." Of course when he got up to the front of the room, he nervously stood there playing with his lips and giggling. He barely got the words out of his mouth. But it was cute nonetheless. I personally despise public speaking so I don't fault any of the kids who were frightened up there. For the one or two who went right up and delivered their line, well, I commend them.

The class also sang two songs. You can see Lincoln below dancing and singing.

And here are my two beauties. I am so lucky to be thier mommy.