Vacation - Part 3 - on the water

We spent three of our vacation days on the water, which was very nice.  We did not have that many last year if I remember correctly.  Two of the days were spent at Torch and one was spent on Nick's cousin David's pontoon boat.  We actually went out on the boat with David's brother Andy though.  We all enjoyed swimming and being on the boat, it was just what vacation is about, relaxing.

 Floating in the river

 Hanging out on the boat with Emelia

 Walking in the river

 Driving the boat

 Right after a swim in Torch

 Beautiful

 Cute little duck family

 Silly Boy

 It is so nice to lay on the dock in the sun!

 Throwing rocks

 Such a ham

Vacation Part 2 - Beach Bums and Swimming

Half way though our vacation we went to a Beach Bums game and got to hang out with Katie and Nate.  We also had a birthday party for Dominic while we were up there and before the party we all went swimming.  The first part of the week the weather was not great, which made for a good laundry day on Tuesday, but luckily the second part of the week was much nicer.  The pool was really warm too, which helped.

 He waited the whole game for a ball and was very disappointed when he did not catch one :(

 Suntan

Aunt Katie and Vince 

 I did not get a good one of them at the game.

 Nice day for a swim

 The boys have not wanted to go in pools with out their big floaties unit recently.  Now they seem to love the water.  We plan on doing swim lessons soon, but wanted them to be ok going in the water first before lessons

Nick's cousin Andy and his family came too.  Emelia and Vince are only a few months apart in age and get along well.  Dominic loves to do what Emelia is doing too.

Schuss vacation part 1 - Air Show and Brighton

Again this year we decided to go to Schuss and it was great!  We love spending time up north in Michigan in the summer.  We don't get much time to enjoy the beautiful weather so we try to take advantage of it.  We went to the air show in Traverse again and this year it was the Thunder birds.  They were great.  It was a beautiful day.  That same day Jesi had a beautiful little by, Brighton Gregory.  He was born on the 4th of July.  What a great birthday, he will always have fireworks on his special day.  Brett - Brighton's dad - has his birthday on St. Patrick's day, so it looks like if they have more children, they will have to have them on a holiday. :)  A couple days after Jesi, Brett, and Brighton got home we took them dinner and the boys got to meet Brighton.  Vince and Dominic still love babies.  

 Dominic was practicing winking

 Ice Cream!

 Nick smiling like Dominic

 Watching the planes with Papa

 The new little family

 Sweet little toes

 Dominic's monster sized hand next to Brighton

 Dominic was a little nervous, but did very good holding him 

 Vince was not nervous at all and loved every second of it

 You can tell that Vince is a big brother, he was really good with Brighton

Aunt Jesi with all the boys!

Fathers Day

Everyday for Fathers Day the local small airport has a pancake fly in and this year we decided to check it out.  It was really neat.  We got to see a bunch of planes up close and watch them land and take off.  The boys also got to go in a Fire Truck.  

Dominic insisted on making a cherry pie for Nick for fathers day this year.  We have a book that is from about the 1950's and in it the daughter makes a cherry pie for the dad after a day filled with cooking and cleaning :)

Washington DC Part 2

The second day of DC we got a little smarted and decided to do something inside with air conditioning.  We decided to the Air and Space Museum.  The boys enjoyed it a lot.  On the way there we walked though one of the Smithsonian gardens and it was beautiful, I could have stayed there all day long.  It was a pretty quick trip, but well worth it.  We are all looking forward to going back someday.

 Garden area.  I really liked the flower pattern in the lawn

 Vince did a great job walking in the museum and staying next to us, Dominic was a little more difficult, but he was only two at the time.