JUNE

This place has gone largely abandoned.  Oops.  Such is life.  I have noticed one main change in the way we do life here as my baby is slowly turning into a little person - I don't take as many pictures.  When he was little, everything used to be an opportunity for a photo shoot.  Now he's so much more independent, that we aren't just observing things any more, we are deep in the action.   Which means fewer photos.  This will be evidenced below, shortly.

Anyhow.  I do feel like a quick recap of the rest of our year would be beneficial for, well, me.  So let's see.  The highlight of June was our summer vacation to South Dakota.  We did so much, it was quite awesome, though maybe just one day too long.

Highlights were the butterfly garden in Sioux Falls, Bear Country USA, Reptile Gardens, Mount Rushmore, and Keystone in general.  Deadwood was kind of dead for me, and a bit disappointing from what Byron had been expecting, but we made the best of it.  And saw a cool shoot out.

There may be an addendum to this post, with some of our instagram pictures, but since my computer is slowly dying, it won't be today.  Just know we had an awesome time and are pumped to check another state off our list of travel goals!

FAMILY VACATION

Even though through the majority of this year we've been focusing on saving for our adoption, we did want to make a family vacation a priority for us.  So how do we get the best vacation experience on a dime?  We go visit family, of course!  This year, we had a whirlwind week visiting two of my aunts and our best friends.  It always felt like we didn't have enough time in any place, but the time we did have was so much fun.  It was just what we needed!

First stop was South Bend, to visit my Aunt Nanny and Uncle John.  Our first stop was the zoo.  It was a beautiful day!

We also toured a chocolate factory, which I thought would be a highlight of the trip.  However, our boy was tired, and not at all interested in following instructions, so it ended up being kind of a flop.  Not to mention the chocolate factory we toured doesn't even make its own chocolate.  (Spoiler alert - it's shipped in from Chicago.)  Needless to say, we were very thankful we opted for the free tour.

We stopped at some playgrounds, took some walks around the neighborhood, and played with cool toys only an art teacher would have.  Mostly, we just chilled out and visited.  And at ice cream.  Lots of ice cream.  John even took us on a driving tour of the Notre Dame campus, which was so cool, especially to Byron.  It was an impromptu tour, and it was around sunset, so by the time we got to the cool buildings, it was pretty dark so I don't have many pictures.  Here's the one that I captured of the candle Byron lit in the grotto.

The next stop was to Troy to visit my other Aunt and her family.  The next few days were full of swimming in the pool, jumping on the trampoline, visiting parks, cooking fresh vegetables, and plenty of relaxing time.

The last night of the trip was spent visiting our best friends.  Ice cream, toys, and good conversation filled the few hours we had together.  The most hilarious thing happened though.  At our house, we don't really have any costumes for Mason to dress up in.  However, in the short time we were visiting, Mason LIVED in their Spiderman costume.  It actually caused several meltdowns when it wasn't his turn to wear it.  Who knew?  Guess somebody better get this kid a Spidey costume of his own.

We wish our vacation was much longer, of course, but in reality we cut it short a day and headed home early.  It was so nice to have a day to catch up on laundry, get groceries, and do any other last minute home things before rushing into another week back at work.  The memories made on this vacation (even the ones involving meltdowns) were great, and it just makes us eager to plan the next one.  Right now we're hoping to explore South Dakota next year, but you never know where the wind will take us by the time vacation is here again!

SAN ANTONIO - DAY 4

At last I've made it to the last real day of our trip. I bet you are wondering why I even try to consider this a craft/DIY blog anymore. Haha. Someday I will get back to that stuff.
So the final day of our trip was Sunday, and we had booked tickets to SeaWorld. We planned it for Sunday since it was supposed to be the best weather of the trip. In the morning it was a little overcast and even a bit chilly, so I was a bit worried, but fortunately the weather didn't come between us and our fun. It even got quite hot in the afternoon and I think we all left with pink cheeks. But enough about the weather and now for a little recap.
We started off checking out the dolphins.  Mason had actually fallen asleep on the way to SeaWorld (go figure) and so he was a little groggy while we watched the dolphins so we opted not to participate in the feeding. Plus it would have meant holding fish in my bare hands. I was perfectly content to watch.  But seeing these dolphins close up was so cool. This guy literally swam right by me. There is no camera zoom action going on here.  It was really this close!

Yeah, those boys of mine are pretty adorable. After the dolphins we made our way to the aquariums. I think this was highlight number one of Mason's day. He was in heaven and made so many fish noises. (Yes, goldfish was the first animal noise I taught him.) There was everything in here - penguins, sharks, tiny seahorses and jellyfish. This may seem a little sappy to you, but I couldn't help but think while walking through the aquariums of tropical fish and reefs, that some of these things were maybe never even intended for the human eye to see, being located in such deep water sometimes, but God still went to the trouble to make them so beautiful and colorful. Creation just gets me sometimes.
After the aquariums we finally got our act together and saw the dolphin show. It was a good thing, too, because I was starting to think SeaWorld wasn't going to be that cool. Oh no, it is that cool. The dolphin show, while I don't have any pictures, was amazing. It involved things you would see in Cirque du Soleil. I was so mesmerized, that's probably why I forgot to pull out my camera. This show made it all worth it though. I would highly recommend getting to the dolphin show if you ever go to SeaWorld.
I have to point out one other little fact about our day, so I don't forget. They had roller coasters there, which we obviously didn't ride since we were there for Mason, but he was obsessed with watching them. He thought they were choo-choos (trains), which he is also obsessed with. We would watch the roller coaster cars slowly climb up the hill, pause at the top, and then come whooshing down. Mason could probably have done that all day long.
At one point as we were walking, one of the staff was out with this bird (which I believe is a macaw). I literally said to Mason and Byron this is how you know I love him, because I HATE birds. But we went up and saw it.

What you don't realize is that about 10 seconds after this picture was taken the bird cawed really loud in my ear and I flipped. Ran away trembling is what some may have called it. And there Byron is, laughing away. Somehow I managed to recover from my very traumatic experience.
We also got the chance to meet some of the Sesame Street characters. Mason really wanted to go see them, and I was worried that after we stood in line to meet them he would be scared of them, but nope! We have one brave little boy on our hands. He loved it! I think he was even signing more to me when our turn was done.

Above, Mason enjoying his photo op with Elmo, Zoe, and the gang. Below we were watching the song and dance that the characters performed.

Mason begged to ride the carousel, but in typical Mason form, once we got on it he was less than thrilled. We ended up just riding on the bench because we really couldn't get off until the ride ended, so this is Mason's "get me out of here" face.

The last thing we did before we called it a day was to take in the Sea Lion and Otter show, but by then Mason had just about had it. We only stayed for half of it before we realized it was just time to get home. We walked the River Walk one last time, enjoyed dinner at an English Pub, and then made our way back home the next morning. So far, I'm calling this the best family vacation we have had to date. I definitely think it helped us to have a loose agenda with some places we wanted to scope out. Much thanks to this city guide that helped me find some cool places. (They have tons of other cities, too!) If we hadn't done a little research, we probably would have walked the River Walk every day and ended up a little bored. This trip has awakened in me a love for travel and I am very excited for all the adventures my family and I will go on in the future!

SAN ANTONIO - DAY 3

Day three.  My favorite day of the trip.  In the morning, we took our time getting ready for the day and then headed out to the farmers market that was being held in the Pearl Brewery area.  You know, the place I was obsessed with.  We got another chance to get some good coffee and awesome crepes for breakfast, and just enjoyed wandering around seeing what things were like.  It made me very excited for our own farmers market to start.
After that, we headed over to a kiddie amusement park.  This place was totally adorable.  We bought Mason a wristband and he got to ride as many rides as he wanted.  Here are just a few of the rides we tried. Yes, I was making a crazy face.

I love this last photo.  Mason is actually signing more.  He had such a great time.  And yes, that is a bruise on his cheek that he got a few days before we left.  Eventually though, it was clear that he was done with the stimulation and we headed out.  We drove over to the zoo, which was just a few blocks away, but in that short amount of time the boy passed out.  So we headed back to the hotel and stuck around the room resting for a few hours.  Later, we headed out for dinner and our nightly walk. And I got a little photo happy with the flora and fauna.

I showed my mom the last picture after we got home and she helped me pick out a similar plant for my garden.  I planted it last week, so we'll see if by mid-summer I have something that matches it.
There is only one day left to post about before we headed home.  But we saved the biggest and best for last - SEAWORLD!

SAN ANTONIO - DAY 2

On our second day in Texas, we headed out (though not too early) to find a little local book store that had a weekly story hour I thought Mason might enjoy. Twig bookstore is nestled in the Pearl Brewery development.  This is where my heart came alive and I became OBSESSED with everything I saw in this neighborhood.  There was a ton of modern architecture, but the plant life was amazing, too.  I was instantly dreaming of transforming our porch, our backyard, our lifestyle. But seriously.

Here are the two Stover men in front of the Choo Choo.  Yes, we rarely call them trains anymore.  We call them choo choos.  One of us was pretty thrilled to see this, even if the picture doesn't show it.

And then we happened upon this little city jewel.  The pipe was wearing a scarf! I have no idea what the inspiration for this was, but it was awesome. And then I got sad that I gave my yarn stash away because I wanted to knit a sweater for a pipe.

This next picture is my favorite picture of the whole trip, well, other than the pictures that include my husband or son.  I can only imagine that I sound silly when I talk about this, but I was head over heals for the industrial meets natural.  Give me a few years and then I'll post photos of my backyard and we'll see if I've achieved my version of paradise.

We went into the bookstore after stopping for pastries (aww darn) and Mason quickly got comfortable with the animals. Whenever we see a cute little raccoon stuffed animal, I can't help but force encourage him to play with it. But I don't think he minds.

We were eagerly waiting for story time to begin.  This picture below is just moments before Mason spilled nearly an entire cup of milk all over the floor - and himself!  Poor little guy. We reacted quickly, but we still totally made a scene. The thought running through my head was "I'll never see these people again.  I'll never see these people again." The only thing that made it slightly better was that it was vanilla milk.  So rather than stink like nasty warm milk, at least it smelled like vanilla!

After this, we went out shopping to an outlet mall, so there aren't a whole lot of pictures of that. No need to photograph me in my natural habitat...haha. We did do a bit of damage at the Gap outlet, and we also discovered that Mason has a love for ketchup. He was eating it plain, just licking it right off his finger!

On day three of the trip, you can bet I drug my boys back to my favorite little area!

SAN ANTONIO - DAY 1

It was time for the family to get away, and away we went!  Choosing San Antonio was not put through rigorous analysis by any means.  We knew we would be gone in early April, so we wanted to go somewhere warmer.  Florida was an option, but I feel like when we go to Florida I want to do it all (mainly Disney), and we just weren't ready for that.  We thought about Arizona, but for some reason, just settled on San Antonio. And I'm really glad we did, because we had an amazing time.
Our flight left first thing in the morning, which meant that we got up during what still felt like the middle of the night to get there in time. The flights were everything I could ask for.  I was armed with food, drink, movies, and toys to help Mason be as agreeable as possible.  And overall he handled the flights as well as I could have hoped.  We ended up getting to our hotel by lunchtime, so we grabbed something to eat and set off exploring.
This is the view from our hotel room.  Yes, the river is brown, but look at all that green!  Seeing the greenery was a needed change for me, and (you will see this from the rest of the trip) that it has become a new little obsession of mine.  I may have just this morning bought a new houseplant and planted something San Antonio-inspired in our front garden.

We walked around the neighborhood and the riverwalk.  Just look at how my little baby is turning into a little man!

One of the first things we found to do was explore a children's museum. Mason  enjoyed it very much.  And it wasn't very busy, either, so Mason pretty much had his way with any of the exhibits he wanted. Unfortunately one of us (me) had a little trouble figuring out the camera's white balance at first, so forgive a couple yellowish photos.

Lest you think Mason was tired of airplanes after his morning adventure, think again.  We seriously spent like 30 minutes playing in that plane. Toddler eternity.  I am very thankful that Mason got the opportunity to explore without too much hand-holding or stroller confinement.
After the children's museum, we continued exploring and found the Alamo.  Now, I have a few admissions about the Alamo.  First, I didn't know it was in San Antonio, and I surely didn't know it was in the middle of the city.  Yes, the whole city is build around this little treasure.  And little isn't a joke.  It was tiny! No, we didn't go in, but I totally imagined it to be bigger.  Really, my only knowledge of the Alamo comes from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  Please don't think less of me.

Those pictures aren't the best, but it is nice to have pictures that include Byron and me every once in awhile.  Mason is totally at the age where we end up with a lot of pictures of the side of his face or the back of his head.  After this, we walked the Riverwalk some more and then found a place to eat and went to bed.  I definitely think day two of our trip was my favorite, or at least one of the more memorable parts, so I'm excited to recount it up next!

SUMMER VACATION

When Byron and I were first dating, we discovered an unusual thing.  That is, that my family and his best friend hail from the same corner of the world.  More recently, we discovered that our nephew's fiance just so happens to be from the same place as well.  So when Logan and Brigitte got engaged, we decided to use their wedding as a chance to plan a family vacation, one I like to call the Stover Family Tour de Michigan.  We would be able to introduce Mason to family and friends, as well as do some fun stuff with the boy.  So that's what we did!  We just returned from about 9 days away.
The first part of the trip was spent in Western Michigan.  We attended Logan and Brigitte's wedding, which was right on the beach.  Of course, being new parents who are obsessed with our own, we took more pictures of Mason than of anything else. This is him in his handsome chambray wedding shirt.

We crammed in as much as we could during the few days we were in western Michigan. We took a trip to the Frederik Meijer Gardens.  A few days before our trip, I noticed Mason was starting to reach for the faucet any time I had the water on.  This little excursion confirmed my suspicion that this kid truly loves water.  It was the highlight of his trip!

Later that weekend, some of my relatives from Detroit (who we would be seeing later in the week) met us in Grand Haven and we enjoyed more water!

Another thing we got to do was introduce Mason to my grandfather for the first time.  Here is a nice little family photo.  This is my mom's dad (oh, did I mention my parents were there, too?)

The last thing we did in western Michigan was to go to the zoo with our friends.  And...I didn't bring my camera.  To summarize our zoo experience, a bird pooped on my head, I rode a camel, Byron petted a sting ray, and Mason didn't really notice the animals much, though he loved the waterfall (go figure).

The second half of the vacation was spent visiting our other relatives, who as I mentioned, live outside of Detroit.  During this part of the trip, we crammed in as very little as possible...my kind of vacation.  We tried to sleep in, though that is nearly impossible with an 11 month old who doesn't quite understand the concept of "summer vacation".  The major perk we got to enjoy was that my aunt and uncle have a pool.  It was so great! Guess who else thought so.  Yep, Mason.

The rest of the time was full of swimming, jumping on the trampoline, scootering, eating ice cream, shopping, and frothing coffee (I may have been addicted to that last one - I'm so getting a frother!).  We even got to see a neighborhood house fire, which I admit is very tragic and unfortunate but I have never seen anything like that in person before.  Mason did, however, want to end vacation with a bang, so the Friday before we returned home he sprouted a 102.8 degree fever, which later led to the diagnosis of two ear infections.  Of course they were his first, and we were miles from home, but we managed to find a great walk in clinic and pharmacy close by.  Phew!

Now that we are back at home (and ironically rested up) we can't wait to plan a vacation for next year.

And next time, I'll hopefully get more pictures!  Although if I had to take too many photos of any one subject, I guess I'm glad it was Mason!