Easter, Michigan style

Happy Easter to everybody, hope you all have a great holiday and that the Easter Bunny visited your house. We have been having a great weekend, and even got 6 inches of snow to enjoy. Anna's sister is visiting with her two kids for the weekend, so we are having fun with cousins too!
Yesterday we have a little easter egg hunt outside. We had it planned ahead of time, and then of course it snowed the night before. We decided to still do it anyway and it turned out to be fun for all.

Here is a shot of all the kids getting ready to hung for eggs.


Pretty easy to find the bright colored eggs in the white snow.


Jayda showing off her basket of eggs and getting ready to go inside. It was fun, but too cold to spend hours outside like she might want to.



Happy Easter to all!

How do you spell relief?

How do you spell relief? I spell it: P-A-S-S-I-N-G B-O-A-R-D-S!!!!! As of today, I have officially passed all of my written, and patient dental boards!!!!! That means that after a few more small requirements for graduation I will get my degree and my dental license!

This past Sunday was the most stressful of them all- the patient portion of the boards. My main patient canceled on me the night before the exam, but luckily I had two good back-up patients that were willing to come in and they worked out perfectly. Such a relief to have it over and to have good results.

A trip to the Kalahari

Spring Break 2008! I know that sounds weird since it is just the beginning of March, but we had our "Spring" break last week (more of a mid-winter break if you ask me). We decided to take a little trip with several other families to the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. It is a huge indoor waterpark (largest in America I just found out). We stayed in the resort for 2 nights in some very nice and very spacious rooms. We got 2 "suites" that had 3 bedrooms each and stayed in them with 4 other families we know. It worked out great since they have full kitchens, 3 seperate rooms for sleeping, 3 seperate bathrooms, etc... Included of course are tickets to the waterpark and that is where we spent most of our time.

It is a well designed park with lots of different rides and thrills. It has something for everyone, even the adults. Lots of little slides for toddlers, some medium slides for older kids, bigger slides for teenagers and adults, wave pool, and even a surfing area where you can boogie board or surf on an indoor man made wave. The kids had a blast, and the adults did too. A great trip for all and a nice break from the winter in Ann Arbor.

Here are photos of the trip

Three of the lovely ladies and some children. You can see some of the wave pool and slides in the background.


More of our group.


A shot of some of us in the little kid pool with the little slides.


Even Addison loved riding on the slides. The water was just shallow enough she could crawl from the bottom of the slide around to the stairs and then go back up. We had to help her some or she would have rubbed her knees totally raw.


Jayda went up and down these little slides several hundred times. They were perfect size slides and perfect water depth for her to be able to play around in.


Cute girl ready to spend the day in the water.


Jayda and her good friend Ava were nearly inseperable in the waterpark.


Addison had fun, but not always. Her little friend Ethan decided to catch a ride in the stroller with her and took up all the space!


One of the coolest slides in the park. It started out in a narrow tube, then spit you out into a large bowl and you spun around 3 or 4 times before dropping out of the bottom into a pool 6 feet below. They had a similar one that you did with a group of 4 people sitting on a tube while you spun around and dropped out through the bottom. We referred to both of these as the "toilet" slides.


Amy, Kelli and Anna just coming out of the "group toilet" slide. If is fun to see adults laughing and smiling so much on a simple water slide, just goes to show how much fun it really is!

February update

Our blog updates are not as regular as they should be, but we figured it was time to finally add another update for you all now.
We have been busy with life as usual- kids, errands, preschool, housework, etc.... but what has really kept our minds busy is getting ready to move soon, thoughts of packing, finishing school, finding a place to live in Minneapolis, finding out a lot more about Minneapolis and what there is there, etc...
Todd only has 7 weeks of clinic left to finish all his graduation requirements and take his clinical boards. It is a little stressful, but will go quickly and then before we know it graduation will be upon us. Then it is time to pack up the truck and move out. We won't get too far ahead of ourselves though, there is still plenty going on here right now.

For Valentines day Anna planned a special surprise dinner for us all. She made a fancy dinner and set up the table with candles, gifts, and valentine themed items. She made us all go upstairs so she could suprise us all with the set up. It was quite nice and she did a fabulous job on the valentines day. Jayda thought it was pretty cool and kept saying how "fancy and special" it all was. You can even see she put on a "fancy" dress on for the dinner!






Addison put on these glasses the other day and thought she was the coolest thing to hit the planet. She laughed and crawled/walked around for an hour with them on. She looked like a nerd to me, but she thought it was the new hot style to be wearing.


Addison is starting to walk on her own now! She has been taking 5-6 steps at a time from one of us to the other, or to the couch. She does pretty well and is getting her balance down better and getting more confident. It is fun to watch her learn and see her get better every day. Go Addison!




Jayda was nice enough go with her dad to the Detroit boat show. Not that we are in the market to buy a boat, but it never hurts to dream right!



Free ride in a little toy boat



Jayda and her friend Dallin climbed in and out of almost every boat. They thought it was so fun to "drive" it, then sit in every seat, touch every button, then climb out and climb in the next boat and do the same. They did this for almost 3 hours!

Weather woes

Oh the weather outside if frightful, but heat inside is delightful.
For all of you that don't live in Ann Arbor, I just thought I would update you all on how cold and gloomy it is here. February is such a hard month to deal with. Cloudy gray days, only seeing the sun once a week if lucky, cold, cold, some snow, and more cold. This is about the view we get all day long- gray and snowy!


March is a better month, slighty warmer and the hope of Spring around the corner. We just need to make it to March now.

I looked up the current weather in Ann Arbor and Minneapolis today on weather.com. I guess I shouldn't complain too much about the current weather in Ann Arbor, look at the comparison below. Not looking great for better winters over the next two years for us.

Currently at 10:30am: Ann Arbor (AA): 6 degrees, feels like -17 with the wind!
Currently in Minneapolis: -15 degrees, feels like -38 (what does that really feel like, it's too cold to feel!)

The next few days are pretty much the same as this. Lots of negative numbers in Minneapolis, lots of single digits in AA. Oh well, I guess that is life for now!