Luckily, I Bought a Whole Gallon

When this happens...

It's a good thing that you are this cute.After painting my kitchen back-splash (Pictures to come shortly) I put the 2/3rds full gallon of paint on the table. 3 minutes alone and Eleanor knocked it on the ground. I got it almost all back in the can and not a bit of a stain on the floor. Thank you "wood" laminate! Let's just be glad the paint went over the table and not towards the computer that was inches away. Blessings in disguise right? Speaking of disguises, yes, those are glow in the dark skeleton pajamas. How could I not buy them?

Howell Grandparents Visit Pt. 2

Alright! Part two. We had such a wonderful time, did I mention that? We did something just about every day of our visit and the weather was beautiful. Perfect Michigan summer days, which might be some of the best summer days ever. Seriously people, you need to come see Michigan, but only in the next two years. After that I am sure it will cease to be awesome. But back to the visit.

My dad and Eleanor outside getting ready to go to Hawk Island Park.

Eleanor thinks she is cool beans when she wears sunglasses. She will walk up to whoever is around to make sure they notice and tell her so.

"Baby Benny, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I'm kind of a big deal."

It doesn't always have to be sunglasses.

Happy campers on their way to the splash pad.

1, 2, 3... wheeeee. Guess who never wants to walk normal again? Sometimes when it's just me holding her hand she starts counting. Sorry little one, no dislocated shoulders.

The splash pad was a touch windy and cold.

So she decided to lie down and soak up some sun.

Tanning is hard.

We decided to take out a paddle boat. It was delightful. A bit of a workout, but really neat.

After a few minutes Eleanor lost interest in being stuck on a tiny boat. She then had to be passed back and forth between the three of us. After the boat ride we let her swim in the lake. She loooooved that. I had to trick her to get her out of the water.

Back to the car.

On our last day together we went to Detroit and visited the Henry Ford Museum. It was so cool. There are a ton of things to see there besides cars. My dad is a true Ford-Man and probably knows more about cars than anything else, and he knows a lot of stuff. And he probably knows more about cars than anyone else.
He is definitely the person you want to go to this museum with.

Eleanor quickly found which buttons did things. Like this one.

It makes a train whistle sound. Eleanor remembered her "choo-choo" motions from her train ride back in Utah.

Rally round the mustangs.

There is quite a large aviation section. Here is a display that tells about the first flight attendants. It's hilarious what their job entailed. I suppose it's hilarious what it still entails. Asking and thanking people for trash, cleaning up "turbulence results" and unlocking people out of the bathroom to name a few.

I had to show that I still got the skills. Look, I still know how to hand someone a drink!

We were surprisingly successful at keeping Eleanor off of the priceless exhibits.

It was funny to have my dad start talking about each car that we saw. He would tell me something and then as we reach the car you see the sign and it says exactly what he just told me. I guess he could always get a job giving tours.

Ah. Now there is a family portrait.

Hello. This is the chair that Lincoln was shot in. Yes, the chair. And yes, that is the stain. Bizarro, no? The museum also has the car that JFK was shot in, so if morbid is your thing, stop on by!

Here is something more impressive, Rosa Park's bus. The brighter light on the left side of the shot is over the seat where she sat.

In the bus they play some really cool narratives and stories about the civil rights movement. The light above her seat shines brighter when her recording plays.

I have to say, you feel a little awkward sitting there. Like a little too privileged or white or something. I can't quite express it.
I can only appreciate that we live in the day and age that we do.

After the museum we went to Pei Wei's for lunch and then dropped my parents off at the airport. It was fun to have such a great last day together.

I am almost caught up! Can you believe it? Up next? Not much. We are back to the mundane day to day of Clayton being back in school and me puttering around the house with projects. I hope to post some "after" shots of our house so you can see what I've been obsessing about. Hint: Peacock blue.

Howell Grandparents Visit Pt. 1

On August 20th my parents visited us from Utah. We were so excited to have them come and play in our neck of the woods. They arrived very late in the evening so I had time to do stupid stuff like make cruise ship animals to welcome them. Here is an "elephant". Looks a little like a long nosed dog, but whatever. They got the idea.

How cute are they?

We didn't waste a minute of our time together. We started out the next day by visiting Potter Park Zoo. Eleanor hasn't been back since her birthday in March. It was a much more fun activity for her now that she is six months older.

The gang looking at the barnyard animals.

This might be one of my all time favorite pictures ever. The lion was in high form too, roaring up a storm for everyone to hear. It made Eleanor flinch each time. Cutie.

My dad and Eleanor with the giant giraffe sculpture.

Up close.

Eleanor loved spending time with my folks. She isn't used to that much attention at home, poor thing. My parents really dote on her. Here she is getting her nails done.

Nail polish doesn't taste so good.

Until you let it dry, then it's good eats.Grandpa and E had a special routine where she would run into their room and jump on the bed (a souped up air mattress). My dad would then "chase" her down and throw her on the pillows over and over. Sadly, once they left, she found we weren't exactly Johnny-on-the-spot with her game. Poor E.

One day when Clayton was in school, we drove up to Holland to visit Lake Michigan at Tunnel Beach. It has the most spectacular overlook, as seen here.

Eleanor has always loved the water. The Howells are a water bunch, so it was fun for my parents to enjoy this with her.

I think she loved playing in the sand with Grandpa almost as much as splashing in the waves.

He even built her a hot tub to enjoy. It was the best of both worlds. She spent the better part of our day in there.

Hi sparkles.

She also really, really liked the gulls that wander around. If only we had brought our french fries.

Walking back through the tunnel.

Capping off a great day by having your personal slave spoon feed you Haagen dazs.

My dad was enjoying his ice cream and Eleanor just went and got her
little chair and set up camp next to him.

Man, she has his number.

Note the backwards pajamas? We have a little undressing problem at night, so everything goes on backwards. Otherwise she wakes us up around 3 am because she is shivering in a corner of her crib after she's thrown all her blankets out. It's the most adorable and pathetic scene. A naked, shivering baby all tucked into the corner with her bum in the air. It broke our hearts, so obviously we needed to take steps to prevent it. Isn't it funny the things that become routines once you have a kid?
Part Two of Howell week will be coming up soon. I thought my computer had broken, it was broken for a few days, but I think I have it fixed. (Your welcome Adam! One phone call you don't have to man.) So I slowed down in my blogging goal, but I will try to keep going.