WET

Aaahhh, Greencrest. Our beloved street back in Michigan. We moved there blindly, just picking a place on Craigslist and hoping for the best, never realizing that the best was exactly what we were getting. We moved into a horrible duplex in a great neighborhood that happened to be right next to two awesome duplexes, filled with four amazing families that became some of our best friends. When the Oversons moved back to Utah after our first year there, we took over their spot. Our apartment is the one (with the red door there on the side) that you can see in the picture below.

 

 We shared a wall with the Johnsons, easily the best neighbors you could ever have. We also had the Phillips and Seedalls and then for the last half year, the Hutchisons and the Olivers. But let's talk about the Johnsons. ANGELA! I miss them so so much. Eleanor still talks about Zach and Grant all of the time. 

Here is a shot of them on their door step.

 

  Angela and I were both expecting little boys at the same time. 

That would be Winston and Baby Bennett.

Winston's first best friend.

  And we can't forget Timmy!

 

 One day after a flash storm we had some awesome puddles outside. Despite having just had a bath and being ready for bed, Eleanor had to go out to jump in them. She honestly believes that every puddle must be jumped in, like it's some strange requirement. I have no idea where she picked that up but it's kind of cute, so we let her get on her boots and head out. The beauty of Greencrest is that if you take the kids outside, it is highly likely that the neighbors will join you. Grant and Zach hurried out to splash around with E.

 

 Zach on the bit of lawn that floods.

 

 Grant!

 

Um, Zach dear... oh never mind.

 

Winston came out to see what all the fuss was about.

 

Eleanor no! Oh well. Yeah, so much for freshly washed hair. Again, where do they come up with this stuff?

Soaked.

We have so many wonderful memories from our shared lawns. We miss those happy days in East Lansing, but are happy to be moving on as well. More on that later. So much more catching up to do. Seriously, I am still so behind, it's lame. 

Cinco de Mayo 2012

I know, May? Ugh. I thought I was so awesome getting caught up. Oh well. Back in Michigan, back in May, Greencrest threw a fairly impromptu Cinco de Mayo party. Impromptu as up until the day before, I kind of thought we shouldn't do it. I initially wasn't super excited about the idea of semi-hosting a party 12 days before we had to move, but ended up so glad we did. It turned out to be so fun and such a great chance to hang out with some of our favorite people one last time. And an opportunity to eat pot-luck Mexican is always worth the push. The only bad part was that no one was really in charge of getting the word out, and so a few people never got invited and that sucked. Things like that eat me up for ages afterwards, so, sorry to those who slipped through the cracks.

 Clayton enjoyed a bocce tournament with the guys in the front yard.

 

 Timmy and Angela got a piñata, because that's what they do.

 Eleanor holding onto her sweet Angela.

 Grant at bat, and about twenty waiting to go.

 Little Winston!

 I love this face, I can hear the exact noise he makes in my head.

 Sweet Kins was sad about something.

Some of my favorites! Delicia and Laurie!

 And Amy and Del and Kaylie!

 And Kim and Jody!

 And Alyce!

 And Jacqui!

 And Liya and E. Eleanor is sad about wanting punch, as you can see by her distraught face and clutching of pitchers.

 The guys after bocce. Chad, Clayton, Steven, John, Baby Bennett and Timmy.

 We love the Coupes!

 So much so, that Eleanor thought she could drive them home.

When driving wasn't an option she chose to ride on Reagan's lap instead. You can barely see little Alyce behind her.

So the point of this post is that I am missing all of my Michigan people. I am ready for next May and the one after that when they all finish school and head west, closer to us.

Ann Arbor April 2012

 In our last weeks of living in Michigan, we wanted to check out a few last things. One I had my heart set on was the Wave Field at U of M in Ann Arbor. It was designed by Maya Lin, the same woman who designed the Vietnam Memorial in Wash DC. We decided to drive down on one of Clayton's rare free afternoons to check it out. Here are two shots from the internet, campus was mainly closed for the day so we couldn't get up into a building for a cool picture like this, but we enjoyed it from the ground.

 Winston freaking loved it. He was a crawling maniac back then and basically just zoomed from the second we set him down until we left.

 There's E!

 Cuties.

 It wasn't easy for them to crawl up the hills,
but they eventually made it.

 So happy!

 Me and Win.

 Still crawling.

You can barely see Eleanor's head over the crests.

 Clayton and Win at the edge of the field.

 After the field, we headed off campus and into town to check out Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger. It's been featured on a lot of "Best Of" lists, most notably Diners Drive Ins and Dives. Go Guy! You wait in a crazy long line with two kids thinking it's probably not worth it, but it is. It's dang good. 

Here are my guys.

 And their girls.

After a quick tour around campus and town we headed home for more studying. Finals are the worst!
P.S. If you were curious how they mow it, as I was, here is a link!

E's Teeth

 Poor Eleanor, she has inherited her parent's teeth. Clayton and I both have crappy teeth, but since we are a genetic jack-pot for everything else, we figure it's not such a bad draw. (You know I'm joking, right?) Anyhow, sweet E has had a bit of erosion between her two top teeth so I finally got her to the dentist. That seemed like the biggest ordeal in the world to me, it took several tries weeks apart just to get an appointment. The only dentist that took our poor-student insurance is booked months in advance. Ugh. So she finally goes and is a total champ. In behavior, not in cavities. No, she is riddled with cavities, or at least it seems like it. We brush and brush, but what can you do? With little kids they have two options for fillings: put them under and do them all at once or do 2 at a time with traditional shots. Ugh, ugh, ugh etc...

 

 Any cavity makes you feel like the worst mom in the world, I can't believe I am even posting this except she is so dang cute in these pictures. These were taken at her initial check up.

 We chose to try the traditional route first and see how she did. So we went back to our dentist and she gets in the chair all happy and ready to go. Then she starts asking loudly, "Where is Dr. David Flint? Is Dr. David Flint over derr?" She uses his whole name each time (I guess I did too.) and the whole office was dying at how cute it was. I know it's smug to write that, but come on. It was pretty freaking cute. She's just so tiny!

So my little sweetie pie gets TWO shots for one filling and did amazing. A few tears at the shots, I mean, come one- it freaking hurts. She cried too. Oh ha ha ha. I know, old joke- but come on! It freaking hurts! We head home with her new Jasmine polly pocket doll and are told to not let her bite her tongue. Ummm, ok. Cause kids are great with that kind of thing. I remember being 8 and chewing a hole in my cheek. What chance does a 3 year old have? 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Want to see something gross? 

.

.

.

.

.

.

Remember this?  It might rival it. 

.

.

.

.

Basically, she bit the crap out of it. We put in cotton over and over, but it was just too intriguing for her. By the time the numbness wore off, her tongue was like raw meat. So so gross. It took forever to heal and the picture below taken (a week after) is actually a really good shot of it, it had looked much worse. For this reason we didn't finish her other fillings the traditional way, ran out of time before our move and now we are in Utah and I have to get all new insurance and dentists etc... And I'm pretty sure we will go the anesthesia route.  In the meantime we are flossing like crazy, but the gross thing...

.

.

.

.

.

It's not pretty...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

You've been warned...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Ugh. Sorry, that I'm such a bad mom.