Halloween 2009

After trick-or-treating, we went to the firehouse in Mackinaw for a little parade. Of course, the highlight for Ryan was hanging out on the firetrucks!!


Alaina went as a cat this year, and Ryan sort of went as a fireman. He refused to wear the fireman's coat, but did wear a shirt with a firetruck on it, plus the hat and boots. Close enough!

Fall Fun

Carving the "daddy" pumpkin. We had a pumpkin family of 4 by the end of the week.



This ended up being our Christmas card photo for the year. This was one of the few years where we actually got the entire yard raked before the snow set in. If you've seen our yard, you know why!!!


Ackerman's Farm outside Morton.

Friday Night Lights

The kids loved going to Dad's games on Fridays nights..........


.....loved playing on the field after the game......


......but not so much with the actual WATCHING of the game. I think they're playing with Lego Racers here. Or chasing a bug. Or maybe drawing up a new play for the offense.

First Day of Pre-K

Alaina's first day of Pre-K. No nervousness this year! She couldn't wait to go. This year there are 4 boys and 4 girls in her class.

Fishing at Heritage Lake

One of our favorite pastimes this summer....fishing! We mostly caught bluegill and the occasional sunfish. Alaina caught her first little bass on her new Barbie fishing pole. In fact, the pink Barbie pole worked so well, Matt even used it sometimes when no one was looking ;-)

State Fair

On August 14, I took the kids to Springfield so Grandma and Grandpa Waz to take all their grandbabies to the State Fair. I believe this was the 3rd annual for this event. Grandpa sprung for the wristbands for the rides this year...good call. A little hot that day, but the kids had a blast.



Clockwise, starting at the lone boy.....Ryan, Grandma Wasilewski, Aunt Marissa, Malia, Alaina, Marin.



Alaina and Ryan on the sky ride.



Alaina on the pony ride.



Ryan liked the pony ride for the first few laps, but then started to cry and I took him off. I think maybe his saddle started to shift and it scared him.



Malia and Ryan. This was by far Ryan's favorite ride.



Ryan's first taste of cotton candy.



Cotton candy hands. Nasty.



Alaina and Marin on a "big kid" ride. I have a cute little video clip of this, but the file was too large to upload here, so I have it on Facebook instead.



Little kid roller coaster.



One last photo on the way out, with our souvenirs courtesy of Grandpa!

Bears Training Camp

On August 12, I took the kids to Grandma and Grandpa Petersen's house for the day, and Grandma took us all to Bears Training Camp in Bourbonnais. Everything was free, including parking, admission, kids area. Of course they route you through the souvenir area to get in, though. We noticed they had a TON of Grossman jerseys on clearance if anybody wants one....haha!



Ryan trying the obstacle course.



Free train rides.



I think Ryan was the smallest kid on this obstacle course. He had several people cheering him on. He made it!



Go Bears!



Everyone was eager to check out the new QB. The place was pretty full. This was VERY zoomed in.

Our first official family vacation!

We took our very first family (mini) vacation June 9-11 to St. Louis. We stayed at the Drury Inn/Convention Center. Very nice and family friendly. Loved the free, HOT breakfasts in the morning. And of course the pool was a hit. Ryan even got in the water, which is a first for him. Here are a few of my favorites from our little trip.

The above photo is the only picture I got with the Arch in it, since my camera battery died while we were downtown.



Matt and Ryan at the Spaghetti Factory for dinner the first night. The kids were well behaved all 3 days.



Alaina and me at dinner.



I love this one of Matt holding Ryan up to look out of the Arch. He loved looking at all of the cars down below, of course! Wheels!



Great shot of Alaina standing next to a sleeping hippo at the zoo.






The zoo itself is free, but for $20 our whole family got unlimited train rides around the zoo, carousel rides and children's zoo admission. Totally worth it. We also got to pet the stingrays at a special exhibit. Alaina and Matt got to feed them, while Mom attended to Ryan who absolutely freaked out when the largest stingray in the whole pool came up out of the water just inches from his face. It was awesome.....I mean....poor Ryan!



Cheeseballs!



The penguin exhibit was my favorite because it was nice and COLD....but Alaina looks like she's had enough.



The second night we took the Metro to Union Station and ate dinner there. Alaina lost her first tooth in a Subway sandwich! Good thing the Tooth Fairy found her way to our hotel room.





The 3rd day we went to the Magic House before leaving town.

Ryan's 2nd Birthday

FYI - It takes A LOT of red food coloring to make a fire truck cake. We almost had a pink fire truck after an entire bottle of coloring. Thankfully a friend gave me some more red that night.



Ryan actually liked to wear the birthday hat, although this picture isn't very convincing.



Opening presents. Aunt Marissa had the hit gift, the toy police car that he wouldn't let anyone touch for about.......oh, wait, we STILL can't go near it or he has a FIT.



After his piece of cake was gone, he actually tried to eat the candle. And more than 1 bite, too, so apparently the first bite wasn't THAT bad.

Toddler Antics

Okay, so I realize this isn't the WORST thing that could happen by any means. I mean, it could be marker, baby oil, flour, a lot of things. But I really love the way Ryan ignores my questions and tries to charm his way out of it. I'm a sucker for it too. Maybe he does have some of his Dad's DNA after all!

Easter 2009

Easter egg hunt at the lodge. After 3 yrs of only getting a few eggs, Alaina has figured it out! She starts at the opposite end of the lawn and cleans up!!



Alaina sprinting down the hill to beat some poor infant to the eggs. haha. It was age 0-4 in her section, so a little unfair for the little ones, like Ryan. But Ryan was OK with just a couple eggs anyways.



It was a little windy, but a great day for an egg hunt.