Rounding out 18 months!

Ezekiel James is rounding out 18 months old this Friday!

He is growing and changing so fast and we are continuing to enjoy every stage! He continues to bless us more than I have ever thought possible! He is such a joyful little boy and he is so good at already passing that joy onto other people! Of course he has his melt downs and tantrums but I am feeling blessed to this point and they are always short and reletivly painless! I know some of you are saying, "oh just wait..." and that I will! I will take what we have and pray for the best moving forward! I know no child is perfect (and neither am I!) but I do my best to stay as patient as possible with him and not get frustrated, even tho it definetly does happen from time to time :-)

Ezekiel continues to talk up a storm! He LOVES letters/the alphabet and he now can identify the letter "O" which just blows my mind! Just the other day we were at Costco and we had him in the cart and on the handle of the cart it says "Costco" and he leaned forward and was looking at it and pointed to the "O" in Costco and said "O"! The other night he said his first 3 word sentence and it was after I got done changing his diaper and he said "Thank you mama"! How blessed am I! And he said it out of the blue too, without being promted or anything! On that note, he says "thank you" ALL the time, I think this is God blessing us for withstand the "NO, NO, NO" phase! lol! We were out for dinner this last friday night and when the waiter would bring anything over to our table Ezekiel would say thank you every single time! Its SO sweet; and he says it very applicably! Pretty much anytime one could say thank you he says it! He says a ton of words, I can't even keep up with all the words he knows anymore! One of my favs was from this last Friday; we got together with Steph and Toby, and a couple of our girlfriends and their babes, Carissa and Caleb and Katie and Lena. As we were walking out to the car Carissa said to Ezekiel, "Have a good day!" and he responded with "Good day!" Gosh he just cracks me up! My least favorite and quickest reminder that we need to watch what we say around him was 2 Sundays ago during the Vikings and Packers game Mike got frustrated with the Vikes (I think Ponder had just thrown another interception, shocker!) and Mike said "GOSH!" and like clock work, guess what came out of Ezekiel's mouth, you guessed it "GOSH!". Thankfully we don't swear, but still "GOSH" doesn't sound that awesome coming out of the mouth of your almost 18 month old! :-) He has offically named Grandpa Bear "PAH" and Grandma Bear "MAH" and he is also saying Uncle Joe, we continue to work on the rest of the family! Every where we go he is always saying hi to everyone and he will continue to say hi to someone until they say hi back! I love that he can make the crabbiest person smile by making them say hi to him! I love that he is already making a difference in the world, even if it is just something so small as saying hi to someone at the store! It may of just made their day!

He is starting to drop some of his sign langauge usage, but that is just because he is using his verbal language so much more. Sign language has been a huge life saver for us! I was just telling Mike the other day, what do people do when they don't know that their kid wants more or wants a drink! :-P Its nice to not have to just guess what he wants! And its cute to see him say/sign more when he is having fun doing something and wants to do more of it!

Ezekiel continues to be a great sleeper and a great eater the majority of the time! He has gotten a pretty handle on the fork and knife concept and insists on using them himself during meals! Which means our mealtime is getting slower and messier, but I guess how else will he learn!

He has several teeth coming in, so I am now afriad to stick my finger in and check on because last time I got bit pretty hard by some teeth that I didn't know where there! :-) Jaxon Bear probably remains as his favorite family member!

Though he has been quite giving of his "Jaxon Bear hugs" to the rest of us lately and I will take them all day long! He is continuing to love tractors, trucks, and books! Close second are his balls and the football! Recently we pulled out all of the Little People toys that Mike's cousin Helene so generously gave to us and he has been having so much fun playing with all of them, though the farm set and the animals are his favorite! He also love to watch Word World on PBS and Baby Einstein is still a favorite too, though it is so fun to watch it with him now because he will name all the different animals and say their sounds! He does this new thing where if something was there but now is gone he will shrug his shoulders and hold his arms out like where did it go. Lol! It's so cute!

He loves to play hide and seek, chase, and any thrill seeking activity that Dada comes up with! He also is still loving music and dancing along to the music! He has got some pretty sweet moves if I do say so myself! lol!

He also has taken a liking it coloring and finger painting. It's nice now when we go out to resturants because he can be occupied with coloring until our food comes!

The first finger painting experience was fun and he was a little unsure about it but created 2 masterpieces!

The Christmas Season has been beyond amazing and we are only half way through! I have always heard the saying "Christmas through the eyes of a child" and "knew" what it meant, but now I can say I fully understand it! I am loving every moment and new experience that he is encountering during this special time of year. My parents got us all tickets in the hot seats at the Holidazzle Parade and both Ezekiel and Toby LOVED it!

I think I took more time watching Ezekiel than I did watching the parade, it was priceless to be able to see the look on his face as he watched the floats go by!

I truly hope this becomes a yearly tradition for our family! He has loved seeing all the Christmas lights through out our house and through out the neighborhoods! We have driven around a couple times looking at lights, and he just "Oooo"s and "Aahhh"s while looking at them, it is so precious! He had a blast with our first real snowfall of the year this last Sunday! He wasn't overly opposed to bundling up and then when we put him in his sled and took him for a ride he enjoyed it so much!

He would ask for more anytime that we would stop!

 Then he had enough of that and wanted to get out and walk in it and he had a blast tromping through the snow and didn't want to go back home!

We got him a shovel so he could held Dada and Pa and that was fun but short lived! He wasn't too excited about tromping through the snow in the backyard that was up to his knees so Mike built a quick snowman for him and actually it looked more like a snow puppy! :-)

Later that evening we went over to Uncle Darek, Auntie Steppy, and Toby's house to try out some real sledding down the hill in their backyard! Both boys thought that was the best thing ever so needless to say we made several trips up the hill and back down again!

Though it was totally worth it to see the expressions on their faces! Can't wait to do it again!

Sorry for the long post again! Time just goes to fast and its hard to keep up with everything! This year again the thoughts that I wrote about in this blog, Mary, did you know?, continue to flood my mind! I won't go on about it as it will just be a repeat of that post! We are just beyond blessed by our little man!

If I don't get back here before Christmas, Merry Christmas to you and yours! We truly hope that this season blesses you as much as it is blessing us!

Playing catch up!

I have been such a slacker in the blogging world and I super sorry for that! Summer just took off like crazy and then starting to chase after a toddler came right after and things haven't slowed down since! But I have been really wanting to blog, so I can of course catch all our family and friends up on our happenings and Ezekiel's growing up, but I to also have documentation of all that he is doing these days!

After Ezekiel took off running (literally) shortly after his 1st birthday so did his vocabulary both verbally and in signs! For those that don't know sign language is something that is commonly taught to babies and toddlers these days as it has been discovered that they can and want to communicate with us, but their verbal language just hasn't caught up. So they can catch on to sign language a lot easier and then are able to communicate!

We started by teaching Ezekiel just a couple signs, more and eat. I tried for a long time to get him to sign drink but he wasn't getting it. Then as his love for books took over he became so intersted in these sign language books that Mike's cousin gave to us; he literally studied those books! And one day as we were reading them he started to do almost all of the signs that are in the books! I was so amazed!

Around the same time frame he became infatuated with the garbage truck as it would come every Monday during breakfast, he quickly became so excited over every truck he saw. So we taught him the sign for truck and he quickly caught onto that one! It was so neat to go for walks and have him sign truck and then look up and surely enough there would be a truck coming! He also seemed to like motorcycles, so we taught him the sign for motorcycle and taught him to say "Vroom vroom!" We then got him a book of trucks and in that book was also a tractor and he has since become obsessed with tractors! Never in my life did I ever think I would have a kid that would love tractors SO much! We were just at Fleet Farm (I know, right!) the other day and of course their toy section has a whole aisle of tractors, so he was totally in heaven running up and down the aisle grabbing a tractor and continuously saying "Tractor, tractor, tractor!" He even broke down Grandma enough to buy him one, surprise surprise! ;-P And it was a toy tractor and book in one, he LOVES it!

There will be days when every book will b out of the basket and have been read and every single toy is still in place! I am telling you thise boy loves books SO much! He will run and get a book and bring it back to us and want to sit on our lap as we read it and then there are other times where he will just go over to his basket and start reading them himself! I love the cuddle time, but I also love to hear him read! We never really pushed reading on him, but we are both so happy now that he has developed a love for it and are definetly going to continue to encourage it. Leaders are readers and we would rather have him be a leader than a follower!

We also believe because of his love for reading that it has jump started his vocabulary imensly! When we went in for his 15 month appt the doctor asked how many words he knew and I sd maybe 10-20 and then 10-15 signs and he said he would of been very happy with 3 or 4! I had no idea what the norm was for his age, so I was quite impressed with our little man!

And speaking of 15 month appt, his stats came in at 28 pounds 4 ounces and 33 3/4 inches both are at the 95%! Which means we are finally back on the chart for height and weight! LOL! The doctor said he is very impressed with his growth and he is perfect, of course!

He is crawling on all the furniture, goes down the stairs facing forward while holding on the wall and goes up the stairs the same way, LOVES to dance, LOVES his big brother Jaxon Bear! He loves to do anything and everything outside, which is started to get hard now that winter is coming. He is really good about putting his coat and shoes on, hat not so much, thank gooness for hoodies! Gives the best hugs and kisses, but only on his terms, unless your name is Jaxon Bear then they come countlessly! And I have been working on nose kisses with him too, he just laughs when I do it! He doesn't watch much TV but when he does he loves Word World and neighborhood animals! He loves to clean the floor with either the broom, swiffer, or a wet wipe and he also loves to help vaccum, mow the lawn (with his lawn mower), and push the cart at the store. He is an expert at brushing his teeth and combing his hair, and speaking of hair, we are working on growing out a mullet! (not on purpose of course, I just can't bare the cut his hair!) When you give him a football he runs (it in for a touchdown) and then spikes the ball and spins in a circle with his fingers point up (giving God the glory) says "whoooo"! (I'll let u guess who taught him that!) When we turn onto the road to go to Target he says "nana?" and has we pull into the Target parking lot he says "nana!" and we let him down as we are going through the doors and he runs in and runs right to the bananas! And actually when we pulled into the parking lot of a different Target he said "nana!"

I know most of you don't really care the specifics of the words and signs that he knows, but I am going to list them because I want to have the documentation for his baby book! So here it goes first with the words he can actually say:
hi, mama, dada, truck, tractor, nana (banana), Bigsby, moon, cheese, peas, grandpa, grandma, bye, night night, more, no (unfortunately), boop (which means sit), tickle tickle, yes, Ellie, dog, fish, zebra, Ezekiel, car, football, E I E I O. There are probably more, but these are all that come to mind right now.

And the signs that he knows:
more, please (so happy about this one!), drink, eat, moon, stars, light, bath, book, blanket, truck, motorcycle, hear, airplane (kind of, we are still working on this one), apple, all done, hi/bye, ice cream, hot, cheerio, bird, motorcycle, elephant, gorilla, I think there are more but that is all that I can remember for right now.

The sounds that he knows are:
motorcycle, rocketship, dog, elephant, eagle, owl, lion, monkey, gorilla, firetruck, cow, horse. Again, there are probably more.

Everyday he is growing and changing so much and he continues to impress us so much! I know that every kid is so smart and I know every parent feels like their kid is the smartest kid in the world and I too feel the same way! I think its because you see them develope from this teeny tiny little blob (an adorable blob of course) to a functioning person! It truly blows my mind every time I see him do or learn something new! We have loved every stage that he has gone through and that is still the case right now. I am just trying so hard to make the most of every moment I have with him (while still being a responsible adult) because he is already going up too quickly! I just try my best to remember to put down the things that don't need to be done now and just sit and read books with him and kiss his cheeks! I just love everything about him, we are beyond blessed with the most amazing little boy!

We have had such a fun fall, I hope to blog more about our trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch and playing in the leaves!

The Big 1!

Sorry this post is so delayed, summer has just taken off (and will be gone before we know it) and we have been running since! Maybe once the snow comes I will have more time to write some posts, until then we are having SO much fun being outside, loving the weather and loving every moment of life!

On June 14th Ezekiel James turned the big 1 year old!

And I have to say that it was pretty surreal for me as I was up and getting ready for work all I could think about was a year ago right now I was up getting ready but to go to the hospital instead! And as the day continued to couldn't help from continuously thinking back to what was happening a year ago at that moment. I remembered it like it was yesterday! I was blessed with a beyond amazing labor and delivery and so I can think back on my experience with joy, not just being thankful for the end result! :-P

My baby boy a year ago!

It was so funny, I got done with work shortly before 5:00 and so I was kind of hurrying home because I was sure I could make it by 5:11 pm, which was the time he was born. As I rushed in the door with this idea of holding my baby boy at 5:11 pm just as I did a year ago I find out that he was napping! Darn it, lol! So anti-climatic! So, of course, I let him sleep!

Once he woke we ate supper with Joe, Carrie, Carlie, and Tessa and they were back from Canada and staying at our house until they flew back to Colorado on Monday. Then my parents came over (they were staying with Darek and Steph so there was enough room here for everyone) and we all walked to downtown Chaska to the depot for some ice cream! Ezekiel got his first taste of ice cream thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Bear, and boy did he love it! Then to finish off the night, when we got home Ezekiel got to open a couple special presents from Grandpa & Grandma Bear and Dada, Mama, & Jaxon Bear!!

Then the real party started on Saturday at noon! Ezekiel invited all of his Grandpas, Grandma, Aunt, Uncles, and cousins, and he was blessed by all of their presences at his party! This was so special for us with having Mike's family all of the world at times we don't know if this will ever happen again! It really meant so much to us that Joe & Carrie delayed their plans to travel back to Colorado to be able to be there for Ezekiel's first birthday party even though Carrie's sister had a baby on Ezekiel's birthday this year! And we are so thankful that Jeb and Ellie and also Mike's dad and China left the cabin in Canada early to be able to come to his party. Also we were thankful that Darek, Steph, and Toby held off on leaving for their family vacation by a couple hours so they could be in attendance for Ezekiel's party! And of course a shout out to my parents for coming, but we knew you wouldn't miss it for the world! And that is why we love you guys!

We were also blessed to have so SO many friends join us to celebrate his big day! It was so wonderful to have the same people that were there for us during my pregnancy and all through his first year be there to celebrate!

Ezekiel's party was lion and jungle themed, which was only appropriate since he had just learned to "roar" a couple days before that! It had been raining all morning and so we set up inside, but then the clouds separated and God blessed us with a beyond perfect day! We had a wonderful lunch of hot dogs, chips, assorted salads, veggies,  and a beautiful edible arrangement!

The kids all played in the toy room and outside and had a ton of fun!

Then it was time for the super yummy cake! I had made a banana smash cake with cream cheese frosting for Ezekiel and a wonderful friend of the family made these SUPER cute little cake toppers! They turned out perefect! I just Love them! Thank you Joanna!

Then banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for everyone else!

We all sang happy birthday to him and then Carlie was such a great helper and blew out the candle for Ezekiel!

He didn't get as into the cake as I thought he would, we were a bit surprised. He mostly just played around with the frosting, then ate it, would eat what we fed him and then he just wanted to feed the rest to Jaxon Bear! What loving little brother he is!

and then he just wanted to feed the rest to Jaxon Bear! What loving little brother he is!

The after math...Left overs anyone?!

Right after that Grandma insisted that he have a bath, since he loves bath time so much, into the bathtub he went!

He was starting to run on fumes at this point since he was about 2 hours overdue for his nap, we super quick opened up presents! He was blessed with so many wonderful gifts which we were not expecting at all! We have some wonderful family and friends! After we got the presents opened he thanked everyone for coming and for the wonderful gifts and then he crashed into bed! He was a tired little man, as were we!

Ezekiel and Tess-Boo taking his new wagon out for a test ride!

Thank you to everyone that made the time to come and celebrate our amazing little man! We are SO blessed to have in our lives! All in all it was a wonderful celebration, with wonderful family and friends, for a wonderful little boy!

A long awaited play date!

Last Friday was a day that we have been waiting for almost a year! We had a playdate with the Wind family!  If you remember about a year ago we had them over when Emmett was just a couple weeks old...

A couple weeks after this photo was taken they were packed up and off to Sweden where they had decided to move as Annette is from there and Andy got accepted into school to complete his masters degree. Though we totally understood their reasoning's for moving, we were still totally bummed because we truly treasure their friendship and would of loved to transition into parenthood with them on our side of the pond!

I first met Andy back when I worked for Target, we worked in the same department and would bug him and talk to him quite often because I thought I was going to go crazy sitting in my cube! We ended up bonding over our dogs and then we invited Andy, Annette, and Moby to Jaxon Bear's first birthday party and it was the start of a beautiful friendship! Lots of doggy playdates and doggy sleepovers, we got to witness them getting married, and then the topic of babies slowly started to creep into the conversations (mostly by Annette and I). And we ended up being able to tell each other at the same time that we were both expecting! It was so fun!

Like I said we are bummed that they moved to Sweden, but we are so happy for them because we know it was truly the best thing for their family! Thank goodness for technology because we have been able to see Emmett grow up through their blog and facebook and keep up on all of his milestones! And same for them with Ezekiel! I have a feeling we won't get them back on our side of the pond (other than for vacations) for a long time, which I guess just means that Ezekiel already has his first pen pal or maybe finger paint pal for now! We will just have to go visit them sometime too!

It was pretty much impossible to get a good picture of the boys together since they are both walking, so here is what I got! But what a difference a year makes!

On the move!

Emmett!

Mike showing Emmett Bigsby! I love how he is sitting on his lap!

OH Canada!

We made our way to the Bemis Family Cabin during the second week in June. The cabin is located in Canada, near Aticocin (sp) which is about an 8 hour drive from our house. We were debating on how we wanted to tackle the drive up as we don't really like to dink around and make road trips last longer than they need to but then when you are at the mercy of an almost 1 year old you never know what you are going to get. We ended up deciding to drive through the night in hopes that Ezekiel would just sleep the whole way up and thank God that is exactly what he did! And we rolled the whole way up there, stopped in International Falls to get gas and go through customs and he did wake up during that part but then fell right back alseep! We didn't even have to take him out of his carseat or tend to him at all the entire trip! We arrived at the portage at 5 am. Yes I said portage, the cabin is on an island which is on Grey Trout Lake, which means you can only get there by air or by sea and since we are currently short a sea plane and a pilot/pilot license we went by sea. It was quite buggy but Mike got all our luggage loaded into the boat and we tooled our way across the lake to the island. As we were approaching the island Mike pointed it out to me (as this was my first time to the cabin) and I could tell that he was so excited to have our family there as he has had so many great memories there growing up with his family and he wants to pass on those experiences to our family.

We docked the boat and unloaded our bags and went to check everything out. Mike had called his dad and let him know that we were going to be driving through the night so to expect us early in the morning on Friday but they had left a day early so they never got out message. So Mike's dad was a little spooked by our arrival as the whole island is ours so there is no reason for anyone to be coming to the island or to be coming that close to the island (I don't think I saw another person during our whole trip other than when we went to town to get Mike's fishing license). But all was good when he saw it was us of course! Shortly after Z was getting tired (as he normally doesn't get out of bed until around 9ish) so we put him back down and I took a nap as well. Mike was running on pure adrenaline (as he drove the whole way and hadn't slept since the night before, I got a couple hours of sleep during the drive) and couldn't go to sleep, he was too excited to be there!

Later that day Joe, Carrie, Carlie, Tessa, and Brodie arrived! Which mean the cabin was filling up fast! There are actually 2 cabins on the island, the main cabin, which has running water and a bathroom and everything, but it only has one bedroom and then a set of bunk beds in the living room. Then also the bunk house which is a single room with 4 bunk beds, it does have running water, but no bathroom. We got the bedroom in the main cabin which was so nice of Joe and Carrie and then they set up Tessa's pack and play in the entry way and blanketed it off and they slept in the living room, hey you gotta be creative when you are working with limited space! The rest of the crew slept int he bunk house. We were all very thankful for sound machines during this trip! Without them I don't think our kidos would of been able to sleep much, but with them they slept great!

The next couple of days it ended up being in the high 80s or 90s which we were thankful for because it made being in the lake feel good (which was still a little chilly) but not quite as good when it came to being in a non air condition cabin. Thankfully there was great air flow off of lake into the cabin except...into our room. Which results in an inferno (almost) toddler waking up from his nap looking like this

yep, that's sweat! Needless to say he was drenched! Poor little buddy! So needless to say we tried to do a lot of stuff outside! Mike & Joe went on a few adventures to try to catch some fish. One day they went to walleye bay (i think that is what mike called it) and alls Mike caught was a sucker and the next day they went to sucker creek and I don't think they caught anything, maybe they weren't fishing that time...I can't remember. But when they went they took Jaxon and Brodie with and they just loved being in the woods and not having to be leashed! That was such a nice thing about being on the island, you didn't have to worry about anything with Jaxon because he couldn't go too far because its not like he is going to get in the water and swim away! :-P Jaxon Bear is not much a swimmer, though he is getting better, but if he fell out of the boat we aren't confident that he could stay afloat, so he too has a life jacket that he gets to wear! He gets teased a little bit for his life jacket, but I would rather be safe than sorry!

On Saturday we headed over to Liz Baw Baw beach. It gets its name from when they were growing up they would go to this beach and hang out there and then knee board in that bay and their dog growing up, Lizzy, would run from one end of the beach to the other and it was probably about a 1/2 mile to mile long as they boys with knee board past her and then when she got to the other end she would try to swim out to them. Then she would run back to the other side of the beach and wait to do it again! (so cute!) When we got there we made a fire on the beach and let the kidos play in the water and in the sand, the water was a bit cold so Ezekiel was a little unsure at first, but Tessa and Carlie loved it! As did Brodie of course! We made Jaxon get in the water a little bit which he wasn't too happy about but then Mike ran up and down the beach with him and he loved that!

Ms. Tessa-boo looking so cute!

Carrie & Ms. boo. Carlie & Joe were too busy swimming around to get their pic taken!

That night Jeb & Ellie and Mike's dad and China went out in 2 different boats to do some fishing. Jeb & Ellie returned first with a perfect size walleye for eating which I was really excited about because up to this point in my life I had made the decision that I did not like fish and Mike said that walleye is some of the best fish for eating (in his opinion). So I was really excited to try it, which I did do and it was pretty darn good! I wouldn't beg anyone for it but if it was served I could eat it! So that is a step in the right direction! Shortly after Jeb & Ellie got in we heard a bunch of screaming as Mike's dad & China returned to the island. Mike ran down there to see what the deal was and John had caught a huge trout! I think it was about 32 or 36 inches long! It was huge! They got a lot of pictures with it and hope to get it mounted to put in the cabin some day!

One of the big deals and big traditions up at the cabin (at least to Mike) is to take a sauna bath and then jump into the (rather frigid) lake. They first night I totally chickened out and didn't jump in the lake! To my defense Mike jumped in before me and yelped because it was so shockingly cold to him and in my logical mind if it was that way for him then there was no way I was going to follow! :-P Mike got kind of mad at me becuase this was one of  "the things" that you do at the cabin and he wanted me to experience it, so I promised him I would do it before we left. So Monday night I believe it was, I took a sauna bath again and then ran and jumped into the lake! You have to just jump in and submerge yourself to get the full effect and it literally took my breath away and puts your body in shock mode for a second, I kind of felt like a fainting goat! But it was very refreshing and I am very glad that I did it and got to experience it...and made my wonderful hubby happy too! :-)

Our last day there we decided to do an exursion because it had finally cooled off and it was pretty windy so if we went into a more wooded area the bugs wouldn't be too bad. So Mike, Carrie, Ezekiel, myself, and Brodie and Jaxon took the boat over to the main land to what they call Miller Rock. I didn't get a picture of it from the boat side but it is a large rock that you can either climb up like mountian climbing style or just hike up in a round about way. Obviously with the dogs and Ezekiel we took the round about way. It was only about a 10 or 15 min hike up, Ezekiel was loving the view from the backpack and the pups were loving the adventure! We got to the top looked at the beautiful few

snapped a few pics...

Family Photo, our island is the one right behind me

2/5 family photo!

almost lost Brodie by him going over the edge! Mike paniced a bit because Brodie got so close to the edge and he said I kept you alive this long while you were under our responsibility I am not going to loose you now! Thankfully we kept him on top and decided that we should head back down before it happens again! Little did we know the fun that would be waiting for us at the bottom! :-)

While we were hiking the wind had picked up which mean the waves had also picked up and while we were gone our boat had started to take on water from the large waves splashing into it! As we come up our water logged boat, we are thinking "Awe, crap! But no biggie". So Mike starts to try to bail the water out, well the water is coming in faster than he can bail it out. So then Carrie jumps in and starts helping him and it was kind of funny at first and so I took this picture because it would be fun to have some visual documentation for our excusion which has turned into quite the adventure!

This was when it was still funny!

Well pretty much right after I took this pic things didn't getting any better in fact they started to get worse and fast! To make matters even more fun it was approaching Ezekiel's nap time so he was starting to get crabby and also really wanted to get out of the back pack, so that adds an additional level of stress to the situation. I sat there feeling so useless as I tried to keep Ezekiel from melting down as Mike and Carrie were trying everything that they could think of to get the water out of our boat. It seemed like the more things they tried the stronger the waves got and the more water that ended up in our boat. I finally found a flat spot to set Zeke down in the backpack and went over to try to help and quickly learned that you should use a gallon jug for a bailer rather than just a half gallon because that pretty did nothing in our quest to get back to the island! We did everything that we could think of including yelling and waving out to the island trying to get someones attention in that someone would hear/see us and come rescue us. And Carrie and I tried so hard to help but really did very little, so Mike was pretty much on his own, and boy and I glad that I have a buff husband that works out!

Right about this time I really thought that the boat was going down and we would have to wait for someone to come get us. I knew we would be fine but that it might just be a while until we got back to the cabin, thankfully I had an endless food supply for Ezekiel ;-p Mike was finally able to get the boat pulled up far enough and we got a bunch of the water bailed out and during the process Mike continued to drench me with water and then bust one of the oars. Then Mike had the idea to get in the boat and start it up (which the motor had been under water for some time now, so hopefully it would start, especially because we now only have one oar!) pull the plug and zoom around the lake and let the water drain out. So Mike gets in and is trying to start up the motor, gives it a couple pulls and nothing. I turned my head back to Ezekiel grabbed his hands and we prayed a desperate prayer (come to find out later that Carrie and Mike did the same) and Mike pulled again and it started right up! Praise God! So Mike went zooming around the lake (with his life jacket on) and I look and the nose of the boat is like straight up in the air. So I turn back to Ezekiel and we say another prayer for a hedge of protection over dada! Mike got some water out of the boat and then found a spot around the bay, out of the wind and waves to dock the boat. Carrie and dogs were able to follow him over there but the ground was too rocky, uneven, and close to the water for me to follow with Ezekiel. So then Mike ran through the woods to come back and get us because I actually didn't know where they had gone, so I freaked out a bit mostly because I didn't know if the dogs went with Carrie or stayed with me or went to go find their own fun! Finally Mike came back (and Jaxon Bear) and said that Carrie and Brodie were over there. So we hiked it back over to the boat, got in, and booked it back over to the island. Mike had it wide open and it still was taking us forever to get back because the waves were so big and the wind was so strong! Needless to say it was a fun ride back as I had Ezekiel on my lap and was trying not to fly out of the boat as we hit each wave. Carrie was at the front of the boat and with her teeny tiny self, she was bouncing all over the place and we had the two dogs that were so nervous and just wanted to be held and comforted! But we finally made it back safe and sound and proceeded first to yell at Joe for not hearing us, though he did say he was just about to head out and look for us because we had been gone for almost 3 hours and we had said we would be back in about an hour. Then right after I set out a gallon jug to be cut up and put in the boat for a bailer! It was quite the adventure and now we have a really good story to tell Ezekiel as he grows up about his first time up to Canada!

Sorry this post has gotten so long, I just wanted to include as many details as I could for Ezekiel's scrapbook and to share with Mike's Grandpa and Grandpa on the East Coast who I am sure have been patiently waiting for me to write this! Sorry it took me so long! I hope you enjoyed it! And thank you for providing such a wonderful place for our family to grow and make memories together! I know Mike has treasured the memories he has there more than you can know and I know he is looking forward to making so many more with our family!
Here are a couple more photos to wrap things up!

There is a photo of the boys when they were little on this rock, I need to find it!

Brodie! How we miss him!

Carlie teaching Ezekiel how to walk!