We were gone again!

This time, we headed to Edwardsburg, MI, just 30 minutes from South Bend, IN, and where Grandpa Rick built his new house. It was a good 2 day drive, but our little road tripper was up to the challenge.

I asked him to smile, and he just made goofy faces...

Oh, and he lost another tooth the day before we left.

One of the really great things about Pa's house was it's close proximity to Aunt Erin, Uncle Adam, and cousins Zachary and baby Caleb. The boys had a GREAT time playing together!!

They played ball often, and chased each other a lot. Don't be fooled - they also hugged quite a bit too! I just didn't catch any pictures of that...

At Grandpa's, Stephen was set to sleep on an inflatable bed, but the first night, he found the body pillow on the floor to be MUCH more comfortable!

We went shopping one day, and convinced Stephen to wear his sunglasses outside. Once he figure out how to take them off and fold them, however, they haven't been back on his face for any measurable amount of time.

One afternoon, we all took a boat out on a lake. Stephen loves boat rides, and decided that "driving" was the way to go!

He and cousin Z loved standing in the front of the boat when it was moving.

And Stephen went in the water with Uncle Adam.

He also had what appears to be a meaningful chat with Aunt Erin...

Cousin Caleb came along on his first boat ride at just 2 months, and enjoyed some quality Daddy time.

One day, we went to St. Joseph, MI, with the intention of playing on the beach at Lake Michigan... Unfortunately, however, it was raining for several hours, so we spent some fun time at the Curious Kids museum.

Stephen learned about dinosaurs and volcanoes...

And he ran a television studio pretty well.

He also launched a space shuttle, even positioning himself correctly for a proper take-off!

This was the vacation where Stephen discovered driving. He LOVED driving the fire truck, and would have spent our entire museum visit there if we had let him.

There was also a carousel, which he got to ride twice - once with mommy, and once with Pa.
Finally, it stopped raining, so we walked down to the beach. Stephen enjoyed the sand in his toes, and didn't ask to be carried even once! He ran in to the very cold water, and back out again a few times, before deciding it was just too cold.

Continuing the driving trend he also got to drive Pa's tractor. I think he was able to do it 3 or 4 times during our visit, and enjoyed every bit of it!

We were SO thankful that Great-Grandma was able to join us for this visit. She had broken her pelvis 2 months ago, and we weren't sure how her recovery would go for her to make the flight from ID. BUT, she barely even needs a cane now, which is a miraculous recovery! All 3 of her great grandsons were thrilled to spend time with their GG.I don't have any pictures of how good looking we all were at Pa's wedding this past weekend. Hopefully when I get some pictures, I'll be able to post them. It was a really nice occasion to be able to visit with new and old family members and friends.