"New Baby in the Hood!"

Griffin Roark, our long awaited little neighbor (born last Sunday), visited us yesterday afternoon while we were out on the deck having coffee. Lonny had taken him for a walk and stopped to say hi on their way home. The plan was that while Lonny took Griffin for a walk, Charlie would try to get some sleep. We aren't sure if that happened or not. ;)

I practically had my arms out, reaching to hold Griffin, as Lonny ascended the steps. ;)

Finally, I had to hand him back to his Dad........sigh.

Proud Papa Lonny and Griffin.

So cute, isn't he?

Rob timed coming home from work perfectly and came to pay his respects, too.

Babies in the hood.......we love it!

"Prep Continues and then theParty Begins!"

"Grill Man" Jim did a bang up job with the burgers and dogs. He would have worn his official "Grill Man" outfit, but we were afraid (with so many party distractions) of the cape catching fire........

Prep and "catch up" continue inside as "Grill Man" does his job outside.......

While I take a MUCH more distressed Abigail for a spin.......I "strolled" her right over to Mom Julie after this was taken. :)

Mom calms Abigail down (her face a lovely shade of pink/red, don't you think?) while they greet a co-worker of Julie's. Unfortunately, I do not remember her name but we had a nice conversation. She lives in Traverse City and we were chatting about Don's and my future move to TC.

Believe me, Julie is a terrific daughter/sister in law. She put together an "Abigail's First Year" photo book for Sean, and one for Don and me. Such a cool gift!

Sean helping/distracting Abigail to overcome her distressing mood. You can see by her face that he has done well. Can't you just see/hear her mind working, wondering......."What IS that on Uncle Sean and Mommy's head?" ;)

Julie knew of someone who bakes/decorates custom cakes and made sure she was able to have a horse theme for our little jockey Abigail. A tasty treat of chocolate or white (yellow?) under that frosting, too!

Sean also baked Abigail a cake. His was "butter cream"! It, too, was VERY tasty and made an especially big hit/splash with Abigail......as you will soon see. ;)

Abigail's Birthday Party to be continued........

"Party Prep....."

Sean, Don, and I met Patrick and his brother in law, Jim, at the parish hall to help them set up for the birthday party. As you can tell from this photo, it was not all work and no play. ;)

Julie arrived a little later bringing Abigail, and Sean began his "remember me" chat. :) They live an hour and a half apart so don't see each other very much.

The "hand off" so Julie could concentrate on all the questions we were tossing her way...."where do you want this" and "what do you think about this?", etc.

I "think" Abigail had just woken up and wasn't fully awake so she was a bit grumpy.....

Dad Patrick took over for a bit.......

How many men does it take to strap a baby into her stroller? I guess the answer is 2.......

Sean took over as "tour guide" again and pushed Abigail around in her stroller to help sooth her grumpiness.

They covered quite a bit of distance, too. Jim is in the background firing up the grill. He was designated "Grill Man" for the event.

Continued tomorrow.......

"Crystal Mountain Resort"

As I mentioned earlier, Don and I stayed at Crystal Mountain Ski & Golf Resort. Our room, which looked like a 2 story condo from outside, was just off the map on the lower left side. The entire resort is like a small village and is really very beautiful/cute/quaint....an adjective along those lines. ;)

I'm standing in front of the main chair lift. Unfortunately, we missed the scheduled time that it was running which allowed people to ride up for the view.

A view towards the north end of the resort from the ski lodge. You also can see the bottom of the Alpine Slide. Later in the day and after Abigail's birthday party, Don was going to go on the slide but was about 5 minutes too late in getting to the ticket window. We'd dawdled too long beforehand and didn't make the 6PM deadline.

Sean met us at the resort and became "tour guide" for us. He'd worked at Crystal Mountain while attending culinary school and living with his brother Patrick, whose house is about 1/2 hour from the resort. This is a view from up near the top of the mountain.

This is also the same view that some of the rental condos have.

This particular set of rental condos, Mountain Top Condos, are built so each has a spectacular view regardless of the direction it faces.

Our tour guide Sean and I look on as Don takes more than just the "view photo" I requested. ;)

I copied this photo from Crystal Mountains web site to show you the Mountain Top Condos from a higher elevation. Beautiful, isn't it?

We left the resort soon afterwards to help set up for Abigail's birthday party.

"Abigail's Birthday Visit Continued........"

Abigail did slow down for a "short" time........long enough to settle in my arms to take a bottle. If it hadn't been for wanting her bottle, she'd not have done it.......she hadn't seen us since last April, so really didn't know who we were......who could blame her for being "standoffish"?

One hand on the bottle.....one checking out my facial hair. Patrick (her Dad, my son) has facial hair, too, so maybe she sees some similarities? Wow.....this photo really shows off my "natural" monk's tonsure, too.

Back onto the floor as soon as the bottle was empty. Ms. Busy Buns! And you haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Don processes a couple of the movies he took. ;)

With a little help, Abigail got onto her rocking horse and "rode like the wind"......literally! Just wait until the movie comes out! ;)

Then on to the littlest horse......

This was kind of like an out of order story of the 3 Bears.....1st- Papa Horse, then Baby Horse, then Mama Horse.....but in this case, they ALL fit nicely.

Grandpa Don, "Mr. Limber", got down onto the floor and played ball with Abigail. He'd give it to her and she'd toss it.

They then moved on to the large pink soccer ball.........

After that, the big blue soccer ball came out....think 3 Bears theme all over again. ;) Although, I do seem to remember a green one in the mix, too.

Abigail and Dad Patrick having a little chat........

Grandpa Don back on duty of watching Abigail while Patrick checks out Don's iTouch and it's multitude of photos.

More from our Michigan visit on Monday......

"More Presents!"

Once again, the wrapping paper was pretty interesting....especially this one......it was shiny!

Abigail patiently looks on while Mom cuts the packing tape. Don made sure the box would stay closed under ALL conditions! ;)

"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" interactive book!

Another book!

Abigail begins to read the book to herself......but verbalizes out loud, too. She even had a cadence as if she was truly reading! Wonder where she learned that, eh? ;)

Ohhhhh......another box among the books......with more pretty paper!

A tie-dyed "onesie" to grow into!

Abigail was enjoying the finger puppet books!

This one had a polar bear head finger puppet active throughout the story.

A book with Earl, the family dog, as the babysitter. A very cute book.....and Earl looked much like their dog Morgan.

The empty boxes were about as much fun as what came in them. The Dutch Rabbit in the foreground not only is soft and cuddly, but also hand puppet.

The flexibility of little children, eh? Aunt Claire sent the soft soccer ball (Abigail's Aunt Claire, Uncle Sean, and Daddy Patrick, were all players, so she may well be, too) and soft rainbow book to Abigail for her birthday. The book has little figures that come out to play.......literally......they are attached to the book by ribbons and sit in little pockets when not playing. ;)

The birthday visit continues tomorrow.......