A Whirlwind of Activity

"That was awesome!" --Grant

The above quote is a good way to sum up the past two weeks in the Petroelje house. We've been so busy having FUN!! It started last week when we ventured out to Pennsylvania to visit Kathi, Chad, and Brielle for a few days. Chad "officially" graduated from grad school last weekend, and we originally had intended to go to the ceremony; however, with a number of other family members making the same plans we instead decided to go a few days prior so it wasn't so crowded at their house. We had such a great time hanging out with them, going to Del Grosso Amusement Park, and of course, shopping with my sister (we don't get to do that very often anymore, so we had to take advantage of it!). It was a HOT day at DelGrosso (97 degrees), but the kids had a great time on "most" of the rides (see picture below). Grant was big enough to do most all of them and took full advantage. Brooke and Brielle could go on the "fair" type rides (as you'll see in the pictures). Our days in PA flew by, and it was a bummer to leave, but I am excited that Kathi and Brielle rode back to Michigan with my parents and will be in town until next weekend! (Chad will join her next weekend, too, as he has to teach this coming week.)

The boats were fun...

...and the cars were, too.
But the ride that went up and down and spun around - not so much fun for the littler ones! :) (You can't see Brielle's face, but she, too, is crying.)
But the carousel was okay!
G was finally tall enough to ride with someone in the bumper cars. He and Uncle Chad were out to get Dad!
I was quite surprised that Grant actually wanted to ride this one - "Pharoah's Fury". It's one of those giant pirate ships that swings back and forth. He was barely (and I mean barely, tall enough - actually, I think he might have been a bit under the height requirement but they let him go anyway!). If you were to visit the park you might see indents in the metal lap bar from his death grip on it. Thanks to Uncle Chad for holding him down at the height of the ride!
Partners in crime.

We got back from Pennsylvania on Friday and Saturday ventured out to the beach campground overnight. Since my parents were camping out there for a few weeks and left to go to Chad's graduation, they so graciously allowed us the use of their trailer overnight. So...after unpacking all of our things from our trip east, we repacked for the beach. We had a great time climbing Mt. Pisgah (Grant just loves to do this!), making a big breakfast at the camper, and spending time down by the water on Sunday. I don't have any pictures to share, however!

On Tuesday, we ventured up to Muskegon to spend the day with Eric's family at Michigan Adventure!! This was one outing where we can't say anything to Grant about it too far in advance, otherwise we get drilled too many times over the course of the days preceding the event as to when we are going to go. So, we told him the night before and he was pumped to say the least. He couldn't WAIT to get on Zack's Zoomer (the wooden roller coaster for kids), as he remembered clear as a bell that he was just a bit too short last year to ride. He also did a great job riding down the big water slides all by himself on his own tube in the water park! Again, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures - it's so hard to take a camera to an amusement and water park when you're participating on so many of the rides and water slides.

And...last but not least for the week - as I had mentioned in a post earlier this summer, for Grant's birthday we had given him a day away with us to the Day out with Thomas event in Flint as well as a Detroit Tigers baseball game. So, yesterday, we dropped Brooke off at Eric's parents' house and ventured over to the east side of the state. What a great day!! Grant just LOVED all the activities at Day out with Thomas. He got to get his picture taken with Sir Topham Hatt, listened to a Thomas story, watch a Thomas video, play with train sets, color, play in giant inflatables, watch a magic show, and best of all - ride on Thomas!! Going into it, we weren't exactly sure what to expect (or if Grant would be so excited about it anymore, since he's starting to get out of his Thomas craze a little bit), but we were not disappointed and neither was G.

Hangin' with Sir Topham Hatt
Sliding down the big inflatable slide.
This one's for Grandpa P! The Day out with Thomas event was held at a place in Flint called Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad. The village is an old time town, and was really cool! There was a blacksmith, sawmill, ice house, church, bank, school, opera house, and numerous other buildings. We had to get a pic with the old tractor for Grandpa P!
The "real life" Thomas that we got to ride! Can you tell that G is loving every minute of this!
Family pic on the 40 minute train ride.

From there we traveled a little further to watch the Tigers play the Indians last night. It was a great game (Tigers won 6-0), and G did pretty well (he tends to get antsy after a while). I think giving him peanuts to shuck killed quite a bit of the time :). One mistake of the night, though - allowing him to drink pop at Subway for dinner and again at the ballpark. The kid doesn't get much pop at all, and all the caffeine lit him up! He was wired!

What a great night for a ballgame! Beautiful weather! We sat in club seating behind the plate. We really liked the seats and liked even better the tips we got from the regular attendees who sat in front of us. Who knew you could go to the First Aid station and sign up to be a responsible driver for your party and get free pop! Because we were celebrating G's birthday, they also gave him a poster of Brennan Boesch, a picture of Ernie Harwell, and a certificate commemorating his day at the park (in addition to the poster he got upon entering the gate of his favorite player, Miguel Cabrera with Justin Verlander, and Jose Valverde, commemorating the All Star Game). It was too cute, because when we got up this morning, G had his posters laying out on the living room floor with masking tape in hand, waiting for us to wake up and hang them on the walls of his bedroom.

So...after all the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks, I think tonight and tomorrow are going to be pretty low key around the Petroelje house! Was all the busyness worth it?? You bet!!!