Crystal Lake

As part of my grandma's cottage, she has a little boat house situated right on the lake. In the summer the dock gets laid out. I have seen scores of pictures of various family members gathered around the boathouse and dock. It's just another treasured part of my heritage.

So of course we were anxious to get Josh down there.

The first time we just hung out by the water. He was pretty tired from all the adventures and I didn't want to push his limits.


But just a few days later, the weather was PERFECT and we suited up and headed to the water.

He LOVED it. He absolutely loved it. He splashed his little hand in the water and had a huge smile on his face.

Grandma's boathouse is the yellow one.

You have to walk quite a ways in the water to get any depth, so I carried him all the way out there and we just played. He was happy being passed between people and watching everyone throw the Frisbee around.

I posted a video during our trip which you can check out again for fun.


And we had to get our family photos on the dock too!

Aunt Marcia, my mom, me, Josh, Jim

Crystal Lake Cottage

The Cottage in Crystal Lake.

This is a big part of my family history. It was built around 1904 and shared by my great-grandfather and his sibling families. The families would sign up for their time slots in the summer. It started out as a pretty basic cottage with rooms separated by curtains and nails in the studs to hang things. There was no running water and you had to use a flashlight to go tinkle. It originally was two stories with bed "rooms" and the kitchen on the first floor and solely sleeping quarters on the second floor, including a sleeping porch. Over the years it has slowly evolved into a fully insulated year-round home. About 20 years ago my grandparents raised the entire cottage to put in a basement and finished other improvements as they prepared to retire there.

This cottage is full of great memories for me. I have spent many summers there, especially as a teenager. When I was 13, I stayed longer than my parents and ran around with my second cousin - it was the year of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack!!! Ah, good times.

My grandma had a table that she used for her four kids. She has kept it through the years and brought it out for Josh to use. It's a pretty cool square table with a cut-out in the middle for a seat. Makes for a good feeding and play table.



I guess the chair also folds in such a way to close the hole and make it a complete tabletop. Josh was a little too young for us to figure that feature out though.



Josh had great fun throwing things down for us to retrieve. Especially when it would fall through the center hole down to his feet.

We were all so excited to introduce Joshua to his great-grandmother. He was a bit shy with her, but we were so glad to have them together.

Another thing we were looking forward to was giving Josh a bath in the kitchen sink. Who knows how many relatives have been washed in this little basin throughout the years. Now we can say Josh has continued the family tradition.

And boy did he LOVE IT!!!

I mean, really loved it!!

He squeeled with delight.

Do you see those poor little red dots on his torso? One thing we learned is how Josh reacts to the heat. It was quite hot our entire trip with A LOT of humidity. This poor kid would get a heat rash so fast! He got these little dots and his face would turn pretty red. Some stranger told me to "get sunblock on his face" as if I hadn't. It was just his poor reaction to the heat!

My boy!

We also took a day to go to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. This is a lovely place where artwork is incorporated into beautiful gardens. It was a blazing hot day, but we managed to survive.

The main exhibit currently being displayed is glass blown art by Chihuly. (You can see a couple pieces in the background of the above photo. They kinda look like taco salad shells.)

Here are some of the glass-blown pieces incorporated into this waterfall.

An amusing story to me. Shortly after arriving at the Gardens it was time to feed Josh. As we were meeting up with all our people and getting tickets squared away, I was slathering sunblock on Josh and scoping out a location that I could nurse. I noticed a little ways down at the end of the hall there were quite a few mothers and kids. They were essentially camping out eating and having down time. I told Jim I was going to head over to "mommy central" to nurse Josh. There are times when I am still adjusting to being part of this "mommy" world and I think sometimes I still feel like a foreigner - and it felt a little strange to be joining these women.

I know there is controversy surrounding nursing in public. I think this was the first time I ever wondered if I would face any opposition. But where better to nurse than near other moms who would likely "get it" (and honestly might even defend me if anyone approached me in a bad way - or at least strength in numbers would keep them away). I haven't nursed in public very often simply because Josh and I have a hard time with it. He squirms too much and pulls at the "hooter hider". But he actually did very well. I was able to find a chair that was somewhat hidden and had no problems at all. Jim joined a little later (and was the only guy at mommy central) and he fed Josh his solids. It was great!

McCall Family Reunion

The McCall Family Reunion is a gathering of the descendents of Jonathan McCall.


Here is the Numbers version of my family line:

Jonathan McCall begat Romaine McCall

Romaine McCall married Frances Jenne and begat Jenne Louis

Jenne Louise married S.Earle and begat Debra Anne

Debra Anne married Craig T and begat ME!!!

J. McCall had 12 children. This leads to a potentially large reunion. This year's was on the smaller side. But we always have it at the same 4-H camp in Tustin, MI every three years. It's great! It's on a lake with kayaks and canoes, there are hotel-type rooms, and camp-type rooms with bunk beds, the cafeteria provides great meals, we have an activity room dedicated to our group, great nature trails and very friendly staff. Two reunions in a row now there has been a marching band there as we arrive wrapping up their week. We love watching them practice out on the field. Josh was really getting into it too.

The McCall clan

I was looking forward to taking Josh swimming in the lakes in Michigan, hoping that he would tolerate them better than the scary Pacific Ocean. The water was a little cold at the camp, but we tried it anyway. He fussed and was pretty unsure. Some other kids came in the water after a while and that distraction helped.

Here are my boys after a little swim.

Jim, Josh and I had our own little hotel-type room. The center provided a great crib for Josh. We arrived on Friday and he slept great that night. Saturday I think all the traveling and excitement and new people caught up with him as he just wanted to sleep all day. We could barely keep him awake for his normal two-hour stints. And our room got nice and dark, so he was able to shut out the world.

I had been concerned about how to leave him in the room for naps. I wondered if Jim or I would have to stay in the room with him and really dreaded that. Thankfully our room was on the end that was super close to our group's activity room. So we felt comfortable enough to just leave him in there. We could peek in on him and it worked out great!!

Sunday we made the drive to my grandma's cottage in Crystal, MI. We usually stop at a place called Anderson Girls along the way. I don't really know what to call it, but it has a cute shop with produce and baked goods and knick-knacks. But there is a lot of area dedicated to animals - zebras, camel, kangaroos, goats, etc. There was also a nice big wooden train which we of course had to get the two boys into.

Jim took Josh on a little walk to see the animals and here are a few cute shots from that.

Travel to Indiana

Our first official family vacation! We have been anticipating this for a long time and it finally arrived. My mom's side of the family has a reunion every three years and Jim and I wanted to make sure to attend with our new son.

What's amusing to me is that before Josh was born (perhaps even before I was pregnant), Jim was adamant that we would not take a child on a plane before they were one year old. So when the timing turned out that Josh would be nine months for the reunion, I was surprised Jim didn't really bat an eye at attending. I think introducing him to family outweighed any other feelings he had previously.

So for months and months I have been trying to prepare for this trip. What to pack. What to buy to take on the trip. What to buy at the destination(s). Whether or not to still be nursing. To medicate or not to medicate on the flight (I won't tell you whether I mean me or Josh). I'm a planner and an overthinker and my lists were happenin' well in advance.

The day arrived and we hired Super Shuttle to take us to John Wayne airport for a direct flight to Chicago. Then we rented a car to drive to La Porte, Indiana. So it was a full, full travel day.

Unfortunately, immediately after boarding the plane, they announced an hour delay to repair a wheel. Not a good start. Josh got pretty antsy and my mom was able to rock him to sleep. He was asleep during take off.

The rest of the flight was okay. He had good periods and rough periods. He really had a rough time with the descent. I was prepared with a bottle of water for him to drink to try to ease the pain in his ears. He was doing good drinking it, but then I think the pain just got overwhelming and he was miserable. He went rigid and red and stopped breathing while he cried. It was terrible. Luckily, once it passed, he got over it quickly.

Josh was the only baby on the flight, so I was pretty stressed with any noise he made. Looking back, he probably wasn't too bad, but it was still stressful. I was grateful to have Jim and my parents available to take turns.

On a personal note, I wouldn't purposely fly United with a child again. They offered no preboarding, I hated the delay, and I just didn't feel any of the friendliness I had read about in regards to flying with a child (not specific to any airline). The security check at the airport was pretty rushed and unfriendly as well. Blah!

INDIANA

My dad's sister, Judy, and her family live in Indiana. We stayed two nights with them.

Aunt Judy

Hannah celebrated her tenth birthday.

Second cousins

Josh is just so funny whenever he sees other kids. He has this big inhale-screech that is just filled with joy and excitement. We stayed with his second cousins Ryan and Alex and they were so good at keeping him entertained. He had so much fun and was never overwhelmed by them. We definitely need to find him some playmates soon!!

My parents feeding Josh on a beautiful morning

We always eat really well when we visit Indiana. And the weather is usually just perfect to sit outside and relax.

First cousins

On our route home, we stayed with them one more night to cut the drive time from Michigan to Chicago. It was pizza night! Such fun to put your own toppings on. We need to incorporate that more into our family.

Mix Up at the Airport?

I'm not sure when it happened or how, but somehow we mixed up our child with someone else's at the airport. Whoever this kid is, he is not the same one we took with us to the Midwest. I don't think it's even the same kid we left Chicago with. We've barely been home for 24 hours and this kid has already given us so much "new". And this doesn't even count any of the "new" that was discovered while traveling (which I hope to get into when I share more about our trip specifically).

Here is what this "new" kid has presented us with:

• When placed in the crawling position, he sits himself up on his bum
• Got his first timeout for being purposely defiant
• During his timeout, he pulled himself to standing in his crib (the mattress was immediately lowered)
• Is finally tipping his head back far enough to drink from his sippy cup on his own

I knew this trip was gonna be huge for this kid, but is this still our kid? Our flight home was packed with kids, so it could have been a mix up far too easily.

He still lets me love on him, so I guess it must be alright.

Joshua Meets Crystal Lake

We are currently on our first official family vacation with Joshua. I will have lots more to share, but here is a great video of Josh heading into Crystal Lake in Michigan for the first time. We are at my grandma's cottage and there is a long family history here which I may try to share later. But for now, here is my good boy...

He did so well in the water. He kept splashing and kicking and laughing.

Such fun!