A Little Weekend Getaway

Last Thursday Tim took a final and finished up what has been his roughest block of Med school so far.  It was kind of rough on all of us actually.  And we've been trying to decide why it was so different...
But whatever the reason, a little break away from it all was sounding very nice.  So, we packed up the car and headed north for a couple days.

Stop #1 was in Kirtland Ohio.  Forgive the lack of pictures here.  Most of the Kirtland sights were not stroller-friendly, so Tim wrestled one child while I wrestled the other, and the camera got a little neglected.  But it was really neat.

The Kirtland temple was really pretty impressive.  Some good stuff happened there!  I am not very place and event savvy, but this made me want to brush up on my church history.

Stop #2 was easily Brinlee's favorite!
A few months ago she picked out a Little Critter book at the library where they spend the day at the beach.  She spent all summer talking about the beach, and wanting to go to the beach.  So, Tim mapped out a course that would take us to Lake Erie, and we spent some time in Pennsylvania at the beach!
She was in heaven!

It was quite breezy, and kind of chilly.  I thought she would want to be done pretty quickly.  But she braved the water like a champ!  In fact, she braved it a little too bravely

First of all, if that doesn't earn Tim the Father of the Year award, I don't know what will!
In Brinlee's defense, it did drop off and get deep super fast.
Not so much in her defense, that video was her second plunge.  The first time she "fell in" was literally within the first 2 minutes after her feet hit the sand before we even had her out of her clothes.  So wonderful.

I'm kind of wishing we lived closer to water.  It was fun.

McKenna wasn't so sure what she thought of that wind...

But she did love the sand, and the water.  And for some reason this beach had a bounty of really good skipping stones.  McKenna really loved watching that!

Stop #3 was a day at Niagra Falls!

This is going to sound snooty, but when we stopped at the first lookout I was actually a little underwhelmed.  But then we found a better viewing spot, then we took the classic boat ride out around the biggest fall, then we went down underneath some and practically got blasted by 75,000 gallons of water falling over a cliff every second! (Yes, that's a true fact.  And that was just one of the smaller falls even!)

In the end it was definitely not a disappointing experience, but rather became a reverent "Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder..." type experience.  We really loved it.

And the girls did awesome!  Not a peep from them the entire time, even when we were getting soaked.

Oh, Canada!  

It was so weird to be just one bridge-crossing away from exploring another country, and we couldn't do it.  Neither of us actually have passports.  Yes, that's how awesome we are.  But it did look cool from the American side.  And we did meet some really nice Canadians. Maybe someday we'll go back more prepared and see their view.

This was another one of Brinlee's trip highlights - riding the trolley, "Just like Daniel Tiger and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood does!"

There was a neat aquarium that was included in our passes.  That was McKenna's favorite part.  They actually had a really neat Seal performance complete with a very touching " Go Green and save your animal friends of the sea" musical number that surely touched even the hardest of hearts.

Over all, not a bad spontaneous weekend for the Borups.  So far, it's Northern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York for the win!  And now we're all motivated to get out and see some more stuff.  Where to go next??  The options are endless really.
Well... ok. Not endless. We still can't cross that Canadian bridge.
Drat.

Sister Sunday

Two goof-balls in a basket.

Looks comfy, don't you think?  :)

Nothing like cuddling (or scrunching) with your sister!

Happy Sunday!

Welcome Zurg

Well the big day finally came.

After a couple months of hard work, patient waiting, lots of talks about obedience, and lots of practicing good listening, Brinlee finally earned all of the puff balls she needed, and Zurg became a part of the family!

I think I might have mentioned that a couple months ago, we started a puff ball jar with Brinlee to see if we could help get a better grip on how big 3-year-old girls can be obedient.  We had her decide on the goal she would work toward, and then settled on an amount of puffs it would take for her to earn it.  She decided she wanted a set of Toy Story character figurines like she had seen at her friend's house. Why?  Because the set had a Buzz who's wings were out "like a flying" (unlike the little Buzz she already had that McKenna now chews on), and it had a Zurg! I'm not sure why, but Brinlee kind of takes pity on the villains and the "bad guys" and makes believe about how they are only mean sometimes in the movies, but "most times they are really nice!  And we are friends, and they love me! And we can all play together!"  She really loves all the characters, but Zurg caught her eye especially.  We found the set online and saved it in her own Amazon wish list.  And for a couple months she has been talking about Zurg toy, and doing extra chores, and steadily earning and losing puff balls.  And on Sunday, she finally did it!  She was awesome during sacrament meeting and earned her last two puffs. So we ordered the toy, and yesterday afternoon it came in the mail.  

And she has been on cloud 9 ever since!

She is seriously such a good, big girl! I've actually been really impressed with her drive.  I thought she would realize how long it was taking and either give up or forget.  But no way, not this girl.  Her sights were set, and she would not be moved!  And she did it! We had a few rough days in there, but I'm really proud of her!  She's so awesome.

She already settled on her next goal and is trying to get her jar full again.  I'm surprised at how well this is working for her.  Granted, she is 3.  A very headstrong 3 at that!  We still need a lot of practice with this whole obedience thing. But so far, this seems to be helping.  

And she is dang cute cuddling with that Zurg!

Cute As A Bug

Today while sister was at Joy School, McKenna helped me pull down the boxes of girl clothes to take inventory of the Fall clothing wardrobe status, and guess what we found!

Yup, still darling.
There really just isn't much in the world that's better than a baby in a costume.  It feels like it was forever ago that Brinlee wore this thing...

  I can't believe McKenna is already big enough for it.  Then again, she is a big girl.

She was 10 months old on Sunday.  

Yes that's right, 10!  Let me update you on some of her new tricks.

When we say "McKenna, where's your belly belly?", she pats her tummy.

She claps her hands when you say “yay!”

When we say “La, la, la”, she sticks out the pointiest little tongue you've ever seen and says “La, la, la” in the sweetest little voic

She unfortunately loves to get into the toilet paper and toilet bowl water.

She has recently decided she loves to bend forward and stick her whole face in her bath water, and thinks it's really funny when she comes up spluttering. 

She loves to crawl onto a blanket that is laid out for her and wait to be bundled.  

She is starting to get better about having books read to her, and we have started to find her sitting in piles of books looking through them herself.

She crawls up the stairs, but is so far too scared to even attempt coming back down.

She LOVES to look at pictures and videos of herself and of Brinlee. 

She loves to play peek-a-boo, loves to play chase, loves to wrestle with Brinlee, and loves to crawl around with toys and clothes in her mouth like a puppy.

She loves to get into cupboards, loves to be in the fridge, and loves to climb on the little couch and dishwasher door.

She loves to hear music and dances to anything close to having a tune or beat (including the sound of the running dishwasher and clothes dryer). She will also pull out some moves when you say "dance McKenna, rather music is on or not. Her favorite song is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".

She has stacked a few blocks a time or two, and she loves to try to put on Brinlee's panties and shoes.

She's a pretty good fit thrower and doesn't take much bullying from Brin.

She pulls herself up to everything and cruises along furniture pretty quickly, but she has only done the wobbly little free-stand a couple times.

Oh!  And she has 2 teeth!  Ignore the devastated "I want to hold the camera and mom won't let me. She's the worst!" face that she has on in this shot, but this is so far the best picture of her little chompers that we've been able to get.

Oh she is the cutest.  She's happy, and smiley, and cuddly, and basically just the best.

And we love her!

Lookie Lookie

Hey Mama, look what we made today!

"Here comes Gunny Bag,

Yum, yum, yummy!

He eats the leftover toys, 

and keeps them in his tummy!

So keep your things 

nice and neat,

so Gunny can't find, 

a thing to eat!"

Fall Is In The Air

Last night there was a bit of a rain storm that blew through for a while, and this morning we woke up to that old familiar blessed chill in the air!  You know the one I mean. The one that feels inspiring, and tells you to pull out the sweaters and make some caramel corn.  The one that gives you that little tickle in your tummy that says "change is coming, and it's going to be gorgeous!"

Yes my friends, today felt like Fall!  And I can't be happier to see it coming!!!

We are all about Fall.  And why not be??  The colors are amazing, the smells are divine, the weather is wonderful, the clothes are cuter, the food is funner (yes I know that's not a word), the holidays are more magical, and Fall just kind of makes the family feel a little cozier and cuddlier, don't you think?  I feel the most motivated and productive in the Fall.  It's just such a happy time.

Speaking of happy times.  This morning we sent our little Miss Brin off to her first day of "school"!
Brinlee has several little friends she knows from Nursery and a few weeks ago a couple of the other moms asked me if I would be interested in Joy School.  I of course said yes.  I happen to be a Joy School graduate myself. My awesome mom did it for us as kids and I have some very fond memories of it.  So we got the program and got started today!  She was beyond excited. She picked out her own clothes, and had them all laid out the night before. Such a kid thing to do.

She came home all smiles telling me all about the rules they have, and the songs they sing, and the things they learned.  She did tell me that she's a doctor now, like daddy, since she's been to school... guess we'll have to clarify a few things. 

McKenna got into the "First Day of School" spirit too, of course.  Doesn't a new pair of shoes just scream "Fall"?  I drug her all over running errands for the 2 and 1/2 hours Brinlee was gone.  She's a fun, goofy little buddy  :)

In a couple weeks it will be our turn in the rotation to host Joy School at our house.  We'll see if Brinlee handles that as well.  But so far, she loves it!

"Oh Boy!  I've got Joy!"

Why My Little Girl Is Never Wearing A Bow

I feel like that just about sums it up.  Stinker child.
I guess she's just a no bow baby.
At least she's still cute without one!