Pictured Rocks Cruise

***Note:  This is a picture heavy post***

Saturday we made our trip all the way to Marquette to drop Trina off with her mom.  Before dropping her off, we took this pic in front of the lake shore.

On the way home, Ryan agreed to take me on the Pictured Rocks cruise and I am so glad that we went.  It was absolutely amazing.  Three hours on a boat in beautiful weather seeing gorgeous scenery.  I took 151 pictures on the cruise, but I'll only put some of the neatest ones up here:

 This is East Channel Light House on Grand Island.

 This is Miner's Castle.  At the very top left you can see the walkway that was built over the top for people to walk and look out over Lake Superior.  At the very left of the picture you can see Miner's Beach.  There were a ton of people out swimming and having a great time when we passed by.  I think next time we're up in Munising we'll have to take a drive through Pictured Rocks and see what's offered on the other side!

 I don't think this rock had a specific name, but Ryan and I both thought that the color striping from the minerals dripping down were really cool.  There were so many places on the rocks that looked like someone walked up and painted it.  It truly was amazing to see in person.

 This is a cut-out that Ryan thought was especially cool. 

  We tried to take about a dozen photos on the boat, but I am just not skilled with the one arm shot.  Ryan actually looks good here...I look ridiculous and I'm loving the random double chin thing I have going on.

 

I don't remember if these caves had any names or not, but it was a spot that the boat stopped to talk about.  Some of those caves are huge.  I believe the rock wall is about 75' tall here, so some of those caves are around 40-50' high.  

 This is Lover's Leap Arch.

And here is Rainbow Cave.  This cave had some of the coolest colors of the whole trip.  I tried to get some close ups, like the one below, but it was really hard especially because of the way the sun was shining.

 Up near the top left of the picture you can see some pretty vivid teals and greens.  The coloring in this cave was amazing.  It it unbelievable to me that nature made this and someone didn't hang over the cliff side and paint some of these things. 

 Indian Head Rock.  Can you see it?  The large rounded rock in the center is his nose.  They say the trees at the top are his head dress.  When we got closer, the tour guide pointed out that there's actually another smaller Indian hiding in the nose of the large one. 

 Battle Ship Row.  Ryan by far thought this was awesome and was yelling at me to take a picture.  It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it's pretty obvious in person.  There are a bunch of rock points that stick out and as you drive by, they look like ships sailing. 

 The Flower Vase (or Upside Down Stanley Cup to Detroiters).  You can see the vase is made out of rock and the trees on top are supposed to be the flowers.  I'm not really sold on the whole "Stanley Cup" thing, but to each his own.

Indian Drums Rock.

 The Pirate.  This one is kind of hard to see, but it is spectacular in person...it really DOES look like a pirate.  Okay, so in this picture there are two hole.  The hole on the right is the pirates eye.  Just below that is his nose, and then right at the water line is his mustache.  Click on the picture and make it bigger if you need, but the rock really does look like a mustache!!! 

 Chapel Rock.  This is probably the rock formation I found to be the most interesting.  Look closely.  The rock formation on the right is the "chapel" and on top of that formation is a single tree.  Now, my question immediately was, "how the heck is that tree growing up there?"  Well, my question was answered.  Apparently, the chapel was connected to the rock wall on the left by an arch.  But, that rock arch fell about 50 years ago; however, the tree remains.  Do you see the thing that looks like a cable that is strung between the chapel and the wall?  Yeah, that's the trees roots.  Now, that is amazing.

 This is Spray Falls, the only waterfall that runs all year long into Lake Superior.

And here's me with my 21 week baby bump.  I'm starting to get pretty big.  My old t-shirts are going to have to be retired soon because they're getting too short to cover my whole belly.  I guess it's 100% into maternity clothes for this girl!

I had a great time on the cruise with my hubby.  It really was a fantastic evening.  It did stink a little that Ryan didn't want to stay the night in a hotel, so we powered through the drive and got home about 2 a.m.  I definitely won't be doing any more long road trips while pregnant after my trip to Chicago in 2 weeks.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

RenFest with Trina

Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival with Trina.  She was super excited when she found out we were going even though she had absolutely no idea what it meant.  She kept asking what it was and we just kept telling her she'd find out when we got there.  Gotta keep some things in life a surprise.

We walked though the entrance and Trina immediately went into sensory overdrive.  She was clearly in awe of the giant village in front of her with all of the people dressed in funny clothing and speaking in a weird accent.  She saw castles and stores and rides and games, oh my!  She immediately saw these and wanted to take pictures:

We rolled into the park around 11:30 and everyone was hungry so we decided to eat first.  Trina was quite excited about broccoli soup in a bread bowl, but was quite dismayed that she had to stand to eat it.  LOL.  After lunch, we did a TON of stuff!  Trina went on some rides and seemed pretty surprised that they were moved by man power instead of mechanical power.  Ryan did a little explaining to her what the Renaissance meant and I told her some of the rules of the Festival:

 Then we ran into the best face-painter at the Fest, so Trina got her face painted like this:

 As we were making our way through the park, one of the merchants caught Trina and convinced her she NEEDED to go into his leather store because it's all Michigan made leather goods.  Apparently all of my "buy Michigan" talk has rubbed off, so she decided we needed to buy something.  She went straight for a $200 pink leather purse...but settled for this instead:

Trina wanted to dress up for the Fest, actually strike that, she wanted ALL of us to dress up for the Fest when we got there.  We told her she could dress up and we'd find the merchant that made kid's clothes so she could pick something out.  This is what she ended up choosing:

It was crazy expensive, as are most thing at the RenFest, but it was totally worth it.  She looks absolutely adorable in it and plus, it's something that we can pass on to her sister!  Also, as has been my experience since elementary school, everything made at the RenFest is great quality. 

On our way to the jousting show, Trina saw this kids jousting ride and wanted to give it a try:

 She did a good job and got both rings on her joust!  Everyone cheered and she got a gold medallion as a reward.  She was quite proud of herself.  Then it was on to the jousting show.  Trina absolutely LOVED it.  We were in Sir Ulrich's (the Green Knight's) cheering section. 

 Trina got really into it and was super excited to cheer on her knight as he jousted and fought to the death with swords:

Our knight ended up winning the competition and Trina screamed her little lungs out as he made his victory lap.  She really wanted to meet him, so we sent her up with a donation at the end.  I'm pretty sure she was in awe of the whole situation.  There was a lot of Trina chatter about our awesome knight and the competition for a while afterward.  She only forgot about it when we walked past a store that sells RenFest outfit accessories.  She saw a purple headdress and immediately bee-lined over to it.  Since I'm such a sap, and she was so excited about dressing up, this is the finished outfit we ended up with:

 After wandering around doing some shopping and riding rides, we decided to stop by another show, The Washing Well Wenches.

 The show was hilarious, but by the time we got there it was absolutely packed and there was no where to sit.  After about 20 minutes someone left and I snagged the seat and Trina popped a squat on dad's shoulders:

 After the show, we did a bit more wandering around looking at things and decided that it was about time to call it a day.  As we were walking to the parking lot, it started to rain.  We got a little wet, but made it to the car before it started pouring.  Trina got a lot of compliments on the way to the car for sporting this outfit:

  Yes, a lovely lady with a pirate eye patch.  She was told that only a few people could pull that look off and she was one of them.

All in all, we had a great day.  Trina loved the Fest so much that she decided we need to go every year.  So, I guess it was a hit!  We bought her dress a little big, so hopefully she'll be able to dress up in it again next year!

Shopping Trip with Grandpa

Grandpa called me on the way home from camp and said that he promised Trina if she was good for a whole week he'd spoil her, so he wanted to take her to Best Buy.  I said sure, and that I'd drop her by his house after we at dinner.  Then I started getting nervous.  What if Trina convinced him to buy her a cell phone, or worse an iPad? 

After dinner we went over to Grandma & Grandpa's house and Grandpa asked Trina if she wanted to go to Best Buy or Toys R Us.  She emphatically said she wanted to go to Toys R Us (thank goodness, there are very few electronics for sale there that would give me a heart attack).  Grandma and I hung out watching some funny clips on YouTube while Grandpa, Dad, & Trina went on their shopping trip.

After about two hours they returned with a giant bag from Toys R Us.  Grandpa told Trina she could get any two things in the store that she wanted.  She apparently saw the Harry Potter Hogwarts Lego set as soon as they walked in the door and wanted that.  Now, she had to pick her second item. According to Ryan she had a hard time choosing between a Barbie RV Camper, Hagrid's Hut Lego collection, or the Harry Potter Express Train Lego collection.  In the end, Trina picked Hagrid's Hut...I suspect it's because it had a ton of jumping spiders on the front of the box.

This morning I found this:

 Yes, that's Trina putting together the giant spider from the Hagrid's Hut set.  She was all excited and came running upstairs to tell me when she finished it.  I sort of doubt that she's going to get both sets done before she leaves, but hey, at least it will give her something to look forward to at Christmas.

The Hogwart's set has something like 1,300 pieces and Hagrid's had almost 500 (I believe).  That's a lot of Legos!  I almost died when Ryan told me how much these two sets cost.  I had no idea how expensive Legos are!!!

I also got the most awesome gift in the mail from some of my most awesome friends:

Yes, that's right...it's pink monkey footie pajamas!!!  And yes, those are little monkey faces on the feet!  How adorable is that?!?  Ryan was super excited because he's all about the monkey theme for our little girl, and these jammies are right up his alley!  Thank you so much J & Louis!  I can't wait for her to wear it!

It's a Girl!!! (and other Ramsayer happenings)

As you all know, we had our anatomy scan yesterday!  First and foremost, everything on baby looks perfect.  Brain, heart, spine, bones, and everything look just as they should.  She's measuring in at 8 ounces, which is within the range of normal.  Baby, however, takes after her parents and refused to cooperate for all of the measurements.  I had to go on two walks and get some sugar in my system before we were finally able to get her to turn over so the tech could take a look at her heart.

Here's a great profile shot from yesterday:

 Ryan was really hoping for a boy, and I think he was kind of bummed when the tech said we are having a girl.  But, we did a little bit of shopping for baby today and he seemed more excited about it.  Trina, on the other hand, is over the moon that she is finally getting the sister she's always wanted.  She's suggested Thumbalina, Hannah, and Heaven for names.

After our anatomy scan, we headed over to my parents house to pick up Trina.  We ended up going out to dinner and then staying the night over there.  In the morning, Grandma and Trina made pancakes for everyone (yum!!!) and then we went outside to pick some veggies.  Trina couldn't believe how big Grandma's sunflowers are:

 Grandma's garden this year is totally putting ours to shame (*tear).  Her and Trina harvested 7 cucumbers today...so that makes 14 in two days.

 On the way inside, we saw this:

 It looks like the cicada just came out of it's shell!!!  How cool is that?  I have never seen them before with green wings:

 After Grandma's we headed home to take Trina back-to-school shopping.  We spent an exorbitant amount of money on this pile of clothes as well as three pair of shoes.  She'll definitely be dressed to impress for the beginning of 3rd grade! 

 

 After clothes shopping we stopped for lunch and then Trina and I went to get our hair done.  My hair has been in desperate need of my hair dressers magic touch.  Trina's hair turned out soooo cute! 

Fun with the Cats

Gizmo is terrified of Trina.  It's 100% because she moves too quickly, so Gizmo doesn't really know what to do with her.  I've tried having Trina feed the cats to get Gizmo to warm up to her, but that didn't really work.  Gizmo still wouldn't come within 10 feet of her.

So, I decided that Trina should give her a treat....some yummy ham.  The problem is that Stevie is a ginormous pig with a serious food allergy.  Try as we might to keep Stevie away, she ended up shoving herself right in to get treats right along with Gizmo.  It worked, well at least for the 10 minutes she was feeding them ham.  This is the closest I have ever seen Gizmo get to her: 

 And here's Trina teaching Stevie to dance:

It was actually pretty funny.  Everyone had a good time and Stevie managed to keep the food down, so I wasn't cleaning up any nasty kitty vom the next morning.  So, I suppose all's well that ends well.

In other news, Ryan and I decided to make the plunge and purchase our travel system.  We ended up going with the Chicco in Luxor.  We both absolutely love the brown and orange...probably because it reminds us so much of fall.  Here it is all put together:

Oh, and in less than 48 hours, we'll know what team we're on!!!  I am so excited I can hardly stand it! 

Moving the Playroom

Today we started the playroom move.  Trina's current playroom is in what is going to be Baby Ram's nursery, so we decided that we're going put the playroom into the basement.

We ran up to Lowe's to get some things for the yard and found an awesome 8' x 12' carpet for a great price, so we decided that now was as good a time as any to start the playroom work!

Here's the move and some of the organization:

 Trina absolutely loves the cubby organizer we bought for her.  It's actually working out even better than I anticipated for her things:

 And here it is so far today with her Zhu-Zhu pet park all set up:

We still have a few things we need to do.  Primarily, we need to get the wall framed out and the drywall hung so we can create a partition between the new playroom and our office.  We also have to run up and grab a couple more shelving units.  We need one for her books and board games.  We also need to get something to put all the stuffed animals on/in, and I think we'll probably also put a toybox down there.  And finally, we need to move the wardrobe boxes along the back wall into the other side of the basement, but we need to make some room over there first.

Trina LOVES her new playroom.  She said it's better than her old one.  So, I'm glad that she's happy with the move too.  She does have a lot more room down in the new one...instead of being around 10' x 10' it's a good 10' x 20'!