Peanut Allergy...no more!

In preparation for preschool, we had Jameson re-tested and discovered that he is no longer allergic to peanuts!!!  Hooray - he's food allergy free!  Such a relief to not have to worry about Epipens, food at school and peanuts on airplanes.

Dig in buddy.  Discover a love for peanut butter!

LA Visit (8/11/16)

Our adventure to LA begins with an early morning drive down to DIA.  We woke the kids up at 5am.  I went in to get Ava up and she asks "Where's daddy?"  I inform her that he's getting Jameson up and ask her if she remembers where we are going today.  Ava, one month and one day shy of turning two years old, says "On airplane.  Up high in sky.  We all go together."

Jameson is tired, but pumped to get on the plane and see his cousin Oliver.  This crazy boy on the drive down randomly tells Rob, "You're the biggest daddy of the seven seas!"  What?!?!  I so wish we could have a mental map for a child's train of thought.

At DIA and excited to go visit Aunt Donna, Uncle Pete and Oliver.

Love flying during the daytime - there's so much to see!

We've landed!  What an awesome recommendation to switch our flight from landing at LAX to landing at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.  It was a small, quaint and easy-to-navigate airport.  Instead of deplaning on a jet bridge, you walk right out into the sunshine (so perfect for California).  Plus, it's super close to their house!

Ava's ready to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time!

As soon as we got to Aunt Donna's house, the grapefruit tree grabbed the attention of the boys.

A quick funny story about Jameson out-witting us...we cut open the grapefruit and were discussing how all fruit is juicy.  Jameson said that that wasn't true - "bananas aren't juicy".  Oh, he got me, Rob and Donna with that brilliance!

So happy to be able to hang out and play with cousin Oliver!

That's a bit of a mischievous look J's got there...

...yup, it was.  That boy had plans!  A little foreshadowing of showing Oliver the perks of being a big brother ;)

Ava showing the boys how to "listen for fish".

Driving over to Zuma Beach.

Awesome to get there before the crowds.

Ava loved the ocean!

Already eyeing the next wave.

Catching some water for building sandcastles.

Uncle Pete making sure Jameson doesn't get carried out to sea.

And Uncle Pete claims to not like the sand...hmmmm.

Cali girl :)

Hungry cousins!

Fort Fun with Uncle Pete.  The screams (of delight) that this activity produced far out numbered any others on this trip!

Experiential jellyfish exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

More of the La Brea Tar Pits.

Enjoying a picnic lunch on the tar pit grounds.  This was one of Jameson's last almond-butter sandwiches before he was cleared for the real deal :)

We made plans to meet up with our friends, Melissa and Pete, while we were out there.  Melissa and I went to graduate school together and have since each gotten married and had two kids.  Jameson and Ava had a blast hanging out with Owen and Wesley.  We met up for brunch in the Long Beach area and then headed to a community park.  The park surprised us as it was hosting a festival - which we kinda assumed/hope was open to the "community" ;)

Rob and Melissa supervising the bounce house.

Left the park and drove to meet up with another "Boston" friend of ours who lives in West Hollywood.

And we got a little lost - but with napping children, sometimes that's a blessing in disguise.

More fun with toys back at cousin Oliver's house!!!

Good-bye for now, LA!  We had tons of fun in the Cali sun!!!

Family reunion in MI

A year in the making...Lindholm family reunion.  Destination: Northern Michigan, July 2016.  Here is my mom (middle) surrounded by her sisters - (left to right) Alecia, Pam, Kathy and Heidi.

And here we all are...well, minus those who couldn't make it.  My cousin Sean and his fiance weren't able to come due to work commitments and my own sister (whose house we're at!) and Matthew, Penelope and Everett couldn't come due to being in France on business.

Rob and Tyler hanging out on the front porch watching the kids play.

Jameson and Ava likely playing "chase" in the front yard.

Jameson getting some early driving lessons - first from Uncle Tyler and here from dad.

Wish I knew what was going through Ava's mind!!

Playing on the beach.

Longing to be back outside.

Bonfire on the beach with smores...ah, summer!!!

I think this is my mom (left) and my cousin's wife, Karen, coming back after a long kayak.

Hanging out around the fire.

Loving the early evening light.

Everyone had so much fun on the water.  We swam, rented jet skis and a pontoon boat and went tubing.  Wish I had pictures from the boat!

Some loving the sun, others loving the shade.

One of Jameson's many castles.

Ava trying to make her way down to the beach.

One of the nights we came in to check on Jameson and found that he'd moved Everett's horse to be right beside him...the surprise of it made it even funnier to us!

The only time we went out to eat was to a local brewery, "Shorts".  It was just me and the boys :)  We had fun talking to Tyler about his next work placement.  He'd just learned that he's scheduled to move to England late summer.  Natalie would be coming home from Europe and Tyler would be leaving for Europe.

A bunch of us took a daytrip to the indoor water park at Boyne Mountain Resort.  My parents watched Ava at home, so we could take Jameson.  He had sooo much fun!!!

Walking on his hands in the water just like we'd been practicing in our neighborhood pool this summer.

Dad joining in on the fun.

Shooting baskets.

Making their way to climb back up to the slides.

We each took many trips down the slide with Jameson :)

Papa being goofy - even making Ava wonder...

Smiles :)

Ava had a lot of fun playing with her second cousin, McKenna, who'd just turned one in April.

Thumbs up to an excellent vacation.  We sure missed those who couldn't make it!