Dr. Liam

I don't know if it was on purpose, but it kind of looks like Liam and Mom conspired to go for the old Cambridge professor look... if not that, then maybe the studious Harry Potter, complete with authentic forehead scar. Either way, he's cute.

Brady's 1st day of school

Today was the first day of classes for Brady. His backpack has been packed for days and he couldn't have been more ready. He'll choose his year-long research projects this week.

gabe's garage

This might look like Dani and Gabe standing in front of our garage. What you're ACTUALLY seeing is Dani and Gabe standing in front of Gabe's private estate (which, if measured by International Bunny Units, is I'm sure something like 12,000 square feet. Lucky rabbit).

Love him

Great Lakes

This morning we decided that we were tired of cleaning/organizing/painting/doing the move-in thing, so we took off to the beach. We took the 1.5 hour drive to Grand Haven on the coast of Lake Michigan to do some exploring and loved it.



This first picture is mostly for Grandma Flinders and Jug. We couldn't decide if they were calling the pottery names or if that meant that the ceramics were extra cool.
Liam was a huge fan of the water. A good sign for his future kayaking days.
Popeye and DadBelow- looking upstream. The boardwalk went from the lighthouse for a couple miles into town.
Popeye goes Danish.

Find his footprints.



If you don't already have at least a few reasons to visit us, let this be one of the things added to your list.

Settling Down

First, a big thanks goes out to the Comcast dude that slogged out here in the rain today to hook us up with the world. So- we all made it. Just a quick update, as we'll be backlogging and filling in once we get some better pictures available of our summer escapades. For now, we all made it safe and sound to our new place in DeWitt and are loving it. Even Gabe, who has complete domain over the garage (but only for now, Brady says... we'll see). Liam, as you can see, didn't let the jet lag or new place deter him from being adorable. This week he figured out how to roll over and also that those things with five fingers that he waves around are his, that he can use em', suck 'em, slobber on 'em, and even grab stuff with 'em. We've been negligent in our baby photographing, so we'll get some more up and posted for his grandmas ASAP. DeWitt's big party was this weekend (we figure it was a welcome-in party, as well as a birthday bash for Dani, complete with fireworks). Just so you can get a feel for the downhome place it is, please observe our favorite floats below. Also, Liam's showing off his stash from the parade.
Right now we're celebrating Dani's new position as DeWitt Fitness Champion Girl. She got hired on at a new gym that's opening, and was their first choice among tons of applicants. She'll work a few hours a week when Dad can be around with Liam, and they also throw in a free membership and babysitting if she wants it. She'll probably start in about a month or so.
More soon to come...

We think he may have lost one (or two) of his chins. He's still got enough for two people though. Early morning calisthenics with dad

Waaay more candy than Provo's parade-- and we didn't even have to set up chairs four days in advance. The look on his face tells you exactly what he's thinking about the boring sucker the last girl tried to throw at him.

The good ol' boys roll right past the corner of our street in the DeWitt Ox Roast Parade (pronounced Ahhx Roohst by the Michiganders)

South from Alaska

Time in AK always goes quick, even though the days are longer than anywhere else. We've had a blast up here. Illness kept the activity level lower than we had anticipated, but we still got in a lot of action. Danielle declared our dipnetting on the Kenai to be the best fishing (and most fun) of her entire life- in a couple short minutes she raked in a whole lot of Reds with her brother Jake. Brady was dubbed the Fish Slayer after leading the ranks in fish kills. Life is good when you can have 78 fish to your name in two tides of dipnetting. All in all the crew brought in about 300 fish. The weather was overcast and slightly rainy- perfect weather to float neck deep in the water for 7 hours at a time, watch the seals offshore, and executing fish by punching them in the head. We're just sad we don't have enough room to bring down all we'd like.

Saturday we hiked the Winner Creek trail in Girdwood (behind the Alyeska ski resort) up to a hand tram that crosses a gorge and over the river. On the way back Liam got a glimpse of his first bear. We happened upon a black bear who was rummaging for food in the undergrowth about 10 meters off the trail. Don't worry- no casualties, and the only one who needed their pants changed afterwards was Liam.

Also on our Did-It list was: attending Jake's soccer games, our tradition of the-best-calamari-ever at Orso's, trail running, an all day fish processing ceremony, chillin' with the fam, late night visits, planning our next trip up here, and last but not least, closing on our home in Michigan (we are now the official owners). We've loved our time up in Dani's homeland, and we're both sad to leave. Liam can now rightfully claim some of his Alaskan heritage.