We had a busy weekend. We spent Saturday/Sunday morning at Ocean Shores with my family. Most of the time was spent at the park for Ethan and then at the beach. In the morning, Michael, Ethan, and I went out on the canoe in the canal that is in my parent's back yard. I thought Ethan would cry the whole time, but he just held onto my leg and was watching everything intently. It was fun.
I don't have many pictures of Emeree . . . she was mostly bundled up since it was chilly at the beach. She kept making the "stink face" the whole time. I think the wind was hitting her face and she didn't like that, so she responded with a sour "stink face" the whole night. But here is a picture of her cute outfit that I made her. I made it out of a men's t-shirt. It goes down past her knees, but you can't really tell from the picture - and there are 3 stars on the side.
At the North Bay Park, they had entertainment for kids. We got Ethan a balloon sword. He mostly chased me and Michael with the sword.
But then he found some other kids playing with swords too and he joined in. The kids were really good sports at playing with a 2 year old they didn't know for a minute or 2.
They also had a train ride. I went with Ethan on this one and he screamed when we first got on board, but then he calmed down. He didn't smile or react much. He just sat very still and was very serious.
Here is one of the few pictures we took of Emeree when she wasn't bundled up - and as she did the whole day, she made a weird face.
Here is Michael and Ethan at the water.
Nathan decided to skip along the water for about a minute, so Michael took several shots of the action - here's a very manly looking one.
After he was done playing in the sand, he got cold, so we wrapped him up and put him on a chair by the fire. He sat like this for a couple hours - and ate grapes out of his hat.
And then we drove home Sunday afternoon and ended the day at Michael's parent's house to have dinner and light off some fireworks.
Debbie found some giant marshmallows . . . Ethan is a sucker for marshmallows.
And of course Michael was trying to get some amazing shots of fireworks like we did 2 years ago. Here's one of the cool ones from last night.
Ethan didn't really like the fireworks, but he was okay as long as he was sitting on my lap. Emeree cried for the first couple loud bangs, but then she fell asleep while Debbie was holding her. So I didn't get to light any off this year since I was holding Ethan, but Michael and Rick lit off all of them - including the sparklers because Ethan wanted nothing to do with them. And boy do I wish I had the camera for the sparkler finale. Michael and his Dad pranced and skipped around the yard with a sparkler in each hand. It was hilarious!
I didn't think it would happen this fast, but Emeree has fallen into the world of kissing. She kept kissing Ethan's Curious George. 
And through a couple weeks of the kids learning new things . . . I'm sad to report that Michael has digressed in his skills. He has forgotten how to open a can. So sad.
He claims it's the can opener's fault so he had to tear the lid back, but I'm not so sure.
Here's another "stink face" shot . . . 
Ethan didn't really like the park at all. He whined and cried almost the whole time we were there. He loved the park last summer. And now that he's old enough to play on some of the toys without me holding his hand the whole time, he doesn't want to.
He sobbed when we tried to put him in the children's bucket swing, so we tried putting him on a regular swing with Michael and he finally smiled for about 30 seconds.
He did a little better when we turned Emeree to face him and pushed them both. No crying, and we got a couple smiles out of him.
But, his highlight of the park was when I gave him a stick to let him hit the tree. He's an odd child.
She can also stick out her tounge and play with her feet while sitting alone. . .
. . . then they fell over.
Here's a picture of Ethan sitting alone when he was 5 months - he beat Emeree by a month with that skill.
She loves sitting in Ethan's high chair to eat. But she's wondering "What is up with these nasty carrots?" I know she gets her dislike of carrots from me - thanks Dad :)
Ethan found one of my beanies in the laundry basket and said "hat" and wanted me to put it on him. He hated hats as a baby and up until recently. But after I put it on him, he pulled it down and started laughing and then kept it down while he walked around - looking down through the tiny slit below his eyes.
And here he is the next day - eating a pop tart with the kitchen tongs. He wouldn't pick it up with his hands since the fudge filling got on his fingers. And he wouldn't use a fork, so I tried the tongs. Worked great.
