Brownie Batter Lovin'

This afternoon as Adrienne and I were fixing supper I decided we needed brownies for dessert. Morgan was pumped that she woke up from her nap just in time to help me mix them up. More importantly she was up in time to lick the batter - or as she once put it "lick the batteries".

I wasn't planning on introducing Adrienne to this part of baking, but Morgan wanted to share with her. What a nice big sister!

As you can see, Adrienne was thrilled to join in the fun!

This brownie batter lickfest seemed to bring on a special kind of lovin'...
They smiles were well worth the mess!

I'm back ... with my baby belly

Before I start with the sob story, here is an update on my baby belly. I am 23 weeks (the picture was taken at 21 weeks). We had our ultrasound and baby Chupp is looking very healthy - just what we wanted to hear. Dave and I are among the few couples that wait to find out if this little baby is a boy or a girl, so no news to report there. Morgan says it's a baby boy. We will see. It's been a while since my last post. We had some major computer drama in our house over the last month or so. Our computer crashed taking with it 3 months of pictures that we hadn't yet backed up! Those of you who know me, know that pictures mean the world to me. Although me slacking on backing them up doesn't show that. Anyways... it took way too long to get things back in working order, but we are finally there. Hopefully we have learned our lessons.

I need your help though. I was hoping to get the pictures I have posted on the blog printed, but haven't had any luck. Do you know how to do that? I am slightly upset that sicko pedophiles can get our pictures of our kids, but I can't figure out how to get a quality print of my own pictures! So if you have any advice for me please let me know.

Along with our computer issues we have also been having a ton of fun with our families, taking trips all over. I think we are done running for a while. Although every little trip was fun, it's also nice to be able to catch our breath.

It has felt strange to be out of the blogging world for so long. Not only was I not blogging, I wasn't keeping up on all your blogs either. Now that I am back to blogging I am going to try to do some catch up work, both on my blog and finding out what you all have been up to. :)

Lake Michigan

The last stop on the Chupp Family Vacation Triathlon 2009 was Watervliet, MI where we met up with my family for a weekend away. Again we got a weekend of family fun without having to do any of the planning.

Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

Safari Joe's Water Park

Luckily our intoxicated neighbors were just sober enough Friday night to tell us about the indoor water park connected to the local hotel. This info came in handy on Saturday when we woke up to a cold and rainy day. I still can't believe that we were lucky enough to have a huge indoor water park in our tiny town. Gotta love that! We all had a great time - kids and adults alike. I included a picture of my dad coming out of the huge water slide tunnel. The picture isn't super good quality, but it captures the amount of fun we were all having (especially Grandpa) :). Toward the end I decided to give the slide a try. I'm so glad I did. It was awesome! Like any good water park they had areas for all ages so everyone had a great time.

Silver Beach

Sunday was a beautiful day so we packed up and headed to Silver Beach, about 15 minutes from where we were staying. To say the water was cold doesn't due justice to the actual temperature of the lake. For most of us just getting our feet wet was enough. But there were a few brave, or crazy, among us that did actually "swim" in the lake. We all had a great time relaxing on the beach. There was a lot of digging, packing, and piling of sand. And of course the day wouldn't be complete without a few people being buried in the sand. My dad and Mitch worked hard to get the kite up and flying. That was a hit! Morgan and I both took our turns flying it and Adrienne gave out some of her classic squeals letting us all know just how excited she was about watching it dance in the sky.

Cold Treats
Our last night there we decided to make a trip to the local ice cream place. Judging by the sticky smiles I think everyone was pretty pleased with their treats. How cute are they? They put a little candy face on the kids' cones.

Cousins

Here are Grandma and Grandpa with the crew of grandkids.

Becca, Vince and Tommy (the older cousins) are so great with the little cousins - reading lots of books, playing many games and enduring endless pounces.

The little cousins adore them!

Grandma and Grandpa Rhodes

After 3 days filled with family fun we all headed back to where we call home. In spite of the numerous highly competitive late night games, we all left on good terms. :) I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great time!

Thanks for the wonderful time Mom and Dad!

Siesta Key

Dave and I decided we wanted to take the girls on a family vacation before the arrival of the new baby. I have also been thinking about going to visit Angie in Sarasota. SO, we decided to try to do it all in one trip. The last time we went on a family vacation with just our family Morgan was 7 months. I wouldn't go as far as calling that trip a vacation. I was a little nervous this was going to feel the same. I am happy to say that Dave and I figured out how to have a relaxing vacation with kids! We rented a house with a pool on Siesta Key about 2 blocks from the beach. Need I say more?!

Morgan loved playing in the pool. Dave and I loved that she was so easily entertained. She got to swim every morning while Adrienne took her morning nap. This was the life for Morgan.

Adrienne liked the pool too, but unlike Morgan, she actually had a limit to the time she wanted to spend in the pool.

This cracked us up all week. Every time Adrienne got out of the pool she would bend over to watch the water drip off her suit. :)

The girls loved watching the little lizards that were all over. I on the other hand preferred to keep my distance. I know ... shocker.

We made it a point NOT to try to see everything that the area had to offer. Instead we chose a few things we thought the girls would enjoy and then spent the rest of the time by the pool. One of our favorite outings was to Mote Marine Aquarium.

Seeing massive sea life up close and personal impressed us all. Morgan wasn't super thrilled about the Sharks swimming close to her, but was fine with the Manatee. I wasn't able to get a good picture of it, but Adrienne loved the giant Sea Turtles, giving her best squeal of pure joy every time they stuck their heads out of the water tank by her hand.

We also made it to Jungle Gardens as you can see by the sign. :) Dave and I thought this place was kind of a joke. Morgan liked it though and I guess that's what it's all about.

This might have been the highlight. She was pretty excited about being able to hold a bird. I don't think I've ever done that. Not sure if I would want to either. It just might be one of those things that would freak me out once it was actually sitting on my arm. They were really pretty though from a few feet away. :)

So Peacocks may be pretty, but they are crazy mean! This freak of a bird was squealing and shaking at everyone and everything the whole time we were around. We actually had to go way off the path to get by. Seriously!?!

Angie's husband Andrew works at the Sarasota YMCA. So one afternoon Angie took us to the YMCA sprinkler park. If any of you guys end up in Sarasota with kids you need to go to this place. It was great!

They had levels of fun for all ages. Both the girls really had a blast!

As you can see the big kids had fun too. :)

Of course we made several trips to the beach too. It was great being so close because we didn't have to make it in to a big event. We basically just took some buckets and shovels and the girls loved it. It was so nice to go to the beach with the kids without having to haul all the kid gear.

Of course I didn't get any pictures of Dave's outings. He was able to catch a baseball game in Tampa one evening. And Andrew was excited to take him fishing. I guess they had a good time. Angie and I were happy to stay back and have some girl time. Especially when they came back smelling like ... you know. They had fun and that's what counts. It was nice to be able to see Angie again and see where she is making a life for herself. Of course we worked in an afternoon of girl time - you know shopping and lunch at Einstein's. What a great trip! Who knew vacation with kids could actually feel relaxing? I know I didn't. Dave and I both agreed that this is the way we need to do it from now on. Thanks Angie and Andrew for showing us around!