Crazy bath hair!

The Trauma/Burn ICU celebrates 50 years

Mike works at the U of M Trauma/Burn ICU ( T/B ICU) and the unit celebrated it's 50th year treating burns today! Mike took Mackenzie and me to meet his co-workers and to see the unit. It was really neat to see how the UM T/B ICU has evolved into one of the best of it's kind in the U.S. . Actually seeing where Mike works makes me even more proud of him and the skilled work he does.


Pretty flowers!
Daddy first, trauma nurse second!

Music with Marie!

We attended our first music class today! The leader's name is Marie and we really like her. She's great at getting the kids to listen to directions and keeping them entertained. Since it was our first class( we missed the first three classes while in CO/sick)Marie said not to be surprised if Mackenzie is hard to keep focused on the actual music class. There are tons of free play toys and play equipment around and she said it takes a few weeks for kids to get into the music part of things. Despite that, Mackenzie stayed with the group for the class and participated with all the songs!

( ^the class is held at an indoor soccer field)

As much as she enjoyed the instruments, etc, she really wanted to check out all those toys!

We were both so proud of her. She could climb up and over the rungs of this toy:
This toy was doubly fun: It's a swing and it has a buckle!
Another of her favs:

Spook-tacular art work

Even though Mackenzie really likes to color and enjoys using the glue stick and tearing tissue paper, hand print projects are still the way to go:

Zoo-m!

As soon as we were healthy and Mike had a day off, we eagerly planned a trip to the zoo! Grammy Mary's gift of a membership to the Toledo zoo has been so great! Instead of having to cram a trip full of all we can in effort to get the most out of our daily admission, we can plan smaller trips that focus on one section of the zoo. It makes it much more relaxed and allows for the short and wacky attention span of a toddler. This trip was specifically for the aquarium.

Checkin' out the cool fish!
It was a chilly day out so the monkey's were moving a little slow. Mackenzie got an up-close look at this one:
This monkey came down from it's roost just to check Mike out:

This picture is just to show the hat that Mike made Mackenzie to match her jacket! Nice work!

Falling leaves

When we got back to Michigan fall had set in! Gone are the warm , breezy days of this dream summer and in their place is rain and a biting wind. This summer was a wonderful one ( weather wise and just in general) and we aren't quite ready for the perpetually gray skies of a tell tale Michigan winter. We can run, but we can't hide.

My favorite jogging trail is now covered in sopping wet leaves. The really good color hasn't set in but with all the rain, this may be the best we get:

I'm still crossing my fingers that I'll get some cute fall leaf pictures with Mackenzie...stay tuned!

Sicky sick

Since we caught the flu at the end of our Colorado trip, we were feeling pretty puny for about 5 days after we got back. Mackenzie was a total grouch and I was just drained of any energy. Thankfully, we are on the mend and feeling better but I can see a swollen bump on the horizon of Mackenzie's gum where she'll soon have a Canine tooth...

Once we started to feel a little better, we headed out on a walk to breath in some fresh air! I had to laugh to myself when I saw one of those super size fuzzy dandelions because ,before I brushed Mackenzie's hair, her head looked just like that fuzzy dandelion!
She actually feel asleep in our walk which NEVER happens! Glad to be rid of that virus!