So I woke up from sleeping the other afternoon by having Joshua come in and climb up on the bed, with a big giant smile, he says "I'm happy to see you, Daddy" which of course melted my heart and gave me a big smile. And then he cracked me up...He says "Guess what Daddy?" So being the fish I am I say "WHAT Joshua?" and he looks at me with a grin and says "Chicken". Now I am still not sure if he was trying to be funny or just saying something, but it sure made me laugh, which in turn made me laugh, and made me very happy to be a Daddy.

How cute are these two eh? I was scanning in some old pictures of Joshua on his 2nd birthday (Can't believe he is TWO Already!!!) and that big ole grin of his just made me laugh again. He is feeling MUCH better this week and is just a total giggler-boy...it makes it great fun to play with him.

Quick update...got results today, and I passed my written boards! WOo HOO! Only Orals to go!!!

Well, fall is here, at least officially. Tonight a cold front is supposed to move in and bring the temperatures down, but for the last week and a half we have had sunny days with high 80's temperature. This is like totally nicer weather than any summer since we have lived here. Michigan is trying to woo us, but forgets it is still going to throw winter at us and reinforce our THRILL at moving west!

It has been a busy summer for me, and the family. I spent the summer busily reviewing and cramming for my written boards. I have now been waiting nearly five weeks for results, and am about going mad with anticipation. When I finished I felt pretty good, not like I aced it, but probably passed. Now here I am wondering if I even did that. This was the first year it was on the computer, and i loved it. Click and move on. Any way, my brother was leaving a voicemail on my phone, and asked if they had an instant retake option, like "nope you are an idiot and you failed, but slide your credit card through and give us another $980 dollars and see if you can do any better!!!". So, hopefully those results will arrive this week. I am on a month of night shift now. I kind of like the work and the autonomy, but the schedule blows and I am tired all the time. I wish i could take some sort of illicit drug to make me more alert, or even licit ones like caffeine that would give me pep, not make me drowsy! Anyway, 4 more weeks and it will be all over FOREVER!! MY new job has night coverage, so I will be backup call, but no regular night shifts...yahoooOoO!!!

The saddest news was that we had a realtor come talk with us, and he said if we listed the house now, he would start at a price nearly $3000 less than we paid for it 5 years ago! You got to love the Michigan economy. People out west are moving up and up with houses, and we will have to pay to get out of ours....if we are lucky! It has been a nice little house for us though, so I will try not to complain too much.

The family was busy with enjoying all the nice weather. Multiple trips to Meijer Gardens, the zoo, areas parks, and anything else we could get into inexpensively. We are now awaiting the arrival of Grandma Doris and Grandpa Bob this weekend for even MORE fun!! Our last big adventure as a family was to go to a farm for our own little harvest festival. We saw the animals, ate fresh donuts (skipped the cider) went on a horse drawn wagon ride and picked apples and went through a Maize Maze (a maze cut into a field of corn). We had a great time, well most of us. Joshua was a little crabby but still had moments of joy as you will see below.

Winter is just around the corner, which will no doubt make for more good pictures. Sheila is entering a fugue, and Sarah is thrilled. Joshua has no idea. And me...well, I am just waiting for those results, and looking forward to oral boards in June!! I will keep you posted!

Okay, so no one is ever going to mistake them for farm kids, but they sure look cool don't they?! Actually this picture only took 9 attempts, and this was the best one, how pathetic is that!!!!

So while Sarah loved the corn maze, Joshua was a bit crabby by this point, so I got to carry him in the sling though it. I really thought I would be able to see over the corn since it has been so dry, but I could hardly see though, let alone over, so it was fun. I think I only had to break through a row of corn once to get Joshua and I back on track. Sheila and Sarah were of course on course due to Sarah's inborn GPS.

Sheila and Sarah deep in the Maize Maze.
This was something that Sheila had wanted to do since we first heard about them in Iowa, and Sarah bravely led us though this one with very few mistakes. I know when she is old enough I will be letting her drive an me be a passenger.

After the pseudofiasco of the motorcycle ride at Michigan Adventure, we were not sure what he would think of this piggy train ride, but as you can see, both Joshua and Sarah loved getting towed around in a pink oil barrel by a garden tractor...kids, go figure!

Sarah heading off with her brand new Minnie Mouse backpack!!! Yeah it is huge, but it is just for carrying papers, and she LOVES Minnie Mouse. Sheila had big plans for a Snow White birthday cake like she made for Sarah's friend, with the whole princess theme birthday and Sarah shot her down and said she wanted Minnie Mouse cake again for her birthday! Sooooo, Minnie Mouse it will be!

So, the big news is that Miss Sarah started preschool this fall. She was very excited to be going and for the first two weeks, when sheila would pick her up from school she would say" That was the best day ever!!!!" Above you can see what she planned to wear the first day of school, and what she ended up wearing. I think it was a cooler day that day or something.

Well, Sarah and Joshua's last fling of the summer was to head to the zoo over in Lansing. Not only did they get to ride those fine metal giraffes, they also got to take a quick circuit ride on the ponies!!! Sheila got some exercise with Joshua too! This was kind of the last big thing before Sarah started preschool!

Grand Rapids Children's Museum. Joshua hard at work here. One of the benefits of our Zoo Membership was getting to go the the Children's museum for free over the summer. The kids had blast and it was fun to watch them play in the construction area, TV studio, Store, car, bank, music, bubbles, etc.

Sarah hard at work in the gravel pit. She was just minutes away from the little bird squawking the finishing horn!

Sarah and Sheila making big GIANT bubbles. We were there first thing in the morning when the bubble mix was good or something because even Joshua and Sarah were making big bubbles by themselves.

Here you can see Sarah trying to decide between the beekeeper job or the bee job. It's really the same for all of us isn't it? We want to be the beekeeper because it means no more making honey and working til the day you die, but then there is a certain sense of satisfaction from being the bee and seeing the product of your labor at the end of the day. Okay, I am probably reading WAY to much into this and she was just playing. This is an actual bee hive which the bees get to through a whole to the outside world behind it. Pretty cool to see their bustling activity.

Sarah depositing her money at the drive-up bank teller from her lucrative career as a honey bee.

Joshua at the pretend 5/3rd Bank (well the bank name is real, but this was not a real branch at the children's museum). He looks like me on my first day of work as a real doctor....ummm I am supposed to do what?!?!?!

Happy 33rd Birthday Sheila! As you can see, she has now gotten so old that we can't find enough candles for her cake. To her credit though, she did blow all the candles out!!

Joshua REALLY enjoying Sheila's Ice Cream cake we got her from Coldstone. He used his fork for a while, then his hands and then got right down to business. Actually, I am not sure what he was thinking, but he went back to utensils when he couldn't inhale it like he wanted.

This is our poor overworked son, vacuuming up his hair after his own haircut. How cheap are we eh? He loves vacuuming for pretend, and it was even better when all his cut hair was getting sucked up.

This was Joshua's second haircut. The first was when aunt Amanda was here, and it did not go well. This time I set up the laptop computer for him to watch CARS on and he sat still like a champ, and look at the beautiful end product!!!

The pool that Sarah took swim lessons at this summer was actually very cool. It is built like a cement beach, slowly getting to the deep end of the pool. In the wading area they had little slides and waterfalls and fountains to play in, and you can see the water slide in the back too. Yours truly was a little too chunky to get any real speed, but it looked fun for skinny people.

Here is miss Sarah taking swim lessons. You can see the poor girl was suffering the whole time. She had a lot of fun, and for a girl that screams bloody murder everytime we wash her hair and get a drop of water in her face, she did AMAZING putting her face in the water and going under water and jumping in the water, etc.