End Of Summer Fun

I can't believe summer's coming to a close!  I guess we say that every year, but this summer really was so much fun.  After the initial trauma of moving into our "20 Year Home", as Mike likes to call it, we chose not to dive into all the boxes, and immediately start decorating our house.  Instead, we chose to enjoy the summer, the new neighborhood, the pool, the zoo, our friends when we can squeeze them in and of course our family.  Here are some pictures to catch you up on the miscellaneous events of the last couple of weeks:

She may be a little girl now, but kitchen sink baths still make Lillian's day!

 

I love it when they share their toys...not sure if two kids on one Rocking Horse is what I had in mind though!

 

Our friend Zander discovered a great play yard for kids at the Denver Zoo.  Jak loved climbing in the tree house.

And Lillian loved racing the wooden boats in the river.

The Giraffes are a must-see for the kids...

But the elephants have always been Lillian's favorite, the first time I took her to the zoo, Lillian turned to me at the elephant exhibit and sighed, "thank you". 

Grammy & Opa were visiting over the Labor Day Weekend.  They enjoy using their Children's Museum membership with their 5 Denver Grand Kids.  It so hard to get a picture of Jak these days, he's always on the move!

We have unpacked a few boxes since we moved in, they quickly become a boat, space ship or car for the kids to enjoy!

Daddy promised Lillian, "The day the pool closes, I'll fill the hot tub for you." He was true to his word and filled it up this week!

Aunt Casey & Uncle Rob just bought a house in Stapleton.  We love the sand playground down the street from them!

The sand park has all these fun beach toys available for you to play with, and the rock behind Lillian squirts a waterfall every couple of minutes!

Some Day Keira will enjoy it, but for now she just enjoyed a "fresh air" nap in her stroller!

Last outdoor concert of the summer! 

Two tired momma's...sure wish we had the time to go get pedicures like we used to!  We deserve it more now!

Big Joe Comes to Town!

We are so lucky to have seen Grandpa Kerschen 3 times this summer!  First he came out in May, then we went to Michigan in July and now Grandpa was here for Jak's 1st birthday...will he make it back for hunting season?????  He's always welcome and so is Denny.  We had a great visit with them last weekend, despite Jak not feeling 100%. 

Jak's New Push Walker from Aunt Cathy, Johnny and Layla

Lillian helping the Men "Get the Job Done" assembling Jaks new car and walker from Grandpa - thank god they had her help!

Rain Showers moved the birthday dinner indoors....these big kids had no trouble picnicking on the floor!

Birthday cake is yummy but it's hard to smile when you don't feel good.  Teething again!

The next morning, Jak had time to enjoy his new toys all by himself.

Birthday Excursion to Tiny Town

Train Rides,

Benches built just for kids,

And little houses to climb on and in!

But the best part was the ice cream cone Grandpa bought Lillian.  She got her first taste of "Brain Freeze", how can something so yummy, hurt so bad?!?!

Happiest First Year Ever!

Someday I am going to go back and read previous blog posts and count just how many times I stated that Jak is the happiest baby I have ever met!  But for now, I'll just repeat myself and thank god for bringing him into our lives. His first year of life has brought us chronic exhaustion (I blame the exhaustion on the 2 major moves - not the 2 babies we've been raising!).  But already the last few months, Mike and I have begun to feel the cloud lift; we're getting better sleep, Jak is understanding us and the world better, he's finally feeding himself and drinking whole milk (which means no more packing & labeling food for school everyday and no more pumping!!!) and he's feeling more independence now that he's crawling faster than the speed of light! You can't turn your back on Jak, he's so curious and active that if you blink he's unplugging cords from the wall, crawling outside onto the deck through the crack you left open for the dog, splashing in the dog bowls (and yes - once we caught him eating dog food!!!), playing in the toilet (especially Lillian's potty) and crawling upstairs to look around.  It's amazing, but as daring and adventurous as Jak is we haven't had any major accidents!  Lillian keeps a pretty good watch on him and for the most part those two continue to be good friends.  They have a secret way of talking to each other and no one can get Jak to giggle as loud as Lillian can.  I hope they are this close in 30 years.

Jak isn't walking yet, he pulls up on anything and everything and loves to use his new push walkers he got from Aunt Cathy and Grandpa but it won't be long till he learns how to do it on his own.  Jak has 8 teeth currently but I'm pretty sure there's a few more just under the surface.  He weighed 20 pounds 10 ounces at his one year check up and measured 30 inches tall.  The debate continues as to what Joseph Allan Kerschen will prefer to be called when he grows up but for now the Colorado Kerschens have a dozen nicknames for him, here they are..... 

JJ
Jak-attack
Jakaroo
Jakie
Jaka (Lillian's preferred nickname for him)
Jako
Joe-seiphus
Little Joe

Where is Pinky?

My grandpa passed away unexpectedly at the age of 88 last week.  I say unexpectedly, because just the day before Mom and Dad had been over to his house, brought him a couple prepared meals, filled his pill jar and said, "See you soon, Dad", to which he replied, his standard "I love you, doll".  That afternoon he went to his favorite hang out, the 86th Street Pub with his buddies.  But the next morning, when his friends were calling to go pick him up to go to the Antelope Club, he didn't answer.  It looks like he went pretty quick and in his own home, exactly like he wanted and we're all so happy he can finally be with his beloved Carolyn again...she never did like leaving him.

A wonderful picture of Grandpa at our wedding just 4 years ago...he looked great.  Dad used this picture as the signature photo at the funeral, as if he's saying goodbye to us.

 

We were pleasantly surprised at the viewing to find a horse patrol officer standing guard outside the funeral home.  Grandpa was one of the original founders of the Indianapolis Horse Patrol.

Lillian seemed to understand the emotion of the situation.  She walked hand-in-hand with Grammie at the cemetery and sat on her lap during the service, bringing Grammie lots of comfort and strength.  At the viewing, I took Lillian to the bathroom and she began singing "Where is Pinky?, Where is Pinky? like the nursery rhyme says, I had never heard her sing that song before, she must have overheard people talking about Grandpa, most of his friends knew him as "Pinky".

We had several out-of-state visitors; including Mom's best friends Linda & Darrell Smith, mom's cousins Gary & Pat Lerch, their son Gary Lerch, Dad's friends Gary Newan and Alan Freeman and my Uncle John Hanou.  It was really nice of them to make the trip...Grandpa would have appreciated it.

Jak, wanting constantly to be "on the move", found grandpa's coffin to be the perfect climbing gym. 

Dad worked so hard to make sure Grandpa's service was just perfect, creating a great slide show of pictures, writing obituaries for the local newspapers, notifying all family and friends and adding special touches to the service like a Bud Light Toast in honor of Pinky.  Everything went really, really smooth.

After the burial we ate at Zaharako's Restaurant, in business since 1900 this "soda" shop in like walking back in time.  Oma used to love to bring us here as kids.  Lillian and Jak loved the old organ music playing.

We were trying to take a picture of Grandpa's newest great-grand daughters when Lillian snuck in beside them.  Carolyn is 3 1/2 months and Keira is 5 months here. 

A little post - wake party - Lerch Style!!!  Euchre till 2:30 in the morning....I crashed at 1:30!

Jak taking the obligatory kitchen bath at Grammies house!

Lillian trying on Opa's glasses....

Uncle Severin helping the kids get in a little kid time at St. Mary's Catholic Church playground behind Mom and Dad's house.

 

Jak at 11 Months

Don't you want to blow raspberries on that belly?  So cute!  Jak has 8 teeth now - 4 of which poked through while we were in Indiana/Michigan - poor guy!  Jak was pretty darn cranky while we were there....and now we know why!  Four teeth in one week...whew!  But he is starting to feed himself Cheerios and small bites of crackers finally.  For a kid who loves to eat, he sure doesn't work to hard at doing it himself!  He prefers to have a toy in each hand and let you shovel it in.  If he doesn't have something in his hands, he won't open his mouth!
Jak is busy!  In no time he can move from one room to the next.  If you have the back door open he BEE-lines straight out to the deck, if you turn your back, he dumps out the dogs water bowl.  The other day, I caught him eating Droste's food....so gross!  I had to pry a piece out of his mouth...and he was not happy about it!  We still have very little furniture in this big ol' house so he has plenty of room to crawl & explore, he's even attempting to climb up the stairs.  We're in trouble!
He's stating to really be attached to his family.  When he sees Lillian on the playground he screams and cries so much that the teachers finally started opening the gates and letting Jak play with Lillian's class.  They have this adorable way of communicating.  Lillian speaks gibberish to him and they both giggle.  The teachers take pictures with their phones cause they love watching it so much.  Jak also recognizes my car.  When he sees me pull up to daycare he gets so excited just like his big sister.  But now that he's so eager to see me, I have to really hurry to grab 'em and hug 'em both as quick as possible or some really BIG tears start flowing!  It's the highlight of my day for sure!

Midwest Summer Vacation!

Jak is free from sin!  We just returned from a 10 day trip to Indiana and Michigan.  We visited Great Grandpa, soaked up some good time on White Lake, visited with so much extended family, saw lots and lots of fireworks and finally baptized Jak.  Travelling with two babies is about as easy as moving with two babies.  The actual travel part was great.  Both kids love running (or crawling) around the airport, smiling and talking to strangers and both managed to nap on the plane.  The big challenge is sleeping in multiple houses and moving around a bunch.  We spent one night in Indiana, 5 nights in Whitehall, 2 nights in E. Lansing then back to Indiana for a night.....by the end of the week I didn't know where I was when I woke up!  Every time Jak or Lillian woke up, Mike and I jumped to our feet, doing ANYTHING to keep them quiet and get them back to sleep.....praying they hadn't awoken the whole household!  I was so tired when we came back to Denver, I actually couldn't wait to go back to work...I needed a vacation from our vacation!

Jak & Grammy at Great Grandpa's House

Visiting with Great Grandpa!

Lillian loved her blow up bed from Grammy & Opa, it travelled with us all over Michigan!

Lillian and Layla found it very funny to switch Aunt Cathy and Daddy's hats. We couldn't get Mike's U of M hat off Layla all week (and we haven't seen it since!)

Lazy pajama mornings at the Lake :) waiting for the sun to come out.

 

Getting our toes ready....just in case the sun comes out.

Playing with Grandpa - still waiting for the sunshine!

A little iPad fun...you guessed it...while we waited for sunshine!

Finally...we took a trip to an indoor bounce house....so much fun!

Finally we got to show off our "beach" bodies!

God Bless the USA and the Coopers - for hosting 39 people for dinner on the 4th of July! What a great time!

Faster Daddy Faster!  Layla would say, "Faster!" and Lillian would turn to her and say, "You want to go faster, ok" and she'd rev the boat throttle.  Lillian LOVED the control!

Pool time!

Jak's Baptism at St. John's in East Lansing

We were so honored to have Mike's cousin, Jeffrey perform Jak's baptism. Jeffrey spoke about joy throughout the ceremony and Jak heard the message loud & clear.  He could NOT have been happier!

Back in Indianapolis, Grammy took Lillian past the firehouse, she got a souvenir hat and a great memory to go along with it!