Falling For Fall

It has been a busy few months and I just haven't had the time to update the blog. We made it back from Chicago and we are back in our fall/school schedule. Rorie is glad to be back home but misses having her dad around. We have been lucky enough to have a few visits with him, but we are looking forward to the holidays when he can be home for a couple of weeks. Our happiest news is that we are now living just around the corner from Angela and the kids (and occasionally Ethan). It has been wonderful to have the cousins together and it has made it easier for both Angela and I to have a lot of family around while our guys are away. We decided to have a photo shoot with my extremely talented friend Amber. The fall colors were amazing and we managed to get some great pictures despite the touchy weather. If any of you would like to see more of amber's work click here. I can not say enough good things about her and her work. I love the wonderful candid shots that she always gets, and she is fantastic with the kids!

I just have to add a little side note to this picture. We were trying to get the kids to smile by putting our fingers in the corners of our mouth...and of course they copied us. It was impossible to get a normal picture out of them after that. We especially love the ridiculous look on Ben's face because it is a classic Ethan expression. Just when we thought they couldn't look more alike!

Summer Time In The City!

Well now that summer is in full swing I thought I would do an update to share some of our wonderful Chicago adventures. First of all I would like to say that it has been wonderful being together as a family again. It is easy to forget how important family is until you are apart. It has really made us appreciate each other more!

One of the fun things near the base is the Jelly Belly Factory. You get a free train ride tour of the warehouse, some free jelly bellies and access to their huge Jelly Belly store.

Dad and Rorie posing in front of a Jelly Belly display, wearing their official Jelly Belly hats.

Another favorite activity of ours is a place called Lambs Farm. It is a charity petting zoo in a neighboring community. We have gone several times and Rorie just LOVES it!

Riding the carousal at Lambs Farm

One of the main attractions for the kids is the goat pen. There are tons of sheep and goats that the kids get to brush and pet.

Our first visit was with the GLAM (Great Lakes Area Military) Wives Club. Here are all the kids taking a quick break on the swing.

Rorie and Goat. BFFs.

We were able to take Jake back to Marquette over Memorial Day weekend, which was a great treat for him. Marquette in the summer time= Beach time, and we took great advantage of the opportunity. Our beach outings were even showcased on the front page of the local paper, showing Rorie "buried" at the beach. It was a wonderful weekend.

Visiting a local favorite, Frosty Treats, to cool off after a day in the sun.

While not quite as exciting as downtown Chicago, our local area has a lot of family fun activities to chose from. Recently the fire department hosted a Fire Safety Expo at Gurnee Mills. Rorie loved all of the fire trucks, but was a little scared of the firemen. She was also made an honorary firewoman and was given an "official" fire helmet.

Getting a little tired by the end of the afternoon.

Rorie and Dad posing with Mr. Sparky

Fire Truck!

The huge flag they had hanging from one of the trucks.


On one of Jake's duty free weekends we decided to venture into the big city. We took the train, only to find out it was a 1 1/2 hour trip. Rorie was not thrilled. The trip in, plus the time it takes to get anywhere in Chicago by bus, meant that we only had time for one acivity. We opted for the Shedd Aquarium. It was fantastic! Rorie LOVED it and spent the entire time running from exhibit to exhibit. There was just about every kind of water animal imaginable from gold fish to Beluga whales.

Rorie watching to penguins swimming.

Rorie hugging the penguin display

Rorie and I infront of the beluga whale tank. Notice the white blur in the lower left corner.

Ok well this entry is starting to get a bit lengthy. So until next time, adieu!

Two Year Portraits (Readers Digest Version)

For Rories two year pictures we decided to step outside of the box a little. Instead of doing the traditional portraits I had my friend Amber (who is an amazing photographer) go with us to McCartys Cove to take some more candid shots. Here are a couple of the over two hundred shots (!) we ended up with. We had a ton of fun and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do! If you want the rest of them you can check out my facebook page.

I got a little creative with the editing of this one...I love it!

The water was freezing but Rorie could not get enough. All three of us were soaked by the end of the shoot.

A silly shot

I love Rories Suprised face!

Smile

The only slide shot that wasnt a grimace. I really think that Rorie is an adrenaline junkie. She is fearless!

A Little Taste of Chicago Life

I am going to keep this short and sweet. I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it safe and sound to Chicago and are loving spending time with Jake. Hotel life has its drawbacks but on a whole it has been a great couple of weeks. Here are a couple of pictures:

Cookie Monster!

Handsome Boy!

Daddy is not feeling the love.

Rorie sliding at a park on base.

Swing!

Rorie Turns Two!

As hard as it is to believe this month marked Rories 2nd birthday! Since the weekend before her birthday also happened to be our last weekend in Marquette before we left for Chicago, we decided to have a big party with all of Rories friends at a local park.

The party was fish themed to honor Rories love of all things aquatic. A couple of weeks before her party I found an adorable goldfish table cloth while shopping at Target (I just love that store!) and the whole party grew from there. We had fish placemats, plates and cupcakes. We even had a fish bowl cake!

The weather couldnt have been better...except for the gail strength winds that kicked up shortly after the party started. One particularly strong gust kidnapped all 48 hand decorated cupcakes and proceeded to smash them to bits on the ground. I was disapointed to say the least, but my dad saved the day by running to the store for replacements. Other than a few other minor wind related incidents, the party was a great success. Rorie had a fun evening at the park with her friends and she got some amazingly thoughtful gifts.

Here are a few pictures of the big day:

My sister Ashley with her boyfriend Joe

Rorie in her Birthday outfit opening a present from Sammy.

Rorie's friend Eliza and her Dad, enjoying some Pizza.

Logan was pretty serious about his pizza consumption!

Sammy supporting a frosting mustache.

SLIIIIDDE!

Rorie really wanted to climb with the big kids.

The sad cupcakes...if you look closely you can see the dirt on them.

A "before" picture of the cupcakes...so cute...sigh.

The fish bowl cake. I was pretty proud of myself. The top started to melt a little but overall I thought it was a pretty good. Teva thought it was pretty cool too (note the dog nose in the bottom left corner).

I am so lucky to have such an amazing daughter and it was a blast helping her celebrate her special day. I hope that all of her birthdays can be this much fun!

Spring Break

This last week marked Spring Break for NMU. With a whole week and a half of freedom in front of us Rorie and I set out on an adventure. We drove the six hours to Great Lakes to spend our first weekend with Jake. We stayed at the base hotel that was only one building over from Jake's "ship". Because it was the weekend Jake had all day to spend with us during the weekend. He did however have a 9pm curfew. It was great to see him and to get our first taste of life on base. We visited the NEX (Navy Exchange) which is the on base grocery/department store. You can buy everything from Navy apparel, to diapers. We also visited the USO with its in house theatres and kids room, and attended Jake's ward on Sunday. My sister Ashley and her boyfriend Joe also went down to Chicago to visit friends that they had in the area. We met up with them in down town Chicago for a little bit of shopping and site seeing. The site seeing portion was cut out when it started snowing and when we realized it would cost us about 25 dollars to re-park our car. Next time we will have to remember to take the train!

After Church I had Jake and Rorie pose in their matching sailor outfits, SO CUTE!

Right about here it started snowing...if you look closely you can see the little white specs on Rorie and Jake.

After shopping down town we visited the malls super cool food court. When you go in you are actually seated at a table by a hostess and are then given plastic cards that serve as your money while you are there. You would simply charge all of your food to the card and then when you left you payed off the cards. We couldn't quite figure out the reason for it, but we guessed it was to encourage people to spend more. It is a lot easier to spend fake plastic money than the real thing. The picture is of Jake enjoying his yummy but very overpriced burger.

Before we left we had Ashley snap a picture of our little family. It is super cute of Rorie and I but Jake is sporting his "killer clown" face. It is very hard to get him to smile normally in pictures.

On Monday Rorie and I left Chicago and headed to Clio to spend a few days with my brother Ethan and his family. It was great to see them and the cousins were so excited to have Rorie to play with. Our first day there we went to Frankenmuth, a town about 10miles North of Clio. Frankenmuth is one of those crazy touristy towns were everything, right down to the local McDonalds is styled to look as though it is set in a different country. In this case the whole town is Bavarian themed and made to look like a small German town. Even the people who staff the various shops and restaurants where traditional Bavarian garb. Our first stop was at Brommers, which is by far the coolest store ever. Imagine a huge Super Walmart, and then imagine every inch filled to the brim with Christmas decorations. There are endless tree ornaments from the traditional (santa, angels)to the bizarre (African tribal flags and intricately frosted cupcakes). Rooms full of fake trees, Christmas villages and life size Reindeer. You could easily spend a full day in there and not see everything. We also visited a Cheese Haus (and no that is not a typo) and several toy shops.

That evening we headed to the local mall so that the grownups could do a little shopping, and the kids could play. Rorie had a great time running around and climbing over the various toy statues.

My Niece Anna patiently allowed me to snap a quick picture

Rorie and Ben taking a bath. The two cousins are exactly 1 month apart and we always have a blast getting them together.

Thursday afternoon Rorie and I left for Marquette and after 8 exhausting hours we were finally (and safely) home. It was a wonderful week, but it was great to finally sleep in our own beds! With Jake so far away I guess I should just get used to the long hours on the road...

Love,
The Kenisons

Navy Graduation

After 2 whole months of anticipation Jake finally graduated from Basic Training. It was a wonderful weekend of catching up and hanging out, and it came to an end far too quickly. Here is a quick summary:

We drove down Thursday night and got into Chicago pretty late. After a short nights sleep we headed down the road to the Naval base. We arrived about an hour before the ceremony and the majority of that time was spent walking long distances in the freezing cold (at this point I was seriously regretting my choice of foot wear). When we finally got to the graduation hall we were surprised to find that there was almost NO seating. We were forced to separate, but Rorie and I found a seat directly in front of Jake's division. The ceremony was wonderful: quick & dignified. An impressive feat considering that there were almost 1500 recruits graduating. At the end of the ceremony the MC announced "Liberty Call!" and huge warehouse style doors behind the recruits opened up to the outside. It was instant chaos as family members swarmed onto the floor to find their recruits. We found Jake fairly quick and it was WONDERFUL to see him. Rorie was a little hesitant at first but she soon let him hold her. He was only allowed to give me a quick hug & kiss and then had to "escort" me to the car. He wasn't even allowed to hold my hand! They were very specific on PDA and what was appropriate for a sailor to do in public while in uniform (Jake had to remind me more than once during the weekend). To celebrate his accomplishment we took Jake to Outback for some "real" food, a.k.a a big fat steak. The whole day made me very proud to be a Navy Wife!

The next couple of days were spent mostly at our hotel (plus a quick trip to Gurnee Mills), everyone just relaxing and enjoying being together. Rorie was THRILLED to have her dad around and I was relieved at how fast she warmed up to him. Almost every other word out of her mouth was "Daddy!" She had so much fun showing off for him and hogging his attention. It made me sad all over again to think how much she had been missing him.

Sunday morning we attended church with Jake on base. The ward was tiny, about 4o people, but the spirit was very strong. It was very apparent that for many of the recruits, church was the one thing that got them through the week. Jake was asked to give a talk last minute (about 5 mn before sacrament meeting started) and it was the highlight of my day. It was very sweet and very tender and for the first time I really realized how difficult the last 8 weeks had been for him. There were very few dry eyes by the time he was done speaking.

Shortly after church my parents and Rorie headed back to Marquette, leaving Jake and I to enjoy Valentines day together. Jake surprised me with a new digital camera to replace our very slow and fuzzy hand-me-down one that we got from my parents when we got married. I couldn't have been happier! We also got to spend half of the day together on Monday before I had to head home. I was so grateful for the time that we got to spend alone together. It had been far too long since we have had any one on one time. It was more than a little sad saying goodbye and leaving him alone on base. It was only bearable because our next visit was less than two weeks away.

Jake left Basic Training on Wednesday and was transferred across base to A School. I got a call from him last night letting me know that he had arrived safely and that he could have his cell phone as soon as I shipped it to him. What a relief! Just knowing that he will have a way to communicate more readily makes A School about a million times better than Basic Training.

Thanks to everyone who called Rorie and I, wrote Jake, and prayed for our family these last two months. It has meant the world to us and has made us feel very loved!

Love
The Kenisons

PS. Enjoy the pictures!

My absolute favorite picture: Rorie trying to salute like her dad.

At a super fancy McDonalds...just hanging with dad

Rorie picked on her poor dad all weekend.

Not the most flattering picture ever...

In case you didn't notice, there are no pictures of Jake is his dress blues (the outfit you probably think of when you imagine a sailor) or pictures of the actual graduation ceremony. This includes Rorie's adorable sailor dress or the new outfit that I carefully put together for the big day. This is because I forgot my camera at the hotel (enter your favorite blonde joke here). Luckily my new camera is nice and small and can fit into my purse. No more bulky ridiculous camera case to lug around with me, which hopefully means no more missed photo moments in our future. Luckily Jake will soon be receiving his Graduation DVD and cruise book (boot camp year book) any day now, so at least we will have some documentation of the big day.