Carrie and Jaime Gutierrez: Sum-Sum-Summer Time! July edition

So I am so horribly behind that I've decided to post the summer in batch as months. Welcome to July!

July 1st, 2011
Before heading out of town for the holiday weekend, we decided to take the afternoon off and head to Sears for Hugo's official 6-month photo shoot. We were excited to get some cute shots since he's so much more independent now with sitting up (and smiling, too!). He didn't disappoint. Below are some of our favorites. The big conclusion from this session was that Hugo's 6-month picture (the first one in the striped romper) bears an uncanny resemblance to pictures of my dad as a child. That must mean Hugo is looking more like me these days!

July 2nd-5th, 2011
To celebrate the long holiday weekend, we headed "Up North" for a weekend of camping with our friends. While everyone else headed up on Friday after work, we thought we'd be smart...use Friday to do Hugo's pictures, miss the traffic and have smooth sailing on the way up on Saturday. Not the case. I-75 North was just as much of a parking lot on Saturday. So it made for a long trip, but we made lots of stops, enjoyed the ride, and got there when we got there. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch on the way up. I happily got a Happy Meal - a better portion of food and now someone that will actually enjoy the toy that comes with! This little rocket ship kept Hugo very entertained while Jaime and I ate.

We got to the Bridge around 3:00 --- everyone else was out on Mackinac Island biking when we arrived. Given the price of the ferry these days (yikes!) and that we weren't going to be biking, we decided just to hang out in Mackinac City until everyone got back. So we wandered around, got some ice cream (making Hugo very happy), did a little shopping, got some lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was also a perfect opportunity for Hugo to test out his new sunglasses ---- they were useful given the beautiful day and there were a lot of people around to comment on how adorable he was! Although I was a little bummed we didn't get to take Hugo to Mackinac Island, it ended up working out really good and it was nice to have some down-time as a family before hanging out with the gang all weekend. And it will definitely be more fun for him next summer!

Hugo lounging in his stroller, looking cool.

Lunch and some fun time with mom and dad. (Although it looks like Hugo was eating his new toy, he really actually filled up on TONS of sweet potatoes!).

Checking out the bubbles at a toy store in Mackinac city.

We ended up getting to Straits campground around 8 PM Saturday night once everyone made it back from Mackinac Island. Everyone was pretty exhausted...them from a day of biking in the hot sun....us from the wall-to-wall traffic all the way up. Small campfire, hit the bed early. Sunday morning we woke up to beautiful weather again and Hugo enjoyed his first breakfast camping.

After breakfast and getting organized, we decided to do a little sightseeing at Castle Rock. Castle Rock is this huge rock cut right off of I-75 in St. Ignace. We drive by it every time we go to my parents house and Jaime always says "sometime we should stop there". So, we finally did. However, before even getting to the rock, we had a pit-stop in the gift shop (put girls in any store and they will find something to buy). Us in the Castle Rock gift shop? Ridiculous red-white-and-blue celebratory hats and peace sign sunglasses. See pictures below for our American gear.

Since the hike up was straight up (literally) a ton of stairs, the Baby Bjorn seemed the only way to go. Luckily, Jaime volunteered to carry it. I don't know if I could have done the stairs with an extra 20 pounds! Being up on Castle Rock brought back some great family memories. I have this vision burned in my brain - probably because we actually have a picture of it --- of my family as a kid all up on Castle Rock. My dad is wearing this ridiculous teal hawaiian shirt with pink flowers, AJ is dressed in full-on Indian head dress and I am wearing...wait? Maybe it's me in the hawaiian shirt? Anyways, I do remember AJ's indian head dress. I wonder what Hugo will remember about this picture of our little family.

It really was beautiful up there, looking out over all the forest and waterways of the Straits. Jaime is terrified of heights and couldn't stand it for more than just a few pictures. He headed back to safe land and we snapped a few more...Tina and Nate (!) and us girls (Kim, Nicole, Andrea O, Tina and me) in our awesome new duds.

I love this picture, could be an advertisement for Baby Bjorn. Good product placement....

After our time at Castle Rock, we were ready for some fun in the sun and headed to the Lake Michigan beach along US 2. Check out Hugo sitting in his new beach chair I got for him at the Dollar Store. He's such a big boy!

I don't think there is much cuter than Hugo in his summer beach hat. It really makes his eyes look even cuter. My wonderful, beautiful Christmas baby that LOVES summer...of course, more proof that he's my kid.

Despite the fact that Hugo also loves the water, he wasn't too keen on swimming in Lake Michigan, and I don't blame him. First of all, it was COLD! Second of all, Hugo had never swam in anything other than a pool and so wasn't accustomed to waves and it kind of freaked him out. Especially because it was pretty windy that day, and so the waves were pretty large......all of which made the cold water even more unnerving because you couldn't control when you were getting wet.

After dinner one night, Nicole, Tina, Nate, Andrea, Hugo and I took a hike on one of the trails in the campground. We came upon this awesome look-out point where you are literally looking straight down the Mackinac Bridge. I've seen the bridge a million times, but never from this vantage point.

Hanging out at the camp fire. Hugo was totally mesmerized by the flames.

To celebrate the 4th of July, we headed to downtown St. Ignace to watch the parade. Of course, we had to wear our new patriotic gear.

A highlight of the parade was Tina high-5-ing Ronald McDonald. She has a fear of clowns, and despite the fact that we wanted her to give him a hug, I'm proud that she made progress with the high-5.

The excitement of the parade and all the sun wore Hugo out. While we shopped in downtown St. Ignace, Hugo napped in his stroller. Local lunch, then back to the campground. We dropped the guys off and us girls headed into Mackinac City for more shopping.

Nicole LOVES Hugo.

After dinner on the 4th, Jaime, Hugo and I took a walk down to the waterfront. It was obvious Hugo enjoyed getting out and about. He loves to ride in the baby carrier. Unfortunately, when he's in there, I can't see his face and how excited he is. Look at that sparkle in his eyes, I think it says "Yes, I'm a happy baby and I love spending time with my mom and my dad." At least that's my hope for what he's saying.

July 7th, 2011
After tubby time, I was going through some of Hugo's baby gear and decided it was probably time to retire the hooded baby towels as they were no longer big enough to be nice and cozy for my big boy. While packing them up, I came across the baby bathrobe that we received as a shower gift (but never actually got to wear). Unfortunately, it is really too small for Hugo now, but it was cute nonetheless for our spur-of-the-moment photo shoot. He really looks good in pale yellow....

July 10th, 2011
It was a beautiful, hot summer day and so we packed up to head out to my favorite summer time activity --- the beach! We called Hugo's best buds - Liam and Connor - to join us. Although Shannon was out-of-town, Tim, Toni and Joe joined us too. We met out at the Grass Lake State Campgound/Waterloo Recreation facility and grilled out hot dogs, ate potato chips and soaked up the sun.
My little beach bum (trust me, he was much more excited to be at the beach than this picture suggests....)

Hugo and his best buds. They look so innocent now...I have a feeling that this same picture next year, and the year after that, and the year after that won't look so serene....

To cool off, we slathered the babies up with sunscreen, blew up the inflatable rafts, and headed to the lake for some swim time.

The weather was perfect - warm but not scorching and there were very mellow waves coming in from watercraft using the lake . . . all of which made the conditions just right to literally rock Hugo to sleep while in his inflatable lady bug. I love this picture. This is the epitome of summer for me. My baby sleeping on a lady bug swim raft in the middle of July. Perfect.

On our way home from Grass Lake, we drove right by the Traverse Bay Pie Company and so, of course, had to stop for a slice of apple pie (or banana creme pie or whatever your pleasure is). Hugo and I got in a little love before diving into our dutch apple pie ala mode.

July 16th-July 25th, 2011

The best time of the year ---- my mom (now aka Grandma) comes to visit for a WHOLE WEEK for the Ann Arbor Art Fair. This gave the opportunity for a lot of Grandma-Hugo bonding time.

While it is usually our intent to go to the Art Fair every day (you really need to if you intend on really seeing everything), the extreme heat of 100 degree+ temperatures this week limited us in the amount of time we spent there. We had many other things to keep us busy, like an Ikea trip. Ikea has the BEST ice cream. And since Hugo is literally an ice cream-aholic, I had to let him have some of Ikea's ice cream. I'm pretty sure he liked it!

Friday was a great Art Fair day - hot but breezy. We took a lot of breaks and Hugo was great, chilled in his stroller and watched the world go by. I'm sure the Art Fair is a very interesting "world" to watch.

Saturday we headed out to Livonia to help Chris and Kristina celebrate their new home. However, Hugo was very tired on the trip and got really fussy. Rather than listening to him scream for 30+ minutes, we pulled over and took a McDonald's ice cream break to alleviate the situation. It worked. I'm seeing a pattern - lots of pictures of my son's ice cream face. Like I said, he's definitely my son. Ice cream makes him happy.

Hugo still sleeps with his butt up in the air, which is super cute anyways, but even more so when he's got on something like this so that his little monkey butt is sticking up. I'm going to be a little sad when he stops sleeping butt-up.

Sunday was a big event ---- the Paul McCartney concert at Comerica Park. My mom was still in town and Kass came while taking Karra's kids back to Mississippi. Although the weather threatened to rain for the show, it held off and everything was fantastic. The show was amazing, Sir Paul can still rock it out (he played for well over 2 hours, including 3 encores) and it was really special to be there with the biggest Beatles fans I know. I think my mom and I cried through the whole thing.

July 26th, 2011

Ice cream with Toni, Joe and Liam at Ice Cream Time. How many posts/pictures am I going to have here about Hugo and ice cream? You'd think that's all he eats! (Trust me, it is not).

July 31st, 2011

Sunday night was beautiful weather and we decided to take a walk and head to the park for some fun and relaxation before starting th work week all over again. We tried Hugo in the baby swing for the first time. He loved it. At first he was just super mellow and enjoyed the motion...

And then I tried to catch him for a kiss on the up-swing...

And then he had the hang of it and was having a great time. Every time I see pictures like this, where Hugo is smiling in pure joy, I am so glad to have a wonderful, happy, healthy baby boy. It makes my heart happy to know that he is happy. I guess we must be doing something right. We love him so much.