July

Well, July seems like a long time ago now, but it was a lovely month while it lasted.

We sold the last two bunnies to Faith and Katy.  I believe Faith named the brown one Peter and Katy named the black one Oreo.  They seem to be doing great in their new Kansas  home.

I'm not sure when this was taken, but it seems to represent pretty well the lazy days of summer!

Fourth of July and we must do sparklers!

We went to Kansas for the grandkid trip and of course Phin and Belle loved playing together.  Yaya and Papu took six grandkids (Charis, Quentin, Z, Katy, Eden, and Faith!) all the way to Colorado for four days.  Wow.  They had a fantastic time.

Meanwhile, back in Kansas, we got to see Liz and Leya!

The children came back to Kansas and continued having fun together.

We caught a frog.

And Z had his 11th birthday!!  I made the cake, but Charis did the decorating, and it looked amazing!  In 5th grade Z started a club called "Pandas=Orcas" so this cake was meant to commemorate that.

Opening presents.

And  Quentin and Z took on Caleb and Penkie in ping-pong:

Michigan

Mid-June Nathan had a conference in Grand Rapids, MI, so the kids and I tagged along.  We spent 5 days in Grand Rapids and then went home via northern Michigan, Mackinac Island, the Upper Peninsula, and Stillwater, MN.  While in Grand Rapids Nathan spent most of the time at his conference, but the kids and I had fun doing a lot of other things.  The hotel we stayed at was in central Grand Rapids, within easy walking distance of lots of museums. 

Z and Eden at the Museum of Modern Art.

Eden at the Museum of Modern Art inside an interesting art piece created by light and a metal cube.

Eden inside a bubble at the Children's museum.

Eden building at the Children's Museum

At the Grand Rapids Zoo we saw a wonderful bird show, with lots of trained birds flying to and fro right over our heads.  Here's Eden posing with the bald eagle.  This zoo had the best fundraising system I've ever seen.  At the end of the show, you could give money to one of the trained birds, and it would take it to a bucket and then come back for more.

Eden feeding the parakeets at the zool

Z with the goats.

Mackinac Island is in Lake Huron and allows no motorized vehicles.  We took a ferry over and rented bikes to ride around the whole island, which was gorgeous and so fun!  We looked around the Grand Hotel, which apparently is usually off limits to non-guests, but for some reason no one was watching the gate, so we walked on in, oblivious to the fact that we weren't supposed to be there.

The Grand Hotel from the ferry

Eden and Z at a scenic stop on our bike ride.

Mackinac Island is beautiful

Beach stop on the bike trip.

The Grand Hotel was definitely grand!  Apparently it's the biggest porch in the country.

A pretty little church on the island.

This girl loves her lemons!

And her turtles!

We drove through the Upper Peninsula, stopping at a deer park the beach of Lake Superior.  The Upper Peninsula is beautiful -- we'd love to spend more time there sometime.

Trying to pet the baby deer.

A beautiful albino deer.

Stopping at a waterfall which is apparently the biggest after Niagara Falls.  It was not nearly as big as we expected it to be given that information.  But it was still pretty.

Beautiful beach at Lake Superior.

Eden is burying Z in sand.

And finally, we stopped in Stillwater, MN, which we've been telling the kids about for years.  We had a fantastic supper at a Thai restaurant (Z and Eden discovered how much they enjoyed Thai food at a restaurant in Grand Rapids), and the next day we walked around downtown.  Eden loved the rock shop, Z was crazy for The Wedge and Wheel (cheese shop) and we all enjoyed Leo's Diner.

Happy Birthday, Papu!