Happy Labor Day

September?  Seriously?  Is it really seriously September?  But August came and went so fast!  It was in like a lion, with storms and floods, and then the rest of it just scurried away, as fast as the rabbits in our backyard when we open the door to try and take their picture.  At the beginning of the month we had a great weekend to-do list, filled with hikes, water parks, zoos, and nature preserves, but instead our weekends were spent cleaning and drying our basement, drying and boxing our belongings, holding a garage sale, and making trips to donation centers.  But, while we may have greeted the first weekend of September with our basement back in order, our list of fun things to do in August was no shorter, so with today's free holiday afternoon we decided to do something about it, and the long shadows of a late summer sun found us frolicking in the water at an Ann Arbor splash park.  Calvin was a little nervous about all the strange activity at first, but he warmed up quickly and was soon to be seen wading through the showers, underneath the falls, and over the many geysers.  He greatly enjoyed the selection of pool toys floating around, and also loved watching the other kids playing nearby.  The afternoon was delightful - late enough in the day that the pool was not crowded, warm enough to enjoy the water, and cool enough to enjoy the sun.  The only twinge of sadness to be felt was the realization that we should have done this earlier and more often in the summer, although it's not like our weekends haven't been full enough.  We'll just have to be sure to add this one to the summer to-do list for next year.

As always, there are lots more pictures in this week's photo gallery. 

Play Baby Play...

It wasn't all that long ago, just a few weeks perhaps, that we took Calvin to a nearby park with great expectations for his exuberance about the play structures, only to be disappointed when he couldn't see them for the woodchips.  On that trip we spent the majority of our time trying to convince him that woodchips, although very enticing, were not a readily digestible item.  We'd been reluctant since then to try again, but tonight we found ourselves yards away from another such play area while enjoying a potluck dinner with the First Presbyterian Deacons, so we decided to give it another try.  We're not sure what the difference was, although in our eagerness as parents we'll chalk it up to a sudden burst in brain power, but he was enthralled with the playground this time!  Aside from time spent eating dinner he could not be pried away from the play structure without fuss.  He would run to the swing and sign for up, then after a minute sign that he was all done and go climb up the structure to the tunnel.  Or he would run to the slide and make the sign for up, and, after sliding down (sometimes on his butt, sometimes on his tummy), he would sign to do it again.  He was insatiable, which meant that at the end of the evening he was exhausted, and that meant an early bed time and some extra adult time or us.  We might have to consider trying that activity more often now.

4-H

No, we're not talking about bingo, we're talking about animals - the farm kind:  cows, sheep, chickens, rabbits, etc.  It has been a stormy week here so when the clouds parted long enough for the sun to break through this evening we jumped at the opportunity and headed to the Chelsea Community Fair for dinner.  Calvin really loves animals (wonder why?) and got a real kick out of the rows and rows of bleating sheep and clucking chickens.  He found the enormous rooster that crowed right in his face to be the most amusing, while his parents were rather taken with the rabbit who was at least three times the size of Moose (that being our little dog).  It wasn't the animals, however, that had us truly incredulous, it was the price of the food.  Who wants to pay $30 for the privilege of eating a "meal" (a sausage, fries, and a drink for each adult) of run-of-the-mill carnival food?  Not I, not I!  Instead, we left the fair grounds and walked to the Chelsea Grill where we enjoyed fantastic burgers with fries and beer for only $23, and we did so while being waited on in a clean and air conditioned restaurant where we didn't have to worry about dust, bugs, or the smell of manure.  And at the end of our meal we raced home (within the speed limit, of course) just ahead of the next storm front that was coming through.

Shhhh!

Our weekend was dedicated to drying out our basement and reorganizing and boxing our stuff while sorting out what was valuable and what was to be donated.  By the end of the weekend we found ourselves needing a break from life:  a break from the wall to wall, ceiling to floor boxes; a break from the constant drone of the 3 humidifiers and 8 industrial grade fans; a break from the lack of peace and order, and the knowledge that even with so much work behind us, a mountain was still ahead.  Tonight we decided to take a break and get out, and where better to go for a sense of restored order and calm than a library?  The rows and rows of neatly ordered books and the gentle quiet of the air did go a long way to calming our frayed nerves.  Jon picked out a book for himself and three for Calvin, who was far more interested in the magazine rack, and we did our best to cause only a minimal disturbance while we took our milestone recording photographs.  It was, after all, Calvin's first trip to the library.

Happy Four years to us!

We are a bit behind in getting to this, but that's just how much fun we've been having this summer.  Thursday of last week, July 26th, we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary.  It seems strange that it has only been four years when we stop to think about all the fun things we have done in that time.  So many jobs, so many vacations, so many new things to try.  Oh, and Calvin, too, of course.  We celebrated the milestone a couple of times:  We were treated to a really grand lunch at Zingerman's Roadhouse by Jon's parents (good American pulled pork and potatoes, followed by Root Beer floats!), and then to a fancy Australian dinner on the Huron River Front by Cortney's parents.  Where else besides Ann Arbor could you enjoy a multi course meal complete with linen, china, glass, and "silver"ware atop the standard wooden park picnic tables?  No where, we tell you.  This was a picnic dinner, The Aussie/New Zealand Cook-off put on by the Ann Arbor Tasters Guild that focused on tasting several different Australian dishes, such as green lipped mussels and Kobe beef sausages, not to mention the lamb, and several different Australian wines, of course.  All under the picnic overhang alongside the Huron River in Island Park.  The style of the meal, several small tasting courses each with a different wine, was just like that of the special meal we shared on our honeymoon at Emeril's in New Orleans, which brought back great memories.  How appropriate.  And what a gorgeous dinner on a gorgeous night.  It's hard to say who was more amazed by Calvin's stellar behavior, us or the other partakers, as he sat in his stroller and tried each new food throughout the whole 2 hour meal!  That was our anniversary gift from our son, and a good one at that.  What a wonderful day, with two fantastic meals!

And, as always, an overload of pictures can be found in the July 20-27 photo album.