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. 

Did you miss us?

Probably not, but we just got back this evening from a week long trip to Harbor Springs, Michigan.  Harbor Springs and Petoskey are our favorite summer getaway:  The bay is just beautiful, the towns are both quaint, and the beaches are relaxing, not to mention that we have family and friends there that we love to get to see.  This year our trip had more family in it than usual because we kicked off our week with Cortney's cousin Pauline's Western Wedding, including a rehearsal dinner on Friday and an event wedding on Saturday, and we do mean event!  The wedding was held on a family member's farm and following the relaxed yet elegant western style wedding itself there were "pony" rides (Calvin's first time on a horse!), hayrides, horseshoes, roping, and an open fire for roasting corn and other fun things.  We had a blast, and so did Calvin, who was amazingly well behaved for all of the five hours we spent hanging out with family, and then went to bed really quickly so we could continue our party with a bonfire back at Lonnie's.  It was a great chance for Calvin to meet some far flung family members, like Cortney's cousin Abby from California and her aunt and uncle from Washington, and we spent as much time as possible with them before they left on Sunday.

With the wedding behind us, though, we returned to our normal vacation activities, such as putt putt golfing at Pirate's Cove (Calvin loved the varied terrain of the course), lunch at the Noggin Room, and walking along the pier and beaches in Petoskey.  And while the highlight of our week was really the wedding, a close second was our trip to Mackinac Island.  We had both been longing to go for a number of years, but were never able to take the time because we could only leave Diamond alone for 6 hours during the day, so in a tribute to her memory we decided to go.  Calvin, unfortunately, did not share our enthusiasm.  Though he thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride over he did not enjoy riding around the island in the bike trailer (something he was very vocal about) and quickly tired of being carried around as we toured the city.  After a short nap in our arms he cried most of the boat ride back, breaking only to flirt with a very nice lady sitting across the aisle from us.  We really enjoyed the trip, but we'd have to say that it was exhausting, so for our last full day of vacation we kept things a little more low key and took Calvin to play on the Sturgeon Bay Beach in Wilderness State Park.  That was a far greater hit than the Island had been and he enjoyed running in the waves and digging in the sand.  He also enjoyed the baby sized ice cream cone (really frozen yogurt) that he got after dinner in Harbor Springs, and feeding the deer at the deer park. 

We had a really wonderful time, but we are, admittedly, glad to be home. 

And, of course, there are tons of vacation pictures in our August Vacation Photo Alubm.

Best seats in the house.

There are a number of things that we love about our house.  We love the high ceilings, the ground floor laundry, the fenced yard, the deck, and the seating we get for varoud fourth of July events.  The first year that we moved in we thought the wonderful fireworks displays that we enjoyed from our deck were a fluke, but lucky for us the excitment has been annual event.  We're still not sure how many of the multiple points of fiery splendor are professional (and legal) shows versus the many backyard pyrotechnics that light up our skies, but we enjoy them all, and there is no show we would rather take in (who can beat fireworks without the traffic and bugs???).  And as if the yearly display on the fourth wasn't good enough, this year we got an extra treat - great seats (minus the traffic) to the Blue Angels air show.  The show was the first in this area in many years and was held at Willow Run Airport, and we got to see all the major tricks, and even got some very close (and very loud) views, right from our own driveway.  Several times they made their turn right over our house before heading back to the show.  Thankfully Calvin is a really good napper so he got enough sleep (regardless of the noise) that we were still able to head back to Ann Arbor for the last evening of Top of the Park, and an iced coffee from Border's.

Giraffe laughing kid...

It was a beautiful day today, and since Moose is feeling much better (really he didn't miss a beat) you know where we were... the zoo.  In fact, we decided it was time that we made the drive to Battle Creek for our first visit this year to Binder Park Zoo and its friendly giraffes.  We can't lie - we weren't nearly as excited about seeing the friendly giraffes as we were about seeing Calvin seeing the friendly giraffes.  Unfortunately the day didn't go as smoothly as planned (do they ever???) but after getting a late start and spending 20 minutes in construction traffic we had previously been unaware of, we were pleased to find the zoo busy but not packed, and the weather warm but not stiffling.  As per our usual routine we headed straight for the tram to Africa.  The trip to Africa made Calvin a little nervous (not upset, just a little uneasy), but the visit with the giraffes was a big hit: he thought they were hilarious.  He was a little unsure of feeding them, those are big tongues, after all, but he was a good sport about it just the same.  And he had a lot more fun on the tram ride back.  Back in the American half of the zoo he got the chance to spend even more time with funny animals in the petting part of the zoo, his favorites being the pigs, the goats coming in a close second.  He also enjoyed petting a Ball Python before he got back to the car and headed home to grill dinner and enjoy watermelon on the front porch.

You can, of course, find a plethora of pictures from today in our June 30 - July 6 photo album. 

And a quick environmental plug  we feel we have to mention - we were pleasantly surprised this evening to see that Kroger is now selling reusable shopping bags.  We bought 4 and will buy more if we have to, but it looks like we'll have to find a new (and more environmentally friendly) way to clean up after the dogs.  The bags are great and we hope you'll check them out, too.

Strange Fruit

We spent both last night and tonight in downtown Ann Arbor taking in the sites, smells, tastes, and sounds of the Top of the Park Summer Festival.  We look forward to this local annual tradition and try to make it to the month long festival evenings as often as possible, and both the weather and the entertainment this weekend made it the perfect opportunity.  Who can pass up the chance to watch people performing a modern theatrical dance routine from atop 4 meter fiber glass poles?  We enjoyed them enough the first night to take them in again tonight, this time from much closer seats, and the second time was the charm - being almost underneath the performers made all the difference and Calvin even sat still for 15 out of the 20 minutes of the performance, sitting in his stroller, bouncing up and down in time with the music (yes, we swear that he is already developing a good sense of rhythm), his eyes glued to those strange people high over his head, a wide smile glued on his face.  This wonderful performing group goes by the name of Strange Fruit, appropriate since strange would definitely describe it - strange and really cool.  Coincidentally, that is probably what Calvin thought of the raspberry sorbet that his gram was feeding him - with each tiny bite he would shiver, then giggle, then ask for more.  That continued for only a few bites, though, before he decided that darting in and out of the sidewalk traffic was way more fun and got him way more attention from his adoring fans (read: strangers walking by).

There are, of course, lots more Strange Fruit pictures in this week's photo album.