We're here

Pictures like these and you may think we've gone off to Florida, but actually we're just a few hours from home on the western shores of Michigan, where we found blue skies and mid-summer temperatures. And calm, and joy, and smiles. And frigid, frigid water. We make this trip every year to enjoy the festivities of Holland's Tulip Time. Mostly we find enjoyable but chilly spring weather, espeically with the wind coming off the lake. Today's summer-like weather was a special treat, and it might repeat itself tomorrow. Be it spring or summer in the air, though, we're here to breath it easily and get a little rest and relaxation in. Vacation. It's for resting, reading, sight seeing, free time. We'll do all of that. Expect pictures of tulips, and maybe more of surf, sun and sand, if the weather holds (although I don't hold out much hope of that).

NAIAS 2011

It comes this time every year, sometimes bringing with it great festivities and sometimes even growth of wisdom and knowledge, and no I'm not talking about my birthday, I'm talking about the North American International Auto Show. As sad as this may seem the show is usually the only time we make the trek into Detroit, but we do try to make it every year. Last year was Calvin's first time and while it wasn't a tragedy of epic proportion or anything I don't think the kid really got anything out of it and what we got out of it most of the time was the creaping in of a headache after the repeated "when are we going to be done" questions. Last year nothing engaged his interest and all he could think of was the People Mover trip that was awaiting him the minute we finished wandering between all those darn cars. So this year we tried something different. Having learned from last year that cars by themselves are not exciting we spent the week prior to our trip reading a book about cars, learning a bit about their engines, and creating a scavenger hunt and activity booklet for him to use while we were there. It was a success, the results of which can be seen below and are also mentioned in a post on Live and Learn.

"gull wing doors" was on his list of things to find and with a Mercedes this color it was not hard to find.

I much prefered this one:

And here he is drawing the logo in his activity booklet:

And a Tesla logo, too (good taste):

There was definitely an electric car craze this year...

More drawings for the book (this time a plugged-in vehicle)

He loved getting to watch the pistons in action

They actually want you to vote on this:

Octo-Scion

Surrounded by V engines

The forces of good and evil?

Actually making the pistons from this mock flat engine do their thing

Ford Vertrek, I think. Pretty cool looking inside.

All those cars and the People Mover was still the hi-light of his day. Calvin liked it, too.

North for New Years, 2010-2011

It has become a tradition for us to head to Harbor Springs for the new year, and we don't mess with tradition around here, so with an ice storm looming we packed up a day earlier than planned and headed north on the 29th. It was as relaxing and enjoyable as ever, with a little extra fun since Lonnie adopted a really great yellow lab named Blue and Polly brought her 4 month old daughter over to play. Unfortunately the first two days were warm and wet, but the next two were frigid and snowy to make up for it. Again with the pictorial account:

Keyhold Bar for perch sandwiches. Yum.

Long walks with beautiful scenery.

Snowman with snow hat. :o)

Snow man, Calvin cam (note that while Jon is in the picture, the focus is clearly on the centered snowman).

Dinner with the Kiffer family. This is Calvin giving me a "don't get any ideas" look.

This is me giving my mom a "don't get any ideas" look.

Making Pot Pie/Bot Bie with three generations of Kiffers.

The rather hilarious New Years gift exchange (free or nearly free gifts only, basement shopping, regifting, or passing back and forth highly encouraged).

Jon dancing to his "Whoop, There it is!" music button.

Downtown Harbor Springs all decked out for Christmas.

Calvin building trains.

Feeding the deer before leaving town (it's the one thing Calvin earnestly requested doing while we were there, something he remembers having done every time we visit).

Thank you.

One last view, downtown Harbor. Happy new year!

Christmas 2010

There is so much we could say. We had such a beautiful holiday with so many thoughtful exchanges and loving and hilarious moments that I wouldn't know where to begin, so I'm going to let the pictures tell the story, and though that doesn't really go deep enough, with so much to do and so little time that's the best I can do right now.

The older he grows, the earlier Christmas gets...

Socks and underwear, gifts of the champions...

Starting work on his new Lego train...building one car at a time.

Iris and Calvin played hapily together with the dollhouse...in the dark with head lamps on.

Day two of Christmas, glasses included...

And the head lamp makes another appearance, this time accompanied by finger lights as well.

A family coloring moment.

Sinterklaasavond, it's that time again.

I've written almost exactly this entry before, but isn't that kind of the point with traditions? In the Netherlands, the home of much of our heritage, they love Saint Nicholas the way we love Santa, possibly even more. And who wouldn't? Forget the crazy flying reindeer, this guy comes in on a logical steamboat and brings crazy Zwarte Pieten with him, plus candy and small presents. St. Nicholas arrives earlier than his Americanized counterpart, so we've added the habit of kicking off our holiday season with this Dutch tradition. The extra time shared with family is the best part,

and opening pakjes,

eating Dutch food,

and then we put our wooden shoes by the fireplace and go to sleep with visions of gouda dancing in our heads. My verve for picture taking took somewhat of a backseat to cleaning, wrapping, and cooking this time around and I'm lucky that Jon likes to play with the camera sometimes, too, or there would be none to share. There are none to share from St. Nicholas Day morning, though, when we were still in bed whiel Calvin disovered his shoes and the little goodies in them (an orange, some change, and a new book to read). We're going to have to be a bit more on top of these on Christmas morning...