July

July means...the zoo. Like all the other non-winter months! There's a big construction project at our zoo. Simon loves this more than all the animals combined.

July is also growing time: Felicity's tall sunflowers and Miriam's garden tending. Sometimes Mommy would glance out the kitchen window to spy Miriam laying in the grass next to the raised beds reading. Even when she was a baby the outdoors were her favorite. How will this love of fresh air shape her future?

We manged to squeeze in so much family time during our Independence Day celebrations. Fireworks, family reunion with swimming, lake days with swimming, and a few minutes to cuddle with the Buddy. Tim just said this morning that one of his favorite things about parenting is getting to hold a baby or toddler while they have their morning bottle of milk.

~Elijah Break~
Being Simon's bff is hard work. Thank goodness God created an Elijah to fill the role so well.

~End Break~
That little boy of ours. He is getting to be quite the boy. We still have several yard-less new homes and he is so, so tempted by their mud. He'd shuffle his feet toward the edge of the pavement without making eye contact with Mommy. "Maybe if I move slowly enough, she won't notice when I'm actually playing in the mud." She noticed.

There were a few mornings he woke up early enough to workout with Mommy. Tim's not a morning person, so taking Simon out for a walk let's Tim sleep another half an hour and gives Mommy and Simon a chance to talk about the birds and the bugs and all the sounds of the morning before the rest of the world is out and about.

Plus there are all these boy-growly-vrooming-noises! Everything is a lawn mower, airplane, truck, tractor, or car. His eyes spot these favorite things from a mile away and Mommy has to acknowledge each one or he gets frantic trying to make sure she sees them, too!

All three girls did a kids triathlon - lap in the pool, 1 mile bike, .5 mile run. So proud of all their effort!

Before

After

Lots of relatives came to the lake for a week together in the middle of July. Aunt Sue from Colorado, Aunt Kim and her three kids from Arizona, Uncle Roger and Aunt Michelle from the Indy area, Nana and Papa, Aunt Shirley, and all of us.

The teenage cousins caught so many fish. But they didn't know what to do with them. So Papa taught them how to scale and filet a fish. Then the boys got to work prepping and grilling. The fish turned out pretty amazing! Our girls stayed close to watch the process.

Miriam was tall enough to join in on the annual Cedar Point trip. She was thrilled to ride EVERYTHING! She started out on the Top Thrill Dragster and never chickened out on anything. Her favorite was the Wicked Twister. Tim loved having her along. He's been training the kids since they were very little to enjoy being tossed up in the air or swung around by their ankles. All his hard work is finally paying off.

She was so incredibly tired by the end of the night and slept until almost 10 the next morning. This was a record sleep for her! 

Papa also rented a pontoon for the week at the lake and Uncle Roger got a tube for the kids - AND Nana! - to run around the lake on.

Sarah's cousin Stephanie got married in July. {Everyone dressed up = Photo Op.} 

Sarah and her sisters!

Tim had a chance to take pictures with the nice camera during a park stop between the ceremony and reception. Which made the glance back in time to select pictures for this blog post even more fun!

Caught our Buddy in sleep-denial.

He couldn't last long.

The power napper was thrilled by all the lights and fun at the wedding. He repeatedly dragged Daddy to the DJ table trying to figure out how all the electronics worked. He's just mini-Tim.

 The month ended on a high note! Cookout with family and smores.

 If that's not doing summer right, we don't know what is.

Heaven is a place on Earth

There is a little sliver of land in Northern Michigan called the Leelanau Peninsula. It is our happy place. It is quiet and quaint. There are no deadlines here, nothing to rush to. Just kind people and Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Leelanau. And maybe ice cream every day.

Perhaps we're over-sentimental because of all the good memories we have here. Tim's been traveling to the area to stay on South Manitou Island since he was in college. When Sarah and Tim were dating that group camping trip was one of their first excursions together. 

Summer 2007

Summer 2008

A friend of Tim's has a home in the area that he has generously let us stay at over the years. We "babymooned" here before Miriam was born with dear friends Becca and Eric.

There's a Miriam in there!

And a couple other trips through the years. And after a stretch of busy-ness and stress, we knew we needed a break and there wasn't a chance for one before the end of June.

Oct 2014

It had been four years since we'd enjoyed this peaceful place. Sarah was itching to get back. We were blessed to have the opportunity to stay at Tim's friend's home again.

We got in late on Friday night. Saturday morning we dressed quickly and went to Barb's Bakery for rolls and coffee. There are times we wonder if we "mis-remember" these danishes...then we go back and eat them again. And they are just as good as we knew! To get some of that sugar out of our system, we stopped at the park to play and admire the boats in the harbor and the duck families. A quick trip to the grocery and then back to home base for lunch and family naptime. It was a little cold and rainy so a nap was the right thing to do. The girls didn't actually sleep - just played in the bunk room upstairs. Afterwards, we went down to the lake frontage. It's a steep hike but the kids loved the adventure and the rocky shoreline. Who knew rocks could be so interesting and so much fun? Lake Michigan was still really chilly, but all the girls didn't mind at all. Simon found a little sandy patch and sat himself down with the longest, pointiest rock he could find for some good digging.

We trekked back up to the house. None of the kids complained a bit about the climb. Really, this place is magic.

We FINALLY took them to the toy store where they could play with the toys before buying them. And Mommy found a quilt shop with some fabric she needed a yard of. We ended up at a brewery before dinner - a drink for the adults and popcorn for the kids. Everyone was pretty happy.

Sunday morning we went to Mass at the church on the Indian Reservation. Three sisters were baptized together - such a beautiful thing to witness. We went to Leland for lunch at the Cheese Shop, treats from the candy store, and a bit of window shopping.

Simon fell asleep in the car, so we stopped at a winery. The girls were given juice boxes and free rein to run while we did a little tasting.

When we got back in the van, Felicity asked where the next winery was, she'd had so much fun! Later in the afternoon we stopped for ice cream and had the only real "incident" of the vacation. As Vivian got out of the van, she accidentally kicked a fairy from the toy shop into the storm drain we parked next to. She was frantic; we could see the plastic figure at the bottom but we had no way of saving the fairy. Our arms just weren't simultaneously skinny or long enough to reach her. A lady planting flowers nearby, Nancy, saw the whole scene. Naturally, she had just the tool. She'd bought it several years back and kept it in her trunk just in case. This extendable pole with a claw on one end that could open and shut if you squeezed the lever at the other end still had the tags on. And it saved the fairy. Mommy marveled at the way God works. And the goodness of Nancy as she went out of her way to help a little girl save her fairy.
 
Back home, Tim grilled burgers for supper and we shooed the spiders away so we could eat outdoors in the absolutely perfect weather.

Monday was breezy, but we'd packed the kites hoping for wind up on the bluff where the house is. Everyone had a turn...and I think the kids had more fun with these kites than they did in the toy store.

Simon also sniffed out a tractor in the workshop. This boy has a nose for large motors and big tires.

There were tears when we took him down from this John Deere throne. Because we wanted to get to the lighthouse for a tour before Simon's nap. We'd been to the lighthouse a couple times but never went on the tour...the kids just seemed too little to appreciate it. Simon got a little bored by the end of the tour so Mommy let him wander while Daddy stayed with the girls to explore the lighthouse and boathouse. He found a little hiking path that led him along the shoreline. He never turned around to make sure Mommy was following, but kept marching along like he knew exactly where he was going until he found a spot to stop and play in the water.

Just as Sarah was about to call Tim to tell him where we'd wandered off to, she heard the girls' voices coming around the trail from the other direction. And there we all were splashing in the water, playing with the rocks, watching the minnows.

If this is a taste of Heaven, we can't wait to get there.