4th of July: Fireworks

Monday: July 4th: Evansville Fireworks

We went down to the riverfront around 7:30pm.  We parked our 6 chairs on Old Nationals lawn. 

 The girls had fun running around by the river.

 The fireworks were about to start.  The girls were waiting so patiently in their chairs.  Emmy had never witnessed fireworks before so I was anxious to see her reaction.

Keelin loved the fireworks.  The last time she saw them was when she was 2.

 So the first reaction was shock...

Then it was thought provoking...

Then it was cool...

and finally EXCITING!

Both girls were up until 10:45pm and in amazingly good moods.

Fourth of July

Our house is in the background of this picture.

Keelin's Birdhouse

Earlier this year, I bid on a bird feeder from Keelin's preschool class.  I knew I wanted to wait to hang it up when we got a new house.  So yesterday we hung it up on the back fence. 

 A dragonfly did not want to let me use the hook.

Happy Anniversary!

June 29, 2011:  Drew and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary.  Kate came over to watch the girls so Drew and I could go to dinner.  We went to Biaggi's and then to Lowe's for some new home items.  We didn't plan anything special this year...unless you count a new house!

Keelin and I were at Schnuck's getting a few groceries and she wanted to get flowers for us for our anniversary.  She had these beautiful roses which I was going to tell her "no" until I saw that they were only $7.99.  (When did roses get cheap?)  I don't buy flowers, but I always thought roses were more expensive.   Well...anyway...THANK YOU Keelin!  It is almost a week later now and they still look beautiful.

Holland, MI: Visiting Friends

I took the girls over to Holland to visit my good friend, Nicole, and her kids, Brady and Taya.  We met at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids.  The kids had a great time there.

 They started with clay.  Keelin made a butterfly out of clay.

 Then there was live music for the kids.

 Keelin, Brady, and Taya took part in this song.  Emmy enjoyed watching.

 They even found a place to get a little wet.

  Puppets.
Keelin...the butterfly, Taya...the frog, and Brady...the beaver.
 Puppet time.

 wow...a pic of all the kids

Keelin and Emmy had a great time visiting with Brady and Taya.  This garden had so much for kids to do.  I would love to go back sometime.  We had to be ushered out of the park because it was closing and we didn't get through everything. 
We spend the night at Nicole's house and then started our trip back to Evansville.  We had a great time in Michigan.

Lighthouses

On Saturday, after we checked out of our cabin, we went to two lighthouses.

 Pointe Betsie Light Station
I ran to this lighthouse from our cabin during the week.

 This lighthouse has an actual house attached to it. 

 Keelin and Emmy were able to take a dip in Lake Michigan at Pointe Betsie.

 We also went to the lighthouse at Frankfort.  We had to walk out to this lighthouse.

 Grandpa pushed Emmy down the narrow path...yikes.

Sleeping Bear Dunes...Again

On Friday (6/17), we went hiking at Sleeping Bear Dunes again.  We hiked the Cottonwood Trail.  The views of Glen Lake were beautiful and the dunes were plentiful...you notice when you are hauling 30 pounds of Emmy and backpack on your back.

We drove to the dunes overlook of Lake Michigan.  I believe the dune goes down 350 feet to Lake Michigan.  Our plan was to climb down the dune and walk the beach back to the city of Empire...but we didn't have an extra car to do a drop off.  The only other option was to climb back up the dune...YEAH RIGHT.  Not with a kid on your back.  So we stayed at the top and enjoyed the view.

 Keelin on top of the world.

 Those little black dots are PEOPLE climbing up and down the dune.  I could not get the top and bottom of the dune all in one frame on my WIDE angle lens...that is a lot of dune.

Keelin and her grandma enjoying the view.
Keelin has been to this lookout 3 times...once in my belly when I was preggo, 6 months old, and now 4.5 years.

We had a wonderful lunch/dinner in the town of Glen Arbor before heading back to our cabin.