Beaver Island, MI

The Ferry ride over to Beaver Island (click on name to learn more about BI) was about two hours and we had a fun ride. All the kids were so excited to ride the boat and check out Beaver Island. Jake and Estee are enjoying the ride.

Playing cards and relaxing on the boat ride.


Jake and Dan getting a little one on one--look at Jake's little captain hat he got on this trip--he didn't want to take it off.
Estee enjoying one of her few moments of holding still with grandpa.

We made it to Beaver Island! We even have some town folk to meet us at the dock.Yeah! Finally I get to go swimming!!

Grandpa loves telling jokes and in this joke Jake is suppose to respect Siam by saying "Oh what an ahhh Siam" But it kind of sounds like he's saying "oh what an a-s-s I am". He kept saying it louder the more we laughed! Grandpa got this video of the whole thing. It's pretty funny.

Abby "teaching" how to pose for pictures.

Estee running on the beach, why is it so much fun to watch a little toddler run?

Is Andy giving the sunset "the bird"?

This beach is famous for it's sunsets--so pretty!

The light house on Beaver Island has really cool twisty stairs, and a lot of gross bugs and spiders.

Coming back to Charleviox--look my dream house is for sale!
We saw this cool pirate ship--if you look close you can see them working way up high on those little boards and ropes. So cool!

We had a race back to Ann Arbor boys vs girls. Luckily it was pretty uneventful, we were both driving way too fast. Dan thought he could go the "better" way when we were leaving Petoskey (4-5 hour drive home) and wouldn't listen to me so we both went the way we thought was best. He called me about an hour later and we figured out I was about two miles ahead of him on the freeway (ha, ha). He tried for the next 3 hours to catch me, but what can I say, I am a hard person to catch on the freeway. With about 15 minutes left on our drive home, he almost caught me (I am sure I just cleared the way for him), when I had to pull over for gas and a stinky diaper (totally not fair that I was driving with the two-year old!). He passed me by and he got home before us, but I still consider it a victory for me!

While the boys are away.....the girls will play

While the Boys were off exploring the UP the girls and I had to get some play time in! We had one day of shopping which was so fun. Abby loved having time with mom and no boys around, Estee was so good the whole time riding around in the stroller. Abby and I loved picking things out for Estee and ourselves!
The next day we were up bright and early and heading over the Lake Michigan with my good friend Becky. We went to South Haven and it was the most perfect beach. The weather could not have been better and it was beautiful!

See those waves crashing in? They entertained the kids all day except for Estee who was entertained all day long by a little family sitting near us. They had a little girl who was 2 weeks older than Estee. Below is a picture of Estee making herself at home with them.

She also really liked their toys better than ours--like this bucket.

My friends little girl, Ashley, she's adorable.

We saw this cool pirate ship sailing--the swimmer on the left is Abby.

That night Abby had a sleep over with her good friend and the next morning we left bright and early to meet the boys. We met in Charlevoix, MI, but we made a quick stop in
Petoskey to get a petoskey stone for Abby--to learn more about petoskey stones click here. We also got some lunch at the local Toast and Roast it was soooo good! We actually ended up stopping on the way back through with the boys so they could try it out too! Yummy!

We finally made it to Charlevoix and it is BEAUTIFUL!! It was our first time there so we had no idea how pretty it was. The streets are all lined with flowers and there are some amazing houses overlooking the water--all with yards full of beautiful flowers, I love flowers, so I loved this.

Here are Abby and Estee over looking the bay at Charleviox. Waiting for the boys.

Oh, look who decided to show up in the nick of time, we had a whole 10 minutes to spare before the boat left us--plenty of time.

Grandpa's Visit

Grandpa has been here visiting us for the last 9 days and we have had so much fun with him! All the boys had a fun adventure planned to go to the island of Isle Royale at the very tip top of Michigan--way "up north" as they say here in MI. It's a 12 hour car ride just to get the ferry that takes you on a 3 or 5 hour ride (depending on which ferry you take) to get to the least visited National Park. After driving all day to get to Copper Harbor they spent the night there so they could board the ferry at 8 am the next morning. Well, the ferry was full (hard to believe--I know) and there would not be another ferry for two days. They decided to drive back, slowly this time, through the UP (Upper Peninsula) and see all the wonderful things there are to see.



First they fished at Copper Harbor and it was so much fun for the boys! Look how beautiful it is there.

They said fishing was the funnest part for them!

These two look like dogs with their heads out the window--they put their heads out the sunroof and Grandpa got a good shot!

This could be a post card! This is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

This is Lake Superior. They stopped by the side of the road to swim and it was this amazing beach! They said it was a little cold at first but they got used to it fast and had a wonderful time swimming in the giant Lake Superior! Here is a video of Andy getting use to the water!

Tahquamenon Falls
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

The Soo Locks

Oh, look who we found in Charlevoix, MI. We will be catching a ferry out to Beaver Island with and we will post all about that later! The boys had a great time on their boys-only vacation (even without camping on Isle Royale) and had a lot of fun with Grandpa.

My Friend Abbi

In March, at the age of thirty, my friend, Abbigail Israelsen became suddenly ill and on a ventilator fighting for her life for 18 days. She was in the hospital for 21 days, but thankfully she survived. It has been a long and emotional recovery that continues everyday.


She has joined the ARDS Foundation team to attend a fund raising walk on Sept. 21, 2008. For every donation that is made over $40, Abbi will give the donor an original drawing created specifically for them. The drawings will be done on 100% cotton rag paper with pen, pencil, and ink. You will receive your drawing in the mail by mid October, 2008.
After donating towards the Hike for Lung Health, email Abbi (abbiisraelsen@yahoo.com) with three words that she will use to inspire a drawing as a thank you gift.If you would like to see some of the drawings she has done you can look at her drawings website. The drawings will be shown at the Anton Art Center for a special fund raising exhibition Sept. 12-Oct. 3, 2008. All proceeds made from the exhibition will be donated for ARDS research. If you would like to read more about Abbi's journey through ARDS visit her website.

Estee's shoe fascination

This little girl LOVES shoes! A constant plaything in her life there is always a shoe in tow, either on her foot, in her hand or both. And not only her shoes she also loves my high heels, Jakes soccer cleats, Dan's big giant gym shoe--ANY shoe. I have never seen a kid be so into shoes--I am seriously worrying for her to be grown up and discover just how many great shoes are out there!





I took her with me the other night to get some new running shoes. We went to Famous Footwear where they have lots and lots of shoes. She was giddy with excitement when we walked in the door--she had a crazed look in her eyes. I had no hope of controlling her, she was in her element and she would not be slowed down by anyone. It was seriously the funniest thing I have seen in a long time! First she went right for the high heeled boots (!!), then went for high heels and pretty shoes trying them on and leaving a trail of destruction behind her. Then she couldn't contain her excitement any longer and she began running around giant sections of the store (luckily we were the only ones there). I just kind of pretended I didn't know who that noisy child was, and continued looking for my running shoes, content in the fact that I could hear her and therefore knew she was not being kid-napped. I had my camera in my purse so I pulled it out and got of couple shots of Estee in her shoe fest.

I love Estee's little pink crock in the middle of all these black high heels.

I told her it was time to go so she tried to hide here--she did not want to leave the shoe store.

Birthdays!

We had a wonderful week, last week, celebrating Abby and Estee's birthdays!

They have birthdays only one day apart and we celebrated all week. I can't believe my baby is two, oh wait, yes, I can believe she is two. She reminds me by the minute that she is a two year old. Abby has almost passed me up in height and she has reached me in shoe size. She wore my shoes last week--and I wear a size nine!! She is eleven years old!

Here are some pictures from some parties we had for the girls!

I made these cakes for the girls actual birthdays, Estee had so much fun tearing hers apart!

Abby and her friends at her 'friends' party.

Abby's two favorite presents 1) this little video camera 2) this shirt that Dan brought home from San Francisco that says "Alcatraz swim team".

The girls even got to do their favorite thing on there birthdays--SWIMMING!

One last party and one more cake to celebrate our girls. Abby chose the ? candle--so Abby. They loved having friends over to celebrate with cake, ice cream, and blueberry pie.

Estee had so many of her little friends to play with she was in heaven! These girls are so cute playing in the water.
This is Baby Sam (and his daddy) quite possibly the cutest baby on earth. Look at that smile!
Abby took a short break from reading to have some cake and ice cream. She got some new books for her birthday and cannot stop reading them until they are all read. She laid in the hammock almost he entire party reading!