Goodbye, summer.

Although the autumnal equinox isn't until mid-September, Labor Day is typically considered the end of summer, so it's only appropriate that we bid a fond farewell to long sunny days, pool trips and ice cream runs with a look back at our vacation.

In mid-August, we traveled once again to northern Michigan to visit with our cousins, Nick and Noreen.



By a long shot, Lauren's favorite part of the trip was swimming. Noreen took us to beaches on both Torch Lake and Lake Michigan. Doesn't it look like Lauren has Lake Michigan all to herself? The water was so blue and clear - it was definitely a big step up from the northern Atlantic coast beaches that we've visited in the past!

Lauren hasn't done much natural water swimming in her lifetime, but as you can see, she took to it right away.





I don't know how she did it, but she kept finding these teeny-tiny seashells on the lake bed. We took home a whole collection of them.

As we were sitting there enjoying the day, I was lamenting that I have only one photo of Lauren playing in the sand and building sandcastles when she was little. And then this happened:





Later in the day, we traveled a few towns over to attend the Bellaire Rubber Ducky Festival.







The town had a big rubber duck themed parade followed by the crown jewel of the event - the rubber duck race!



Once the backhoe made it's way to the bridge, the operator kept teasing the crowd by dipping the bucket and then pulling it back, which then incited everyone to start chanting "Dump the ducks!" over and over again.



And there they go! I think the winning duck got the purchaser a few of hundred ducks, I mean, *bucks.*



The next day, we took a ferry ride to visit Mackinac Island.

There are no motor vehicles permitted on the island, so the only modes of transportation are horse drawn carriage or bicycle. There were bikes everywhere!



There's Mackinac Bridge looking very small in the distance.



And here behind the seagull you can see the two lighthouses near the island.



Mackinac Island is famous for it's gorgeous Victorian architecture.

This was the entrance of a private residence called "Boardwalk Cottage." It was right on the beach.

After dinner each evening, we'd go for a walk and explore Nick and Noreen's beautiful property (and for me, take a lot of photos).







Lauren always likes to run way ahead of us old folk.

On the way home, we decided to stay a night in Toledo, Ohio and then head to Cedar Point the next day.

 

The Toledo Zoo was recently ranked as the #1 zoo in the U.S., and although there was a little bit of ballot stuffing on the behalf of the Toledoans during the vote, it is indeed a great zoo. Earlier this year, they added a brand new aquarium which has dozens of huge tanks full of sea life.



 

Both their polar bear and hippo exhibits got you right up close to the action.

 

Okay, maybe a little too close - hippo fight!

 

 Yes elephant, I am stalking you.

 

And I don't think anything could surpass their gift shop. Ten year old girl problems...

 

We had originally planned to take in a Toledo Mud Hens game (the Detroit Tigers minor league team and home town team of M*A*S*H's Max Klinger), but we got delayed by some traffic coming into Toledo which then set us behind schedule. So instead, we decided to just drive into the city to check out the field and shop in the official store, The Swamp Shop.

 

 

The are several manholes surrounding the field, and each has a different Mud Hens graphic.

 

We loved The Swamp Shop. Mark and I each got a t-shirt and Lauren got a duck bill whistle!

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to share from our Cedar Point trip, so instead I will end with some family photos.

 





Many thanks to Nick and Noreen for ending our summer on such an awesome note! Now we just have to see Michigan in spring and winter (Okay, maybe not winter...lol.).

Hello, summer.

 

Ugh - I can't believe it's August already. I don't feel like I've gotten a chance to get acquainted with Summer 2015, and it's practically putting on its coat and heading towards the door. Mark's garden was especially beautiful this year, so while I haven't been motivated to pick up my camera otherwise, I made sure to capture at least some of the flowers. I think the peach cone flowers above were new additions this year.

And sometimes I like to pretend I'm a wildlife photographer. I noticed this male cardinal just having a grand old time flying about the lower part of the yard, so I stalked him until I got this shot. It wasn't the one that I wanted though. The little stinker refused to land on the fence post, so I had to settle for him perching on the fence itself.

One of the things that I look forward to every summer is seeing the hummingbirds. This year, we had at least two or three visiting the bee balm at any giving time. I've tried in the past to get a photo of one, but it's difficult because they get easily spooked by the giant black thing known as my camera. This one is a little out of focus, but it's progress!

This one cracks me up - that is one ticked off hummingbird!  One moment, he would be busy feeding on the flowers oblivious to my presence, but as soon as he figured out I was there, he would zoom away, only to come back a minute or so later. We repeated this exercise at least ten times, so at this point, he had to be fed up with me bothering him.

Now here are three ladies who are never shy around the camera! Pepsi, Poppy and Blossom have adapted well to their new coop. No eggs yet, but hopefully sometime this fall we will have that news to report!

Fun on the Fourth.

We had a wonderful 4th of July this year. The weather was perfect, the food was perfect and oh heck, the people were perfect too.



I'm very proud of the red, white and blue M&M cookies that I baked, so they deserve two photos. I think this recipe is going to be my go-to chocolate cookie recipe.



Even our shed was decked out in red, white and blue.

Of course, our day wouldn't be complete without the annual fireworks display, courtesy of Uncle Craig. For some reason, the fireworks always bring the crazy.



Our friends brought champagne poppers. No one was supervising the two Laurens, so they decided it would be fun to shoot them at people. Here is the result.

 

 Here they are throwing snaps at Mel C while she danced.

 

Thankfully, she survived the onslaught of explosives.



And the Laurens settled down to watch the fireworks.

 

Unlike big brother Marcus, who is terrified by them, Cookie isn't phased one bit by fireworks, so she sat and enjoyed the show too.



Look at Craig in action - he's a master!



On second thought...

 

 

We've been doing this for at least five years now, and until this year, I could never get any decent photos of the fireworks. 

 

 

Then we ended the night with sparkler fun!

Rainy day women.

At the end of June, our Girl Scout troop went on it's yearly camping trip. This time instead of going to a council organized camp event, we decided to go on our own as a troop to Camp Guyasuta. It's a campground owned by the Boy Scouts that's less than ten minutes from our house. So weren't being particularly adventurous for our maiden voyage. Nonetheless, it took months of planning, paperwork and packing to make it happen, and my co-leader and I had to attend an all day outdoor training in order to meet Girl Scout's requirements for camping.

Finally, the weekend arrived. The forecast? Heavy rain and thunderstorms. This was quite a downer since the majority of the activities that we had planned, like campfire cooking, archery, swimming and geocaching, were outdoor activities.

Like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scout motto is, "Be prepared." Our troop motto for that weekend became, "Make the best of it." Well, we did more than make the best of it - we made a heck of a good time! With the exception of swimming, (Because there really was a torrential downpour most of the day Saturday) we actually got to do everything that we had planned. In fact, we had so much fun, Lauren said that she didn't want to leave!

When we arrived on Friday, the weather was still clear, so we were able to start with some campfire fun. First we made these awesome sit-a-cans:



A sit-a-can is basically a bucket with a lid that acts as both storage for your camping gear and your seat at the campfire. Speaking of campfires, since it rained most of the weekend, we were only able to make one campfire, and that was due to the tenacity of my co-leader who would not give up on getting our fire started even though we were dealing with very damp wood. Thanks to her efforts, we all got to enjoy campfire cones.



We woke up Saturday morning to lots and lots of rain. Thankfully, we rented a lodge with electricity, indoor bathrooms and a full kitchen. Not so lucky were the Boy Scouts that were tent camping on the grounds across from our lodge. I just noticed that you can see them sitting outside the window in this picture - lol.

So since swimming was out of the question, we did a craft - no-sew bandana pillows.



They came out awesome, and the girls loved them.




While we are on the topic of awesomeness, I have to take the time to brag about our girls. What you see in this photo is what makes me so happy and proud to be part of Girl Scouts. Everyone is included. Everyone is having fun. When the girls had down time, they would just breakout in a spontaneous game whether it was cards, hand clapping or just being goofy. As volunteers, we do all this work and planning to come up with fun things for them to do together, but leave them to their own devices and magic happens.

After a busy morning, it was time for our archery session. Big props to the Boy Scouts for having an indoor as well as an outdoor archery range!

By the time the afternoon rolled around, it actually cleared up enough for us to head out and do some geocaching.



The wellies that I had purchased for this trip were a very, very good investment.



After slipping and sliding through the muddy trails, the girls found a cache!




We signed the log and exchanged one of the pins that we made for a mini magic trick kit.




Here's girls posing in at the outdoor chapel.




When I asked them to make silly faces, they were happy to oblige. There should be a badge for that!

And that wraps up another successful year of scouting. Here's to many more!

Meet Mr. Pancakes.

Time for a long overdue introduction. Meet Mr. Pancakes - he's a Syrian or "teddy bear" hamster. Lauren has been begging us for hamster for sometime now. We had been hesitant to give into her on this one because our inn is quite full here with the two dogs, a cat, several fish and chickens.  To convince us, she wrote an essay all about teddy bear hamsters and promised that she would take care of him all by herself and on top of that, wash dishes.



We have yet to see any dishes being washed, but Lauren has been a great mama to Mr. Pancakes.

 

 And apparently he's a Pirates fan, so he fits right in with the rest of the Ross Family!