Rain, rain, don't go away.

It's tough being a kid.  We've had such beautiful weather lately that Calvin has become accustomed to going outside to play after naptime every day.  In fact, forget accustomed, he's down right expectant.  When he went down for his nap this afternoon all he could talk about was "painting the driveway" when he got up (with water, of course).  How dare the weather have different plans!  So when he got up, and it was raining pretty steadily, we tried to talk him out of his usual outdoor tromp before dinner, and decided that he might as well see for himself why it wasn't such a good idea.  That went about as well as giving him the hot pepper he asked for the other night and expecting him to give it back (the crazy kid ate it and asked for more).  His initial reaction to the rain was some mix between disbelief and disappointment - painting the driveway in water was certainly not a worthwhile activity anymore - but if we expected him to come inside we were in for another hot pepper style disappointment of our own.  After a moment of despondency, and several minutes of refusing to give in to fate, Calvin discovered splashing (or splatting, as it may be, since improved drainage has cut down severely on puddle enjoyment), and this new activity kept him in giggles until the rain stopped 30 minutes later, at which time he promptly begged to come inside again - now without the rain all the fun was over.  Nature just can't win.

Three cheers for summer weather

We went out for one jog, two walks, and one bike ride today, worked in the garden, met two sets of new neighbors, played in the neighborhood park, grilled and ate on the deck, and went out to say goodnight to the spring peepers before story time.  We love it.

Pictures, pictures as always:  April Album.

The daredevil

Happy Labor Day

September?  Seriously?  Is it really seriously September?  But August came and went so fast!  It was in like a lion, with storms and floods, and then the rest of it just scurried away, as fast as the rabbits in our backyard when we open the door to try and take their picture.  At the beginning of the month we had a great weekend to-do list, filled with hikes, water parks, zoos, and nature preserves, but instead our weekends were spent cleaning and drying our basement, drying and boxing our belongings, holding a garage sale, and making trips to donation centers.  But, while we may have greeted the first weekend of September with our basement back in order, our list of fun things to do in August was no shorter, so with today's free holiday afternoon we decided to do something about it, and the long shadows of a late summer sun found us frolicking in the water at an Ann Arbor splash park.  Calvin was a little nervous about all the strange activity at first, but he warmed up quickly and was soon to be seen wading through the showers, underneath the falls, and over the many geysers.  He greatly enjoyed the selection of pool toys floating around, and also loved watching the other kids playing nearby.  The afternoon was delightful - late enough in the day that the pool was not crowded, warm enough to enjoy the water, and cool enough to enjoy the sun.  The only twinge of sadness to be felt was the realization that we should have done this earlier and more often in the summer, although it's not like our weekends haven't been full enough.  We'll just have to be sure to add this one to the summer to-do list for next year.

As always, there are lots more pictures in this week's photo gallery. 

Did you miss us?

Probably not, but we just got back this evening from a week long trip to Harbor Springs, Michigan.  Harbor Springs and Petoskey are our favorite summer getaway:  The bay is just beautiful, the towns are both quaint, and the beaches are relaxing, not to mention that we have family and friends there that we love to get to see.  This year our trip had more family in it than usual because we kicked off our week with Cortney's cousin Pauline's Western Wedding, including a rehearsal dinner on Friday and an event wedding on Saturday, and we do mean event!  The wedding was held on a family member's farm and following the relaxed yet elegant western style wedding itself there were "pony" rides (Calvin's first time on a horse!), hayrides, horseshoes, roping, and an open fire for roasting corn and other fun things.  We had a blast, and so did Calvin, who was amazingly well behaved for all of the five hours we spent hanging out with family, and then went to bed really quickly so we could continue our party with a bonfire back at Lonnie's.  It was a great chance for Calvin to meet some far flung family members, like Cortney's cousin Abby from California and her aunt and uncle from Washington, and we spent as much time as possible with them before they left on Sunday.

With the wedding behind us, though, we returned to our normal vacation activities, such as putt putt golfing at Pirate's Cove (Calvin loved the varied terrain of the course), lunch at the Noggin Room, and walking along the pier and beaches in Petoskey.  And while the highlight of our week was really the wedding, a close second was our trip to Mackinac Island.  We had both been longing to go for a number of years, but were never able to take the time because we could only leave Diamond alone for 6 hours during the day, so in a tribute to her memory we decided to go.  Calvin, unfortunately, did not share our enthusiasm.  Though he thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride over he did not enjoy riding around the island in the bike trailer (something he was very vocal about) and quickly tired of being carried around as we toured the city.  After a short nap in our arms he cried most of the boat ride back, breaking only to flirt with a very nice lady sitting across the aisle from us.  We really enjoyed the trip, but we'd have to say that it was exhausting, so for our last full day of vacation we kept things a little more low key and took Calvin to play on the Sturgeon Bay Beach in Wilderness State Park.  That was a far greater hit than the Island had been and he enjoyed running in the waves and digging in the sand.  He also enjoyed the baby sized ice cream cone (really frozen yogurt) that he got after dinner in Harbor Springs, and feeding the deer at the deer park. 

We had a really wonderful time, but we are, admittedly, glad to be home. 

And, of course, there are tons of vacation pictures in our August Vacation Photo Alubm.