Best seats in the house.

There are a number of things that we love about our house.  We love the high ceilings, the ground floor laundry, the fenced yard, the deck, and the seating we get for varoud fourth of July events.  The first year that we moved in we thought the wonderful fireworks displays that we enjoyed from our deck were a fluke, but lucky for us the excitment has been annual event.  We're still not sure how many of the multiple points of fiery splendor are professional (and legal) shows versus the many backyard pyrotechnics that light up our skies, but we enjoy them all, and there is no show we would rather take in (who can beat fireworks without the traffic and bugs???).  And as if the yearly display on the fourth wasn't good enough, this year we got an extra treat - great seats (minus the traffic) to the Blue Angels air show.  The show was the first in this area in many years and was held at Willow Run Airport, and we got to see all the major tricks, and even got some very close (and very loud) views, right from our own driveway.  Several times they made their turn right over our house before heading back to the show.  Thankfully Calvin is a really good napper so he got enough sleep (regardless of the noise) that we were still able to head back to Ann Arbor for the last evening of Top of the Park, and an iced coffee from Border's.

Giraffe laughing kid...

It was a beautiful day today, and since Moose is feeling much better (really he didn't miss a beat) you know where we were... the zoo.  In fact, we decided it was time that we made the drive to Battle Creek for our first visit this year to Binder Park Zoo and its friendly giraffes.  We can't lie - we weren't nearly as excited about seeing the friendly giraffes as we were about seeing Calvin seeing the friendly giraffes.  Unfortunately the day didn't go as smoothly as planned (do they ever???) but after getting a late start and spending 20 minutes in construction traffic we had previously been unaware of, we were pleased to find the zoo busy but not packed, and the weather warm but not stiffling.  As per our usual routine we headed straight for the tram to Africa.  The trip to Africa made Calvin a little nervous (not upset, just a little uneasy), but the visit with the giraffes was a big hit: he thought they were hilarious.  He was a little unsure of feeding them, those are big tongues, after all, but he was a good sport about it just the same.  And he had a lot more fun on the tram ride back.  Back in the American half of the zoo he got the chance to spend even more time with funny animals in the petting part of the zoo, his favorites being the pigs, the goats coming in a close second.  He also enjoyed petting a Ball Python before he got back to the car and headed home to grill dinner and enjoy watermelon on the front porch.

You can, of course, find a plethora of pictures from today in our June 30 - July 6 photo album. 

And a quick environmental plug  we feel we have to mention - we were pleasantly surprised this evening to see that Kroger is now selling reusable shopping bags.  We bought 4 and will buy more if we have to, but it looks like we'll have to find a new (and more environmentally friendly) way to clean up after the dogs.  The bags are great and we hope you'll check them out, too.

Strange Fruit

We spent both last night and tonight in downtown Ann Arbor taking in the sites, smells, tastes, and sounds of the Top of the Park Summer Festival.  We look forward to this local annual tradition and try to make it to the month long festival evenings as often as possible, and both the weather and the entertainment this weekend made it the perfect opportunity.  Who can pass up the chance to watch people performing a modern theatrical dance routine from atop 4 meter fiber glass poles?  We enjoyed them enough the first night to take them in again tonight, this time from much closer seats, and the second time was the charm - being almost underneath the performers made all the difference and Calvin even sat still for 15 out of the 20 minutes of the performance, sitting in his stroller, bouncing up and down in time with the music (yes, we swear that he is already developing a good sense of rhythm), his eyes glued to those strange people high over his head, a wide smile glued on his face.  This wonderful performing group goes by the name of Strange Fruit, appropriate since strange would definitely describe it - strange and really cool.  Coincidentally, that is probably what Calvin thought of the raspberry sorbet that his gram was feeding him - with each tiny bite he would shiver, then giggle, then ask for more.  That continued for only a few bites, though, before he decided that darting in and out of the sidewalk traffic was way more fun and got him way more attention from his adoring fans (read: strangers walking by).

There are, of course, lots more Strange Fruit pictures in this week's photo album. 

Disc golf anyone?

It was another beautiful day for the zoo... that we had to pass up.  Our littlest dog, Moose, had rather extensive oral surgery (read: removal of 20, yes 20, infected teeth.  He doesn't want to talk about it) and we thought we'd better stay close to home, and we opted for another afternoon hike instead.  So today was our first visit to Rolling Hills County Park.  Actually, we'd both been there prior to today's visit but that was 15 or so years ago during our oh so cool middle school experience that each of us would rather forget, so for the sake of our current coolness status (don't laugh) we are pretending that this was our first visit.  Calvin might have been just as happy to skip the hike and spend the afternoon exploring the play structure, but we wanted some exercise, too, and let's face it - the static nature of the kiddie slides just doesn't cut it, so we suited up and headed out on the trails for some beginner style hiking.  The only problem was that we didn't have a map of the wooded trails and continuously found ourselves in the middle of the disc golf course, and sometimes some disc golfers.  We had no idea how serious the sport was - some of these people were stretching between tees, had official disc golf bags and water bottles, and carried with them a plethora of discs (I think I'll use the 9 disc for this hole...), so the experience was definitely an eye opening one at the very least.

A new way to ride, a new taste, a new sign...

Sometimes it seems as if life moves in fits and starts. The weeks following Calvin's first birthday were all routine.  But nearly 2 weeks of status quo was broken today by a spurt of growth and change. Calvin's toy car made its way back into the toy rotation today (from the back of Jon's closet), and it did so in a new form: today it made its transformation from useless walker to toy car and won its way back into Calvin's heart.  And while he was busy learning to drive his new car, the UPS man stopped by to deliver his new carseat, a birthday gift from his parents and grandparents.  Of course we had to try it out, so after dinner we headed out for ice cream where Calvin got his first taste of vanilla frozen yogurt. So how was the trip? Well, the new taste was a hit (though not as much of a hit as playing with the other kids who were there), and as for the new car seat, though we have been sold on the benefits of extended rear facing and won't be facing him forward for at least another year, Calvin is very happy with his new big boy seat in any direction, making car trips more enjoyable for all!   And, as though he knew that today was the day for exciting and new things, Calvin surprised us and made us smile when he started signing "rabbit" after spotting one on the path in front of us. His excited "rabbit" sign was quickly followed by "all done," in this case meaning "let me out of the stroller so I can chase the rabbit" which we did. The rabbit got away, of course, but it was a good day nonetheless, and he should sleep well tonight!