great lake, great trip

Singing songs in the car, counting the big red barns along the way, we drove our little family to Lake Michigan last weekend. After several u-turns and explained directions from innocent locals, Grand Haven state park we did find. Is it an ocean? Is it a lake? Well, you can’t see the other side, there are waves and a nice sandy beach with a pier. But its not salty and the sand is not grainy. Hmm…

We unloaded our castle making buckets and shovels, and our snacks and spent a nice afternoon beachside lakeside. We took a walk on the pier, took a look at all the big boats, ate a hot dog in town, did some tag team shopping at the boutiques, licked our ice cream cones and then piled our little brood back in the car. We did not however get in the water…
it was a frosty 52 degrees.

Happy trip.

Gage Gage Gage

This new little babe is now a month old. Didn’t I just introduce him to his Noah brother? Didn’t I just look at his face covered in baby slime for the first time? I could tell he was his own person. His own chin, his own nose. Now its been a month and 6 days. I’m wondering when I need to get the next set of clothes out as I tug his onsie down just a little bit more to snap it. I’m stretching his swaddle blankets just a little bit more to tuck it in. I’m loosening the straps in his carseat and waking up more in the night wondering why he’s still asleep. I’m catching more smiles and listening to him make happy noises. What’s a momma to do? Anyone know how to keep them tiny?

Festival time

It's summer in Michigan, which means that it's festival time! One of our favorite pastimes has been attending the various festivals in the area. Last weekend we hit the Great Lakes Folk Festival a couple of times. Lots of tents, lots of music, and a little dancing did the trick. As always, we had a great time. Hope you enjoy the vids!

Blueberries for Sal

Have you ever read “Blueberries for Sal”? This was one of my favorite children’s books growing up. I remember sitting on my Grandma’s orange striped couch reading about Sal and her mom picking blueberries. I could hear the “plink plink” of the blueberries dropping into Sal’s metal bucket. And I’d imagine helping her gobble them up until her bucket was empty. I don’t think Sal took any blueberries home with her even after a full day on the blueberry hill.

Last summer I discovered blueberries. I had no idea there were actual blueberry bushes. The closest we got to a blueberry bush back home was the few packages of blueberries at Albertson’s selling for what seemed like a dollar per berry.

We have some friends who live right next to a blueberry farm and have a few rows of bushes right in their backyard. I must have visited our Michigan berry bushes a dozen times last summer. Dragging little Noah with me and picking until he was too hot to find another berry. We made blueberry jam, blueberry pie, blueberry waffles. We ate blueberries on our granola, our oatmeal, our ice cream. Anything.

Well, this summer I haven’t been able to stop thinking about our blueberries. Anticipating the last weeks in July when we could go pick. We didn’t go as crazy as we did last year, I think we’ve been lulled by the packages of blueberries at Meijer selling for only a dollar fifty. But pick we did! We dragged little Noah and baby Gage with us and picked until we were too hot to find another berry. And I don’t think Noah’s bucket had any blueberries left when we walked away.