A Splash Zone Waterpark Adventure

Jessica is having fun!

Ducking under the frog

Soaking wet Alex is having a great time!

Running through the water hoops

A water war between Alex and Jessica. Who will win?

Logan is trying to get Mommy wet! Run away!!

Spencer and Logan

I love this picture of Spencer jumping in the fountains

Taking a snack break!

Exploring Cranbrook Science Center

Jessica and Alex are especially scared of the T-Rex behind them

Logan is looking at a model of a T-Rex

Making dinosaur tracks in a dino maze

Jessica's putting on a dinosaur play for the kids

Dino-Races!

We saw a Mastadon. Jessica is in shock!

But she likes the softness of it's hair

Spencer liked to "Heely" around the museum, especially down the ramps.

Alex the Tortoise

Chief Jessica

The kids were in awe of this gigantic mineral rock

Spencer took a picture of the Moms

Our group with a Stegosaurus statue outside the museum.
We had a fun day!

A Visit to Greenfield Village

We've been to Greenfield Village at least 5 or 6 different times since we moved to Michigan a little over seven years ago but it's been some time since we last visited. In fact, when I told the kids we were going, they said they had never heard of "Greenfield Village". Spencer and Jessica don't remember any of our previous visits. I believe the last time we went was when I was pregnant with Logan. So, when my friend Laurel said she had a membership to Greenfield Village and could get us in for free, we thought it would be a fun adventure and decided to take her up on the offer. We went last Friday---It was a beautiful day and we had tons of fun. It was like a new experience for the kids.

Greenfield Village is directly next to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and both are some of the most popular tourist attractions in Michigan. Actually, it is said to be the largest indoor/outdoor history museum complex in the United States. Henry Ford founded these museums because of his desire to preserve items of historical significance. There are a vast array of famous homes, machinery, exhibits, and different types of Americana. The collection contains many rare exhibits including John F. Kennedy's limousine, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theater where he was assassinated, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brother's bicycle shop, and the Rosa Parks bus.

At Greenfield Village there are nearly one hundred historical buildings that were moved from their original locations and placed in a "village" setting. The museum's intent is to show how Americans lived and worked since the founding of our country. The Village includes buildings from the 17th century to the present, many of which have costumed staff members inside who conduct period tasks like farming, sewing and cooking.

Greenfield Village also provides it's visitors with different historic rides and transporation to experience. We rode in a horse-drawn omnibus, a steam-engine locomotive, an authentic Ford Model T car, and a 1913 carousel. I think the kids really enjoyed these!

Before leaving for the day, we had some slushies and frozen custard. Spencer stayed longer with John and James to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in 3-D at the IMAX Theather there in the complex. Going to an IMAX Theater is another thing he hadn't ever remembered doing. I've taken him and Jessica (and maybe even Alex once) to several IMAX movies when they were younger. It's sad that they don't remember the fun things I've done with them while they are young. When we first moved here, we toured all over the state seeing and doing lots of fun things they'll never remember. I guess we'll just have to do all these things again! We started with Greenfield Village--Next stop, Mackinac Island ...

Here are some pictures of our visit ---

Alex and Spencer sitting on the front porch of the Harvey Firestone Family Farm. It is a working farm -- We watched as ladies cooked in the kitchen and men worked on the farm and in the fields.

Inside the Firestone Family Farmhouse

Logan in an outhouse. Glad we don't have to use these anymore!

An old wagon in the Firestone barn

Spencer, Jessica, James and Emma learning about weaving

Our group at Greenfield Village, in front of a Mill.

Alex on the Carousel

The kids picked a hat to wear in the Hat Shop.
I love Logan's face in this picture!

We fit as many people we could on this old-fashioned car ride. Alex, Logan and I took the next one---It was an actual Model T car.

Listening to street performers

Petting the horse that drove the Omnibus we rode in

Jessica was teaching us in the one-room schoolhouse

The girls on the steam-engine train

The boys on the train -- and another crazy Logan face!! Do you think he's getting tired of smiling for pictures?
(And a crazy James as well! He's doing the "Nixon" pose.)

My Little Swimmers

The kids just completed a two week swimming class at Lower Huron Metropark. They loved spending so much time at the swimming pool and as much as I loved it too, by the end of the second week I was ready to be done! We were there between 5 and 6 hours each day! Alex's swimming class was at 9:30, Spencer and Jessica's started at 10:30 and Logan's was last at 11:30. Nice to have them all in a row -- boom, boom, boom! There were several families from our ward who also took swim classes at the same time. The kids liked swimming with their friends. It made it much more fun to hang out at the pool for two whole weeks!

I packed and brought a picnic lunch every day. When swimming classes were over, we ate our lunch at a picnic table just outside the pool with our friends, the Larsens. Afterwards, we let the kids go back and swim some more. It didn't cost anything since they already had wristbands from swim class. We stayed until either the kids or I got really tired -- whichever came first. Free swim at the pool started at 12:00 and the waterslide opened at 12:30 which the kids loved, especially Alex. He went on the waterslide over and over. Logan wanted to go too but wasn't tall enough. He was thrilled to able to go on the last day though. It was the swim lesson "party day". Each swim class played games, had treats and were able to go down the waterslide. Logan's level 1 class (all between the ages of 2 - 4) went down the slide and their teacher caught them at the bottom. Logan thought that was the best thing ever! I think he also had a crush on his teacher, Lauren. He talked about her all the time and still does. He told me yesterday that he wants to give her a birthday present on her birthday. What a cutie!

We are so very tan now after two weeks at the pool, especially Jessica, except for me. Well, actually my arms and back are pretty tan but my legs are still white. They never tan very well. Oh well... I'm just glad that Spencer and Jessica have become really good swimmers. Jessica is not completely confident in her diving yet, but besides that, she is really good in all her different strokes, as is Spencer. Alex and Logan are fearless of the water. A little scary but also very relieving. I had to make sure and keep an eye on them at all times!

Right before swim lessons were over, we were told the pool would be closing for good at the end of the summer. It wasn't too surprising since it was an older pool, opening in 1958. We've come here the past two summers for swim lessons so it was a bit sad to hear but we were excited when we learned that construction had already started on a waterpark just down the road in the same park to open next summer. It'll be called "Turtle Cove" waterpark. It covers about 5-acres and will feature two waterslides, an activity pool, a lazy river, waterspray area with a water bucket being the focal point, and snack bar. I'm sure it'll cost more for swim lessons than the very affordable $20 a child at the older pool, but it'll be nice having a new and updated place to swim next summer.

Here is a photo montage of our two weeks of swim lessons --

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Weekend Trip

Joshua had meetings in South Bend, Indiana last weekend so the kids and I decided to tag along. It was only a 3 hour drive and since the hotel, gas and Joshua's meals were expensed to the company, it was a cheap trip. We left Thursday after Joshua got off work and arrived around 8:30 pm. We stayed at the "Marriot Riverfront Hotel" in the middle of downtown South Bend and right next to the St. Joseph River. Our room had a beautiful view of the river. When we arrived, it was still light outside so after checking into the hotel, we walked across the street to a nearby park and boardwalk beside the river. The kids had fun running around. The next day, Josh had meetings all morning so I took the kids to the hotel's indoor swimming pool while we waited for him to get done. We spent the rest of the day looking around South Bend.

First, we took a trolley ride to take a look at the downtown area and had lunch at one of our favorite sandwich places---"Jimmy Johns". Then we went to the Potawatomi Zoo. It was a small zoo but super cute. We loved that it allowed us to get up close and personal with a lot of the animals. The cages were right in front of us, like the lions, tigers and leopards. We've never seen them so close before in any other zoo. Some didn't even have a cage like the great grey kangaroos, emu and wallaby on the "Australian Walkabout" portion of the zoo. We were able to walk on a path right next to them, but weren't allowed to leave the path. The kangaroos stayed probably 20 feet away from us but it was still really cool to be so close with no fence between us. The hard part was keeping Logan at bay. I held his hand most of the time because you never know with my little Loggie. He is sometimes unpredictable. He wasn't happy when I told him he'd be holding my hand while on the path. He tried reasoning with me saying, "I won't go talk to the kangaroos, Mommy - I'll stay with you." I wasn't sure I wanted to make that bet!

Our favorite was the Red Panda. There were two of them climbing a tree right in front of us. We got one's attention by making silly noises and he came right up to the 4 ft. glass between us. Joshua put a long stick over the edge and he grabbed it and gnawed for a while. The kids loved it! We could've watched the pandas all day. They were fun!

On Saturday, we checked out of our hotel and went to St. Joseph, Michigan. It's a really cute, touristy town with one of Michigan's oldest lighthouses on the lakeshore. We've heard from friends that the town and beach were really fun so we thought we'd check it out on the way home. We spent several hours on the beach and took a walk out to the pier to look at the old lighthouse.

Overall, we had a fun weekend. Check out our pictures below ---

Tennis Camp

Jessica and her friend Moira Barron on the first day of tennis camp

Spencer and his friend Chandler Barron

Swing Away!

Spencer liked to show off with his tennis ball and racquet

Jessica really likes tennis

They had barbecued hot dogs on the last day of camp

Eating lunch on the lawn after camp was over