Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Camping

This last month has been a little crazy. Ben was studying for tests, I was finishing my semester of school, subbing, and coaching track. We had mentioned camping sometime in May, but never had the time to talk about an actual day. After finishing my final projects, I realized (while I was subbing) that we could go camping the next day. I got home, told Ben and he started to pack the car. It was a real spare of the moment adventure. We ended up forgetting our pillows and other items. Somehow I even convinced two of my brothers and sister-in-law to join us. 

We were originally going to head "up north" near the top of Michigan ( 5 hours driving), but realized it should be done with more planning. So we set out straight across the state to Holland, MI (2.5 hours driving) on Lake Michigan.

 My sister-in-law had access to a 12 man tent. So we were able to bring Evie's pack n' play. Best way to go.

 Hanging out while we set everything up. It ended up being over 90 degrees.


 Hanging out with daddy. This became the ultimate tumbling gym. Evie loved crawling around the tent, bouncing all over the place.


1st time with the sand and loving it!! 

Hated the water....probably because it was freezing. All of us walked in and dunked ourselves once. It was so cold your joints ached. 


 My (younger) brother Jordan sporting the speedo. Oddly enough this is normal in my family. With all my siblings being on swim team growing up they always wore their speedos to the beach.

 Evie actually took a 3 hour nap at the beach!! Which was amazing. 

I love lake Michigan. It was a little crowded, but so much fun! I can't wait to go up north. It's a little more private and you can camp right on the beach. 

Friday, May 25, 2012

Ann Arbor Peony Garden

Ben has a little break and so we decided to drive down to Ann Arbor and see the Peony Garden. The garden is in a park located right next to the U of M hospital. Even though I had been to the park before I never knew the garden existed. There are over 100 peonies of different varieties donated to the park by a wealthy doctor that had collected them as a hobby. The smells were so amazing I almost got a headache. 




 Evie can't walk yet, but she definitely has been teasing us for a month. She kept crawling along the path and would roll into the dirt on her back. Luckily I was paying attention because she didn't cry, she just laid there like she was paralyzed trying to keep her head of the ground.


 Pictures with mommy and daddy.

Evie smelling the flowers!