mj tribute

chaya was playing dress up and was sporting one white glove and i couldn't help but think of michael jackson. so, of course i needed to take pictures. lol

chaya crashed on top of an oriental trading magazine during quiet time. too cute!

we took some photos of gibson in luau wear to put her picture on her birthday invitations. yep, you guessed it - luau theme. although i don't think i used this particular picture.

a friend of mine who just had a new baby boy has two girls, ages 19mo. and 4yrs. we invited the girls over to play for the day so the new mommy and daddy could have some "free" time. in turn my girls got to babysit and have a playdate. this included having way too much fun with the little girl, gina. they added this orange hair to give her a new look.

busy babes

kenya and gibson have been taking swimming lessons every night for the last two weeks. while they are in the pool, drew, chaya, and i usually run or a walk a three mile loop. we've all loved it! congratulations to both of them for passing their levels!

gibson, not even giving it a second thought when it comes to jumping off the board.
showing off her front float

kenya showing the elementary back stroke. she knows all the strokes. kenya also learned how to dive off the side of the pool. considering she started by doing a couple of belly flops, i'd say that is down right pretty cool.

tickled to be in the pool

kenya always started with 40 bobs

gibson and chaya took two weeks of gymnastics

chaya showing off her bridge, gibson can actually do it all by herself

everyday started with stretching

chaya practicing her jumps

decked out

last week we decided to refinish our deck. small deck, but still a huge project. yuck!
the girls kept busy all three days playing outside, they especially had fun for two of the days playing on the slide and in the new pool.

of course the neighbor boys had to join, too.

during the transformation

oh yea, mom was sporting a new 80s tank look - we had some fun, too. it definitely wasn't all dull.

finished! almost, we actually still need to get the grill back up and give the steps a second coat.

the whole project started because of the pole on our front steps. it was previously painted and was chipping off, so we needed to redo it, but decided to make it match the deck and that meant to DO the deck, too. crazy, that's us!

the new planter on the front, eventually we might add a couple to the side, too.

midwest lampoon's vacation

our vacation started at 5:30 am on monday, july 6, the gilmore family headed for the big city of chicago, il. we have never been there before and we were ready with a detailed agenda!

the girls were great travelers on the way to our destination. i must say the best thing i brought was books on cds. this was a close tie with dvds.
chicago skyline

the view from our downtown hotel (21st floor of the hyatt - chicago river)

millenium park - kidney bean

this seemed to be the thing to do at the kidney bean - taking a picture of your reflection

the face fountains - the faces changed and when they closed their eyes they spit water

dino sculpture

we ate at buddy guy's legends restaurant (dive bar) he is one of drew's favorite blues guitarists

navy pierview from the top of the 150ft ferris wheel

another view of the pier

carousal

museum of science and industry - harry potter car

the girls watched this baby chick hatch live - so cool

silly girls in crazy mirrors

our "river groove" cottage in saugatauk, michigan. the name comes from the hip decor plus the location that is right off the kalamazoo river. it was right between the river and lake michigan.

our cottage was just a minutes walk from the bottom of these steps. these steps took us to the top of mt. baldhead.

at the top

that's right, 282 steps to the top!!

the view from the top and the view of saugatauk

the descent down through the dunes. one trip to the beach we went this route, the other time we hiked through a more wooded trail. it was awesome! (drew complained of mosquitos)

the end of our hike through the dunes to the beach

this is the view from the wooded trail - so beautiful. believe it or not we actually hiked UP this! i don't think the picture does this hill justice. on this particular hike back the sand was extremely hot and we walked barefoot, because it was so soft and hard to keep sandals on. gibson thought she burned her feet off. the girls were huge troopers and loved almost all of the hiking! this is one of my favorite pictures - breathtaking!

swimming in lake michigan - the water was cold, but the girls still enjoyed it

oval beach

sugar sand - perfect for burying children and building castles!

we took a cruise from saugatauk out to lake michigan

view from the boat on the left you can see the radar tower on the top of mt. baldhead and on the right you can see oval beach

this trip was sort of a celebration for drew and i for our 1oth anniversary on the 10th of july. we did not take the cruise on the date, but it was pretty special.

we did get to witness a beautiful sunset - ironically we didn't think we were going to see one because it was pretty cloudy when we left the dock

our wild dune ride through the state park - kind of like a roller coaster ride in an oversized jeep

views of the dunes - we went to the top and all the way to the bottom where the dunes are protected by trees - very educational trip, too.

the view from the highest dune (300 some feet and very spectacular views)

my favorite family picture from the entire vacation. we had such an enjoyable trip, i highly recommend this area!