Vacation to Traverse City and Michigan's Adventure

We just returned from a vacation to Traverse City, Michigan and Michigan's Adventure amusement park.  Lillie has been asking to see a light house, so on the way to Traverse City, we stopped at Pointe Betsy Lighthouse.  We were able to tour the lighthouse and go up to the top of the light house.

Next, we went to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, national park.

The dunes and Lake Michigan. This dune is over 400 feet tall.

We climbed this sand dune. It was over 350 feet tall.  We all made it to the top, without being carried.

Brian, Lillie and Sophie at the top of the sand dune.

Beth, Lillie and Sophie at the top of the sand dune.

After climbing the sand dunes, we stopped at Moomer's Ice Cream for homemade ice cream. Then we made it to our hotel on the Grand Traverse Bay.

The next day, we played in the water and sand. We even rented a Kayak.

The second day in Traverse City was too cold and windy to go to the beach, so we did some shopping downtown. The following day, we went to Michigan's Adventure amusement park in Muskegon, Michigan.

Lillie and Sophie posed with this Snoopy statue, but Sophie would not stand with the live Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy Characters.

The first day at the park, we rode the rides. This was such a great picture of Lillie on log ride that we had to buy it.  She did go on it again the next day with Brian.  The second day, we spent some time at the water park at Michigan's Adventures. 

Lillie rode several small roller coasters, but her favorite rides were: 1) the scrambler, 2) Tilt-a-whirl, 3) and water slides with an inner tube. These happened to be my favorite as a kid too.  Sophie did not want to ride the flying dumbos, but she would ride the cars with us and Lillie. She even went on the tilt-a-whirl and liked it.

4th of July fun, gymnastics camp and beach time.

We had a great 4th of July.  We helped out with the Jack and Jill Preschool float for the Richland Parade. Later, we had friends over for dinner and fireworks. The girls enjoyed the sparklers and fireworks.

This was Sophie's first year for sparklers and she was mesmerized by them.

This last week, Lillie had a gymnastics camp and Sophie took a gymnastics class.  They both had a great time.

Yesterday, it was 90 degrees, so we went to the beach at Eagle lake to relax and cool off. Sophie loved playing in the sand and Lillie loved playing in the water.

First two weeks of summer break

Lillie has been out of school for two weeks and we have been enjoying her summer break.

Lillie started tennis lessons and took a few science classes.

We went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, picked strawberries, 

and we had a playdate at Jack and Jill Preschool. This past year, we bought a brick as part of Jack and Jill's fundraising project. Lillie and Sophie sat by their brick pictured below.

Today, we went to a library event and met Zeus, the world's tallest dog. He was in the 2013 Guinness World Record book. He was 44" tall to the top of his back. He was really friendly and the girls were not scared of him. 

Tigger 1 year later

One year ago this month, we brought Tigger home to live with us.  There is a saying "Everything grows with love." As you can tell from the photo, Tigger is loved and he loves food. Lillie can't carry him around the house anymore. He weighed 3 pounds a year ago, and he now weighs 17 pounds.

Lillie's Dance Recital

Saturday, was Lillie's dance recital.

  She did a tap routine

 and a gymnastics routine.

All of the students were in the finale. Lillie is throwing confetti in this photo.

 Lillie had fun and she did a great job. We are very proud of her.

Sophie's trip to the zoo, Reading and Perfect

On Tuesday, I took Sophie to the zoo for one last special day with me, before Lillie gets out of school. She was a little afraid of the giraffe's long tongue when she fed them. But she fed them by herself.

We ran into her friend, Aslynn from playgroup, and they rode the train and petted the goats.

On Friday, Sophie and I were playing the scrabble game and identifying letters. We found the letters in her name and she put them in the correct order. I also spelled out "cat" and she read it without any help.

Saturday, at Lillie's Dance recital I took Sophie to the restroom.  We were looking for a stall, because if she doesn't get to pick, she makes it harder to get her to go. I asked her, "how about this one?" She replied, "perfect, just like me."

Piano Recital

Last night, Lillie had her second piano recital. She played 3 Blind Mice and Lightly Row.

We listened to a lot of great songs and we had a reception afterwards. Lillie was the youngest of the 14 performers. Mrs. Lawrence and the students are pictured below.