Hometown Lighthouse

At the beginning of August, we all drove up to Michigan.   We went up to my hometown to visit my family, attend my 20 year high school reunion and celebrate Kendra's (my sister) upcoming wedding with a family and friend's wedding shower.  

We started out with the eleven hour drive on Friday morning.   Many DVD videos later and we safely arrived at my Mom's house late Friday afternoon.   On Saturday, Dave and I went to my high school reunion.  It was nice to see quite a few of the people I went to school with from kindergarten to high school. 

On Sunday, a few of my high school classmates gathered at the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse for fun and a picnic.   Aubrey loves this lighthouse and she was so happy that her Dad was able to go up with her this time.

Of course, as soon as Alex and Aubrey saw the sand, they had to stop and play.  When I was growing up, you could never get close to the lighthouse because it was owned by the Coast Guard.  All you could see was this fence around the Lighthouse.  It is great that we can now get close to the lighthouse and even go up it.


Here is the beautiful lighthouse.  
To imagine that it is just about five miles from the house I grew up in.

 

Alex, Aubrey, Dave, and I went up to the top.  My Mom stayed at the bottom. 
There she is in the next picture.

Here is a picture of the Blue Water Bridge in the background that connects my hometown of Port Huron, Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Us up at the top.  Alex is a little nervous with heights, but he made it to the top.

  
Aubrey and I stayed up at the top for awhile.  Alex headed back down pretty quickly.  There he is with Dave on the ground, while Aubrey and I looked around a little bit from the top.

Alex is always looking for someone to play with.  As soon as he saw these cars and trucks, he knew that this was the kid to play with.

 

Amusement Park Adventure

In July, since we have a seasons pass, I took the kids to Busch Gardens by myself.  We had a wonderful time.   I have to be honest that I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but it went surprisingly well.   I had a plan for how we were going to go through the park, but I did let the kids help choose what to do next.    It worked out well.   We did have one little meltdown, but it was short and we moved on.

Alex and Aubrey on the Elmo ride.

 
Alex likes to take his picture with the characters, but Aubrey wants nothing to do with them.

I took swimsuits for Alex and Aubrey and they played in Sesame Street water area.

 

Having fun on all the rides.  

 

 

 

Pileated Woodpecker

The other day I saw this bird on the railing of our back deck.  I called Dave over to look and he told me it looked like a Pileated Woodpecker.  Sure enough, after a Google search, we decided that is what it was.  As I took this picture, I realized there was another woodpecker on the stairs. 

 

Trip to Florida - 3rd Stop (Drive back to Fort Lauderdale)

On our last day in the Keys, we went to visit my brother, Paul.  We had a very nice visit with him.   He is doing great down there and we were glad that we were able to visit with him for a little bit.

(Unfortunately, the quality of the picture isn't very good

and didn't turn out as good as I would have liked.  )

 

After our visit with Paul, we drove around and found a Key Deer in a neighborhood front yard.   My Mom is jealous that we saw one and she hasn't seen one yet.  : )

 

Then we finished our drive back to Fort Lauderdale.  We had a really early flight the next day.  We did take a short walk around the beach.

 

 

We had a great time!

Trip to Florida - 2nd Stop (Key West)

After our trip to Miami Beach, we left Miami and drove the long way to Key West.  It was beautiful along the way.   Of course, the drive was great in our little Fiat.

 

Halfway between Miami and Key West, we stopped for lunch at La Nina Restaurant.  It was very good and filling.

We took a stop on Big Pine Key to check out a little pond in a nature Sanctuary.  We were trying to see a Key Deer, but we had no luck on this trip. 

 

 

We finally made it to Key West and here are a few of our stops in town.

 

 

Sloppy Joe's Bar was Ernest Hemingway's hangout while on the Keys.

 

  

The standard picture at the southernmost point in the U.S. 

Then we finished the day with dinner at the Hogfish Grill.  
We both had a Hogfish sandwich and it was delicious.

 

Trip to Florida - 1st Stop (Miami South Beach)

A month ago, Dave and I escaped to Florida without children for four days and three nights.  We had a wonderful time.   The main reason for the trip was to visit my brother Paul, but Dave and I had a great time just enjoying each other's company.  Sure I really missed my kids, but I also enjoyed the break from cutting food, stopping arguments, putting kids to bed, and the daily adventures with kids.

Our first stop was to fly into Fort Lauderdale and then drive to South Beach Miami.  As soon as we drove off in our rental car from the airport, there was a huge downpour of rain that lasted until we called it a night.  We had these great plans to walk along the beach together and then walk around the shops and restaurants.   Well, we ended up driving to a restaurant and then running into a hotel to avoid the rain.   We still had fun and enjoyed our dinner.

Here are pictures from our drive from the airport to the hotel.   

However, the next day ended up being much nicer and we were able to walk around a little bit before our drive to Key West.

  

Then we hopped into our tiny Fiat to start the drive to Key West.   Even though it was a small car, it was fun!