Vacation!!

We took our first all-out vacation as a family of 4 the last week of July!  We ended up going to Holland, MI, so that we could keep the car ride short and everything a little low-key.  We had a very good time!  We started off the vacation right: at the beach!  The water was icy cold, but the air was pleasant, so we mostly stuck with playing in the sand.  We ate at a place called New Holland Brewing Co. and had a VERY good meal, followed by delicious coffee!  The next day there was a threat of rain, so we tried to pick things that also had indoor things to do.  We started out at DeGraaf Nature Center, which Anna found fascinating (she actually liked the indoor exhibits more than the nature trails).  It was pleasant though, and none of the trails were particularly long, which works well for little ones.  We then headed over to the Windmill Gardens, which was one of my favorite places of the trip.  There was a huge, still operational windmill, and they give tours and show you how it works and everything.  We were surprised that Anna was so interested in learning about it.  We even got a bag of the flour that they grind there!  The rain held off long enough for us to tour the grounds, learn about/hear the street organ they have (unique and very cool!), play at their bebow, and get Jimmy on his first carousel ride!  We then went to John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, which was built on a hill and is very shady.  It was beautiful, and we had a great time!  I think Jimmy even liked it there.  Ms. B's favorite part was the treehouse bebow, which of course has nothing to do with animals.  It was pretty neat though, so I can't fault her there.  The next day we drove to Kalamazoo and spent the day at the Air Zoo.  They had tons of airplanes, space exhibits, simulators, and even some carnival-type rides.  I think Ms. B enjoyed the rides the best, and I'm a little disappointed that she wasn't super excited about the space stuff.  That's not the type of reaction one would expect from a future astronaut!  The next day we went to the Dutch Village, which was jam-packed with stuff to do.  We didn't expect to stay from open to close, but there was so much to do!  Anna enjoyed the "zippy line" the best, but there was also a dutch dancing show, shoe carving, Delft-making demo, swings, goat walking (seriously), a slide, a street organ, and various little tidbits about dutch living.  Our last full day in Michigan we spent in South Haven.  We walked around the downtown a bit, went to the beach (which was ridiculously crowded), and ate at Clementine's.  Jimmy wasn't very cooperative during that meal, so that wasn't too fun for me.  Actually, it seems like he got less and less happy the more we ate out.  That's rough when you eat out at virtually every meal!  But I'm imagining it was pretty boring for him.  Anyway, we also went raspberry picking, which was fun for everyone!  Our last day it was raining, so we had to just buy already-picked blueberries instead of picking them ourselves.  Oh well.  It was a very fun vacation!

Michigan

We took Jimmy's (and the Ford Plex's) first trip out of state this past weekend!  We went with Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 to the farm.  It was probably the busiest we've ever been there; usually we slow down and take it relatively easy.  We got up there Friday evening, so we pretty much took it easy and went to bed.  Saturday we went to the beach, where the water was really, really nice!  Jimmy was pretty unsure about the whole thing, but he ended up tolerating it alright.  Anna still isn't very interested in getting better/more independent at swimming.  She just wanted to be held the whole time!  But everybody had fun.  We ended up going to a really fancy chocolate place, had a "tasting" (all three of us), and each of us picked out a package of our favorite truffles.  Yum!  Then that evening we had a bonfire and discovered that our bug spray does NOT work.  But Anna loves roasting marshmallows, so she didn't seem to mind too much.  She kept getting up early too!  Luckily Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 didn't seem to mind, and Anna ended up getting to help make breakfast, which made her very happy!  The next day we went blueberry picking and got almost 10 lbs!!  Anna picked 1.5 pounds all by herself!  So everybody had a great time, and we're looking forward to going back again sometime!