Grandparent post

So this post for is really for the grandparents. I guess you can read it if you want even if you aren't a grandparent, but they are the ones who will be really happy to see all these pictures.

When Tom is gone, I tend to schedule a ton of things to do. So there are lots of pictures. Plus, I haven't done just a general update since we returned from Honduras-- so here we go.

Last week, we made only our second trip to the local children's zoo. It was normal, fun and entertaining, special in that we brought Laura (Cody's wife) with us. It was her first trip and the girls loved showing her all their favorite things--carousel included.

Then Friday, we went with Mary Lin and her kids to Crossroads Village in Flint. Mary Lin is the mother of Hadley's best friend, Alexis. Alexis has a younger brother who is six also. They also have a family pass to this old fashioned village, which means we got in free (bonus!). The kids had fun riding the paddle boat (forgot to take picture), exploring the old schoolhouse, the opera house, the stores, and even trying stilts. Both girls were able to take a few steps. They had old, turn-of-the century amusement rides. And that ferris wheel and the carousel flew. It was amazing--perhaps our rigid safety standards have doomed these classic rides to a level just barely above boring. I felt like I was in Mary Poppins, racing my carousel horse. It was great.

Sorry the captions aren't matching up correctly, I goofed and am too tired to fix it. Never pick a left sided layout for pictures if you want to put captions under the photos...it doesn't work.


















































At Adli's lately, strawberries have been $1/pound. I've been buying them and drying them in the food dryer. And after weeks of dangling in a precarious diagonal position, Hadley finally let her dad yank her other front tooth.
She is proud of her giant hole and there no signs yet of the new teeth.






























































Then today, betting against the rain clouds, we drove up to Midland and went to the Dow Gardens. The kids had fun. They even had some good lessons on reading a map as the area is huge. As you can see, creating large bubbles was serious business. The picture on the left here is the middle of the yew maze.








Ok, the swimming pictures are from July. The girls took lessons, like they always do in summer. It was so relaxing to have them both in lessons at the same time. Perhaps because of the economy, the classes were extra small this year, which I loved. Hadley progressed greatly in stroke development and can almost do the butterfly now. She's working on learning to dive. I don't help much because I laugh so hard at her belly flops. Kassy conquered her fear of jumping in and can now jump, without hesitation off the diving board and doggie paddle for a little ways. She was trooper out there, waiting in line for the diving board, with trembling lip, trying not to cry and shaking as she walked the plank. But by the forth lesson she did it. I was so proud.

And then there are pictures of friends. First the Bierbrauers. Jason, the dad, is a friend of Tom's from high school. They were here off and on for five days while they went back and forth to a wedding in Ann Arbor. They have five kids. It was nutty, but exciting here. Beneath that is a picture of the girls with my great aunt Mariel and uncle Phil. They were also in town because of a Michigan wedding. It had been several years since we had seen them so it was a good chance to catch up. And finally, the girls with two, of the four Drost kids. The Drosts are our good friends in Des Moines. We stayed with them for Cody's wedding. Again, nutty, but fun. I love chances to "live" with other families. You get to see how they interact, discipline, structure their life. It always inspires me to keep working hard at being a parent. And I think when you stay together for a few days, you see more reality than a quick 2-4 hour visit. I definitely recommend it.