Play Ball!

Jake plays ball one hour a week at the municipal park through the summer rec program. The kids are organized into new teams each week by the high school-aged counselors who run the activities. It's perfect for our family right now because we don't have a bunch of practices or long, hot games. It's just for fun.

Jake is really into baseball right now. I hope this passion sticks for awhile because it's a lot safer than football.

When Papa and Lala were here, we took them to a Mudhens game. Sadly, we picked a super hot day to go. For the first few innings, we were right in the sun. The air was unusually still too. Ugh!

This game went 13 long innings until the Mudhens finally took it. We didn't get home until 11:30 that night.

Emma bought her own cotton candy and shared it with Daddy. Here is Rick's impersonation of Papa:

There were some other highlights. A foul ball came our way. We didn't catch it though. One guy a few rows back started choking on a candy, and someone had to perform the Heimleich to get him breathing again. The weird thing was, the victim stayed the rest of the game despite having almost died. He had also thrown up profusely. Ewww. All in all, it was a memorable evening.

The Henry Ford Museum

We are new members of The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. We made our first trip there with Lala and Papa to Greenfield Village, just one of the many attractions at The Henry Ford. We felt like we got to ride a time machine. It was a very neat place to experience history first hand.

The kids mastered the stilts in no time. Emma took particular interest in the stilts, and kept going back to practice throughout the day.

We rode the antique carousel with hand-painted animals. I got stuck with a pig.

Rick and Em found animals right next to each other.

Jake was too cool for us and opted for the sit-down spot.

We can't seem to take a normal picture anymore with these 2 clowns.

The train ride took us around the park, saving us some walking time.

We also rode the omnibus. The driver gave us some insider information too.

Aren't these horses beautiful? They're a special breed called Morgans.

Jake played baseball - 1800's style.

He was pretty good, I must say.

The heat didn't seem to bother him. He was having too much fun.

I love Jake's expression here:

That's a better smile!

The kids made candles. It was a lengthy process, but they stuck with it.

Guess what? Emma now wants to try candle making at home!

One of the highlights was riding the Model T Fords. Wow!

It cooled us off and rested our tired feet.

Isn't that a quaint little cottage behind us?

Papa had to see the bike shop...

Here are a few videos of the kids playing some old-time games:

Father's Day

CHURCH CALLINGS

I lost my voice for Father's Day (which was my special little gift to Rick). Unfortunately, this created a small problem for my church responsibilities. I lead the music time for Primary and Nursery. Our ward children's choir was to perform for the fathers in Sacrament Meeting, with me as their chorister. The poor little group was on their own and I could only wave my hands enthusiastically for support. The kids sounded great though. They even emphasized the ending sound "d" on the word "dad". That got a chuckle from the congregation, which is exactly what I wanted.

Later I realized that this was Jake's last Father's Day in Primary. He won't get the chance to sing Daddy's Homecoming anymore. Sad!

Emma will be happy to carry on the tradition though. She hasn't gotten too cool for Primary yet.
I officially got my call to teach early morning Seminary on Sunday too. I was so pleased to have parents there as I was set apart to teach seminary, and Rick was set apart to be the new Scout Master. What a special day!

FATHERS

After hours of napping, we made a delicious mixed grill dinner. For dessert, Lala made strawberry shortcake with some local berries. YUM! Then we moved on to "prizes", as Papa likes to call them.

The kids dug up some special treasures for Papa. Emma had built this space ship using a kit Jake purchased for her at the Challenger Space Center.

Jake made Rick this handy dandy organizer at the Home Depot clinic. Emma made one too, but painted it in bright, jazzy colors.

Jake gave Papa his rockets, though we never did make time to launch them. Maybe next time...

Rick received the Blu-ray of Iron Man to watch on his new projector. 10 minutes into watching it however, made us decide to never let the kids see it. Yikes!

As if that wasn't enough action, we all took a drive over to the 577 Foundation. It's a beautiful gathering place for the community that holds classes, concerts, and field trips. We walked through the lovely community gardens and spied some critters too.

The kids hammed it up in the tree house:

The made it look so fun that Lala and Papa had to try it too:

Safari

In Port Clinton, there's an African Safari experience that will make you laugh your socks off. It's frightening, gross, and hilarious all at the same time. We were so glad Papa had rented a mini van, because we sure didn't want our cars get slimed up by all the animals.
We bought a 10 pound bag of carrots at Costco so that we could feed the critters from the safety of our car. We didn't anticipate just how assertive they would be!

We saw llamas, alpacas, deer, bison, zebras, you name it. All were hungry...
We couldn't stop laughing (and screaming). It was so crazy to have these huge animals sticking their heads in our car.

The people in front of us fully leaned out their truck to give the deer a sample. It was quite a show to see how daring they were.

In a weird way, I though this guy was kinda cute.

Can you see the goo left behind from the feeding? Don't worry, we went through a $3 car wash after our trip.

Have you ever seen an albino zebra? We have.

After our drive through the park, we decided to become members so that we would keep coming back. There's a smaller sort of zoo and play area too. We missed the free pony rides, but we'll be back with Aunt Sheila soon.

I think we wore them out!

We watched a tortoise battle. One guy tipped another over onto his back. Watch as he worked to turn him back over:

Peacocks and hens roamed all over the grounds. We could get quite close to them. Isn't he lovely?

Back home, our pampered little pup humbly waits to have plastic baggies strapped to her feet. She doesn't like it, but it keeps the mud off her paws. We can't wait to get grass in our yard!

Ups and Downs

Our weather on Friday sure kept us hopping. One minute we had sunshine, the next minute we had downpours. We had planned to do some outdoor activities, but the rain (and subsequent flooding) forced us to keep our activities indoors. Mom went through her 37 lb box of seminary stuff that she brought to help me with my new calling. She taught for 5 years so she has a lot of great material to pass onto me.

I spent the morning washing and chopping vegetables for a build-your-own salad bar. Doesn't Lala's shirt match her lunch perfectly?

We drove down to Bowling Green for the afternoon to see the movie Up. The thunder and lightning made for quite a show as we slowly made our way to the theater. By the time we were done, the sun was out again. For dinner, we decided to show off the little town of Grand Rapids.
Here we are on the main drag:

We introduced the folks to a great pizza place we've started frequenting.

Later, we took a stroll down the river walk. It's very picturesque, don't you think?

Doesn't Papa look cool with his beard?

We enjoyed this swing overlooking the water until we realized how much the whole thing was rocking. Maybe it wasn't meant to hold all our weight.

We were to late to visit Ludwig Mill and ride the canal boat, but we got a picture anyway. Maybe next time...