Posts under ‘Michigan’

Hanging out on the porch with my sister and Nico, I heard the distant tinkling tune of the neighborhood ice-cream truck. “Do you know what that is?” I asked my nephew. “It’s a ice-cweam man,” Nico said. Then Katy told me the poor kid had NEVER bought a treat from the ice-cream man! We had [...]

After six wonderful weeks in our beautiful little house, we spent the last two days traveling back to Laos. Although we return to work on Wednesday, I have decided to remain in a state of denial. So I’ll just post a few more pics from our summer break. On one of our last days at [...]

My dad has been talking about this logging museum since we got back to the States, so Sunday we loaded up the car and headed north to Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, MI. The Visitor Center features an excellent display about the forest, local wildlife, logging and life in the logging camps of the [...]

I can’t believe I didn’t post about our visit from the Hossacks! It was a highlight of the summer. Duh. Scott, Amy and Blake drove from Canada to spend the day with us here at the lake. For some reason, I didn’t think to grab my camera till they were almost ready to leave, so [...]

“Do ya love me? Do ya love me? Do ya love me? Do ya love me? Do ya love me? Noooooowwww that I can dance?” Tony, Jacquelyn and I sang that hit by The Contours under the echo chamber during our recent visit to the Motown Historical Museum. We definitely had that “famous Motown sound.” [...]

The play area at a nearby outlet mall has lots of huge “food” for kids to jump on and hide behind. It’s basically a germ-fest death trap. I often take on the unpopular role of Playground Nazi, confronting oversized kids who blatantly ignore the yardstick-holding cartoon character and bound from big banana to colossal cupcake [...]

Nico had a lot of fun learning how to fish with Liam last weekend. He got a big kick out of the tub-o-worms. Liam caught four fish that day! Lucky for the fish, he threw them all back in the lake … but not before they got a little love from my curious nephew.

My nephew, Nico, 3 1/2, tells the story of the Wizard of Oz … mostly through sound effects and gestures.

My 1 1/2-year-old nephew, Paul, is very musical. He picks up a tune easily, and then sings it for hours. Here is his rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Our little island does not mess around when it comes to celebrating Independence Day. Friday was Flare Night. We didn’t really know what that meant, but we inferred that we were supposed to buy enough road flares to line our lakefront. What time? My sister, Kate, had heard we should light them at 7:30 p.m. [...]