Day 194

It is our last day in Michigan, and I let my oldest choose what we did today. He really liked the beach and the splash park, so that's where we went. It was really windy, and as we were leaving I noticed the tall grasses moving in the wind and decided to grab a shot or two.

Day 193

I'm working on packing up tonight for our trip back home tomorrow evening. Before I started gathering up my beading stuff, I thought I'd take a picture of the setup I enjoyed while on our trip (complete with my Kleenex box and snack). I was able to take over a desk and just leave my stuff on it to work on as I was able. The boys were actually quite good about leaving my project alone.

It's been nice to no only get a break from the routine of life, but to also be able to dedicate some time to making jewelry. The only project I worked on was for the contest that ends in just a few short days. I'm not as far as I hoped, but I'm making good progress.

Now to get back to packing.

Day 192

There was a huge storm that came through the area this morning. As we were loading up the car to go to the beach, I noticed the lilies were very pretty covered in drops of rain. I stopped for a moment to snap a picture.

Day 187

I took the boys to the beach today, and all three of us thought the sand in our toes was pretty cool. It was a really nice beach, and it was fantastic to have some fun in the sun.

Day 186

There are all sorts of lilies in bloom here right now. This is one I saw while we were at the zoo with the boys. I thought it was rather stunning.

Day 185

We took a walk to the Calvin College Nature Preserve, and on the way back Paul was feeling like his little legs were tired. Matt was riding in the carrier, so I put Paul on my back and we hiked along for a bit. He thought that was great fun.

Day 184

My boys have been reunited with their dad today. It was great fun to see them playing around again. They've been missing their daddy.

Day 51

I love to take the boys to experience new things, and trips out of town are a fantastic opportunity to expose them to new adventures. The one thing I wanted to do while in Portland was go to the zoo. We got up this morning and headed straight to the zoo from the hotel. One of the cooler things about our zoo membership is being able to get free or discounted admission to other zoos. We were able to get into the Oregon Zoo for free, which is an awesome price.

This picture is of the seals. The Oregon Zoo has quite a few more water exhibits than our local zoo, and they were all pretty cool. The seals in this exhibit were having tons of fun just swimming around and around. I liked the motion in this shot.

Day 50

We were so busy getting ready to go right after I got off work that I almost missed out on getting my picture today. I try not to recycle pictures, but this one may end up in more than one place.

Today's picture is after we got to the hotel and put everyone in their pajamas. This is Matt's first hotel experience. I managed to take an okay picture from my phone while holding Matt.

Day 49

Tomorrow we are leaving on a mini-vacation to Portland to go to my grandma's 85th birthday. We extended the trip a couple of days to get some much needed family time. Of course, the packing falls to mom, so I thought of taking this picture at nearly midnight when I was still running laundry and packing.