Birthday

Cora in her birthday dress crocheted by Nana


Nyla has been asking for a birthday cake from Costco for many many months. Bohdin tried to talk her into a homemade one but she wanted Costco. Sunday I took her to Costco to pick out her cake. It wasn't what I expected. She chose the chocolate cake with flowers which she dubbed the garden cake. It looked so tasty we decided to celebrate her birthday that day instead of Monday. She and I had planned out a large birthday party but I'm just not a good birthday organizer and we kept it a family affair.

Bohdin really liked the Playmobil setup I made for his fifth birthday so I decided to do something like it for Nyla. I ordered a few new pieces for her but couldn't put it on the cake because there wasn't any room. She liked it anyway. I'm disappointed I didn't get the table I ordered but that is the nature of ordering by the piece. We were able to use a pirate table that we already owned but it didn't go with the elegant new pink and gold chairs. She really likes those new chairs and I may get her more. She was playing with them tonight. On a side note, they asked me today if I could order Playmobil carseats for the kids. They said the kids get jostled around in the vehicles and need to be buckled up. I thought it was a funny idea but they are right about the Playmobil vehicles not being Playmobil child friendly. They are made to fit the adult perfectly.





Cora was looking really cute today and Buddy took lots of pictures of her that I loved. It was difficult to narrow it down to just the ones I have posted here. We gave her a slice of cake but she was not interested. It's funny that she has no qualms about putting rocks in her mouth but chocolate cake looks almost too disgusting to touch. She did manage to make a mess with it by smashing a toy in it. The toy went in her mouth so she indirectly tried it.




I wasn't going to give Nyla any Playmobil for her birthday but she was just so sad about not getting any toys that I caved. I have a stash hidden and I pulled something out for her. It wasn't the original gift I had in mind but only Bohdin minded. He was looking forward to her new toy and later asked if she could have that one as well. They will have to wait for Christmas probably. Nyla also received some books by Rosemary Wells, her favorite author, money, and a bag made by Nana.





Bohdin lost another tooth but managed to not eat this one. He wanted to save it instead of giving it to the tooth fairy so it's sitting in the bathroom for now. I'm not sure if he'll change his mind.

Day 6

The kids really wanted to go to the beach again before heading home and we did try. It was raining in the morning but down south it was still clear. We did our best to beat the storm and we did but only by minutes. Nyla wanted to lay in the sand again but never had her chance. Bohdin barely got in the water. I was with Cora in the car because she was sleeping. I had just found a parking spot when the downpour came. I picked up a soaking wet Buddy, Bohdin, and Nyla. They changed in the car and we went to the pizza place nearby. Because the wait was so long we just placed an order and went to the carousel across the street. Nyla rode twice and during her second time Bohdin and I looked at the exhibits showing the amusement park that used to be on the beach. The children's museum was also in the same building but we vetoed Bohdin's request to go in. We picked up our pizza and headed home.



We were thinking about staying overnight in Indianapolis so we could go to Conner Prairie the next day but home was too close to resist. Plus the forecast for the next day was awful with the continued heat wave. We made it back home before 10pm after a two hour pit stop in Indy. It was a nice trip. Nyla said her favorite was the hotel. She was the only one who was mad to come home. Bohdin said he liked it all. Buddy's favorite was the Meijer Gardens. I can't pick a favorite either. I liked it all. I hope we can go back again someday.

Day 3 again

I had trouble posting words while we are gone but now that we are home I can.  The other days I'll get to tomorrow and will just edit the previous post.  I put captions on the previous post with the pictures.

Tuesday we went west to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. The plan was to do a hike, followed by the scenic drive, then the dune climb and beach. Cora fell asleep about three minutes before we arrived at the hike site so we did the scenic drive. At the first stop we decided to just pull over and have lunch. It was a forested area and incredibly quiet. It was a nice place to stop. Cora didn't stay asleep much longer and she was able to come with us by stop nine. We didn't get out of the car for very many of the stops. Stop number nine was the overlook of Lake Michigan from the top of a dune. It was a nice view. The kids were quite impatient at first but then came to enjoy it. The weather has been unusually hot for the area and we felt it at the top of the sand dune. To cool off we skipped the hike and dune climb and went straight to the beach. The one we chose had a lot of rocks and we had a great time collecting rocks. We found some really amazing ones maybe even some of the famous Petoskey stones which contain fossils.

Buddy inflated a small raft and we were all going to float around. The raft was really cramped and Cora hated something about it. Cora, Nyla, and I ditched the raft and Bohdin and Buddy floated around for a while. Cora continued her favorite activity of placing rocks in her mouth and Nyla played around doing various things. At one point she was running down the beach and into the water. She tripped and her head went under water. She was scared but I was there as fast as possible and soon she was playing again.

When Buddy came on shore he became interested in rock collecting but Cora was getting tired. She had only had a very short nap. We headed back to town and ate more of the cherries and apricots we had picked up earlier. There are tons of cherry trees in the area. The town calls itself the cherry capital of the world and that may be true. There are stands selling cherries every few miles. The cherries were wonderfully tasty. It will be hard to eat cherries from a grocery store after this. Our hands were stained with cherry juice.

Cora fell asleep on the way back to the hotel so we decided to let her sleep and we would eat dinner later. Finally at 7:30 after waiting two hours we were done waiting and just woke her up. Cora was behaving horribly in the restaurant. She was a very curious child who wanted to explore everything. That is not a good thing in a restaurant. At one point I took her outside for a while. She tore a leaf off a plant. She seemed to be causing destruction everywhere. I brought her back in after a few minutes when our food had arrived. It helped a little bit but we still had to rush. When we were almost done she was getting antsy again so I told Buddy that I was going to take her outside again. Before I had a chance to get up The people from the next table leaned over on their way out and complimented us on our well behaved children who tried so many different foods. I found the timing ironic. Bohdin and Nyla did do well which they are capable of. Buddy had a big hand in that as he kept them engaged through most of our time there.

Once again I've asked Bohdin and Nyla to tell me about the day. It is incredibly hard to pull this information from them. I think I interviewed Nyla for five minutes to get these few short sentences. It is her words but told over many minutes. Same goes for Bohdin.

Bohdin - I would have liked the ride in our canoe except there wasn't much room and one crying baby. I liked finding where the wooden path led. It led to a place with a really good view.

Nyla - We went to the sand dunes. And then we went down to go into the sand. And then we stopped at a river. We looked at a river but Cora was asleep. The water was fine. We went in a boat but it might be a little too small. I liked the rocks.

Day 5

I researched this trip extensively.  Even though I had gathered a ton of information we never made more than a loose itinerary.  That way we could choose what we felt like doing that day but not be wandering around aimlessly or wondering what we should do.  There were a lot of things on our list that we didn't get to do which was the nature of the list.  One of the places that had been a maybe we did and it was great.

It took us forever to get going every morning of our trip and Thursday morning was no exception.  We stopped at a store featuring cherry products in Traverse City and the best thing in Nyla's mind was the bin full of cherry pits.  She played in there for several minutes and we brought a few home with us I think.  They may have not made it out of our last hotel.  I'm not sure.


Nyla laying in cherry pits

After the cherry store we headed west and stopped at a rock shop before turning south.  I had read a lot of good things about the state beach in Ludington and with the kids asking over and over if we could go to the beach we stopped.  The state beach was actually several miles up the road from the city beach we stopped at but it seemed good enough.  This was Bohdin's favorite beach because it had waves.  He could have spent the entire day there I think.  We were only able to stay a few hours before Cora was getting too tired.  This is the beach we almost missed because it was cut from the original plan.














After the beach in Ludington we drove south a little further to the dune rides at Silver Lake.  The rides had really good reviews but I was hesitant.  It's a forty minute ride and I wasn't sure how cooperative Cora would be.  It turns out that she was mostly fine.  The ride was interesting and we did see a lot of sand dunes.  Because an endangered bird has recently had babies, we were not allowed to go to Lake Michigan which is their usual route.  That was a bummer.  It was fun and Bohdin and Nyla enjoyed it.






The driver told us these trees are actually 80 feet tall.  They can survive being mostly buried in sand. 




At one point everybody got out and we were able to run up and down the dune if we desired.  Bohdin rolled down but not all the way.  That's Silver Lake behind him.




Lake Michigan is behind the dunes in this picture but it didn't differentiate very well from the sky in the picture.







Nyla wanted to make a sand angel.

Day 4

Cora turned one today.  We didn't have anything extravagant or exciting planned for her birthday.  Instead we spent it the way she would like.  Cora for most of her life has preferred to nurse and sleep in bed than anywhere else.  For her birthday we set aside the day for her to do that instead of being on the run.  We didn't go anywhere in the morning.  While Cora had a nap, Nyla played in the hotel room with George who made a toilet paper mess.  Buddy and Bohdin went to a bodyworks exhibit at a nearby museum. 

Cora had a really long nap so we didn't do anything until mid afternoon.  We picked some awful raspberries and then headed to one of the beaches in Traverse City.  It was a sandy beach instead of rocky so Cora didn't like it as much.  Bohdin liked it and Buddy and I took turns going out to the buoy with Bohdin.  Nyla mostly stayed near shore and worked on a sand structure and used her hat as a bucket for water.  Once again the water was super clear.  Even when the water was chest high, I could still see my feet clearly.  The entire region was still under a heat advisory but it didn't feel hot to us.  The temperature was one degree away from tying a record high and sixteen degrees above normal.  I wonder if it would have been too cool for us to enjoy the water if the temperature hadn't been so unusually high. 

After the beach we stopped for ice cream and dinner.  Cora didn't magically become a good restaurant baby overnight so it was a trying experience again. 

When I took this picture I noticed the pine trees in the background.  They seemed out of place.

Day 3

George wanted to see the view as well.  I wish he wasn't so slow to get back in the car.

This is NOT Lake Michigan.  It's maybe Lake Grandview if memory serves.

Climbing the sand dune with Cora.  Lake Michigan can be seen to the left.

Looking over the sand dunes to Lake Michigan

Cherry stained hands and face

Eating rocks was the appeal at this beach.  To her credit she hasn't pooped any out yet so she was careful to spit them back out.

The water was incredibly clear.