Sleeping Bear

We took the kids to climb the Sleeping Bear Dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan. The view is beautiful at the top. The kids at Interlochen do a field trip out here every session and then Will and I did it when I picked him up last year, so this climb was old hat for Will. Bill and Eva had ever been here.

The kids are at play on top of the dune. Will looks like he's falling off a cliff but it is really a gentle slope! Eva finds a gymnastics opportunity wherever she goes.

Here we are at the top of the dunes; a nice guy took our photo because Bill and I rarely have photos with both of us in them. I think these make the dunes at Kitty Hawk look very small. I carried Lyra up in the backpack and my calves were SCREAMING. This makes up for not doing any running this week.

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels did some flying at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. I love to watch them fly, it is just amazing! I don't want to know what the fuel cost was. We saw them warming up while we were waiting for fireworks on the 4th of July. At dusk, it was very clear just how much faster light travels than sound. We'd see the lights of the planes and then the sound would follow behind it in the sky. That night, they were flying much lower and faster. It was LOUD. Lyra is sort of afraid of planes now. We found her some earplugs for this performance.

This second photo looks just like the Air Force Memorial in Washington. Will and Eva call it "the french fry" memorial but it is clear that the memorial is supposed to represent flight, not food.

4th of July

Doesn't it look like the elk is watching the fireworks? Don't the fireworks look sort of like his antlers? Because Traverse City is so far north, it didn't get dark until quite a bit later than at home. The fireworks show didn't start until 10:30! The kids were wrecked and begging to go to bed. Isn't that funny? Bill took this photo as we were walking back to the car.

Eva is a Monkey

I have never seen monkey bars like this. We were walking around Traverse City and found a little playground with some different equipment from what we usually see at home.

There were 3 or 4 wheels mounted on a bar that gradually declined a bit from one end to the other. When you grab a wheel, your weight pulls you around to the next wheel. Then you have to grab that one quick and your weight pulls you around to the the one after that. It was not easy to hang on. Eva LOVED IT. She kept begging to go back to this playground.

How Much is That Doggie in the Window?

Lyra continues to request her signature 3 pony-tail hairstyle. She is starting to look like those little lap doggies that you can carry around in a purse. Which do you think is closer, the Chinese Crested or the Yorkie?

Adventure Baby!

At the International Cherry Festival in Traverse City, they had this big inflatable obstacle course thing. Will took Lyra on it. I think she went on it four times. Once she got the hang of climbing up over each obstacle, no one could keep up with her!

Ice Cream at its Best

Our connoisseur (or should I say "connoisseuse")...The mint flavor in this ice cream is just exquisite! And the dark chocolate is a perfect complement.

We had ice cream at Moomers which is supposed to be some of the best ice cream in the country. There were cows there an everything. As you can see, Lyra thoroughly enjoyed hers.

Last Day of Camp!

Will was so surprised and happy to see us! He thought we were coming a little bit later in the day.

The trip out was a bit of a fiasco. I had thought it'd be fun to have a leisurely drive out there and spend a long weekend exploring Traverse City and the surrounding area and then drive home. Unfortunately, Bill had a surprise trip to Rome the week we were supposed to leave and wasn't going to be back in time for us drive to Michigan in time for Will's Friday morning recital. ARGH! So the girls and I picked him up in Detroit at the airport. Except there are two airports in Detroit and Mapquest sent me to the wrong one. It didn't even give me a choice of which airport; it just assumed I wanted the teeny weeny private plane airport and not the big commercial airport.

So it was a looooong trip out there but, as you can see, worth the trouble! We arrived in time to see Will and his friends perform at their piano recital.

Will's drawing elective was full so he took ceramics instead. He made a little vase shaped like KC. Will and KC even have sort of the same expression on their faces here. I don't know what I am going to do with all of these projects. I do not have a place to display them (there are more that aren't in the photo).

Kevin and Eva entertained themselves while I helped Will pack up. I think Bill must have had Lyra off somewhere and out of the way.

The chippies that live by Junior Boys are *very friendly.* We all fed them by hand, even Lyra!

Will Leaves for Camp

Will spent two weeks at Interlochen Center for the Arts studying the piano. He went last year but had very mixed feelings about going back. He liked the camp part but thought there was way too much piano and he missed home a lot.

Some of you may recall that,last year, Bill had to go to Australia unexpectedly and I had to really juggle things to get Will to camp. This year, Bill got to do the drop off which was great because he never had a chance to visit the camp last year.

Bill took this picture at the airport. Isn't it the perfect summertime sentiment?

This was the only car available at the rental car place. I think it took some of the sting out of drop-off! Will is still talking about it.

Here's Will's buddy, Eric, who is genuinely happy to be here at camp. Eric is a talented musician. He's here for piano and maybe, next year, for oboe too.

This is Will, Ross and Caldwell at the Hofbrau for dinner. At the Hofbrau, if you eat all you dinner, you get to spin a big wheel and it tells you which drawer of the prize chest you get to open.

Isn't this beautiful? It's the lake outside Will's cabin. Will is part of the "Polar Bear Club" which means he went for an early morning swim in the frrreeeeeeezing cold water! He got a special certificate for that one.

I had to lighten this up a lot so it would show on the blog and it's not as cool looking as the original photo. But here are Ross and Will doing a happy dance at the end of the pier outside the Junior Boys cabin area. They really do have an idyllic setting.

Will's all unpacked. Homey looking, n'est-ce pas?

It's official! Will is at camp!

Since I am writing this after he's come home, I can say that it was a very quiet two weeks at the the house. I kept waiting for him to call but he didn't. He wrote twice but forgot to mail the second letter so I only received one letter and we talked with him once after that. I had thought perhaps he was having a great time and that was why he didn't call. In reality, THE PHONES WERE BROKEN! Can you believe it? but if he'd desperately needed to talk with us, his counselors would have found a working phone for him.