Ahh...vacation! What a wonderful week we had making a circuit around Lake Michigan.
We started with a quick drive to Gram and PopPop's where we took the opportunity to visit the western shore of Lake Michigan.

 

The next day we headed down around the lake through Indiana on our way to Frankfort, MI. Our hotel was just steps from the beach and the town offered a nice mix of restaurants and ice cream shops, all only about 20 min. away from our ultimate goal of visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes.

I loved the sunsets! Though I must admit my internal compass was a bit out of whack since growing up in Chicago means the lake is EAST!

 

The boys enjoyed digging on the beach and splashing in the (cold!) water. 

 

Walked out to the lighthouse in previous pic along breakwater wall

 

They were also excited to visit their first lighthouse at Point Betsie, though sadly their dream of being lighthouse keepers has dissipated. (For about two years they said they would be lighthouse keepers on the same shore and take boats between them to visit each other. This was all without ever having seen a shore or a lighthouse!)

Lighthouse keeper costumes

Top of the lighthouse

The Dunes climb was a bit more than we all bargained for. There was great enthusiasm for the first ascent

the two blue shirts are Daniel and Edward

But when we reached the "top" we discovered there was much more to climb. We kept going for two more until we could see Lake Michigan, but heeded a sign warning that it was an additional 1.3 "hilly miles" to the lakeshore and not to proceed without proper water and fitness.

 

We had to admit we had neither, so we climbed back down and drove to a non-dune beach a few minutes up the road. There we also had a chance to see a demonstration of how lighthouse crews rescued stranded sailors making their way through the Manitou Passage. Our kids opted not to volunteer as keepers-in-training, but just to watch. The dream truly is dead.

The next day we continued north to the Ferry to Mackinac Island. 

Daniel on the Star Line Ferry

Another Star Line with Mackinac Bridge in background

We spent three nights on the island, which has no motorized vehicles, so we earned our nightly ice cream with daily step counts of 18,000+!

 

 We stayed at the Mission Point Resort, which was about a 10 minute walk from the heart of the commercial district. This turned out to be a VERY good thing. I don't know why I didn't anticipate the crowds, but it was quite overwhelming when we first got off the ferry about 1:30 p.m.

Bikes are the main mode of transportation, but we didn't really have a good way to take ours with us, so we brought the boys' fold-up Razor scooters figuring they could zip around. We were told almost immediately that scooters are not allowed in the downtown area. They were able to use them away from the chaos though and quickly learned to dodge the road apples (horse/carriage is the other primary transport on the island.)

 

Some fun activities included

glow-in-the-dark mini golf

 Fort Mackinac

And even some monkey bars

In addition to ice cream, we enjoyed a few other vacation treats  

rock candy and caramel corn!

Shirley Temples!

We rented bikes one morning and rode all the way around the island--about 8 miles--on M185, the only state highway in the country with no motorized vehicles. We took some breaks along the way to wade and throw rocks in Lake Huron.

  

A cave! (I sent my scouts to check for bats before I ventured in.)

Starting as we did from Mission Point, we came to this natural rock formation within the first half mile, so we decided to come back to it later. Also, it is 207 steps up from the highway. Hence the "we're in no mood for photos" photo.

  

I just could not get enough of the beautiful lake views!  

 

The night before we were to leave, as we were walking back from ice cream (I was not kidding about the daily treat!) Daniel started getting a little emotional and said, "I know we can't stay here forever, but I'm just so sad about leaving. I have a lump in my throat!" We stopped on a bench for a bit of a cry and a discussion of the word bittersweet. We also said it's a good sign if you don't want to leave vacation because it means you had a really good time.

The return ferry trip was much windier and I was the only one with a sweatshirt. 

Daniel in my sweatshirt, Edward using one sleeve

We drove over Michigan's Upper Peninsula along the lakeshore and down through Wisconsin in order to meet up with my family at Aunt Peggy's BVM lake house in Salem, WI. We were able to stop for a milkshake dinner with my sister and her family in the Milwaukee area as they were missing the party to head off on their own week of vacation.

  

I somehow managed not to take a single picture in Salem, but you can tell we had a good time as this is Daniel about 15 minutes into the drive home. One highlight of the day was a walk up the road to the private beach on the small lake, which had a pier to jump from and a raft to swim to. Daniel got freaked out by some type of insect he was convinced was a wasp flying over the raft. I was not in swimming attire so I couldn't join him to prove that there was no possibility of this being true. Again, see photo below to understand how little gas was left in the tank after a week of staying up until 10 p.m.!

 

He only slept for about an hour of the 4 hours home. And when we stopped for gas just after crossing into Iowa, he needed to run off some energy up and down the drainage ditch with the Mighty Mississippi in the background. 

 

And one final gorgeous sunset as we drove back through Iowa.

Superheroes in the house

Am I supposed to feel safer?

Well, it appears Edward's tween transition is good for at least one thing--a return to blogging. This story/photo is definitely one we'll want to remember.

Lately Edward has been asserting his independence by vehemently rejecting (for no reason) any plans I suggest. Last night I suggested we visit the new grocery store with a huge prepared food section to pick up items for a picnic dinner to take to the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. We could eat, the boys could ride their scooters and John and I could stroll around the lake on a pleasant July evening.

Edward's reaction to the idea: "NO!"

Why? "NO!"

OK, you can stay home by yourself. We'll be back in about an hour and a half.

This is mostly a bluff on my part because I know he is too scared to stay home alone. However, I think he could stay alone for a short time and would follow through if he actually called my bluff. I wouldn't put it out there otherwise.

So I'm telling Daniel to put his shoes on so we can go and calling upstairs to Edward that we'll be home by 7:30.

"NO!!! I don't want to stay home alone!!"

OK, then come get your shoes on and get in the car.

**Stomps downstairs and proceeds to put on two different shoes**

I think he was attempting to extend the argument and hoping that I would force him to wear matching shoes. Sorry kid, not gonna engage on that level. He's apparently just as stubborn as I am and went ahead with his sartorial statement.

He actually wasn't still mad by the time we got there, but made a face about me taking a photo and then insisted that I not share it because "Then people will see I have two different shoes." I didn't share with the wider Facebook audience, but it's now recorded in the family history that is this blog.

It ended up being a beautiful night, and we did have a nice time together. Truly, once we left home, Edward abandoned the attitude, eating dinner and happily propelling his scooter around the lake. We tried to find some rocks to skip, but mostly just ended up throwing to see how far they would go.

 I hope this level of family harmony can be sustained on our week-long vacation to northern Michigan a week from now!

Dinner conversation 

Daniel: When I'm a teenager I'm gonna be "swag."

John: What the heck does that mean?

Daniel: It's when you wear your pants low so your underwear shows. Teenagers do that. 

John: Since when is that called "swag?"

Edward: Get updated, Man!

Oh…these next few years will be interesting. 

And since I missed posting anything from baseball season, here are a few shots. You'll have to forgive the delay, for as both of my readers know, the baseball season pretty much took over our lives from April to June. The boys loved it (Daniel much more when he mastered the pitching machine and started getting hits) but I am not sad that it is over.

I was proud of Edward being named "best teammate" at the end of season pizza party. His coach was great and really took note of Edward's easy-going attitude.  Several teammates did not handle losses very well. Good thing they weren't on Daniel's team, which only won two games all season!

Grandma and Grandpa were superfans--coming out to the park for many, many games, including the end of season tournament while John was away in Germany. The boys are so lucky to have them close!

My parents also made it to two games the week John and I were in Japan. And the late May weather was masquerading as March so bonus points for them!

Daniel's shoes did not quite last the whole season. This was discovered while we were already at the park so the remedy was to make Edward, who had already completed his game, take his shoes off and hand them over. 

Turns out Blogger on my phone has not automatically made me a better blogger. But here's a story worth saving. 

Earlier this spring we stopped at the outlet mall on the way home from Des Moines to get Daniel some new shoes. While we were there we made a brief stop in Old Navy to see if we could find any end-of-season bargains on pants, as Daniel had few pants remaining with intact knees. 

As I was digging through the sale racks, Daniel came up behind me and asked, "Mom, will you please buy me these?" He held up these shorts. I was so surprised I couldn't even say anything at first. He interpreted this hesitation as the precursor to a No and continued, "I really, really like them. Please can I have them?"

All I could say was, "Sure!"

My shock stemmed from the unexpected expression of an actual opinion about what he would wear. Both boys have always operated on the "wear whatever is on the top of the pile in my drawer" school of sartorial expression. I, in turn, have kept the drawers full of navy, black and grey bottoms to minimize opportunities for egregious clashing. 

Who knew that Daniel was secretly pining for a preppier look?

Unfortunately, he would not let me take a better photo. Maybe next time…

Daniel had a lot of fun riding through the melted snow on this beautiful spring day. However it made him tired enough to be a bit sassy with me during preparation for bed. Later, as I was rubbing his back, he apologized: "Mom, I'm sorry I yelled at you when I was in the shower. I guess I was just tired and I was making an ant hill into a bear cave…wait, is that right?"

Did you mean 'a mountain out of a mole hill?'

"Oh, yeah, that's it."

Merry Christmas 2014!

We've opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa and are eagerly anticipating Santa's overnight visit. 

Interestingly, Daniel has been very into the mythology this year despite, or perhaps because of his Easter demands for the true story. He's talked a lot about Santa never once with a wink, and today he asked if I'd set a letter to tell Santa what he wanted. I reminded him that this was his job not mine but assured him Santa would know. 

Suspension of disbelief is useful at any age!

Unbridled Lego love

And part deux-- Lego, the book. 

Comfy new reading pillow. 

Light sabers!

Latest installment of "Mary joins the 21st century"--video uploads from phone to YouTube and then to Blogger.

http://youtu.be/V2kF8rCOLVo

The boys have been home from school with fevers this week but rallied for their piano recital tonight. 

We weren't in a good spot for video at the recital but ended up with a better performance at home afterward. Not much energy for practice this week-- lots of moaning in the couch. 

We are hoping we've turned a corner and will return to regular schedules next week. Then of course there's winter break, so I guess we won't really have routine again until the new year.

Edited to add: The music teacher had a videographer at the recital, so here's the video there:

I just upgraded to an iPhone so this is my inaugural attempt at mobile blogging. Here are the boys decorating Will's tree. 

Daniel was singing "you better watch out you better not cry" as he was hanging ornaments but I'm not ready for mobile video editing. 

While visiting my parents this weekend we picked up a treasure cache bequeathed to the boys from my aunt and uncle as they prepared for retirement in Florida. We tucked them into the trunk of the car without telling the boys and not entirely sure what it all contained. We happened to notice a Millennium Falcon peeking out of one bag.

We arrived home last night to two inches of snow but unfortunately sub-zero windchill forcing us to stay inside today. So before I went to pick up the boys from school, I left the bag in the middle of the living room to be discovered upon our return:








It has been brought to my attention that this video does not display on iPads and perhaps other devices. I have no explanation as YouTube and Blogger are both Google products. You should be able to watch the Star Wars glee here.

I recently found myself ranting about how much I hated a certain type of Facebook post--the ones where parents share pictures of their kids and then bemoan their advancing age with woe. "Oh, I can't believe how big she is!" Or post an old picture and yearn for the child to be that small again. I've always found it just a little too contrived and precious, but this day about two weeks ago, I really felt anger, which is a little odd and certainly uncalled for. But it stayed in my head a few days and came out as this
http://willkenyon.blogspot.com/2014/10/i-am-not-weepy-mom-on-first-day-of.html

Happy 10th birthday, Will. You continue to be a gift in my life.

The boys started bickering as soon as they saw each other after school and by about 4 p.m. I'd had enough. I told them they were not allowed to talk to each other until we left at 5:15 for an event at the school. Of course, as soon as something is forbidden it's the only thing they want to do, but I stood my ground. Hoping for silence, I was rewarded with giggles as Edward prepared this masterpiece

And then Daniel said, "Will you make a copy on the printer so I can cross out 'little' and write 'big?'" Edward found this to be a major affront and later in the evening tried to take Daniel's sign down. I wouldn't let him. Then he said "I'll put an "RM" on it. Or is it "RT?" His grasp of trademark/copyright is a bit shaky.

Deep thoughts with Daniel (at bedtime, of course.)

"Mom, is it actually possible to have hearts or dollar signs in your eyes instead of pupils?"

Think someone's seen a few too many cartoons lately? At least they're not all on TV.

All kids think the world revolves around them, but lately our kids have had pretty good reason to believe it.

Over the summer, our Downtown Association sponsored a Where's Waldo contest, in which people (kids) were invited to search in downtown stores for a cardboard cut-out of the character and collect a card from each store in which they found Waldo. Once you collected 10 cards you could turn them in to one of our book stores to be entered into a drawing for Waldo-related prizes. Our kids so enjoyed the hunt that they ended up collecting cards from 20 stores, resulting in 2 entries each for the drawing. Still, the contest ran for a month and plenty of kids and parents participated. It's not like there were only four entries.

At the end of the contest we got a call that Daniel had won one of the prizes, a small book of Where's Waldo postcards. He was SUPER excited, yet vowed to share with his brother and co-hunter.

Another summer adventure involved Herky On Parade 2, large statues of the Iowa Hawkeye mascot, Herky, all decorated differently and dotting our local landscape. They were on display from May through last week, and John and the boys made it a personal project to visit all of them and get pictures. There were 84 statues. This was quite an effort. I didn't mind because it meant several serene Sunday afternoons to myself while they went searching for Herky.

As the installation was winding down, our local newspaper sponsored a contest--send in a photo of yourself with one of the Herkys and be entered into a drawing for a prize. Again--LOTS of people took lots of pictures with these Herkys all summer long. The boys had to narrow down their favorites to submit--one from John's email and one from mine.

Running scared from Big Foot Herky

Walking dead with Zombie Herky

Wouldn't you know--their Big Foot photo was randomly drawn as the winner. The prize? A set of 12 (TWELVE!) miniature versions of the Herky statues. I suppose I can be thankful they didn't win 12 of the actual statues, or a complete set of 84 minis, but still, these "miniatures" are about a foot tall each. And 12 of them? I tried to explain the concept of eBay to the boys (they retail for $40 each), but nothing doing. They are far more motivated by the prize itself than by any monetary value. So far, they've designated one for John to take to work and one for my office, one for each of their bedrooms and the football Herky for the living room. This last is to be rotated seasonally. We shall see.

And as if that weren't enough, they also were invited to be among the kids throwing out the "first pitch" at the Cedar Rapids Kernels game on Friday night. Our elementary school had a group excursion and part of our package was that we got to designate kids to make a "high five tunnel" for the players entering the field, carry the flag for the national anthem, and throw out the first pitch. I didn't sign us up for any of this, but the day of the game the school secretary called and said no one had signed up and would the boys like to do the pitch? I said sure, but when we arrived at the stadium they were horrified at the prospect and flatly refused. A one-hour rain/lightning delay gave Edward enough time to change his mind and once he saw his brother about to grab the glory, Daniel got right in line. Four or five other kids went first--ballpark birthday kids get the honor as part of the party package. They were older and perhaps had practiced ahead of time. They all fired it straight down to the catcher. Our boys...well, let's just say they helped ensure the catcher was warmed up for anything the pitcher might toss.



We might need to move to a bigger city. These boys have a serious case of Big Fish, Small Pond!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the year...the First Day of School!

Daniel was so excited/nervous he had
a hard time falling asleep last night.

Edward's all "Been there...done that."

 They only deigned to take a "nice" picture together if it was followed by a series of "goofy" pictures.

We didn't realize until this morning that Daniel had picked out a first-day-of-school outfit that perfectly matched his new shoes. He swears he didn't do it on purpose, and I believe him. His idea (and Edward's) of "outfit selection" is "whatever is on top of the pile in the drawer." Yesterday before they got dressed, I just mentioned that if they had something they specifically wanted to wear for the first day they should be sure NOT to wear it yesterday since that would result in it being in the laundry today. It's the little things.

By all accounts it was a good day. Daniel told me, "First grade is AWESOME!" Let's see if that holds up when the homework starts. He also said he'd give it two thumbs up. Edward was more nonchalant, but was very excited about "a secret." I thought I'd find it when I opened his backpack at home, but he said, "No, Mom, it's not something you can touch." Woah...getting all metaphysical. It turned out to be that Edward's homeroom is paired with Daniel's for weekly "reading buddies." I doubt the brothers will be matched up together, but still a fun way to share part of a school day.

All in all, a successful first day!

Let's get into our way-back machines and add to the blog a celebration of the end of Daniel's Kindergarten year. His class shared some of their favorite songs with the assembled parents on the last day. 

Then they all got to cross through the "Welcome to First Grade" banner and emerge as 1st graders. This was all topped off with ice cream sundaes on the playground. Doesn't get much better!

Kinder-grad

 

Flanked by Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Turnquist

During the last week of school, I took this photo of Daniel

May 2014

Which put me in mind of one from another era. I didn't realize until I went looking for it that Daniel has been playing on this playground since before he was a year old!

December 2008

While we're on the subject of Daniel, he had a summer celebration of his winter birthday in June with six friends--three from pre-school and three from Kindergarten. We had squirt toys for all as well as a pool, water balloons, pizza and cake. Good times!

Someone's eager to get started; note "swimming pool" cake

pizza and watermelon, lunch of champions

water relay

musical chairs--by request of the bday boy