Day trip to Ludington

Last week, we planned a day trip to Ludington, which is a town on the coast of Lake Michigan about an hour and a half northwest of Sparta, where we live. Our desire to explore Michigan has us reaching into new territory for us. It reminded me of a news segment that was on the local news when I grew up in Ohio - "One Tank Trips" where the TV personality highlighted fun things that you can do with only one tank of gas.

Anyway, we had our plan for the day and hit the ground running. Our first stop was SandCastles Children's Museum. It was a cute, small childrens museum with mostly pretend play exhibits (vs. science exhibits which are geared toward older kids). Finley LOVED sitting in the real airplane and buckling and un-buckling her seatbelt. "Safety First" she kept saying ;)

Fisher is still a little young for the Children's Museum...



Finley enjoyed pretending to pick vegetables. She only picked the carrots and told me that she didn't like onions or beets.



She was a pro at going through the grocery store. She put her food up on the belt and paid some random girl who was pretending to be the cashier.




Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this Children's Museum! It was affordable (I think it was $4.50 per person), just the right size and had plenty of fun for Finley.



Next we hit up the beach. We knew that the beach would not be an all day thing for us so we opted to use the free city beach park vs. the state park, which you have to pay to enter. First we had a picnic lunch which we had packed. Then we changed in to suits and got ready for the beach!



Fisher and I mostly hung out on our beach blanket. I am paranoid of him getting in the sun since he isn't old enough for sunscreen yet so he stayed shaded in the comfort of his carseat.


Meanwhile, Paul and Finley played in the cold water and sand for a couple of hours.




After the beach, we cleaned up and put both kids in strollers to walk around the antique shops in town. Not all of the shops were very stroller friendly but we managed to get in and out. At our last shop of the day, Paul may have found a diamond in the rough.... but that is TBD as we're waiting to see what he can get for it. I'll keep you posted!

Channeling my Amish Goddess

Yesterday, my mom plus the family headed for a one day road trip to Shipshewana, IN. This Amish community has become a meca of antiques, craft stores, a flea market and antiques auction. Although the real reason I wanted to go there was for the bulk foods store.

Paul found some good deals at the auction which he plans to resell. Finley was enamored with all the horses and even posed for a picture at a horse display.

Fisher was pretty much cashed out in the carrier all day. Paul and I took turns carrying that 18 pound sack of cuteness around in the carrier.

But the highlight of our day was a huge haul at the bulk foods store. 50 pounds of oats, 50 pounds of flour, 3 pounds popcorn, 6 pounds brown rice, 3 pounds Rice Krispies, 2 pounds wheat germ, 2 pounds mini chocolate chips and 3 pounds of spices: I'm pretty sure we're good on these staples for a little while.... I plan on continuing to make boatloads of homemade granola bars and tons of cookies for my brother's wedding.

Now on to researching proper storage of flour and oats..... Oy! I may have bit off more than I can chew!

On the docket today - work, meet with a private client, get a quick run in at the Y and weed the garden... it's getting ridiculous!

USA Outdoor T&F Championships

Several of Paul's athletes qualified for the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, IA so we decided to make a family trip out of it and fill up the team van with carseats for an 8 hour trip out into the Great Plains. I crammed my booty between two car seats while Finley entertained a few of the athletes on our trip.

We made it to Drake Stadium and it was HOT. But Finley was a trooper, even stopped to pose with the Drake Bulldog.

The first two days we watched Paul's athlete, Deon, compete in the Junior Decathlon. It's all the same events as the regular decathlon, just for athletes under 20 years old. We moved around the stadium from event-to-event and even found this little nook of shade for the high jump and shot put.

Fish and Fin were troopers though. We kept Fisher in the shade the majority of the time by keeping him in his car seat with the shade up. We kept Finley slathered in sun screen and made her drink more water and Gatorade than she could ever imagine.

Day 3 started the senior decathlon (as well as other events!) This is Ashton Eaton, the current world record holder in the decathlon, about to start the 400m in the decathlon. We also saw several world records broken that day.... crazy!

We made it home safely, and needless to say, the kids were exhausted! (As were mom and dad!)

Indy for Father's Day

For Father's Day weekend we packed up the kids and drove five hours down to Indianapolis. Paul's brother, wife and our nephew live there and we were also joined by Paul's parents, brother Daniel and sister Molly.

The main activity of the week was beginning to build a gargantuan deck. But the kids decided that playing in the pool and blowing bubbles was much more entertaining!

But we managed to pick a ton of strawberries for making jam.

Also a walk around the neighborhood. My work is piloting an activity competition app so I needed to make sure I got my 30 minutes of activity! I think I may have burned about 100 calories at the pace that we were going :)

 Finley and Aunt Molly swinging on the front porch - yes, finley has on safety goggles.