Silver Lake

Last weekend we visited some friends at their cottage on Silver Lake. I'm amazed at how much there is to do. We did some hiking on the dunes and then climbed to the top of Little Point Sable Lighthouse.

On Sunday the twins were baptised and we spent the afternoon at Cindy and James' house. James took a few minutes to photograph Evie.

Once in awhile we still give Evie a quick bath in the sink. She gets very thirsty while bathing, so she needed both her sippy cups.
Evie is growing up so fast. She is already wearing size 11's.

Lawn Envy

When we bought our house last fall the lawn looked like this. Thankfully it has returned to respectability.

Cottage June

We've had a lot of nice, quiet time at the cottage in June. On Sunday we celebrated a great father's day with the Veldhof family there. Erin made my day very special. She let me sleep in, made a terrific dinner, and we had a lot of good time as a family. She also bought me a good frisbee (the cottage can never have enough of them) and 2 bags of my favorite candy.

I've been amazed at the wildlife we've seen the past two weekends. Sometimes I forget that we don't have to travel across the country to be amazed by wildlife. We saw turtles digging holes to lay eggs alongside the road, muskrat, all kinds of fish, a dog chasing a duck through the water, and a cat with a recently caught chipmunk hanging out of it's mouth.
Evelyn has become a very nice to her 3 little cousins. She gently gives them hugs when they start crying.

Evie moment: When Evie wakes up she usually plays nicely with her stuffed animals for a few minutes until she isn't groggy more. When she fully wakes up she systematically throws everything out of her crib...which upsets her...so she starts yelling. When we walk into her room she asks for all her things back.

Tulip Time

Last month we visited Holland during world famous Tulip Time. We attempted to take some Evie pictures with the tulips and followed her around through the park.

Then the Dutch dancing started. After about 2 klompen minutes Evie was bored and wanted to run out into the street with dancers. We fought her initially but she wouldn't change her mind. So for the next 10 minutes I would pick her up, walk 100 feet away from the street, and then watch her run full speed back towards the street. We did this continually until the dancing finished. Finally, I let her run into the street as I was curious as to what she was so intent on doing. She marched to the center of the street, and promptly laid on her back right in the middle of the double yellow line.

Cold Cottage

It was a fun but chilly weekend at the cottage. Despite the clouds and cold water, we had a good time with friends and spent plenty of time outdoors. There was some solid volleyball, Frisbee golf, card games, and some good skiing.

As usual, Tom caught more fish in 2 hours than I've caught in the last 5 years.
Saturday was Evie's introduction to water sports. Erin wanted to see Evie's reaction to riding on the tube. Since it was pretty cold Evie was wearing a sweatshirt and onesie under her life jacket. Erin assumed that I wouldn't whip my 1-year-old off the tube on her first ride so regular clothing was pretty safe.

As it turned out, clothing was NOT safe. Once Erin and Evie were situated on the tube I started to pull the boat forward. Somehow Erin and I weren't on the same page and Erin wasn't ready as the boat pulled forward. Suddenly, the rope caught the tube (at the slowest possible speed, but there is still a bit of a jerk) and Erin and baby tumbled backward into the cold water. To her credit, Evie was only mildly upset and wasn't afraid to get back on the tube and go for a ride. She didn't smile, but I'm sure she enjoyed it.

On Sunday night we relaxed with some chocolate ice cream.

Home Weekend

We hung around town this weekend. Erin wanted to take "1 year" pictures of Evie even if they were a couple months late. We walked to the nature trail and tried to get Evie to pose. With some coaxing we got a few smiles and good shots.

What a pose!

What would make Evie smile more than ducks? Her favorite.

We also caught up on some much needed yard work. We added the missing cement blocks by the air conditioner (appropriately the tarp is tied down with a string of Christmas lights).

There is a section in the back yard that was probably intended to be a garden. We've just let it grow and the weeds were out of control.

So we hacked out the weeds and added a border. Eventually we'll add some pretty plants or flowers and be able to admire the oasis from our deck.

Erin and Evie pulled weeds in the rocks.