A girlfriend at age 5

Last night Blake told me in the car that he "made a girl friend" at school.
Me "Really what's her name?"
Him: "I don't know. I liked her shirt."
Me: "What did her shirt look like?"
Him: "It was pink with black stripes on the sleeves and had a big white word on it."
Me: "What did it say?"
Him: "I don't know. I couldn't read it."
Me: "Did you talk to her."
Him: "No, but we played near each other a few times."
Me: "Ahh, that's nice."

When I relayed the story to Scott, he told me to tell Blake that's stalking! Not a girlfriend.

I thought it was cute.

'Everybody stayed on the green light!'

Blake went off to kindergarten for the first time today - a half day. And thought it was great. "I love school!" he told me later while we were eating lunch. His first comment to Dad when he got off the bus was, "Everybody stayed on the green light!" They have a stoplight system for discipline. The students get one warning, and if they get another, they have to move their name to the yellow light. If they get in trouble again, they have to move to the red light, and then a "red light note" gets sent home to the parents. If they stay on green the entire week, they get to pick out of the treasure box on Friday. "3 more days until the treasure box," Blake says. Maybe this will actually keep him out of trouble. He's already made a bus buddy, another kindergarten student who lives around the corner from us. And they sit in the back. Isn't that where the troublemakers usually sit? Anyway, at least he has a friend on the bus. He didn't really remember anyone's name from his class yet, but said he played with several kids.
And just in case you're wondering, I did manage to keep my tears in check. Though it was kind of a sad but happy day.

Mrs. Sippi?

One of our babysitters asked Drew who is teacher was going to be at school this year, and he looked a little confused. So I said, "You know who it is. It's Mrs. . . ." Drew pipes up "Mississippi." He did eventually come up with the right answer.

Our first visit to the new Busch

Thank to the man in front of us for taking this great picture.

Finally, a post not about our trip to Michigan! We made our first visit to Busch Stadium, and the Cardinals did not disappoint, beating the Brewers. Albert Pujols even hit a home run, so we got to see fireworks.
The new stadium has a much better view than the old ones as you can see from some of my pics.


Saturday, August 5, 2006

A dinosaur named Sue

We left Michigan on Saturday really early, so we could hit the Field Museum in Chicago later that day. We were making good time until we got a flat tire somewhere in the middle of Michigan about 3 hours into the trip. I'm pretty sure the spare tire has never been used on my minivan because Scott had to coax it, pry it and kick it REALLY HARD just to get it detached from the bottom of the van. We even dusted off the owner's manual to make sure we weren't doing something wrong. It did finally come off (looking a bit rusty), and we got it on the car. There must have been something on the road because we saw at least 4 others changing their tire alongside of the road.
We didn't make it the Field Museum that day because we didn't get to Chicago until about 3 p.m. Luckily, there was a tire store right next to the crappy hotel I had booked us in. At least the hotel had that going for it. We did head into Chicago that night to hit Giordano's pizza for some awesome pizza. One reason we really miss Chicago. Blake was not impressed. "It has sauce on top! Yuck!"
We got up early on Sunday and did finally get to see all the dinosaurs at the Field Museum, including the infamous Sue. And with that, Blake was indeed impressed.


Sunday, July 30, 2006
The Field Museum

Michigan has a Mighty Mac of its own

For $2.50 (that's $5 if you want to return to your hotel) you can cross the 5-mile Mackinac Bridge. It connects the upper and lower parts of Michigan. If you're a resident it only costs 50 cents. We learned all about the bridge on a "sunset" cruise. At least we got to see the bridge because considering it was an overcast evening, we didn't get much of a sunset. Here's what we learned about the bridge. It's nickname is the Mighty Mac. It rises 55 stories above the straits of Mackinac where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. It is 5 miles long and at one time it was the world's longest suspension bridge. It surpassed the Golden Gate Bridge when it was built in the 1950s. It is now the 3rd longest suspension bridge. Don't ask which 2 are longer because I don't remember.
Before the bridge was built, travelers took an hour-long ferry ride from upper to lower Michigan sometimes waiting 24 hours during busy seasons. Can you imagine waiting that long? Apparently, if you fell asleep in your car or you ran out of gas, other people would just cut past you.
Five men lost their lives during the bridge construction: one fell from a tower, one diver surfaced too quickly and did not recover, and 3 iron workers fell from a catwalk collapse.

DREW AND UNCLE RIC ENJOY THE VIEW

X marks the Mystery Spot

We visited one of "Michigan's No. 1 unusual attraction" on one day. So what was the Mystery Spot? I'm not going to tell you. Ha. Ha. It's basically a place of optical illusions -- where a tall person looks shorter; where you can stand at a precarious angle and where you can sit on a chair balanced on a wall. Blake enjoyed the maze, which was also part of the attraction.
We also visited a deer farm that day where we fed carrots to an albino deer. He was really ticked when we off to go feed some other deer. And also a very shy doe.
Later that night we drove up to Sault St. Marie which is on the border of Canada and took a dinner tour.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Mystery Spot and other adventures

Outtakes from David

While downloading pictures from our vacation I noticed that 1 particular day had a lot of pictures in the folder. I thought, "wow, we must of done a lot of things that day." Actually, no. David got a hold of our camera that day. So if you have a camera with film, don't let David get a hold of it. If it's a digital like ours, it doesn't matter unless you have space constraints of course.
You just end up with pictures like these.

SOME GOOD




SOME NOT SO

Visiting the sky of Michigan

Some of us went parasailing (Scott, myself, Paul, David, Kate and Tom), so now we know what it feels like to be a kite. Here's some pictures.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Mackinac Island

We spent a couple of days at Mackinac Island - a 15-minute boat ride from St. Ignace. Mackinac Island has no motor vehicles except for emergency vehicles. So the only way around the island is a bike, a horse and carriage ride or footpower. We did a combination of all three.
The first day we decided to do the 8-mile bike ride around the island. Drew rode behind me in a child seat, and Blake road with Dad on a "tag-along" bike. Blake has never ridden without training wheels, but we figured he'd be fine. He was right behind Scott who was doing all the balance work. No problem. Right? Blake was even eagerly looking forward to riding this type of bike.
Well, after renting the bike, it took us 15 minutes to convince him to get on it. Uncle Don had to run behind him and hold on for the first couple of hundred feet, and then Scott and Blake were off with Blake screaming and crying to "Stop Dad! Stop!" He finally realized he wasn't getting off the bike, but he WASN'T going to pedal. And talk about a backseat driver. "It's w-w-wobbling! Don't get to close to the grass. Watch out for the HORSE POOP!" (We heard that one a lot). "Don't coast. Keep pedaling. Don't go to fast." And on and on for all 8 miles around the island. It was a very pleasant trip for Scott :) Blake did not pedal once! So if our kids tell you they "rode" their bikes around Mackinac Island. They didn't. They should have a T-shirt that reads "My parents toted me around Mackinac Island"
The bike ride did give us an opportunity to see some of the natural limestone formations on the island including Devil's Kitchen and Arch Rock. We also some cannons, which Drew was very fascinated with.
Later, on the boat ride back to St. Ignace Blake told Dad very quietly. "I really liked riding the bike around the island with you." Made it all worth it!
Blake's favorite part of Mackinac Island was a haunted house. He talked about it for hours and hours.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Around Mackinac Island in 2 hours





On our return trip to Mackinac Island we asked Blake if he wanted to ride bikes again. Since the answer was "No!" we rode in a horse and carriage instead and learned a little about the history of the island.
Among other things, we learned that John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and other famous people have stayed at the Grand Hotel, "the only 5-star hotel without valet service."
We also visited a butterfly house and discovered how to get a 2-year-old to look at the camera with the best smile. Have a butterfly land on your camera of course.





Friday, July 28, 2006
Mackinac Island