St. Ignace

We traveled the scenic Route 2 which follows the shores of Lake Michigan to reach St. Ignace. So even though the drive was a little long, we had a great view the entire trip. We stayed at the Best Western in St. Ignace which was right on the shores of Lake Huron. We had a view of Lake Huron and Mackinac Island from the balcony in our room.
The hotel also had nightly marshmallow roasts at a bonfire on a lake. I think Blake's record was six marshmallows and he would have eaten more had we let him.
These pictures were taken a few days after we arrived, but this was right outside our hotel room.

Thursday, July 27, 2006
On the shores of Lake Huron

On the way to St. Ignace

We made a stop at Kitch-iti-kipi or "The Big Spring" to break up our 4-hour drive to St. Ignace. It's Michigan's largest spring (200 feet across and 40 feet deep) and was named "The Mirror of Heaven" by early Indians. It's easy to see why. The spring is really quite beautiful to see.
The raft that you travel across the water on is on a cable and it is self-operated, which means anyone who wants to can "drive" the boat. Blake and Drew loved that part of it.
You can see the water gushing up from the cracks on the bottom of the spring. The temperature of the spring is a refreshing 45 degrees all year round so it never freezes.

Monday, July 24, 2006
Big Spring Kitch-iti-kipi

Michigan: A visit to Uncle Ric's cabin

Our journey began at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning when we departed Edwardsville bound for the U.P. That's the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for those who have never been there. We stopped for lunch and a two-hour break at the Discovery Museum in Rockford 4 hours into the trip to give the kids a little break. And Mom and Dad, too. We arrived in Marietta, Wisconsin, at 6:30 p.m. where we to stay at the Comfort Inn The kids did great on the journey. We only had to pull over once and tell them we were going to "turn this van around if they didn't settle down." Just kidding. Just a warning to anyone staying at the Comfort Inn in Marietta, I hope you enjoy trains. Loud ones. At 10:30 at night. 8 a.m. in the morning. Every two hours after that. You get the picture. It's right next to the train tracks. And the walls are paper thin. As if the family all sleeping in the same room wasn't enough for a bad night's sleep. I'm trying out Dropshots, a website that you can upload photos and videos for free. So if you click on the thumbnails, it will go to their website and you'll be able to see the photos bigger. This way, I can post even more photos of Blake and Drew. Isn't that exciting!

Sunday, July 23, 2006
On the shores of Lake Michigan




We really enjoyed the hospitality of Uncle Ric (a Great Uncle to Blake and Drew) and Chris, too. After the trip Drew told me that "Uncle Ric's the silliest." That's quite an honor considering Tim's also his uncle. The kids especially enjoyed all of his bears and his hot tub at Ric's palace - I mean cabin. They can't wait to come back to see the bear bunkbed when it's done.
All in all it was a Yooper time! Even though we didn't get to eat a pasty. To those of you who don't know what a pasty is, it is kind of like a pot pie without the pot. It has a lot of meat in it. I found this quote on a web site: "To many people in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the pasty is much more than merely food -- it is an identifying cultural mark that gives them their own identity." Wow. We'll have to make sure to try one the next time we visit.

Camping with friends

Mom takes control of the canoe and does all the work as usual. Ha. Ha.


The Kirkpatricks. Still dry. Later after they tumped, well
not so much.


Our camper with Drew in front. I think we may have
perfected it. Everytime we go camping, I think of something
else to put in it to make the camping experience more
enjoyable. This trip, I didn't think of anything. Note, the
new green "carpeting" in front of the camper.


Drew and Haedyn bury Blake in the sand.


This summer we've discovered the joys of camping with friends who have kids close to the age of our children, and we've really enjoyed it. We took a trip to the Meramec River again. This time we stayed at the Blue Spring Ranch. Our camping site was great. The bathrooms not so much. Nothing like a scalding hot shower, and to top it all off I paid 50 cents for it! But about the campsiter, we had an open field near us, and we were just a short walk to the river.
This trip we went with my friend Janet who I've known since high school and her husband Bryan. Her daughter is the same age as Blake. Blake informed Drew before the trip that he was going to share his glowsticks with Haedyn (they came two to a pack) because she was "his friend."
"You don't have a friend coming," Blake said to Drew. In the end, they all played together and got along great. Blake and Haedyn even had matching sleeping bags by coincidence. Very cute. So thanks you Janet, Bryan and Haedyn for a very fun camping/canoe trip. We definately need to do it again.

More giraffes at the Zoo

We got a closeup of a giraffe. He was close enough
to eat a leaf out of Blake's hand.



Drew had a program at the Zoo where he
learned about animal antics. Drew liked reading
the book in the class by Eric Carle. He also got
to pet a cockroach (mom passed on that one),
a snake, a bullfrog, an owl and a chinchilla.


Here's looking at you kid.

Don't worry it will only hurt a bit

That's Doctor Drew to you.


Don't worry it will only hurt a bit. I promise.

We visited the Children's Museum in Edwardsville where Drew dressed up as a doctor and operated on Mom. How'd you like to see this face above you before surgery?

Down on the Anheuser-Busch Farm

We visited Grant's Farm today. Blake and Drew really enjoyed feeding the goats bottles and running through the mist. We saw some giant Tortoises - Blake found out they were 12 and 7 years old - and 2 African elephants named Bud and Mickey. We fed camels and llamas. Ask Blake how camel food taste. And we also saw a show that had macaws who could talk, perform math tricks and throw a baseball. The best thing about Grant's Farm for any adult who's never been there, two free adult beverages of your choice (as long as it's a Budweiser product) at the hospitality room.



Blake enjoys the spray.


I swear we feed this kid even though all of his ribs
are showing. In fact, he eats more than Blake!


These goats can't get enough of Drew.


Blake got a kick out of the goats,too.


"Don't eat my shirt," Drew shrieked.

How tall is Albert Pujols?

The Post-Dispatch published a 4-part poster of Albert Pujols as a promotion. A piece of him ran every Sunday in June. Of course we ran the first piece the weekend he got hurt! Blake saw it and wanted to collect them. He got excited every Sunday when we got a new piece. Here's the completed poster hanging in his room.
In other news, Drew has chosen a new career path. Blake still wants to be a teacher. But Drew wants to be a cheetah when he grows up. We're so proud!

Camping and canoeing

A little papoose along the river. Drew passed out
halfway through the trip. He was very tired
because he was up until midnight the night before.


Blake's favorite part about the trip was swimming
in the river. He loved riding the current.


Drew, MacKenzie and Blake in the canoe.


It's not camping without a fire.

We went camping and canoeing on the Meramec with some friends of ours this weekend. They have a 3-year-old daughter Mackenzie and everyone had a great time. Though some of us got a little tired on the river. Blake had fun catching lightning bugs and a huge moth. And also roasting marshmallows. His favorite part on the river was jumping in to swim. Drew liked playing in the dirt with his trucks and keeping mom and dad up late :)

Blake's a palentologist

Well, not really. But he went to dinosaur camp this week where he learned all about dinosaurs and did fun dinosaur things. They painted a watermelon to make it into a "dinosaur egg." On the last day, they put on their explorer hats and official badges to search for the dinosaur egg. They found it in front of the building by the pink flowers. They cut it open to "see what was inside and found lots of dinosaurs." Each of the kids got to take a dinosaur home. They also made a dinosaur fossil, learned some dinosaur jokes, read lots of books on dinosaurs and did the dinosaur hokey pokey.

What do you call it when dinosaur's crash their cars. Tyrannosaurus wrecks
Why did the dinosaur cross the road? Because it was the chicken's day off

A Transportation Day

We visited the Transportation Museum today with Uncle Don and Aunt Beth. The museum has one of the largest collections of vehicles in the world. It is in St. Louis County at Barrett Station. It has a lot of trains, which made Drew very happy. Drew wanted to see a little red caboose. We saw one, but unfortunately he didn't get to climb on it. We got to ride on an electric street car before it started raining. Unfortunately, we didn't get the ride the little train. But we're sure to be back because now we're members. We finished the day at the YMCA in Edwardsville. They had a vehicle day which included a fire truck, a police car, a tractor, a semi-truck and some horses. Drew's favorite was "going in the fire truck with all the ladders." Blake's favorite was an antique purple car. Here's the link if you want to know more about the museum.

http://www.museumoftransport.org/

A perfect day for Chihuly

We went to the Botanical Garden this morning, and if you haven't been there this year, the Glass in the Garden exhibit is well worth going to see. Artist Dale Chihuly created the colorful sculptures. Even Blake and Drew enjoyed seeing them. Blake wanted to know what the name of many of them were and really enjoyed the ones that looked like birds. Drew liked the "fiery one." That one was around a trellis, gate thing outside and it looked like fire shooting out of the top of it. The Crystal Tower is the blue sculpture in the fountain behind Blake and Drew in the one photo. The Botanical Garden also opened a Tree House for kids this year. It had lots of rope bridges, treehouses and other things to climbs. Blake liked the slides, but right now Drew thinks slides "are scary!" Blake also liked the cave. Drew enjoyed the water areas and the sand pit. Here's the website for the Garden if you want to read more about Chihuly. Enjoy!

http://www.mobot.org/chihuly/

Blake is 5!

Can you believe he's 5. We celebrated the actually day of his birthday as a family. We went to Splash City where he went down all of the big slides and loved it. He got a Hot Wheels scooter from us. I think his favorite gift may have been his Doodle Monster from Grandma and Grandpa Klingsick. He had a birthday party with some of his friends at Gateway Fun Park. They all loved the bumper cars. "I really like being 5," he says. I think his favorite gift that day was a "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" DVD. It came with a 3D version and 4 pairs of glasses. Two Sharkboy and two Lavagirl. Blake and Drew of course chose the Lavagirl ones.
We celebrated the Klingsick family birthdays at Don and Glenda's and also broke in their new patio and landscaping. It's very beautiful to those who haven't seen it yet. You'll have to come and visit. Drew's favorite is the sand pit, so he might be a little disappointed when the fountain comes in. He does love the water though!

A trip to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

We went to the Zoo twice last week because Blake had a class where he learned about fins, feathers and furthermore. He enjoyed it. He got to go on a scavenger hunt in the Zoo and visited the zebras, camels and king cobra (his favorite animal right now). Drew and I spent Wednesday morning playing in the water at the Children's Zoo and then we rode the train. On Friday, we spent the whole day there. Drew and I checked out the new baby giraffe in the morning. The baby is just a few months old. Very cute. We also saw a baby Camel and some zebras trying to create a baby. Very interesting! The "big kitty cats" were cool too, Drew says. Especially, the jaguar. Drew also enjoyed the guinea pigs. "I love guinea pigs," he said. He also got to pet a snake as well. Blake liked that better than the guinea pigs. He only wishes it was a King Cobra. Scott joined us in the afternoon at the Zoo, so he got to spend part of the day with us, too.