Baby Shower

Yesterday was April's baby shower. It was very long, and she was exhausted by the end. Here are April and Dustin....the baby is due in 6 weeks:

There were lots of typical baby-shower games, and out of all the people there, BOTH C and E won prizes. E won a baby bottle filled with jelly beans that we had to see who could guess the amount of jelly beans in the bottle. C won "The Price is Right" baby shower edition....guess the cost of several different baby toys. C won a gift bag, but she had to go up front to get it. Well, C can not STAND her picture taken, and was pretty mad she couldn't figure a way out of getting the prize without her picture being taken. Since the expression on her face is absolutely PRICELESS, I figured I would make her even happier by posting this photo here on my blog ; )

E, however, has no such qualms, and loves to be front and center in everything. Here she sits right with her sister and brother in law as they open just one out of about 6,000 new baby boy outfits they recieved yesterday:

All in all it was a long, tiring day. I think the highlight was when C said to me sometime during the 3rd hour, "Mom, if I ever get pregnant, which I hope I DON'T, please do not EVER throw me a baby shower" LOL!!

Belated Vacation Pictures

As promised, here are more details and pictures from our vacation. I took the girls to my old house, where I spent much of my life, up on beautiful Lake Michigan.

And here is the smaller cabin on our old property. Although the big house is beautiful, I love the coziness of the cabin, and have fond memories of working my butt off with my parents to clean it up, and get it in livable shape.

View from my old front yard...

We also spent lots of time every day at the beach...

I have always loved lighthouses, and there happen to be two different ones within a couple of miles of each other that the girls and I went to. E and I climbed all the way to the top of this one:

See? She and I got stickers PROVING we climbed it, LOL.

Where is C, you might ask? Much to my shock, C has apparently inherited my fear of heights, and made it up one flight of stairs, before queasily going back down to wait at the bottom for us. E was my motivation; I, too, am terrified of heights, but she is not, and almost RAN to the top, and because I had visions of her falling off, I had to go, too.

We also walked a 2 mile hike to this very remote lighthouse. (and 2 miles back, through the sand dunes. )

It is so tall, I couldn't show both the light-keepers home AND the tower in one photo. It is also so tall that no matter how hard I tried, with E urging me patiently on each step of the way, (literally), I only made it 110 steps before giving up. E was SO mad at me because she was almost to the top, could SEE the porthole leading to the light and the outside walkway, but I just couldn't do it. C? At the bottom again.

I would like to point out...if you look at the above picture....you see that little tiny window, WAY up high, just below the walkway? Yeah. I was THAT CLOSE.

Every eveing, after swimming and playing in the dunes, we finished up beach time by feeding the seagulls. I always loved doing that as a child, and C and E now also love it. In 6 days we went through 18 loaves of bread, plus any scraps of leftovers we had.

And the VERY last thing we did around 10:00 every night, was walk or drive a block down to the infamous local ice cream parlour to have sundaes. Every. Single. Night. C was on a mission to ty as many flavors as possible, and E just loves ice cream. (No pictures of this)

I have always loved this area, and the great Lakes, in general. After my mom died when C was only 2 months old, we had to sell my mom's house, and I haven't been back till now. I saw some old friends, had some extreme emotions, from sadness at missing my mom, to blissful happiness most of the time just enjoying the beautiful scenery, swimming and hiking, and overall I can't imagine a better vacation. All 3 of us truly loved our trip, and hope to go back as soon as we can!