First Day of School at Cooper Elementary

Here they are, ready to go to school! Abby wants to go too!

I got to go to the first day with Joshua. It was pirate day. Isn't his teacher the cutest? He loved school!


First mate Josh.

Emily and Abby model their somewhat tattered princess wear. We are going through another princess phase. They wear these dresses every day.

Via Ferrata

For David's birthday this year I gave him an overnight date. We drove down to Lexington, KY and spent the night at the Hilton (very posh). Saturday morning we drove over to Red River Gorge to climb on the Via Ferrata. It is a climbing adventure that is totally safe. We were clipped in the entire time, and there were rebar hand and footholds. Perfect for me! Here I am at the beginning.

David taking a rest.

I stopped after the first 3 sections, but David finished the entire course. The guides down at the bottom were impressed with his first attempt. No one else came even close to finishing while we were there.




This is what the course looks like from below. It is in a "holler" which is Kentucky speak for a "large ampitheater-shaped gorge."



Here is the scout troop behind us. The guides thoughtfully put us in front of them all! We were grateful, because it took them awhile. We were the only non-scouts there. Of course, it was raining, as you can probably tell.
We had a really fun time and look forward to climbing again.

Easter with the Chesnuts

Sarah and John and their boys drove over for Easter. Although it was a little bit rainy, we managed to get outside a little bit. Here are all the kids after church. You really have no idea how difficult it was to get this picture, so if it looks a little crazy...IT WAS!!!

Joshua and Matthew got bug catchers in their Easter baskets.


Ben is learning how to tie his own tie.

Abby did not want her picture taken. She looked awfully cute in her Easter dress, though!

Ben

Emily

Joshua

Andrew...isn't he beautiful???

One last picture of Abby, because she is so cute!

Happy Easter!

Abby is 2!

We celebrated Abby's second birthday today!

Here she is in her new birthday dress! Opening presents with A LOT of help!

Abby loves dogs, so Emily, Josh, and I made her a puppy dog birthday cake.

What a great 2 years we have had with our little Abby!

Spring Break

We took a couple of days this spring break to check out the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. We have wanted to visit this area for a couple of years, and decided this was the week. It wasn't quite in season yet, and you can see from our clothes that it was a little chilly still. The plus side was that there were very few other visitors. We had the place to ourselves.

Here is our one picture of the whole family. We are on top of "Natural Arch," looking out over a valley.

This is the cabin we stayed in. It is called Sundance. It had a hottub and a sattelite dish! We watched iCarly!

Everyone loved climbing on the cool rock formations.

Abby wasn't quite as adventurous in her climbing, but she still had fun exploring.

At the Angels Windows we found a geocashe treasure. Here is Abby with the M&M's she found in the geocashe box. She was pretty excited to do the next hike, and then disappointed when there were no more treats.

Dave carried Abby whenever she would let him. She is getting too big for the backpack, though. This might have been her last hike she gets carried on! Too sad.

Here is the bottom of Natural Arch. It was a very pretty arch, and I was glad we were there in early spring so we could see things before the leaves came out. There were lots of flowering trees in bloom, but no leaves yet.

Emily wanted her picture taken every couple of minutes! You can see from her attire that it was a little bit brisk.

Joshua on a swinging bridge across a lake.

Hiking out to the Angels Windows

Ben with an arch behind him. It is hard to tell that it is an arch in the picture, but it is. It has a stream running through it. Very pretty.

A waterfall on the stream that cut the arch above.

Dave and Abby on one side of the stream. We all crossed the stream to get down to the waterfall. It was really slick, and Dave took a pretty bad fall. Abby was fine, but the camera was broken, and Dave's elbow still hurts 2 weeks later!

We had a really fun trip.

Joshua's latest Lego Ship

Joshua loves to build with legos. Here is a ship he made today.

First Day of School

Here are Ben and Em on their first day of school. Ben is in 4th grade with Mrs Parker. Emily is in 2nd grade with Mrs Mosley. We were all excited about their new teachers. They seem really nice, and this is going to be a great year!

Isn't Emily's hair cute? We cut off about 5 inches.
She looks so much older, and she is excited to be able to do her own hair.
Note the Twinkle Toes...

Hopefully Ben is just tired of taking pictures!

A closer up look at Emily and Abby's shoes. They picked out the sparkliest pairs they could find. Abby walks around like the Queen of Everything in these things. She LOVES them. They are growing on me.

Lake Michigan Vacation

This year we took a family vacation to Lake Michigan. Dave and I can't remember the last time we took a trip with only ourselves and our children. Here is the van all loaded up and ready to go.

We left Saturday afternoon and drove to Ann Arbor where we spent the night with Jeff and Stacey. They cheerfully gave up their air conditioned home to let us sleep there, while they spent the night at a neighbor's home. Thanks guys! It was fun to see you! And thanks for the great meals and fun Scrabble Game.

Sunday we drove the rest of the way to the top of Michigan. We stayed at a "cabin" on Lake Leelanou. The cabin was nicer than our home! Newly remodeled, the place was immaculate. Here we are at breakfast Monday morning. We cooked our own breakfast every day, made a picnic lunch, then when out for dinner.

After a leisurely morning at the cabin we drove into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to explore the sand dunes. Here we are starting up. The views of the lake from the top were amazing!

Abby couldn't walk up the dunes at all. We all took turns carrying her.
Benjamin...

David...

Even Emily had to take a turn!

Jumping back down the dunes

I married Dave because he can jump so high!

Picnic at Sleeping Bear Dunes

This is the actual "Sleeping Bear" Dune. Benjamin and Dave really loved climbing these dunes. Mostly for the run down, I believe. They were so steep, and ran right into the water. Very pretty!

It was pretty windy at the top. Emily figured out how to survive the sandstorm, though...close your eyes and keep your mouth shut! We dug out sunglasses and hats soon after this summit.

We swam at an inland lake called Bar Lake

Then walked over the dune to Lake Michigan to swim. The waves on Lake Michigan were pretty big. The kids preferred the inland lakes.

Abby didn't care where we were, as long as there was sand to eat.

On Tuesday we hiked another tall dune called Pyramid Point.

At the top of pyramid point

Getting ready to float down the Platte River

The Platte River meets Lake Michigan. This was a beautiful area as the two bodies of water flowed together. We had a fun float, although it took longer than we expected, and also took quite a bit more oar power! Dave got a good workout trying to keep us going down the river.

Watching the sunset over the lake from a park in Empire, MI

The kids waiting for the train in Traverse City.

Here comes the train! It is the only thing left from the zoo that used to be in Traverse City.

Swimming at Old Mission Lighthouse on Grand Traverse Bay.
Everyone worked on a sand castle. This one was made by David and Joshua.

On Thursday we left the Leelanau Peninsula and headed north for Mackinaw City. On the way we drove through several darling cities and saw some beautiful lake homes. We stopped in Petosky for lunch and took a tour of Kilwin's chocolate factory. They were making candied orange peel that day. We all tried a sample, and it wasn't too bad. Course, if you dip anything in chocolate, it comes out OK!

The bridge from Macinaw City to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This is where the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. We are standing in front of Huron. Michigan is to the far side of the bridge.

After Paul Bunyon carved the Great Lakes, he rested against Castle Rock to rest. We climbed to the top to see the view. It was amazing!

Here I am with my handsome husband (seriously, how did I manage to get this guy to marry me?) at the top of Castle Rock.

Note the weather in the above picture...beautiful and sunny, right? Well, the next day we were scheduled to take the ferry across to Mackinac Island and ride our bikes around the island. It is a non-motorized island, and it was one of the highlights of our trip. But, alas, the next day we woke up to low clouds and a steady rain. It was cool, as well. So, with no end to the rain in sight (it was supposed to hang out for 2 days), we packed up and left a day early.

On the way back home we stopped in Frankenmuth to see the Christmas shop and enjoy a Bavarian village. It was a cute town. We were only 2 hours south, but it was already blazing hot and humid again. In upper Michigan, there was no humidity, and the evenings were cool enough we needed jackets. It amazing what a difference there is in such a short distance.

Emily and I had a fabulous time picking out Christmas ornaments.

It was NOT Benjamin's favorite part of the trip. He and Dave managed to make it through an hour pitstop at the Christmas shop without loosing their sanity, however. I was impressed with their stamina.

We had such a fun trip! We would definitely go back!