Dancing Shoes

My New Favortie Place

Jack has enjoyed being back in Arizona. He is rediscovering our house after having been gone for a month. Seems he found a new favorite place...

Taking in some "Nemo".

Hey, hey, hey, wanna play?

Figured you'd wanna play. I'm pretty fun.

Yep, feels sturdy to me.

Summer in Grand Rapids

After time spent with friends on the shores of Lake Michigan, it was time to visit with family in Grand Rapids.  Jack has a new cousin named Lily who we were all excited to meet, and the grandparents were obviously excited to spend some time with Jack as well.
The visit seemed to be focused on the outdoors.  We visited the Frederick Meijer Gardens, Jack helped Grandma Camille water some flowers, and we enjoyed a relaxing day at the beach in Grand Haven. 

Having fun in the tree house at the Meijer Gardens

Playing in the Great Lakes

 

All ready for another day at the beach

not a bad place for a nap after all that playing in the sand

Lying down with cousin Lily

playing ball with Great Aunt Corinne

Thanks for the snack Sr. Paula

 

trying to get three grand kids to look and smile at once is impossible

Traverse City, MI

After we left South Haven, we drove with the Duvals up to Traverse City to visit yet another friend and her family. We met up with Allison Beers and her husband Adam, daughter Anna (4), and son Jake (11 months). We invaded their wonderful home for two nights. We spent a day at Barr lake, which as you can tell from the pictures was a perfect spot for the kids to play. We had a little dance party on the deck before dinner, as you will see from the video, and we had some adult time by the bonfire after the kids went to bed. It was a perfect way to spend two days. Our hosts were more than hospitable and the company was very entertaining. I almost felt like I graduated with all of these people from Albion College!

We stayed in the shallow part.

Building castles made of sand, but always beer in hand. :)

Father/son time.

Who needs a bath? Not this guy!

Left to right: Adam and Jake, Anna and Allison, Kim and Wyatt, Ben Duval, Ben Reinhardt, Angie and Jack

South Haven, Michigan

From Minnesota we headed to Michigan for the second half of our month long trip. We met up in South Haven with our friends, Ben, Kim and Wyatt Duval. We stayed within walking distance of beautiful Lake Michigan. Jack played in the sand for the first time and actually went swimming in the 70 degree water. He was pretty tuckered out by the end of our beach day as you can see in the video below. He slept better during the day than he did at night, much to our dismay. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed our time there with our friends.

Hey man, welcome to South Haven.

Beach anyone? We're ready...

Ben squared and Jack

I will not let go of my beach ball. I will not let go of my beach ball.

I still will not let go of my beach ball. I still will not let go of my beach ball.

Sheesh, playing in the sand sure wears a fella out!