APPLETON

 We got back from Appleton last week after being there for four fun days. Shari and Mark just moved there a couple of months ago. This is their fifth state in eight years! I loved Appleton. It is a quaint old town - very large and interesting. There are a few beautiful parks, a railroad, restaurants, nice shops, lots of churches, and lots of interesting houses. It is an historical town, so all of the houses were built  over 50 years ago, and each one of them is unique. This is a picture of the house that they just bought. It has a lot of fixing up to do, but has all of the original wide woodwork with lots of built ins like old houses used to have. All of the bedrooms have built in closets with drawers and cupboards. The upstairs hallway is wide and has many built in storage cupboards and drawers.  All of the floors are wood. The worst room is the kitchen which had actually been updated in the fifties and doesn't match the rest of the house. It needs remodeling badly.

We went to visit for Esme's second birthday. While we were there, Shari made her a birthday cake with one of Esme's favorite characters on it - Dora, the Explorer. It turned out very cute as you can see, and Esme was very excited by it!

A few of these pictures "somehow" got out of order when I was loading them. i don't know how I always manage to do that! The one above is of Esme and Asher on about the third day we were there. I am very prejudiced, but I think they are both so cute!  Asher is four months now.

Esme loves to pretend. I got her some dishes to go with the kitchen that she got at Christmas. She loved them and was very good at pretending to serve everyone.

Aunt Shelley, Uncle Bob, and Matthew and Nolan sent her a couple of gifts. These are the wooden dolls with magnetic clothes that they sent for her. She loved putting on all of the clothes, but sometimes put the pants up under the dolls chin! She's only two.

Many of her toys are upstairs in the spare room that we spept in. I played up there with her a couple of times. Here she is pretending to have a conversation on a play phone. She looks very authentic, doesn't she? 

Asher is a very happy baby. He has such a sweet smile. He is already using his bouncy seat, rolling over and over and over, and scooting himself around. He is just so precious, soft and warm!!

We took a walk one evening into town to go to a restaurant by the river. Esme loved to walk, but it is a very long walk, so she road some of the way. This was a very hot day!!

Like I said, Appleton has beautiful parks. We stopped at one along the way, and Esme had a good time on the slides and swings.

Shari and Esme'

This picture got out of order. This is the actual day of Esme's birthday. We celebrated it on Sunday, but her birthday wasn't really until Tuesday. Mark had to work that day, so we celebrated with cake and gifts early. On this day we walked downtown to a place called the

"Building for Kids". It was a big building with lots of rooms filled with interesting things for kids to do. I thought this was a cute picture of Esme' and "Grandpa" walking together holding hands.

This is the restaurant that we walked to. We ate outside because all of the tables inside were taken. It was VERY HOT out!! It was next to the river and a dam. Very pretty place!

ASHER - 4 Months

Appleton is about six or seven blocks long. There is also a college, Lawrence University, there. It has a beautiful campus right in the middle of town. There are also several very large churches in town. Shari and Mark can walk to everything from where they live.

This is one of the rooms in the "Building for Kids". It was the water room. The kids put on raincoats and there are huge tubs with water toys and fountains and rivers, etc. for them to play with. Esme loved it!

Shari put Asher in his "baby bjorn" so that she could carry him around with us. It looks like he is in a straight jacket, but he likes it.

The building had two floors, so we had to use the elevator to get upstairs. I thought this was a cute picture of Esme. She wasn't quite sure that she liked it!

Such a sweet baby!!

There was an authentic looking fire engine in the building for the kids to play in. I forgot to get a picture of the outside of it.

There was a room set up like a small grocery store for kids. Everything was their level. It had shopping carts, groceries (empty boxes), a cash register, baskets, and carts.

One room was a doll hospital. There were dolls, bottles, baby beds, benches, diapers, and nurse aprons to wear. Esme loved taking care of this baby.

This was a big crane that you could operate. The big lifter picked up magnets. Here is Terry helping Esme try to operate it. 

We had such a great time with the kids and Shari and Mark. They are very hospitable - what a joy to visit! I will miss those little ones so much - they grow up so fast. I am going to try to upload some videos of Esme, but so far I haven't had much success. I don't know if they will turn out at the bottom or top of this post. If I can't upload them now, I will try to do them later in another post.

A SISTER IS A FOREVER FRIEND!

For the past seven years, my younger sister, Carol, and I have traveled somewhere in Michigan to spend some special time just reconnecting with each other. Sadly, even though we both live in Michigan, we don't see

each other often.

In the past we have taken a few days each summer and driven to some small town or towns on Lake Michigan. We both love the lakes, the lighthouses, beaches, and small towns with quaint shops to explore. It gives us some special "sister" time to catch up with each other's lives. This year instead of going to a town near Lake Michigan on the west side of the state, we decided to try the "thumb" of Michigan on Lake Huron. It was so beautiful!!

Unlike Lake Michigan, Lake Huron has lots of big rocks.  Many of the piers are lined with huge rocks. We wondered how in the world all of the rocks were taken to the piers because there are so many, and they are so huge!

We stayed at a bed and breakfast this

year for the first time. It was different. Nice in some ways (great breakfasts! - but obligitory. )Our room was very small and cramped - we found out that there were some very large rooms upstairs that would have been available. OK - it was cozy in our room. We stayed in Harbor Beach at night and then drove to some of the neighboring little towns along the water during the day. We went to Port Austin, Port Hope, Granite City, and Caseville. We saw about three or four lighthouses and walked for a long while on a beach in a state park.

Being near the lake is always so relaxing to me. All of the cares of the world seem to vanish. I love the sounds of the water lapping on the rocks, and the trees blowing. I love to watch the ripples of the waves and see the sailboats and freighters. I love the vastness of the Great Lakes and the Ocean. Creation is just amazing - and being close to it makes me think of how great God is to make all of it so perfect and beautiful.

We had some good sister talks about our families and our lives. It is stuff you can talk to your sister about and feel perfectly comfortable. We walked on piers and saw lots of boats and marinas and took lots of pictures. Carol especially likes lighthouses, so we made the effort to see the ones that were close by on Lake Huron. Many of them are not in use anymore.

We were fortunate enough to pass through the town of Lexington both on our way to Harbor Beach and on the way home. Passing through on the way there, we saw that there was an art and craft show going on in the city! We always hope to find one of those and didn't expect it this time. What fun! It was huge. There were tents up and down the streets and parking lots. We didn't buy a whole lot, but it was so much fun to look.

We found one restaurant right on the lake. That was the best place that we ate and so beautiful. We shopped alot one of the days because it was cloudy and drizzly all day. But the next day it was warm and sunny enough to go to the beach for most of the day. We didn't swim, though, because there 

was alot of black seaweed in the water close to the shore. But

 who wants to get into a bathing suit anyway? It was so peaceful. It was also fun to see some of the gorgeous, big homes along the water. I can't imagine getting up to the beautiful views of the lake every day - like heaven.

I miss being with my sister very much! I can't wait to plan next year! We both came home and went our own ways. Carol was going to visit her family and I was going to visit Shari and Mark in Wisconsin. But I so enjoyed talking with her. She is so special to me!

I've heard it said that sisters are different flowers from the same garden. I like that description because I love flower gardens. The flowers are all beautiful, but each one is different and special from the others. The more I talk to Carol, I notice the ways we are so alike, and yet we are different in so many ways also. I am thankful for her and the time that we get to spend each summer just relaxing together and enjoying each other's company. I hope there are many more years to come! Love you, Carol!

(I just lost about five or six pictures when I went to publish this! I am so aggravated that I don't even know how to fix it! What I just wrote isn't as interesting without my pictures! The joys of blogger!)