Memorial Day Weekend

We kicked off our week with some fun around home as well as wrapping up another week of school, it's final project time around here.  This teacher is about done with it all, as are the students!  Ezri got crafty one afternoon, after she had finished her school work, and made her own roller derby dolls and rink with changeable clothes.

 Tuesday night, we went to Beer & Hymns and the kids had a great time singing.

 Daddy got to help lead Deep & Wide, which was entertaining as well!

 Wednesday and Thursday, we had an extra little one around the house, which meant more chaos and excitement as well as distraction, as I babysat my cousin's little 7 month old baby, Gunner.  The girls had a blast with him!  However, not much got done...

Which mean, all of the packing and preparation for our weekend trip began on Friday morning and was a bit of a stressful, rushed job. Tobi tried to help...

 As did Elam...

 He wanted to spend more time taking pictures than packing, though.

 Friday afternoon, we were finally packed and loaded up into the truck for a trip north to Cadillac for a weekend with our friends.  We stayed at a friend's cabin in Cadillac at night. 

Saturday morning, we rolled toward Manton and spent the day two tracking and exploring through the forest we spent so many years camping in in the past.  When we got into the forest, we saw a black bear run across the road in front of us!  We skipped stones in the river...

 Had a picnic lunch and fun at Harvey Bridge...

 Then crossed the bridge and explored more.

Our last stop was at the High Rollway observation deck for a spectacular view

 Then it was back to the cabin to enjoy some ice cream!

 That evening, after kids were put to bed, we even saw a deer watching us through the cabin window!

 Sunday morning, we had a lazy start and then went exploring behind the cabin.  We found more mosquitoes than we cared to find and gave up on that pretty quickly.

We decided to pack up and head into Cadillac to find a park for the kids to play.  While we were there, I admired the artwork Alora had added to our dirty truck...

The kids had a great time on the playground, watching the boats on Lake Mitchell, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch together as well.

We took a little walk along the lake shore, across a bridge, and found a sound garden across the street we decided to check out.  The kids had fun playing the various instruments and exploring.

We soon abandoned the instruments for the much cooler part of the sound garden... the frogs singing!  It was so cool to see them up close and to hear all of the songs combining as we walked around the little pond and bridge. It occupied everyone - child and adult - for quite a long time.

As the afternoon got later, we had a pile of tired kids and adults and decided it was probably time to head for home.  We opted to cut our stay up north shorter to avoid the lengthy ride and extra holiday traffic we had to fight through on the way up.  It was a great decision as we made it home around dinner time.  After a short re-grouping, we were back together at our house for a bonfire that night.

 Monday morning, Memorial Day, we got up and going early so we could go to the John Ball Zoo right when it opened.  There, we spent the morning with our friends checking out all of the animals.

Elam loved the aquarium!

As did the others...

Daddy might have exchanged words with a penguin who was picking on another penguin he had befriended...

 The big tank of seawater fish was a big hit...

 as was the tide pool.

 We got to pet some turtles...

 see the Red Pandas out and moving around...

 and watch a very active, pacing tiger who got up close to us!

 We saw the lion from afar (though was saw his massive tracks up close)

 Watched a chimpanzee deep in thought...

 saw the bears playing and moving about quite a lot...

And checked out the reptiles...

 Of course, we had to end the morning with a photo...

We wrapped up our day with lunch at Arby's followed by a lazy afternoon in Sandy Pines, ending it with an ice cream treat at bedtime before saying our farewells.

It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend with our family and friends, and we were all sad to get back to reality.  However, there is just one week of school left here at West Maple Academy and we are all so very excited for a summer break!