Mini-Vacation

As we get closer to becoming a family of 4, we decided to take a mini-vacation...our last hurrah as a family of 3.  We originally wanted to take a long weekend and head up to northern Michigan, but things didn't work out.  So, instead, we decided to stay close to home and have a mini-vacation in Flint, MI (about an hour from home).

We left home early Saturday morning and headed to Davison, MI to get donuts from the Davison Home Bakery...they were delicious!

From there, we headed to the Flint Children's Museum where you pretty much had the museum to yourself!  You had a blast and it was fun to watch you explore and see your imagination in motion.

Left: Serving Mama & Daddy pizza - shopping at the supermarket - little firefighter
Right: watching Mr. Bones ride the bike

Left: flying the helicopter
Right: climbing to the top of the rock wall - you did it all by yourself!

After the museum, we grabbed lunch and then headed to our hotel for a quick nap; after nap, we checked out the hotel pool.  I have to admit that this was the part I was looking forward to most and the main reason I wanted to make it an overnight trip.  A year ago, you were terrified of swimming pools - choosing to stand outside and look in rather than get anywhere close to a pool.  Now that you're in weekly swimming lessons, your fear is gone and I couldn't wait to see how much fun you would have at the hotel pool.  You had a blast!  You even jumped in to Daddy (with no fear)!

On Sunday, we headed to the Huckleberry Railroad and Crossroads Village.  The Village is set up as an 1800s-era village with historic buildings and various demonstrations.  We watched them make wooden toys - activating the saw blade by pedaling; watched them cut large trees into individual boards at the steam saw mill.   You and Daddy rode the 1912 carousel - I was very glad you wanted Daddy to ride with you because it was the fasted carousel I've ever seen (apparently it is the fasted carousel in Michigan and was viewed as a thrill ride in the 1900s).  After the carousel, it was time to head over and board the Huckleberry train.  This was your first time on a real train.  You were excited, but a little nervous and stayed close to Daddy the whole ride.  You really enjoyed it!  It's called the Huckleberry railroad because it would travel through a large huckleberry patch; the train moved so slow that passengers could put their fastest person in the first car, jump off and fill their pails with huckleberries and then jump back onto the last train car.

Overall, we had a great mini-vacation and I'm glad we were able to squeeze this in before life gets busy as a family of 4!

Carnival Time

You have been asking to go to a carnival and ride a ferris wheel for months now.  One of your favorite books, "Knuffle Bunny Free", has a picture of a carnival ferris wheel and every time we read that book (which is a lot), you ask if you're big enough to ride that.

Our town has a carnival every spring as a fund raiser for Leader Dogs for the Blind and we saw them start to assemble the rides a few weeks ago after swimming lessons.  You have been very hopeful to get a chance to go and ride the ferris wheel.  Daddy and I decided to surprise you after daycare one night and take you to the carnival.  We were a little nervous about whether it would actually get to happen because we decided it would only happen if you had good behavior all day at daycare (i.e., stayed on your green card all day) because you had been having a lot of yellow and even a few red cards lately for not listening or following one of the other classroom rules.  I think Daddy and I both would have been more devastated than you if you hadn't stayed on green that day!  But, you had a great day and were a good girl listening to your teachers and following all of the classroom rules all day and were able to stay on green...so, carnival, here we came!

You were so excited to see the ferris wheel and rode it with Daddy (Mama decided it would probably be best to stay on the ground and take pictures); Daddy said you were a little nervous and really couldn't see anything over the edge of the bucket you were sitting in, but still enjoyed it.

You also got to ride the train, roller coaster, big slide, carousel, spinning bear, and fire truck!

We let you play one of the games as the last thing and you chose to fish for a prize.  You could choose between a small stuffed animal or a huge ball...of course, you chose the huge ball!

Such a fun night and Mama and Daddy were so proud of you for being so good all day so that we could have this fun surprise for you!

Graecyn, Mama & Baby Brother riding the carousel

Watching the big kid rides and wishing you were bigger.