Our Visit to Sherman Park and Tahquamenon Falls

Samantha: 61 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 26 Months, Week 2

After Ben spent a long weekend with the family, he was back to work on Tuesday morning. I tried to come up with something fun to do with the kids, so after playing at home and in the backyard, I decided to hook up the bike carrier to my bike and take the kids for a ride. I am trying to get more exercise and figured this would be a good way to do it with the kids as well. Now that we live in a neighborhood and are not surrounded by big hills like in Oxford, it is much easier to ride bikes around, and we need to take advantage of that. The kids were enjoying their ride in the trailer, and it was a pretty warm day outside, so I decided to ride to the Dairy Queen that is not too far from our house. The kids had never been to Dairy Queen before, and we all ordered swirl cones. We usually just get ice cream in a dish so that it's easier to eat and doesn't melt and drip all over the place, but I decided to let them experience ice cream cones. Samantha did a really good job eating hers without getting messy. Aedan, on the other hand, had ice cream dripping down his chin and onto his hands, but he really liked eating the ice cream cone like a big boy. They were both thrilled with their first DQ experience, and we will have to go back again sometime. Here's a cute picture and video of the kids while we sat in the shade and ate our treat. :)

The bike ride was all going well until we were on our way back and I was changing gears on my bike and heard a loud noise from my gears. I quickly realized something was very wrong with my bike and pulled over on the side of the road. Part of my gear was actually sticking in through the spokes of the back tire, definitely not how it's supposed to be. As I looked it over, trying to figure out what I was going to do, a man at his house across the street came over and asked if he could help me. He said I was the third or fourth mom he's helped along the road while pulling kids behind. He got some tools to help bend the gear back where it should be. It still didn't seem too secure, and we didn't want to damage the bike any more by attempting to ride it again, so I had the kids get back in the bike trailer, and I just walked the bike back home. Luckily, we were only a few blocks away, so it took a little bit longer to get home, but we made it.

Later that evening after dinner, since it was a warm day out, we decided to try out Sherman Park for the first time. We heard from a lot of people about how nice this park was, and it's most known for it's beach area where it is pretty shallow for maybe a hundred feet or so, making it the perfect place for kids to swim and wade in the water with fear of them getting in over their heads. The park also has a couple nice playground areas with a view of the river and across to Canada. We started out playing on the playground and enjoying the merry-go-round. There was a tall rocket ship they climbed up in, and Samantha enjoyed this older merry-go-round that was easy to spin and actually got going fast. I love their little squeals of happiness as they spin around and around.

Once the kids saw the beach and water and other people swimming, they just couldn't resist. We got them changed into their swimsuits and let them play in the water and in the sand. The water was a bit chilly since it is from a lake and not like the Atlantic Ocean where we swam on vacation, but once you got in, it didn't take long for your body to get used to it. Ben and I didn't bring our bathing suits, but we waded in the water some with the kids. Samantha was so excited to frolic around in the water and crawl around the rocks pretending to be a mermaid.

Just like in North Carolina, Aedan didn't show too much interest in the water. He just wanted to get his shovel and dig in the sand.

We had a wonderful evening at the beach, and we can definitely see why Sherman Park is a big deal for Sault Ste. Marie. It's so fun being around so much beautiful nature and being so close to water. The kids had a blast at the beach and could have stayed to play a lot longer than we did. This was just our first of many trips to this park, now that we know where it is and what it has to offer.

When it was time to leave, the kids were covered in sand from having to climb back up the steep embankment around the beach. We tried our best to clean them off so that we didn't get too much sand in our car, but Aedan was just covered, so we decided to just take off his bathing suit and put Samantha's cover-up over him for the short drive home. He was SO excited to be wearing her Ariel cover-up, as you can tell in these pictures below. He thought it was just the coolest thing ever. In fact, when we got home and it was time to take a bath, meaning we would have to take the cover-up off, he cried really hard because he didn't want to take it off. Aedan will love these pictures some day. :) It will remind him how much he loved his big sister, for anything that was hers was the coolest thing ever.

On Wednesdays at the library they have story time and a lot of moms bring their kids to it every week. They also have a summer reading program going on where the kids keep track of the books they read, write them down on little slips of paper, and the librarian then hangs those from the ceiling under their name. Samantha thought it was pretty cool to see her name with all the books she had read. Plus, she was excited because after reading ten books, the kids earned a gift certificate for a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut, so the kids were going to get their free pizza prize that day during story time. The librarian called out both of their names, and Samantha proudly claimed her prize and handed Aedan his prize. Once again, story time was very short as the librarian only read one book. She was very quiet and not very expressive, so it was hard to really get the kids engaged. They did another craft time after the story, which Samantha enjoyed, but Aedan didn't spend too long at. I had come down with a cold of some sort overnight, didn't feel well, and my nose was dripping every time I moved around and looked down, so we didn't spend as much time at the library that morning. I was glad when nap time rolled around so I could spend some time resting and getting a little break.

The last two Wednesday nights we have gone to the concert in the park, but I wasn't feeling well on Wednesday and we just wanted to get the kids to bed at a normal time and have a relaxing evening at home. We took the kids to Pizza Hut for dinner so they could use their gift certificate for a free personal pizza, and they thought that was pretty cool. Samantha even asked if she would get another gift certificate after reading another ten books. I think it was good to use the gift certificate right away so they could see the reward for the work they put into reading and writing down all the books.

Thursday was supposed to be a beautiful, warm, sunny day, so Ben decided to stay home from campus so that we could make a day trip to Tahquamenon Falls. This state park is another must see when visiting the U.P., and we were really excited to check it out. The falls are about an hour and fifteen minutes away from Sault Ste. Marie, so it wasn't too far of a drive. We started at the lower falls, and after walking around for a little while, we decided to pay to rent a row boat so that we could paddle across to a little island where you could get up much closer to the falls.

The kids were pretty excited to get their life jackets on and ride on the boat.

The falls were definitely beautiful, and it was the perfect place to walk around on the rocks in the shallow water. We put some water shoes on the kids so they could walk around in the water, jump and splash, and explore the falls. Here are some pictures of our time at the lower falls.

I love this picture of the kids and me with the waterfall in the background and everyone looking the right direction and smiling. I spend so much time with the kids every day, but I rarely get a picture of all three of us together.

As we walked further up the trail, we actually ran into some people that were from Lombard, where I grew up. It's so funny how small the world is. After awhile of talking with them, they offered to take our picture for us, and this picture also turned out so well. Our kids are getting much better at looking at the camera and smiling for pictures, meaning we get much better family pictures. I really do love this one of the four of us.

Samantha was very excited about getting her picture taken multiple times. She kept sitting on various logs and then asking for us to take their picture.

As we continued our walk around the trail, we stopped to eat our packed lunch on a log overlooking the water.

There were so many fun places to stop off and explore, and the water wasn't very deep, making it pretty easy to walk in and enjoy. We were having a great morning out exploring together. This is definitely a place we will bring people when they come to visit us.

I also love these selfies of our family. What wonderful pictures to capture a wonderful day out together.

After rowing our boat back from the island, we decided to go the upper falls before going back home. There was a moose head that Samantha wanted to pose by, and then we walked the easy path to the falls.

In order to see a close up of the falls, you have to walk down about 90 steps, which is not too bad, especially for this nice view of the falls. It will be interesting to visit here at different times of the year, even in the winter, to see how the changing seasons effect the look of the falls.

By mid afternoon, Aedan was definitely ready for nap time, so we got back in the car to head home. We told Samantha she just had to be quiet until Aedan fell asleep, then she could get her coloring book out. We were trying really hard to get her used to not napping in preparation for full day kindergarten next year, but so far it hasn't gone as smoothly as I hoped. It just seems like she's so tired by the afternoon and needs a nap on most days. We try to get her to bed early and allow her to have enough sleep at night, but we obviously can't control how much she sleeps and we can't make her sleep. Regardless, it doesn't seem like she is sleeping enough, and it's making me really worried for kindergarten in the fall. I was hoping she would be transitioning better after moving and getting settled in our new home. I'm concerned about her being overtired at school, unable to concentrate and focus on her work and therefore not learning as much as she should, or even acting out, being overly emotional, or even just not getting along with others because she's so tired. Or, I'm worried about her holding it together all day at school, but then totally losing it at home, making our evenings together, our only time to spend together during the week, a battle. I wish there was another mom I could talk to that is going through something similar with their soon-to-be-kindergartner, just to get some advice and bounce ideas off of. I know it will be a transition, and I'm sure she will adjust, I just want Samantha to do well, and the whole thought of her being away at school all day is really hard for me to think about right now. Man, I will miss her like crazy.

Even though Samantha went to the bathroom right before we left the falls, she had too much to drink right before we left and ended up having to go to the bathroom during our hour and fifteen minute drive back home. Aedan was asleep, and she knows that we don't want to stop when he's asleep because it will wake him up, so instead she just sat in the back of the car whimpering. I asked her what was wrong and she said she had to go to the bathroom really bad and felt like she was going to pee her pants. We of course did not want her to pee her pants, so we stopped off on the side of the road behind a warehouse since there was no bathroom or gas station in sight. Ben took her out in the grass and helped her go to the bathroom. She did go quite a bit, so that was good, but Ben and I were pretty frustrated with her. It seems like she has not been emptying her bladder very well lately, or any time that she actually has enough to drink, she has to go to the bathroom a lot more, like she has a very small bladder or something. After she went to the bathroom, we still had about thirty minutes left to drive, so we told Aedan to go back to sleep and told Samantha to close her eyes and take a nap because she was looking super tired. She fell asleep quickly, sleeping all the way until we got back home. Aedan did not go back to sleep, but he had his paci in his mouth, keeping him happy for the rest of the trip home and allowing Samantha to get some rest.

We had a more relaxed weekend at home, taking the opportunity of nice weather to get some work done outside in the back yard. On Saturday morning Ben got the ladder out and went all along the back of the house cleaning out the gutters. There is an evergreen tree right up behind our house so there were lots of needles and junk that had fallen from the tree and clogged up our gutters. We get the feeling that the family that lived here before us did a pretty good job of taking care of the inside of the house and updating things, but the outside was not taken care of much with lots of peeling paint and lots of weeds, overgrown landscape areas, and small trees growing too close to the house. So while the kids played outside in the backyard, Ben cleaned the gutters, and I pulled weeds from barrels that we can use as planters for flowers, and then cut down a lot of little trees and weeds that were growing along the back of our house. It looks so much cleaner already, and my next task is to clean up the patio by pulling up the weeds growing between the bricks of the patio and the border around the patio. Then, we will spray some Round-Up to keep the weeds and grass from growing back again, and it will look so much better in the back yard once that job is done.

Since we had spent most of the last couple days getting work done around the house and cleaning the inside of the house, we tried to find something fun to do as a family on Saturday night. I saw that the local Sault Tribe was having a summer gathering/pow wow that was open to the public. I had no idea what that entailed, but I figured it was something we could check out. After dinner we went over to the Indian reservation and made our way to this circle that had vendors around the outside and discovered that the ceremony would start around 7:00 p.m. There wasn't too much to entertain the kids, and they got impatient as we waited, but I hoped we would at least be able to see a traditional dance or something; however, the ceremony was taking awhile to get going with lots of introduction. We watched a few people dressed in traditional costumes dance around the circle doing a dance called the two step. It was getting later in the evening, closer to bed time since Samantha didn't nap that afternoon, so we decided we couldn't wait any longer to see what else would be part of the ceremony.

On Sunday we went back to Sault Wesleyan Church for church in the morning, and during nap time that afternoon, Ben took Samantha on a Daddy-Daughter date to play mini-golf. Samantha was excited to be going on a date here because she had seen the waterfall many times from the road. However, she wasn't quite sure what she thought of mini-golf at first. She got to pick out the color of her ball (purple), and after a brief tutorial on how to hold a golf club we were off. For a while, she was having trouble paying attention and mostly would get the hole done in about 7 or 8 strokes. About halfway through, Ben needed to explain to her that one wants to have the club facing the hole and to actually look at where she is trying to hit the ball. After that explanation, she started doing really well. From that point on, her worst hole was 3 strokes. Maybe she will be a good mini-golfer. 

Ben said, "The best part about it is still the time spent with her. She enjoys getting out of the house with one of us and likes the personal attention. There were several times that she mentioned how Aedan would not be able to do this so she must be old." 

Most afternoons either before or after Samantha has her quiet time/nap time, her and I sit together and work on a pre-kindergarten workbook together. I started this because I noticed how she was writing so many of her letters incorrectly. She would start at the bottom and go up or rotate around to the right rather than to the left for round letters. This workbook has pages where you can practice writing each letter, as well as pages with telling patterns, following directions, and some basic preschool exercises. She really enjoys doing her workbook, especially because it usually involves coloring, and I enjoy working with her and helping her to learn new things and practice the skills she learned in preschool so that way she doesn't lose any knowledge going into kindergarten next year. When we are done with the workbook, we practice "popcorn" words in shorter readers we've checked out from the library and then I read a longer book aloud to her. This whole process, depending on how much attention she pays to it, takes up about forty-five minutes or so which I feel like is the perfect amount of time for Samantha to do work each day.

Lately, Samantha has enjoyed waiting for Aedan to wake up before watching a show so that way he can watch one with her. For some reason Aedan's shorts got put on his head rather than back on his legs after changing his diaper after nap time, but he didn't mind and he left them like that the whole time he watched the show. You can also see Aedan's little tools laying on the couch next to him which he calls his "toolbox" and has been carrying around everywhere with him.

Sunday night at dinner, Ben took this video of the kids as a message to send to Ema and Papa since they were getting ready to leave on their mission's trip to Guatemala. However, Aedan didn't understand that they wouldn't actually be able to see Ema and Papa (especially Ema, sorry Papa!), so after we sent the message we had to Face Time with them for a few minutes to say hello. Samantha and Aedan really love Ema and Papa and are very excited to see them in a couple weeks when we make a trip to Upland.

Since I cleaned out all the barrels we can use as planters in the back yard, on Monday morning I took the kids to a local flower shop so that Samantha could help me pick out flowers to plant. She and I planted flowers in front of our house in Oxford, and she really enjoyed watching them grow and helping me water them, so I was excited to do it again with her this year. All the flowers were on sale or 50% off as well, so that was a definite bonus. The employee at the flower shop was really helpful in pointing us in the right direction in choosing flowers, and then Samantha went crazy picking flowers that she thought were pretty. Aedan even chose a couple as well. We just stacked them up on a shelf off to the side so we could assess how much we had and how they would look together. I was given an additional discount on some flowers, and we got lots of flowers for $25. Samantha was excited to get back home so we could plant them, so we spent the rest of the morning filling the barrels with dirt and planting the flowers. Samantha helped me decide which barrel to put the flowers in, and we arranged them in a way we thought looked pretty. Then, I helped move the dirt to the side while she helped plant the flower. It was a little difficult trying to do all of this with Aedan trying to dig in our flowers while we planted, but everything turned out really beautiful, and it's amazing how much better it looks in the back yard.

(Blog about July 5-11, 2016)