Sunday promenade

The weather is still pleasant here and we are thoroughly enjoying exploring the many and fantastic parks that the area offers. On Sunday, we headed to Stony Creek Metro Park, the boys rode their bikes while Bob and I took a long walk, we met up again at the playground. We had fun trying out the various pieces of playground equipment - this is one of the nicest playgrounds we have seen, and there were some pieces we had not seen before - all in all a fantastic time.

One man's trash is an excited boy's treasure

Bob brought home some discards and Lukas could not be more pleased. Noah is thinking about how to solve the number combination to open a case; while Lukas is working on and exploring the motors - trash to treasure, that is us!

Hand made

Bob and the boys have been busy building furniture since we moved to Michigan, since we sold/left a lot behind before heading out of California. The first priority was beds, and once that was done, they turned their attention to other projects - a desk for the office, and a bench to sit on while putting on or taking off shoes. A surprising extra was the great pencil holder that came about from the remaining part of the door that is now a desk. The house is turning into a home, it has our touches all over :-)

Deep in thought

Lukas spent some time thinking about his birthday list... researching, dreaming, wishing with the help of the computer.
Noah spent time laying out the display board we needed for our Classical Conversation Family Presentation.

Both deep in thought....

Cupcakes

On Sunday we headed out to a local DYI and Arts Festival. The boys thoroughly enjoyed sampling the various food offers - topped off by 'mile high' cupcakes.

Field trip

Bob and the boys spend part of Friday at the Gerald R. Ford museum in Grand Rapids. They learned that President Ford was the only vice president and president never elected - he was appointed to both positions.  The model of the new aircraft carrier named after President Ford, had UAVs on the carrier deck;  Bob's familiarity and expertise added lots of great information and the boys were excited to tell Mamma all about the X47 that Dad helped develop. Living history at its best.

Meet Secretary of Defense Severinghaus and US President Severinghaus

Photo hike

On the hottest of all Indian summer days here in Michigan, when the thermometer almost reached triple digits, we headed out for a short nature hike. Lukas quickly grabbed the camera to capture some of what he saw. Noah took on the role of exploring the path to make sure that the friends that joined us would be able to enjoy the walk, avoiding mud and slippery slopes. It was hard to leave the coolness of the water...

Apple delight

A half a bushel of apples is a lot of apples....The boys made apple juice Lukas created a little dish for lunch, using what he could find in the fridge - honey, feta cheese and of course some of the green Ginger Gold Michigan apples, topped with apple foam from the juicer.
Mamma thoroughly enjoyed the service and the taste.

A walk in the park

Sunday afternoon, sunshine and a warm breeze, a perfect combination for a walk in the park. We headed to Lake St Clair Metro Park and walked around the marina. In the distance we could see Canada. Such a difference in vistas from the views we were used to seeing while looking out over the Pacific.  The boys were talking about boats, it is hard not to when watching the many small and large water crafts enjoying the last of lazy summer days....

Silly photo ops

Lisa and Elisabeth are our first overnight guests. We headed out to the old Cider Mill to explore some of what Michigan has to offer. We came back with a half bushel of apples, a gallon of apple cider and some fun and silly photo memories - this place is apparently very busy on the weekends and therefore offered up the obligatory silly photo ops, which could not be resisted; big cousin Elisabeth was a great sport in participating!

Noah is enjoying his donut

Car trouble no more

We had great plans for our Thursday- get school done, clean house, pick up some groceries, explore a local sight, meet new friends and be back home for family coming to town!
Clean house - check
School done - check
Grab list for groceries, map to local sight, and keys to car... car does not start......
Call friend to cancel excursion, and then Lukas takes over!

He calls Bob, confirms his plan and set out to recharge the dead car battery. He was not to be interrupted in his important work, and he carefully and precisely adhere to the directions that Bob so patiently provided on the phone. A few hours later, the car started right up, just as Lisa and Elisabeth showed up at our front door. Great timing!

Design by Lukas

Lukas had very elaborate plans for his room - drawings were done, and revised, and revised again, multiple trips to various stores and more redesign, and enhancements - and multiple hours devoted to construction in the basement and out on the driveway yielding power tools. Last night, the desk was finally complete. The design and the construction is all 'Design by Lukas' and he spent most of yesterday adding on the legs to make sure it is sturdy enough to support all of his electronics and other important projects that will be housed on this desk.
He was a bit worried that he had neglected to take the narrow stair case into consideration in his design, but fortunately the desk was able to be maneuvered upstairs and is now in place. All that is left to do is the draw curtain around his bed, and tidying up all the various piles of important information, countless jun.. ehmm gadgets I mean, and miles of cords; this will not take him long, he is very motivated to get free time for exploring....which will come when all the work is done.  Lukas is hoping for a hang out to show off his designs soon with anyone interested, just send him an email at Google.

Mail

Noah received a large envelope from his mormor and morfar.  He quickly ripped it open and set out to build a colorful and complicated airplane - mormor and morfar really knew what Noah likes :-)

Swimming in Lake Michigan

After a day of sightseeing, hiking and climbing dunes, it was time to cool off in the lake - Lake Michigan. The boys were pleasantly surprised at the moderate temperature of the water, anything seems warmer when one is used to the cool Pacific. The boys had fun, splashing, swimming, mud slinging and playing around in the water, oblivious to the dark clouds that rolled in and gathered speed right above their heads.
The rain did come just in time for dinner, so the boys dried off, no need to rinse off any salt, and we headed out to a delicious meal in tourist town Traverse City.