the rest of the photos...

... from my friend's visit.

After the pool, Clara and M decided to go do "tie-dye time".  Clara loves this, but hasn't done it in a couple of summers.  She was very excited!

This is Clara's hanging to dry....

She went with a larger hooded t-shirt so she could use it as a swimsuit cover-up for the pool.

This is M's...

It turned out REALLY cool... loved the colors!

The next morning, after Clara's swim lesson, Clara and M decided to make a fairy garden in the trees...

The did lots of planning and gathering of supplies...

The beginnings of the garden...

Random bird photo...

Most of the birds that come to our feed feeder seem to care less that humans like to watch them eat at close range.  I didn't use a zoom, and I didn't really crop this photo... I was just that close and the bird didn't seem to mind at all.  It's really neat to observe them so closely!

That afternoon, we went over and rode the Crystal Coaster.  No photos of that.  But it was a lot of fun!  It has been a while since I've ridden the coaster since both kids have been able to ride alone for a few summers now.  M and E have to ride with an adult... I got two turns down with M and one with E!

After that, we stopped by the slacklines...

Clara had been wanting to try them out for a while (but didn't ever want to if there were other people around)....

This day they were pretty open.  She became a little obsessed.  We talked to one girl there who did quite well going across.  She said it was because she had one at home.  Hmmm... didn't know that was an option!  We looked them up on Amazon and they aren't that bad price-wise.  Maybe we'll have to see about getting one for next summer!

And since the fun wasn't over yet that day, we headed over to the Platte River for a swim that afternoon/evening...

That river really is a fun place to play!

And finally, the last two photos of their visit....

The next day, before they left, Clara and M finished up their fairy garden...

I need to ask Clara for the detailed description of what all they created in there so we don't forget!

pool time!

Back to posting (for a couple days anyways)... last week I was on quite a roll.  Plenty of posting time with it being just me and the boy plus he was in school already.  This week the girl is home and we've been busy.  Nothing terribly exciting, except for our shopping excursion yesterday.  You know she's growing up when the bulk of our time was spent in Sephora!  :-)

Now back to our summer pics...

Not sure what day this was now, I'm thinking it was in the afternoon after berry picking.  The girls decided to take a trip to the pool...

And pose like this...

... LOL!

E at the pool...

All done and ready to go back home...

next up...

... in our string of summer house guests... my friend Natalie and her girls!

On their first full day there, we went back to the u-pick to pick some more blackberries...

There were plenty left to pick...

There were even several raspberries on the small red raspberry bushes...

mountain top...

After the beach and dinner... we took at ride on the Crystal Clipper up to the top of the mountain.

The kids with grandpa and grandma...

Pointing out the ski runs...

Random lift photo...

The kids...

I sure wish I was better at shots in this kind of light... it was just gorgeous!!!

The top one is closer to what I was going for... overexposed the one below...

But I still kind of like it!

These two seriously frighten me...

No clue what they think they're doing...

Practicing their moves for the next Daddy Daughter dance?

Strike a pose!

Difficult again...

Sigh... I live with such a difficult family...

 :-)

The boy...

Fake smile...

Not sure what's going on... but I think they're looking at my phone...

Closer to a real smile (Jeff was behind me making him laugh)....

petoskey stone hunting...

On the Saturday that Jeff's parents were in, we decided to go petoskey stone hunting.  We had been told about a particular stretch of beach that was supposed to be a good place to find them.  It was a coolish day, so we thought rock hunting would be a good way to spend the afternoon.  We had no idea about how great our afternoon would be!!

The directions were pretty straight forward... however, they turned out to be a little more difficult to follow that they sounded.  We were just supposed to follow one road, north, until we hit Lake Michigan, then turn left.  Sounded easy enough... BUT that one road kept ending and then picking up a little ways over.  In the end, we made it and boy was it worth it!  We went down this dirt road, and every so often you would see a little trail through the woods.  We parked by one of those little trails and sent our "scouts" on ahead.  They ran back all excited and said that this would be a good place to set up camp.  Before we even made it to the beach (which was just a short walk through the woods), they were already running back to show us their first petoskey stone!!  We were shocked when we came out of the wood and onto the beach... it was beautiful!! 

 Jeff's parents on the beach...

My kitchen strainer got to go on a field trip...

:-)

They were so excited to hunt for more stones...

Then they figured that there might be better ones in the water...

Those little specks in the distance are Jeff and the kids...

They weren't as far out as my wide angle lens made them look.  They waves were great though... they had so much fun playing in them.  While on their chaperoned tubing trip they took at the resort a few days before... their chaperone took them over to the lake and showed them how to somersault through the waves.  They did that FOREVER this day!

A beautiful, beautiful beach... all to ourselves....

Clara's pride and joy...

We found a bunch of petoskey stones that day... but this was probably the best one of the bunch!  It was just amazing to look at!

Rocks on the beach...

Still hunting...

I have to admit, it was very addicting... you just couldn't stop looking for the petoskey stones!  We all got a little caught up in it!  I think the only reason we finally left was because we forgot to bring snacks!  :-)