Michigan

 We spent another five days of our trip in Michigan visiting Kevin's brother and his family in Michigan.  Claire and Lucy took a dance lesson from Vicki (Lucy's dance suit found at the Dig N Save!) and we hung out in the hammock a lot as well.

 Kevin celebrated his 32nd birthday while we were there and enjoyed several great gifts from our kids, handpicked from the local dollar store. His brother and him went and bought new suits for his birthday but declined our request for a picture in their "birthday suits". Kevin's last suit was 8 years ago when we were married so it was very much needed.

 Vicki and I enjoyed some serious thrift store and consignment kid store shopping while we were there and found several treasures. The kid clothes there are amazing and I found several items for a $1.  We also visited this treasure called Value World which was more amazing than I have words for. Best part? They gave us all our stuff in black plastic garbage bags, there are no changing rooms so you just put your clothes on over your clothes, and everyone that was working there was in sweatpants. It was so cool. I found the best stuff!

 We took an evening and walked around this local lake that is filled with ducks and tons of lilly pads.  We saw several swans and their babies and Lucy collected several bird feathers.

 We also went to the botanical gardens which has a great kids area that has several things for the kids to explore.

 Edyn and Ella were born 3 months apart and had lots of fun saying "hi" to each other over and over and laughing at each other.

 The greenhouse part of the gardens was one of Isak's favorite parts and he loved seeing all the different plants that we don't have back in Washington.

 We also visited the Henry Ford museum while we were there and got to ride a train around the village. We saw glass blowing, rode a carousel and saw tons of great stuff. Everyone that works there walks around dressed in early 1900's attire and acts the part. We even took a little ride in a carriage which turned out to be really hot...

 There was also an inside portion of the museum which was HUGE and had so much stuff inside of it, we didn't get to see everything. The trains were really cool to look at the inside of as well as several of the cars that have been made over the years.

 There was an exhibit where kids could put themselves in a music video and it would project them onto a screen.

 And of course the giant Oscar Mayer weiner vehicle and the kids tried to make themselves into a hotdog.

We were also there for the 4th of July and they had a nice little parade in their town and their ward also had a breakfast and let the kids ride their bikes/scooters around.

 I attempted to get my kids in one picture for the 4th since I actually put them all in patriotic colored outfits. This was about the best I got.

 We had a lot of fun in the afternoon playing in the pool and then we had dinner outside.  Since there a lot of fireworks available in Michigan compared to Washington, Kevin had fun buying a bunch to set off that night.

                                                                     Lucy and Claire.

 The kids loved the fireworks and we could only set off some of our bottle rockets due to their enormous range and we weren't sure where they were ending up. Our kids were exhausted at the end of every day and for the most part, went to bed really well.  I am campaigning for everyone to come live by me and pled my case at Valerie's as well at Jason and Vicki's house.  I'm hoping it works!