Canada Trip for Kaylee's birthday

Again... very delayed...

There's a place not far over the nearest border crossing from us (Port Huron MI/Sarnia ON) where you can go fossil hunting and keep what you find. It's called Rock Glen Provincial Park. While my parents were here for Kaylee's birthday weekend, we decided to all take a trip there since my Dad is a big fossil bluff and Kaylee is becoming one too. My parents were headed home and were taking the Canada route so it worked out to be on their way home.

Kaylee pesters Eric in the car.

Nana (my mom) holding Hazel. She loves being Nana to my girls and I love having her.

My Dad had polio, so that he could manage this path up to the visitor's center was pretty impressive.

Sign explaining how the fossils got there.

Hazel is excited about fossils!

The paths through the park are all boardwalk and stairs, since you're basically climbing down a river gorge.

The creek bed where you pretty much trip over fossils.

Dragonfly!

Part of our haul.

Grandpa and Kaylee inspect the fossils.

Family shot! Thank goodness for timer functions on cameras.

Climbing the stairs back out.

There's a gorgeous waterfall that you can swim in too. Once Hazel's older, we'll go back and plan to swim. The water was chilly but refreshing!

Kaylee wanted so badly to swim. I did have her suit, but the water was too cold for her to do much more than wade.

Eric went exploring downriver.

Palytoxin

My article is online and published and a check is in the mail.

This is an AWESOME feeling. I can't wait for my next article assignment. I really enjoyed devoting time to this. It was a good exercise in time management since I needed to work on it when Hazel was sleeping and that time is limited in quantity.

Palytoxins

Breastfeeding Stroll

St. Clair County Health Department hosted a Breastfeeding Stroll at the riverfront in Port Huron (gateway to Sanilac, Ontario CAN) I had seen the event posted on facebook in several places and my doula had signed up as attending so this morning I decided, ah hell, why not?  It was only 45 minutes away and I knew the view would be nice and there was likely to be a breeze from the water so it would be pleasant strolling weather. 

Vendors were set up on the walking path that ran along the riverfront and they had lots of stuff to hand out and stickers for the kids. If you visited every tent you could be entered in a raffle drawing. Most things were about WIC or medicaid which doesn't apply to me, but I did snag some business cards that had breastfeeding rights on them (applicable state laws) in the event that I'm ever given grief about breastfeeding in public.

Anything you see on the other side of the river is Canada. There were also cool sculptures and info displays along the walk. The permanent ones were about the biology and ecology of the area and the temporary ones were about breastfeeding. 

Being in the stroller didn't last long. 

Breastfeeding at the breastfeeding stroll!

I know it's blurry, but I think it's neat. 

My dorky, yet effective sun shade hat!

Ducks and Canada

She got so wet but had such a great time!

There was this sculpture along the path. Her name is Sugar!

Kaylee for scale

We ate lunch at this bench and fed the ducks. It was such a pleasant day.

Picture Dump and Life Update

Not much to report. Life goes on. Kaylee has finished preschool and we're solidly in summer vacation for her. I've packed her schedule, such as it is, just so she isn't always stuck at home and has some opportunities for socialization with other kids.

Hazel is Hazel, portable, getting chubby and having some lovely brain development every day. We're finally into smiles and I think she tries to laugh. I've tried getting it on video but she stops when the phone comes out, CURSES!

I've always heard that second kids get the shaft when it comes to pictures, so I've made an effort to not let that happen. It really helps when you have a cell phone that takes your pictures and then auto backs them up onto the cloud that your journaling is directly connected to.  Makes everything so much easier, especially since I haven't tried troubleshooting my desktop yet and thus haven't pulled the photos off either of my digital cameras.

Kaylee looks like a model in this picture, and so long!

Waiting for the farrier and nursing. New favorite spot!

Dinner time!

In going through the garage and cleaning and reorganizing I came across these toys of mine. I got them while we were on our honeymoon. The unicorns (black is missing its horn) are good v evil unicorns.  The playmobil is obviously a standardbred pacer. Kaylee has taken them for herself to play with.

We installed our rain barrels and the water that collects gets warm because the barrels are black. Kaylee had fun playing in that water.

Baby apples!

We took an alternate route home from our friend's house and discovered a HUGE oak tree. It is one of the few trees that remain from before Michigan was nearly totally deforested by logging and a massive fire.

We went to the park yesterday. Kaylee's friend Arya showed up. They played in the lake despite the cool temperatures.