Mom planned a wonderful road trip to upper Michigan for us. We saw all the sights and I renewed my appreciation for up North. We headed up on Monday, stopping in Mackinac City and Fort Michilimackinac. Then we drove over the Mackinac Bridge and stayed in St. Ignace. The next day we took a ferry…

The girls and I are enjoying some family time in Michigan before we head to Switzerland. We were lucky to be able to go to grandma’s 94th birthday party and see lots of cousins and aunts and uncles and so many of grandma’s beautiful great-grandchildren.  Here a few of my favorite photos: Everybody line up…

Bea has this sweet little friend and she is a gem of a friend. Her name is Mabel. Claire has friends too and they are special girls, but Mabel is different because Mabel has helped Bea through some incredibly difficult times. When Bea was paralyzed with fear Mabel was the one who could make her…

Paris on the Prairie – that’s what Daniel Burnham, visionary behind Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, nicknamed The Plan of Chicago. We took the girls and Bea’s best friend Mabel down to the city to do the excellent Chicago Architecture Foundation river tour on Thursday. I’ve been on the tour a few time and each…

We have Brian back with us for the week. We really missed him. We’ve been swimming, watching fireworks, sleeping in late, picnicking, painting and just relaxing as a family.

The great lakes – what an understatement. They should be called the fantastic, spectacular, so big you can never see the other side lakes! This rock was perched on a bench on the steps down to the water. I am trying to be happy, but I also feel like I’m in limbo. Between one section…

We shipped all of our art supplies over to Switzerland – our paints and brushes and colored pencils and paper and markers and chalks. Everything! How can we survive these summer months without some art? We can’t. I had to take the girls to the art store to buy some paints. And wow, we have…

I tried a new recipe for the shortcakes – Smitten Kitchen’s version. It was very quick and easy and I think I would use it again. I also made a strawberry milk recipe from Smitten Kitchen that I first tried last year. If you get your hands on a few cups of good strawberries I…

We are missing Brian like crazy. He sends us photos like this on the weekends.