Lila and Eva posing on a rick in the river at Canyon Falls.

On our drive to my parents’ house in the Keewenaw, we stopped at Canyon Falls and hiked into the woods for a little sight-seeing. Enjoy the photos!

We’ve spent the last few days at our family’s cottage (we call it a “camp”) on Portage Lake. The photos of the ducks and the chipmunk are from there.

The girls swam at the camp, and we took two short trips to the beach at White City where they swam and played in the sand. The lighthouse photo is from there.

Click on the photos to view them larger.

We celebrated Eva’s birthday and the girls got snorkels and masks. Lila swam a lot in Lake Superior and Portage Lake, despite the cool lake temperatures. “It’s warm!” she declared. Lake Superior was 44 degrees, though we swam in more protected bays so they were probably a bit warmer.

Eva preferred to splash in the waves near the shore and play in the sand.

Oh, and on Friday at the camp I took the girls for a real sauna. The temperature was a soothing 145 degrees, and when I tossed a little water on the hot rocks, they gasped “I can’t breathe!” Funny. I showed them how to breathe through a moist washcloth, and they sighed in relief under their washcloth-masks. We took some more steam to draw out the sweat, scrubbed up and got all sudsy, and then went to rinse the soap off in the lake.

Now, back at my parents’ house, the girls are sitting here playing with legos. Tonight we’ll wash clothes and pack up the car. Tomorrow we drive back down to Saint Charles near Saginaw.

Following is an excerpt of a message I emailed to my coworkers on Thursday morning.

I was in a 2-car collision last night while I was driving my daughters back to St Charles from Saginaw. An elderly woman pulled out from a side street in front of both lanes of traffic on the highway. We were in the left lane, and I didn’t see her until we hit her car because an SUV just ahead and to my right obscured the view. She was taken to the hospital but it sounded from the police like she was going to be okay.

After the impact we ended up against one of those raised cement storm drains in the ditch on the other side of the highway, I’d guess about 40 yards back from where we were.

Lila and Eva are both fine, other than a seat belt burn on Eva’s upper right shoulder. Lila was gasping that she couldn’t breathe, probably because of the impact and she probably inhaled smoke. After a few minutes she was just fine.

Some other people stopped and called 911, and helped get Eva out of the car while I was checking Lila.

Chey came and we went to a hospital in Saginaw with the girls just to be safe. They’re fine.

My left hand hurt and wasn’t working quite right, and I wanted to be sure that my fingers (middle finger and thumb, specifically) were not broken. Thankfully the X-Rays showed no fractures, and this morning the swelling is down and I can move it better than last night.

I’m very thankful that everyone is okay.

And, for all of us techies, my laptop is a little bent, but seems to work okay.

Eva Marie, Dec. 2008

Eva, my 5 year old, was sitting next to me on the couch. She looked up at me with a sad face and said, “Daddy, it’s hard growing up.”

I gave her a little squeeze and prompted, “Yeah?”

“I don’t like losing teeth,” she finished.

“Let’s put him in the dungeon so we can eat him!” schemed Eva.

“You’re going to fatten me up before you eat me?” I asked.

“No, you’re already fat!” said Eva the witch. “That’s why we chose you!”

Lila the witch cackled sinisterly.

Snow fell continually, except for a beautiful blue sky on Christmas morning. Eva came down with a cold, so we did not spend much time outside. We did do a little sledding though.

Here are a couple photos of the girls from Christmas morning.

We drove down yesterday and today. What crazy weather! Yesterday was pure thick fog all the way through the U.P. and the Norther Lower, until evening, when we had a downpour along with the fog. Visibility was so bad, everyone was driving very slowly.

We spent the night in Gaylord. This morning at 7:15, the driveway outside the hotel was submerged with a river from the snowmelt. By 8:45 it was frozen solid.

So we hit the road for St. Charles and the highway was so bad that we were in a column of cars all moving 45 MPH or less, for hours. It was slow-going, but we made it in this afternoon.

MSU Children's Garden in the Spring of 2008

On Sunday morning, Lila, Eva and I visited the 4-H Children’s Garden at MSU. It was a beautiful day, and there were a few other small groups of people strolling around.

In the back corner of the garden, obscured by the large tree in this photo, there is a play train. On the other side of the wooden wall, to the right in the photo, there are train tracks. When trains came by, the girls clambered up to the roof of the play train and watched the real trains roar by.

The second train only had a dozen or so cars, and it was going very fast. Eva crouched defensively and covered her ears, mouth and eyes open in awe when it finally sped by, horn blaring.

Lila and Eva decorating cookies at Richardsons.

Thank you Richardsons for having us over for egg-painting and cookie decorating! We had a great time!

She had some books to read, so she read to us. The story was a fairy tale and there was an inn and an innkeeper in it, so we discussed what an inn is and what an innkeeper is. In the picture in the book, the innkeeper was standing in the doorway to the inn. Above the door was a sign that read, “Ye Olde Inn.”

Lila pointed to the sign and said, “Oh, Spanish.”

I corrected her, “No, that’s actually Old English. It was spoken many years ago, so you see it in old-time stories.”

“How do you know it’s Old English?” she asked. “Oh right! You’re an old man.”

Yesterday evening I was driving Lila and Eva by the Eastman Party Store, and Lila asks, “Daddy, you see the Eastman Party Store?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“So, what do you think you’d see in there?” she asked. “Like, balloons and stuff? No, just wine! Lots of wine and some old cheese.”

Very disappointing.

Scene: It’s a hot day, and we’re pulling away from the drive through at Wendy’s, having just picked up a lemonade for Lila, 6, and a chocolate milk for Eva, 3.

Eva: Daddy, did you know that brown cows make chocolate milk for people?

Me: Are you sure?

Lila: Yeah, they do.

Me: No, brown cows make white milk, and people add the chocolate.

Lila: Then why are they brown?