Birthday and Visit

This year for my birthday not only did Ken spoil me but my mom and dad came to visit. It was a great birthday and it was so fun to have them here when the weather was nice and we could be outside doing fun summer stuff.

Ken knows all my favorite stuff and totally spoiled me for my birthday -- lots of lotions, superman stuff, cute summer dresses and a Boston cream pie for a birthday cake.

Another fun present they found was an air popper because Ken knows how much I love popcorn. We had to give it a test run straight out of the box.

After my parents got there and it was dark enough, we set off fireworks in the driveway. A birthday tradition from back in the day.

The one thing my dad wanted to do while he was here was go to Silver Beach Pizza. We did that Sunday for lunch and stuffed ourselves on the best pizza in the world.

Dad forgot his hat so he took over my Superman hat. He thought he was very cool in it.

After pizza we found a good spot on the bluff to take some pictures.

We went to a fireworks show in Baroda on the 3rd. Everyone parks in a big field and hangs out until the show starts. It's a pretty good fireworks show for a small town, but next year we will figure out a better place to park so we aren't sitting dead still for a half hour.

Mom and Dad playing with bubbles before the fireworks.

The last birthday present Ken found was this cute beach chair my dad immediately dubbed the "knee-high chair," after the Zac Brown band about standing knee-high in the water with the ocean as his medication. It is very cozy and was perfect for watching fireworks from.

We spent the day of the 4th at our friends the Adams house. They have a huge yard and a nice sized pond stocked with fish.

Syd and Dad fishing

My favorite part of fishing was the pet duck they have named Oliver. He was a nice duck and hung out with us the whole time. He let us pet us and quietly quacked the whole time. He swam around in the water and came out on the grass. He was very friendly and happy. Sadly, we found out yesterday that he was eaten by something during the night. I'm glad we got to meet him and hang out with him for a while.

At one point Syd and her friend Anabelle, whose house we were at, brought out a picnic of leftover pizza. Oliver thought that looked like a good lunch for him and tried to steal entire pieces of pizza from them. They had to run back to the house and eat inside so he wouldn't snatch it away. He followed them the whole way from the pond to the house.

Fishing is definitely a spectator sport. And we are good at it -- spectating that is.

Ken and I took the day off work Tuesday to go to Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. It's a great zoo with lots of different exhibits. The best thing was that a lot of it was inside and what was outside was very shady. It was super hot that day. My dad and I loved it and everyone else was melting to death.

You have to ride the carousel at the zoo because it has so many cool animals to choose from.

This reminded me of a "flutterby bush" in the Harry Potter books.

Dad talking to the stingrays.

Syd getting instructions on how to feed the stingrays

Sting rays are my favorite part of the zoo. I could stay there all day talking to and petting them. There was one baby about a quarter of the size of the one in the picture. He was bright white and so friendly. He'd swim really slow so I could pet him longer and seemed to come over to be petted on more than the other ones.

Duda the equal opportunity lap snuggler. Even with the non cat lover in the family. If your legs are straight, he's going to sit on you.

Duda has always fought with my dad. But since his legs were straight while he napped he snuggled him too. Can you tell how much Storm adores him? :)

Dad and I played tennis for an hour. It was my first time playing in 2 summers so I felt very rusty. The next day my entire right arm from hand to shoulder was super sore. But it was tons of fun and I need to play more often.

This was a very common sight around our neighborhood for 4 days. Dad loves to walk with Storm, but she will only go if I'm with them. Otherwise she stops in the middle of the sidewalk and looks back at the house and won't move anymore