The Aaron Family

In July we went to Ann Arbor, about 45 minutes away. We walked around University of Michigan campus. It has some pretty amazing looking old buildings.We had lunch at the famous Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger.

After lunch we went to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens...

Our last stop was Gallup Park on the Huron River.

Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July we went to the Oakland County fair in Clarkston. It was a small fair with all the usual, animals, vendors, rides, etc. They even had a small circus perfomance with lions, tigers, and elephants. We got the kids ride bracelets so they spent a few hours doing all the kiddie rides. It was a bit hot, but we had a fun time.

That evening we had our own little family BBQ and did sparklers. Here in Michigan, it doesn't get dark until about 10pm in July, so we didn't keep the kids up for fireworks, we just did sparklers and little sparking fireworks in the daylight. (We saved some sparklers to do in the fall when it gets dark earlier!)

Bear Creek Park

When looking for our new home we stopped by the Bear Creek Nature Park. It is a fun little park with a beautiful nature trail. And it is only 5 minutes from our new house so we go often.

Life in West Bloomfield

When we first moved to Michigan we rented a house in West Bloomfield. Our house had lake privileges to Walnut Lake which was a small in the neighborhood. The lake was great, they had a beach with the shallow play area roped off, a playgound and and a snack shack. Aftin took the kids to the lake to swim and play a few times each week while we lived there. Russell's favorite thing there was the ducks. His first "word" was "duh" while pointing to the ducks.

The rental house was on an acre. We had a small wooded area surrounding the backyard and saw a lot of wildlife. It was really fun for the kids. We mainly saw deer, bunnies, squirrels and groundhogs. And the kids had a lot of fun digging around for worms and bugs.

One day we were sitting at dinner and heard a loud cracking sound. A huge branch outside broke! Luckily the kids weren't outside at the time, but they had a lot of fun playing on the broken branch afterward.