About to start the voyage.

Granny and Grandpa have just arrived from Rochester to babysit our dogs for the week. We are heading out for Canada tomorrow and who better to babysit our dogs then the traveling dog sitting service? (granny and grandpa) (who babysat our dogs for numerous years, who babysat my cousin's dog Leland for numerous years in a row, and who have owned almost ten dogs) We are pretty much all packed (granny doesn't believe me) and I can't wait to see our campsite that we stayed at when I was eight months old, seven years old, and nine years old. But before we set out to Canada, we had to take a break from all that packing and have some fun. So my mom's old cross-country girl named Julia Coulter was getting married and we went to join her with her and her husband Joul Pierson. It was a very nice simple wedding on a field next to a lake. And they are the cutest couple. So tomorrow they are heading out to Alaska, we are heading out to Canada, and Granny and Grampa are heading out to Stewert Zacks and the quilt store (granny just added) in downtown Traverse City. And granny and grampa won't be back in Rochester in probably a couple months considering the mile long to-do list my dad has written them of all of the hot spots in T.C. So when we arrive back in one week I'm sure that granny and grampa will know more about Traverse City then we do. Well we will be proud to say that we know a lot about Canada (hopefully) So you probably won't see another post for a while but I assure you, when I get back, there will be a post that takes you hours to read. Oh and, we got a new camera so hopefully you will see a post will pictures.

Gramma's house

Well we just got back from my Gramma's house in Crystal. She lives on a lake so there are plenty of things to do there. My cousin Lydia and I went swimming, sailing,tubing (lots of that) laughing, movie theatre watching, row boating, running, bike riding, and lots more. Also, as most of you know I will be going to East Middle School next year. And there will be lots of people there so I have to get some new really really awesome clothes. So we had a garage sail. I made almost a hundred dollars for school clothes plus my school clothes savings. So I can't wait to start shopping. My gramma's neighbors own a speed boat and tubes so they needed somebody to try them out. Of course my cousin and I volunteered to this task. After all, they did need some help! So they took us tubing a lot. Most of the days my cousin and I sat on the dock looking cute and bored to see if they would notice our adorable faces that needed to be pulled behind a boat on a tube. I mean, who else would have tried them out? Even though my Gramma's house is a ton of fun and I really didn't want to go, my mom and I had different adventures to be getting ready for. On Sunday, my family and I are setting out for Canada to camp at Agawa Bay for one week. So enjoy my blog as you can, because on our voyage we will have no electricity. The beautiful lake Superior and hiking trails waterfalls and canyon views need us to come, even though we may not have any electricity. It is a risk, we are willing to take.

Having fun

My dad and I really like to go kayaking on the nearby lakes around our house, but it is much more fun when we have other people to kayak with. So Stephanie and Don (my cousins) invited my family and Aunt Barb and Uncle Larry to go kayaking with them on Crystal River in Glen Arbor. So we drove to Glen Arbor and set out for our three hour kayaking adventure. Several of us got caught several times along the river and we were laughing the whole way. It was so much fun watching Pheny-joe getting stuck, mom flicking spiders on Don, Aunt Barb and Uncle Larry driving the snack kayak which came in handy, a dragon fly landing on my hat, and dad almost tipping going through a metal tube that was an optional portage for the trip. It was very entertaining to watch the unique kayaking techniques that were newly invented on this trip. Plus I'm sure it was very fun for our spectators watch a group of people that clumped up in numerous spots along the river several times. We probably looked like the kayaking ed. class driving along the river. So after all that touring of Glen Arbor we needed to show Aunt Barb and Uncle Larry a little bit of T.C. So the next day we went to a new winery on the Peninsula and the adults tried new wine and I tried mineral water. (yummy!) So then about an hour later we found ourselves looking at pretty houses on the Peninsula and showing Uncle Larry the boat marina. (he was in heaven) So we ordered some pizza and ate dinner at home and then we had some cherry moose tracks ice cream (I still don't understand how moose can have cherry tracks) So it was really fun and Aunt Barb and Uncle Larry leave tomorrow. I can't wait till' next year so we can kayak the river again and get together with the Stringer and Sanderson family.

The Edventure of a Lifetime.

Well as I told you, my mom, dad and I promised Steph Don Aunt Barb and Uncle Larry that we will take them to the beach, so we were willing to risk our lives for it. So my dad and I were convinced that we would find the perfect beach and my dad found one called Petobego (wierdish name) but we weren't positive that it was the perfect beach. So we went to go look at it when a storm was getting close to hitting. So we took the dogs out to the spot where you hike out to go to the beach. We got on the trail as the thunder was rumbling with still no sign of lightning yet. It took my dad forever to get me on the trail because I have a terrible fear of thunderstorms. So the woods were dark, we couldn't see much, it was raining and we could hear thundering over us. We were almost to the beach when all of a sudden a huge lightning bolt hit about a mile away from us. We could tell this because the thunder that rumbled after it hit took only about two seconds to almost permanently piercing our ear drums. So I was screaming and crying and it was still another mile back to the car. Luckily we survived the treacherous journey, but the mystery still wasn't solved... what is the beach like? So the next day my mom and I drove out to go check it out and we figured out that my dad and I would have had another about mile and a half to go. And guess what, after all that, the beach was terrible. There were houses all over the land, there were dead fish lining the shore and there were not very many people there. But luckily, we had some adventure along the way. On the way back we saw two baby eagles that landed on the tree over us, and we got to see a person riding along the water with a kite and a board. It was a pretty fun adventure. (I may have exaggerated just a touch in other posts, but I assure you, this is the 100% truth)

Spending time with mom

Everyone knows that spending time with your friends is like the funnest thing in the world and everything, and spending time with dad is just fun because he has a lot of the same interests as me. But, every once and a while, a girl just has to spend some time with her mom! So today of course I had to get up so my mom could go to a meeting so she dropped me off at my favorite book store in the world. So I browsed around, read a few pages of a couple of books, I had some in mind, so my mom came to pick me up. (oh and bye the way Aunt Barb, just in case you were wondering, I am sort of into fantasy/mystery books right now. and I like to read just over intermediate books. I like to challenge myself) anyway, so my mom took me to the old movie theatre in downtown T.C and we sat down to watch one of my favorite movies, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Imporium. I have seen it twice before and trust me, don't let the reviews get to you, it is a superb movie. We then headed out to Micheal's (love it!) to see what little things we could find. Mostly because I have been waiting to use Aunt Martha's gift card she gave me two years ago for Micheal's and today, I'm sure I would the perfect thing to spend it on. So we ended up spending sixty bucks on three pairs of shoes, five colorful storage containers (you never know when you might need to store something!) three mini colorful lunchboxes (a definent priority) of course a couple of cool buttons (after all I am a button girl...) a tie dye bandanna with peace signs and smiley faces on it, some shirts, and paints to make the dull colored shoes colorful. (everything NEEDS to be colorful with me. So my mom and I had a great day and tomorrow I have to get up at six thirty to go to my mother's cross country practice (nothing new to me). So tomorrow we will be having fun with my awesome cousins Steph and Don, and I think we will also be having fun with my awesome Aunt and Uncle, Barb and Larry. And don't worry you guys, yes we will be going to the beach! We are going to my gramma and grampa's house on Monday, and they are having a garage sale, so my mom made me gather up some of my old junk. So hopefully, I will get even closer to buying that new camera I am saving up for. And don't be fooled, I still LOVE clutter!

BUSY BUSY AND MORE BUSY!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. I have been really busy these last couple weeks, so I havn't even had enough time to check LE Times! Like Niki said on one of the comments, you guys really need to stop watching my blog so closley! :):):):) Well these last couple of weeks I have been Carnival riding, firework watching, junk food eating, sleepovering (ok fine that's not a word!) shopping (for really awesome bracelets), parade watching, cherry eating!!!!!!!!!, and of course lots and lots of cherry festivaling (also not a word.) Well I'll try to summerise it as well and as short as I can... my friend Annie invited me to go into town walking around the cherry festival. And did I mention that we got to spend five hours having fun in public with no parents!!! (YIPPE!) So we went carnival riding, and shopping downowning, cherry spitting, and pizza eating. I don't think I've had that much freedom... ever. So also we watched the cherry festival parade and guess what, I'm really good friends with Madison again! (you may remember me talking about her A LOT two years ago) We watched the parade with her and my mom and dad said we were non stop talking (what is wrong with them, I don't ever talk too much!) So I invited her to the fireworks and we saw a ton of my friends there (Noah, and Lukas) ok maybe not a ton of friends! So then today, my mom and I bought facial masks, hair mayo (what ever that's for) candals, pedicure stuff, and really wierd smelling soap. We decided we would have a spa day (well actually half of the day was a spa day because until about one o' clock I had a killer stomach ache.) (what did I eat?) It was really fun day (starting at one o clock) and the best thing is, I can actually run my fingers through my hair now!! (that hair mayo really works!) So of course I still havn't made an effort to drive to my friend Paxton's house to pick up my camera, but I will be doing that very soon!
P.S (If you are supposed to put that in a blog post) Sorry about all of the punctuation mistakes. I am not even going to bother doing spell check because my fingers are starting to kramp up. So keep checking my blog, and even though it may not be changing for a few days... still read it!

Oh and bye the way...

By the way, the camera that we filmed video's of Charlotte unfortunately doesn't work in the computer. BUT, no worries, because I am getting close in my savings to buy a camera and my flip camera has been found at my friend Paxton's house. So By tomorrow, there will be a video on LE times.

It was nice to meet you Charlotte!

Charlotte has almost met all of her relatives and she is the most smiley beautiful baby ever! She hasn't laughed yet but we were working on it. And you can sort of see the Cory and Niki in her starting to emerge. I can't wait to see what her personality and interests are. And I can't wait to see what she will look like. But I am pretty sure that she won't be shy! Well once we left Rochester I went straight to the phone to invite (no oh wait I went straight to bed to take a nap) Jordan over to come with my family to our good friends house the Decamps. So the next day, we drove to Elk Rapids to eat dinner and go the the Decamps speed boat. Jordan and I admired the pretty landscaping and beautiful flowers that they had at their house, we both agreed that it was one of the prettier houses we have seen. So we went on the speed boat, took a ton of pictures with Jordan's camera, went for a small dip in the water (considering that the water was just a little bit chilly) and then went back to their house to feast on two servings of delish strawberry shortcake. They are awesome cooks. The next day, after staying up until two in the morning, we went down town to go to the cherry festival to see the Indian pow wow. It was very interesting to see how many people of all ages took part in the event. And it was fun to watch their colorful outfits swish around as they danced. We then went to the old movie theatre called the state theatre that finally reopened since the 1950's. It was so cool to see how awesome the inside of the theatre looked. It had a balcony and stars on the ceiling with a curtain that opened when the movie started. It was a good thing the movie theatre was cool because the movie was the most boring movie I have ever watched. It was called the history of the Cherry Festival. (wee) Well I just invited my friend Molly to come with us to the Beatles concert in the open space in the Cherry Festival. Hopefully it doesn't rain like it did last year right in the middle of the best song... twist and shout. And also, this year it isn't free they charge you for watching an old band in the open space of the cherry festival, how unfair is that! :):):):):)

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!

Today, is the fourth of July. And I am at my Gramma's house to celebrate the fireworks, the red white and blue cupcakes (made by my Gramma) and the parade (with candy!). Right now my Grampa is cooking chicken, my uncle Steve is reading the Crystal newspaper, my gramma is watching me type my blog (hi gramma!) my mom and dad went to the Crystal grocery store to pick up a watermelon and I am typing on my blog! (yes you guessed correctly!) My cousins Lydia, and Natalie just left to go to their cousins house on Sand Lake to celebrate fourth of July there. The crazy thing is though, that we celebrate our fourth of July with our family (10 people) and they celebrate fourth of July with their family (80 people literally) Tonight we are going to sit on my gramma and grampa's house to watch the fireworks that people let off around the lake. (and yes I'm sorry but sometimes illegal ones) They are sooooo spectacular and one year while we were watching them we noticed when they were done that the northern lights were out. That would be pretty cool if they were red white and blue fireworks! I guess that year the northern lights were celebrating Christmas because they were green and red. My cousin Lydia and I have been wanting the neighbors to offer us to ride on their speed boat all day to go tubing. They haven't offered yet so hopefully they will later... Well Happy Fourth of July and as for the other side of my family, beware the Taylor's will be entering Rochester tomorrow... dun dun duuuuun.

headaches, Capatappe, and Old Friends

Yesterday, was the most, boring lazy day EVER!!!! I don't think I've ever been inside that long in my life!!! Well come on, you can't blame me... I mean the weather was terrible and rainy all day and there were some very good movies on t.v! But today was a better exercise day I think. My mom had a girl named Sarah Hastings on her cross country team the year I was born. Of course now, she lives in Washington and her name is Sarah Koke. So she came up to see us to eat at amical and listen to the gorgeous blue angels rip across the sky. I ordered Capatappe with artichoke hearts (yum!! my favorite) and shrimp. I would have taken a picture of it if I didn't drop the camera... but when I convince my parents to let me get my own camera (with shock included) and pay me more money for allowance then I will have lots of pictures of the interesting diet I have. We went downtown and listened to the brain rumbling blue angels as we went in and out of stores. Even though I love that sound of them (speaking of one just passed over my house and hurt my ears) it sort of gets annoying eating Capatappe with a head ache! But you gotta' love the blue angels:)! Well tomorrow we are heading out to my gramma's house on Crystal Lake and then we're off to Rochester to meet Charlie and eat Aunt Barb's and the rest of the families delish food. Cory and Niki, tell Charlotte that her cousin e-dog said hi, and that she can't wait to meet her!

Happy Birthday Mishe!!!!

Well, it is Mishe's second birthday on July first. I don't think dog's really notice that it is their birthday but I'm sure that they find it unusual that we are feeding them yummy human cake! We bought a red white and blue cake for Mishe. We put it on the table and let Mishe put her feet on the table and eat it. I'm sure granny wouldn't approve but you know, it's a special occasion! I can not wait until I meet Charlie! And I can't wait to go to gramma and grandpa's house for the fourth of July! See you all then!

Playing with the window

This is me playing with the window and being wierd. I love doing this at a stop light... It is hilarious!!!!!! The faces of other car windows are sooo funny!

Jumping at Jolli Lodge

JOLLI LODGE GOT A NEW TRAMPOLINE! Guess what? jolli lodge got a new trampoline and yesterday the Pennsylvania Taylor's and the Traverse City Taylor's tried it out. We were jumping for a very long time and Aunt Martha even tried it. It was sooooo much fun! But be careful, the first part of the video may make you a little dizzy! My video camera has a feature where you can mix the movies and I thought I would try it out...

Working In the Yard

This is the video I made especially for my blog. Now that I figured out how to put the video on the blog I can show all of you all of the work that my family has been doing on our yard...

Hello Jolli Lodge

Wow I finally made it to the lodge to work on le times. It’s been such a fun filled busy day, I’ve had no time to sit down! I’ll start yesterday when the Pennsylvania Taylor’s arrived at the Traverse city Taylor’s house. I was scurrying around the house trying to make my new room perfect so they could see it at their best. So they got here and we were off to our annual trip to Poppycock’s. (an awesome smoothie restaurant in downtown T.C.) I ordered chicken and broccoli pasta and scarfed it down before going to Aubrey’s house to pick her up to sleep over for the night. So we picked her up, played with some water balloons, watched a movie called Camp Rock, ate dinner, and went to bed and then went to sleep three hours. So we woke up the next day, my dad forcing us to get up at eight thirty. We got up, dropped Aubrey off at her house and then, the real fun of the day finally begun. We rode to Jolli Lodge and arrived there at about eleven thirty. The first thing we did was admire Jolli Lodge’s new teeter totter and their new thousand dollar trampoline. Then we went and greeted Uncle Doug with Erin Katie and Aunt Martha nowhere in sight. Of course they were down enjoying the beach. I spent the rest of the day playing with Erin, Katie, Aunt Martha and uncle Doug enjoying the gorgeous jolly lodge on Lake Michigan. Of course Erin the blog master has already written her blog for the day, So right now I am sitting in the cottage living room writing my blog watching the sunset set. There is truly no where on earth as pretty as Jolli Lodge! So tomorrow, there are more adventures to come, some art projects to do with my high school art teacher Aunt Martha, and we definitely need to find at least 20 petoskey stones! Make sure to check in tomorrow.

water balloons, fun with friends, and more fungus!

Well yes it is true, there is MORE fungus growing out of our yard. And guess who is the victim who has to pick all of it out... moi. Well oh well. I guess every kid usually picks fungus out of something every once and a while... Jordan and I started recognizing the heat one day when we were sitting in my living room bored out of our minds scorching hot. So what other fun activity to do on a hot day in Northern Michigan, a water balloon fight. Jordan and I recorded ourselves having a water balloon fight one day. But unfortunately, I can't seem to get the video to go on my blog. Maybe the blog master Erin can help me get it on on Sunday when I go to Jolly Lodge. So I also went to my friend Molly's house to spend the night and was surprised to find my old friend from second grade that moved to Nashville Tennessee was staying over at Molly's house too! Her name is Talia and she lives in Nashville. She lives down the street from Dolly Pardon and has played tag in Dolly's yard with her neighborhood friends! It was very fun to catch up with her. And yesterday I went over to my friend Aubrey's house with Jordan and we also noticed the heat in that day. We soaked ourselves and Aubrey's trampoline with water and attempted to make a slip n' slide with her tarp which didn't work very well. Today I went with my mom into town to write my birthday list in downtown Traverse City. And yes, I know that my birthday is three months away, but some of my favorite stores got new stock in merchandise so I definitely had to check it out. It was a fun week, but... I think this week will be even better. Because tomorrow the Pennsylvania Taylor's are eating lunch with us at poppycock's and you HAVE to look at my blog. And I promise you, I will post a very long post. So make sure you check in tomorrow evening, trust me you'll want to.

Chores and yummy smoothies

In these last few day's I haven't been doing much. Just mostly what you are supposed to do during summer, be lazy and for me, doing lots of chores. Our mulch that we bought was infested with fungus (tons of mushrooms that I had to pick out) and so we had to order new mulch. So just when I think I'm done with working with the old mulch, I have to work with the new mulch. Luckily I am paid by my parents to pick fungus out of the ground on a hot day. It isn't the funnest chore. And remember that rhubarb I talked about getting at the farmers market with Lydia, well I used it in a FANTASTIC smoothie. All of a sudden I am obsessed with making smoothies. In my (I called it a sour smoothie) (don't worry, a yummy kind of sour) I added
1. one stick of rhubarb
2. about fifteen grapes (pretty much the reason why it was sour)
3. a chopped up plum
4. pomegranate juice
5. vanilla yogurt
6. sunflower seeds
7. red raspberries
8. blueberries
9. ice (I'm sure you could have guessed that)
It was sooo good. But I don't think my dad liked it...
but, he did like my berry smoothie with...
1. red raspberries
2. strawberries
3. blueberries
4. pomegranate juice
5. strawberry yogurt
6. peanuts
That smoothie was really good too.
Man this is making me hungry, sorry about this post if you haven't eaten dinner yet, I'm sure that smoothies will hit the spot during a really hot... humid... summer.
You know, I think I am going to go make a smoothie now...

The History of Jolly Lodge

OK Jolly Lodgers, I am ready for you to see my new room! I just finished it today and it is way easier to walk around. Oh and to the rest of you who don't know what Jolly Lodge is, it is just about the prettiest and funnest place ever. My Aunt Martha, my Uncle Doug, and my cousin's Erin and Katie go there every year usually in June or July to pig out on Uncle Doug's delish white fish (CAN'T WAIT) and swimming in the B-E-Autiful lake Michigan. It is a little cottage summer neighborhood that you rent on a spot next to lake Michigan and to the Saunderson's, and the Taylor's, it is famous. When Cory and Stephanie were little (my cousin's) Aunt Barb and Uncle Larry would take them to Jolly Lodge and would enjoy northern Michigan for one week. Erin and Katie were also brought to Jolly Lodge as kids and went there sometimes at the same time as Cory and Stephanie. I can just see all of them playing on the beach and swimming in the freezing ice cold temperature (most of the time, sometimes its quite nice) of Lake Michigan. Aunt Martha and Uncle Doug still take Erin and Katie to Jolly Lodge but now, but now Katie flies in from Washington D.C and Erin flies in from New York city so technically, Aunt Martha and Uncle Doug aren't really taking them, more like meeting them there! So now every year, the Pennsylvania Taylor's invite me to come stay at Jolly Lodge for one night every year in July to come celebrate the fourth. (this year I am coming to celebrate the 29th of June) And let me just say, I am soooo excited. I can't wait. So now when you ever read anything about Jolly Lodge on my blog, you'll know what the heck we're talking about. And I hope you check in to L.E times next week, because you'll be hearing an awful lot about Jolly Lodge!

Clean Sweep

While I was in Grand Rapids, I went to a girl's house who's room was AWESOME! Her bed was on a loft and there was a couch and a desk under her loft. I thought it was really cool and didn't actually realize until I got home that I have a loft too! And as most of you know, I have a queen sized bed and it sort of cramps up my room, so I decided that I was going to get rid of the queen, well put it in the guest bedroom, and put a twin sized bed on my loft. And usually, it is kind of annoying that my mom loves room or building projects because she is always dragging me to home depot and giving me suggestions of how to remodel my room and stuff like that. But today, that personality of hers came in handy. So of course, we started on the project today. We moved all of my room junk into the guest bedroom. We were supposed to organize the stuff so when I go to put it back in my room, but in the end it looked like a tornado hit on the left side of our house. I and especially my mom (I'm a closet stuffer) were surprised at how much stuff I have in my junkyard, I mean room. So my room is totally cleared out now except for my giant bed, my two clothes cabinets, an empty loft, and a surprisingly dirty floor which I was unaware of until today. So Erin, Aunt Martha, Katie and Uncle Doug, when you come in 9 days, luckily the tornado will have cleared up by then. And hopefully my new room will be as I hope...

IMPORTANT!! MUST SEE!!!

Hello Everyone...
I hope you are enjoying my blog and just a few seconds ago I made my blog more enjoyable. Thanks to my wonderful cousin Erin who is the blog expert which most of you know just told me that I can go to my comment settings and make anyone open to send in comments about my blog. So those of you who have been having troubles sending in comments, try it again and it will work. If it doesn't send me an e-mail and I will change it. Enjoy oh and thank you Erin for the tip!