Our Sleeping Bear Camping Trip

We went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this past week. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive north, and as the picture indicates, we camped. This trip was special for a few reasons. Reason #1: It's our last family trip before Alyson starts kindergarten. Reason #2: It was Ellary's first camping trip. Reason #3: Everyone has been telling us to see northern Michigan, and so we did it! We couldn't be happier with the way our camping trip turned out!
After setting up camp we bought some tubes and Kris, Alyson and Kourtney floated down the Platte River (the Platte River in Michigan). The river itself starts at Platte Lake and empties into Lake Michigan. Ellary and I dropped them off about half way down the river and took pictures as they began to drift down stream. They hadn't been in the water for more than 2 minutes when Kris flipped backwards off his tube and then Kourtney followed suit falling sideways off hers. If I hadn't known the water was only about 4 feet deep at the most in just a few places, I would have vetoed the whole floating down the river thing. I got the chance to drift down the river with Alyson and Kourtney just a few days later. It was fun, and we even got to see a crane.
Here is a picture of Ellary as she and I played at the end of the river while Kris and the girls floated down it.
Kris and Ellary are still in the Platte River in this picture. You can see Lake Michigan in the background. Ellary got a very brief ride down the river too.It was so neat how warm the Platte River was in comparison to Lake Michigan. In this picture Kris is standing where the two waters mix.
Alyson and Kourtney loved playing at the beach.Kris took pictures of the girls and I floating down the river, but they look just like the ones I took of them (except I didn't flip out of my tube! Love you Sweetie!)

Here is Kris and Ellary after the girls and I floated down the river. Don't they look cute? What a great dad!
We drove the Stocking Scenic Loop the second day we were there. Here is a look out point from one of the most famous dunes in the park that is located right off Lake Michigan. Check out the sign. It is a 450 foot tall dune and it is so steep that they had to post warning signs.
Here are two pictures of Kris maybe a quarter of the way down. Some people went all the way to the bottom and had to crawl back up on their hands and knees.Here is a picture of the same dune, just from the side. See how steep it was?
The water is so beautiful especially when you view it from overhead.
You can see Kris in the background of this picture. He's wearing a grey shirt .
Here is another famous dune in the park that is open for the public to climb up.
We also drove a little north to a town called Traverse City. It's right along Lake Michigan as well and it is a big tourist town. We took a walk down main street and saw a clothing boutique called "Ella's". We had to stop and take a picture.Here are two more pictures at another beach we stopped to look at on our way to the scenic loop.
The girls loved eating smores the way their cousin Ariell taught them how (wrap the smore sandwich in tin foil then place it on the campfire coals). It may turn out a little gooier than the usual method, but wow-the chocolate and marshmallow melt perfectly.
Here is little Ella snoozing away while we enjoy the campfire.Kris thought is would be a good idea to bring the girls' bikes with us so they could bike around the campground. He was very smart because it was also one of the things they enjoyed doing most. Here he is tying them down to the back of our car so we can go home.
Here is a picture of Alyson the day we took down camp.
Here is a picture of Ellary waiting very patiently for us to finish packing the van.We spent two nights camping then took a leisurely drive back home. Here are two pictures taken from a look out stop along our way. It was so beautiful to look out on Lake Michigan.
We had such a fun time that we can't wait to go back next summer. Hopefully we can take some family with us and share some of the fun things we discovered. We'll keep you posted about our next great adventure in Michigan!

Potter Park Zoo

We took a family outing to the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing yesterday and had a great time. It's a smaller zoo, just big enough for preschool age kids to walk around before saying "Mommy, my feet hurt." Still, it has a lot of the things people want to see like lions, tigers, penguins, monkeys, etc. It was while approaching the lions that we had the highlight of our zoo experience.

Ellary was a little fussy as we approached the felines. So I zoomed her around in the stroller and situated her right in front of the lions cage to get a good look at the beautiful lioness sitting so regally on a large rock about 15 yards from the fence (there wasn't a trench separating us from the lioness, just an iron fence and a metal bar in front of the fence to keep people from getting too close to it). Hearing Ellary's cries, the lioness perked up her ears and within seconds and just few leaps and bounds was perched on her hind quarters eyeballing the baby. I'm sure she would have loved to eat Ellary for a mid afternoon snack! Her abrupt charge startled me and a few other on lookers, including the tiger in the cage behind her. The lioness sat there a few moments, and after I turned Ellary away from her, strolled on back to her perch on top of the rock like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Needless to say, Ellary will never remember the lioness charging her, but it will forever be ingrained in our memories.

Our first brief glimpse of the lioness before she chargedAfter she charged
Returning to her roost
A picture of Ellary following hopefully the only time she is ever charged by a large feline
One of Alyson and Kourtney's favorite part of the zoo was taking a pony ride.
We won't bore you with pictures of animals you have all seen before. Just wanted to let you all know that we had a fun time exploring another part of the new place we call home.

Our Little Rolling Pin

So, if you can't tell, I'm on a blogging kick lately...and I'm on a photo taking kick as well. Ellary has been doing such a great job of rolling from her back to her belly then to her back again, that I wanted to immortalize the memory of her little face staring up at me before she starts crawling. Not only did I get what I wanted, but she also gave me a bigger surprise. Be sure to look at these pictures in sequence and you will see what I'm talking about.

Before

Puking

After

Ellary is even cute when she's puking, don't you think? It sure didn't stop her from smiling or rolling over again. Ella is a great baby.

(Notice the blanket under Ella in this picture...I learned my lesson and quickly placed her on a blanket just in case she had another surprise coming for me!)

Check Out the View

Here is a picture of the sunrise that Kris took one early morning from off our back deck.

And here is a picture that I took this morning-again from the back deck-when I noticed the fog hovering in the nature preserve behind our house. This picture reminds me of the scene in "Pride and Prejudice" (the one with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen) when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy meet in the field after the late night visit from Lady Katherine.

I'm not much of an early riser, but with these wonderful early morning views, it sure inspires me to get up a little sooner.

Also, the family and I went for a walk through the nature preserve on Sunday evening and saw a red fox. He shot across our path like a bullet. Now the girls want to do some exploring through the bushes and trees to see if we can find him again. Wow-it's awesome having this kind of nature just outside our back door.

Doctor Kristian D. Allee, B.S., MAcc, MBA, Ph.D.

For those of you who don't know yet, Kris defended his dissertation back at Indiana University last week and he unanimously passed! Whoopee! (Who really ever had any doubts that he would pass anyway?) His dissertation committee had a cake ready for him so that tells you how confident they were that he would pass. Then Kris' dissertation chair, Jim Whalen, took Kris and his committee out to lunch at Mama's, Kris' favorite Korean restaurant in Bloomington.

Way to go Babe! You have put in so much time, work and effort to get this far (us this far), that words can't thank you enough. Congratulations! We love you!