River trip - Day 1

The day started off gloomy and chilly, continued raining on and off the whole day. We had a power breakfast at Real Food Cafe in GR, which would keep us running strong all day long for hiking later.
We scouted around at Hodenpyl Dam access looking for the Manistee river trail for about an hour. Awaiting for the pouring rain to slow down, we finally decided venturing into the forest along the unmarked trail which ran parallel with the river bank. The forest floor was covered with above-knee-high ferns with lots of wild mushrooms scattered around. Elle was getting a hang of hiking by herself until the trail could hardly be seen at all that we had to walk through the ferns. As the forest getting denser with no sign of any trail, we decided to head back and looked for another trailhead to start again.
As we're about to leave the Hodenpyl Dam access, we're lucky to meet two hikers pointing us to the direction of the trail head that led to the suspension bridge. A hike down a slope and we were at the "little Mac" suspension bridge over the Manistee River. There're quite a few people fishing on the bridge in the light rain. The water was so clear that we could see a few suckers in the river.
We hang out along the river bank below the bridge soaking up the beauty of the nature and the smell of the damp woods. Elle had so much fun "fishing" with dada even though all she did was reeling in the fishing line. It was hilarious to watch her shrilling with glee and excitement as she was reeling in and the artificial lure popping out of the water. She thought she caught a fish!
On a side note, we met two creepy men who camped beside the river bank. As Hin was checking out the river on the other side, Elle and I went past their campsite to check out the scenery. We chatted a bit and one of the guys suggested Elle would have lots of fun at the nearby river bank. As we headed towards the river bank, the guy came over and kept telling us "I don't mean to bother you. I just want to show you the river...". Luckily Hin was back looking for us when we're trying to "escape". The second time we past by their camp as we're leaving, the other guy stood up from his camping chair and said he's going back to the trailhead too as his friend was waiting for him there. It's so creepy that he kept saying "I'm not following you guys." as he would stop and wait for us to past by him and then walked behind us. We joked about we should have used the line "I have an axe but I'm not going to use it." to start the conversation with creepy guys next time.

Lake Michigan, here we come.

This's our first trip to lake michigan in this summertime. The vast sand dune in Warren Dunes state park is awe-striking magnificient. It's like a barren desert with hardly any shield from the heat of the sun. With the gorgeous lake michigan on one side, the other side stands 240-feet dune towers for tumbling-down fun.

The day was sunny and windy. Imagine the fun of being sand blasted by every gust of wind as we were pinicking enjoying our food. The kids had heaps of fun messing with the sand on the beach. Elle didn't even care to get into the water at all.

After basking under the sun with a boost of Vitamin D and sandblast, we packed up and headed to the st joe river fishing while the kids enjoyed playing at the playground a block away. It's funny, yet sad, that Elle didn't need our attention at all. All she wanted was to hang out with her lil' friends all the time, following wherever they went. Love the picture of these four little friends walking with hands holding together. It's fun watching them kept changing their mind, switching hands and deciding who held whose hands. Sitting on our laps sliding down was no longer just our privileage anymore. What cracked me up was the littlest boy Azman screamed at Elle asking her to sit on his lap when she's sliding down with one of the brothers. No doubt Elle would be too heavy for him.

Kellogg forrest

We never got to finish the 2.5 miles trail as Elle was too busy playing with the dirt along the trail, picking branches and rocks throwing them at me and requested me to do the same. We stopped at every couple hundred yard, moving along in turtle pace. The moment she started melting down and insisted to be carried, we turned around and headed back. By the time we reached the trail head, we were crazily attacked by vicious mosquitoes.

Summer pool fun

Three more weeks the pool will be closed again. What a shame that we only went to the pool three times in this summertime.

Breakfast at the park

We enjoyed the warm and breezy morning with our breakfast at the park.An embarrassing incident occurred while we're hanging out at the playground. As Elle was standing on the step-up platform talking through the talk tube at one end while I was standing at the other side of the talk tube, out of the sudden, I heard a frantic outburst of wailing and piercing shriek shattered the peaceful morning. I turned around and saw Elle was all teary crying on top of her lung with a finger pointed at an ant wandering nearby her feet. Everyone at the playground was startled by her horror scary shriek and thought something terrible was happened to her. A parent asked me if everything was okay as I was rushing towards her. Imagine how embarrassing it was to tell them it's just an ant, a teeny bug, that caused all the drama.
In the afternoon, Hin brought back his victory from St. Joe river. By far, this was the first steelhead ever landed successfully after putting up a good fight. He was exhilarated by his first caught in St. Joe river.

Chicago day trip

What a blasting hot and humid day to visit Chicago today! Elle enjoyed her favorite tofu fa at the dim sum place.
With a belly full of dim sum, we had a nice stroll in the Garfield park conservatory. The greenery is beautiful and lush with koi ponds to sit by and relax. The collection of plants in this conservatory is enormously amazing. We saw mini hibiscus, giant palm trees, banana trees, grapefruit trees, coffee trees, cinnamon tree, cardamom trees, ferns, and hundreds variety of cactus and desert plants. Our lil' gardener obsessed with the watering can, having heaps of fun spraying the water to the plants, even at us! The time slipped away so fast that we made it out just before it's closed.

Love doing grocery at HMart during the weekend as there're plenty of stations offering free sample tasting of foods. Elle was very much adventurous in food, did not reject any food sample we put into her mouth, even screaming for more. We're lucky to get some fresh lychee and logan. It's been a while the last time we ate them. As we headed to the korean town for our dinner, we're surprised to see the road blocks and crowds and then finally realized the Korean festival was held on that weekend too. The fun fair game flashed back the childhood memories of endless fun I had at the fun fair in my hometown.

27 months old

Dear Elle,

There has been an explosive growth of vocabulary in you, keep on amazing us how quick and how much you learn at this stage of your toddlerhood. You shout out "Oh man!" when something goes wrong. You mumble "Hmmm.. Let's see" as you open your dresser deciding what outfit you want to wear for the day. You jump on your feet shrilling in joy "I did it!", "I found it!", "I got it!" as if you've made the greatest achievement in your life. You say "I want something else" when you get sick of the TV program or would like to get another type of snack. You named the white color TV remote control "white" and the black color video remote control "yucky".
You have been slowly invading into our sleeping territory. When it's around bedtime, you'd come holding our hands, tell us you're ready to go to sleep and lead us to our bedroom saying that's where you want to sleep for the night. You tell us you scare of the honking noise of the train and cars in the middle of the night when you're sleeping alone in your room.

The sweetness about you is when we hit something by accident, immediately your lil' sweet empathy voice raises "痛痛?" and here come our lil' angle showers kisses on our boo boo. Mama heart melt by your possessive action as you cling next to mama declaring to strangers in your lil' strong tone: "It's my mommy. Mine.".That day as we're strolling in a greenhouse, you blew at the flowers and then gave them a kiss. That's so sweet.
Walking appears to be so boring that you hop around like a bunny instead.
You adore all the big kids you met at the park, following them around doing exactly whatever they do. You keep on telling us you are BIG KID, able to do things big kids can do. Probably because of you're a big kid now, you want everything big big one.
Dada's belt buckle somehow appeals to you so much that you always want to help dada putting it on. Covering yourself and mama with the blankie, hiding inside and awaiting for dada monster coming to catch us is one of your favorite game. Potty time seems to be a happy time for you. You always shut us off outside the door. We heard all sort of noises coming out from the bathroom. Sometimes you're talking to yourself. Sometimes you're singing, or playing harmonica. Sometimes you're reading books. We see a naked butt coming out to grab a book and then going into the bathroom every few seconds. Every time you tell us you're done and we follow you back to the bathroom, you'd push us out of the door saying "more more". As we keep poping the question "Are you done?", you always shake you hands saying "Not yet!".
You love carrying mama's camera around, putting it against your eyes saying "baby take picture, say cheese". One evening you dug out the Santa hats from the dresser, put one on yourself and another on dada, and hurried mama to grab the camera to take pictures of you and your dada in the Santa hats. What an early Christmas we had this year!
Love,
Mama