Enisi and Edudi Come to Visit

Months and months ago, the Crockers planned their visit to us, and as it got closer to their trip, I asked if Bill would be willing to share his expertise, and help save this wall!  They brought some tools with them, so we could knock it out while they were here!  

That said, Billy and I were in Poland when they first got here, but the trips only overlapped a couple of days! Apparently, only Alice was actually home when they arrived, but we all made it home eventually.

Grace has really upped her piano game this summer, in anticipation of playing percussion in band!  Here, Edudi was adding some notes that made Grace's song sound really polished!

The very first time that Billy and I went to Max's Southseas Hideaway, Billy told me how much his dad would love it there, so we made the trip, and brought any of the kids that wanted to go!  Normally I would have pushed a little harder for everyone to go on a trip like this, but it would have required two cars making the drive, and since Alice and William had very little inclination to join us, they missed out this time!

They had some fancy drinks on the menu, and you could get yours served in a pineapple for a slight upcharge!  Emily and Grace were really excited to get their pineapple drinks.

Juliet declined both of her drinks being in pineapples, but did enjoy seeing Grace and Emily's on the table!

Billy and I shared a different flaming drink this time!

Emily and Grace both ordered the kids' sushi plate.  Juliet had grilled cheese and fries, which she shared with Enisi!

Grace added a flower to her hair!

We also ordered the smore-like dessert, so that the girls could play with fire. lol.

Everyone, except for me and Billy, got up and toured the building, while we waited on our food.  We did take one more picture in front of the fountain.  It is such a cool place, and everyone left impressed!

Emily and Grace wanted to help with the wall, so after says of mudding and sanding, it was finally time to prime the wall!  We added two layers, because of the navy paint.

Enisi was a good sport and played lots of board and card games with the girls, while Bill and Billy played a video game together.

The finished product looks soooooo much better!  It also makes the hallway lighter!  I'm hoping to get some paneling put in there, ideally, so maybe eventually, but for now I'm just thrilled that it is such a vast improvement!

I hope they had a nice visit, it's quite the trip for them, but always good to have them here!

later days

edit 8-21-25: backdated for continuity. 

18th Anniversary - Back to Grand Rapids

This year marked our 18th wedding anniversary!!!  Time seems to be going much faster these days.  William just graduated out of his booster seat, and come November, will meet all the criteria to ride in the front seat! = 0  Alice turns 16 in August, Emily starts high school in the fall, and the twins will be heading to middle school.  I'm glad the sun was out today because I needed the comfort. lol.

I digress.  My mom agreed to a sleep over with the kids, and Billy and I headed back to Grand Rapids to see somethings we missed the first go round!  Once again, Grand Rapids was not our first choice, but Ann Arbor was expensive, again, and Claire was booked, because it was St. Patrick's Day weekend!

When we pulled into town, there was an event, Irish off Ionia, going on.  We saw tons of people dressed up to celebrate.  I was really glad that we wore green, and a little sad that I hadn't grabbed some of our other accessories.  We also saw tons of college kids walking around, so I guess classes were out on our previous trip, in January.

The hotel was easy to find, since we'd already stayed there once, and we were upgraded at check in!  The room wasn't much bigger, but did have a coffee maker and the bedroom was walled off from the bedroom.  I didn't take any pictures this time.  After settling in, it was time to venture out!

Our first stop was a pinball bar.

Billy played the James Bond Pinball game, and his jet pack caught the ball to give him a bonus!  It's hard to see, but I thought I'd give y'all a sporting chance to spot it; it's circled below.

Once we had our fill of pinball, we made our way to the Irish Pub that we missed out on last time, but the line was out the door, and halfway down the block!  Despite the weather being better than it was on our previous visit, we decided to find a less packed location.

So, we stopped back in to Max's South Sea's Hideaway.  We weren't planning on eating a meal there, so we sat at the bar.

We shared a Boo Loo, which was served in a pineapple!

I wanted to do something to celebrate the 'holiday' so I ordered the Emerald Viper.   It wasn't very good, but it was pretty.

And I got this lovely picture of the bar, with my pretty drink in front of it. lol.

Billy got a Henry's Baby, it was not as pretty, but he enjoyed it.

Our next stop was for some food, at a bar with a secret back entrance!

We approached from the road, through the parking lot and across the alley to get to the door.  It felt very secret.  There was a street entrance on the other side, but I don't think we left that way either!

A place with a legit physical menu in Grand Rapids! What a novelty!

We played some physical pong.  Billy beat me handily: 5-1 or something.

They were playing reruns of Nickelodeon shows, including commercials, so I saw some things that I've not seen in decades! It was pretty cool.

One of the concerts on our radar was in a bar with a long line, so we passed on it, and went to check out some specials in the building that houses the comedy club.  We skipped on the comedy this time, but did get some lucky charms in our drinks!  The flavors didn't mesh well at all though.

While we sat there, we saw more and more college kids heading in to celebrate!  Lots of green.  I had no idea that it was such a big holiday for people!

Without the concert or comedy club, we just spent time chatting, until dinner time.  We went out to a hibachi grill.  The 6:30 reservation did not show up, so we were seated alone, with our first white hibachi chef, Brandon!  He was really good, and all of our food was perfect!

We attempted one more stop at a wine bar that boasts live jazz, but they had apparently, recently, closed for business. = /  There were lines, in the cold, everywhere, so we called it a night and headed back to our hotel.

The weather turned on us again, and it was rainy and cold on Sunday, so we were not feeling adventurous and just headed home.  Maybe next time, because I think we will go back when the weather is better!

later days

Previous Anniversary celebrations:

17th Anniversary - English Inn: Holmes and Watson
16th Anniversary - Nico's
15th Anniversary- Etran Adventure
14th Anniversary- Ann Arbor
13th Anniversary- The trip that wasn't
12th Anniversary - Toledo
11th Anniversary - St. Louis
10th Anniversary - Fish Grille, Waxahachie
9th Anniversary - Ft. Worth
8th Anniversary - Arby's
7th Anniversary - Hookah bar
6th Anniversary - Thai Chili
5th Anniversary - Carino's - Waxahachie
4th Anniversary - Flemming's Steakhouse @ City Centre
3rd Anniversary - Dinner Movie Theater
2nd Anniversary - Le Mistral
1st Anniversary - Paris
Recap of 1st-5th


edited 4-1-25: backdated for continuity.

Grand Rapids - Adventure

Alice and Emily did another intake appointment with the endocrinologist last week (we were just over the returning patient deadline.) Our hope is that we can get them enrolled in CSHCS to help cover the cost of dental care, because we believe their teeth have been impacted by hypophosphatasia, despite having no other noticeable symptoms.  It was a little weird to be there without William, Grace, and Juliet, but I think they enjoyed their time with Avia* who picked them up from school and took them out to the ice cream shop for dinner! (picture courtesy of Avia) 

Because the doctor sent us for blood work and x-rays after the appointment, we didn't have time to make the drive to a new state park afterwards, but still found adventure!

We drove down to a very commercial area of Grand Rapids, and wound up by the mall.  Billy saw an on the border, which triggered a craving for Mexican food.  We saw a world market, and I thought Alice and Emily would enjoy seeing all the exotic things there, so we stopped in.

They did enjoy it, but the one thing that Alice picked out was over what she was willing to spend, so we didn't buy anything.  We did find lots of Hello Kitty things that we've logged away, mentally, for future use.

Alice and Emily's first time at World Market!

Not Billy's first time at World Market.

When we were inbound, Billy saw a sign for a restaurant that was Mexican food and Pizza.  It sounded interesting, but nothing came up in a google search.  We drove outbound, watching the informational signs for the Mexican & pizza place. 

We finally found it!  We drove way out into the country, and found.... a gas station.

They did indeed have Mexican cuisine and Pizza, but it was not at all what the stylized logo led us to believe.

We had a good laugh, and then got back on the road to find a true Mexican resturant.

We ended up in adorable downtown Ionia!  El Mariachi matched our notion of a Mexican restaurant perfectly.

It gets a pretty good rating, Billy gave the salsa a 5/10, and sadly the queso tasted like alfredo to me, so 2/10? the tortilla chips were good! And the girls enjoyed the lemonades they got.

We ordered one of their specialties called the Lava Bowl and split it 4 ways.  It was huge!  We all enjoyed it, 10/10!

The tortillas came in the cutest sombrero basket!!!

There was so much food in the lava bowl, that even with all four of us eating it, we still took a takeaway box!  I was busy loading the boxes when our desert came, so I didn't get a picture before everyone started into it, but it was pretty!

We left nothing, so I would say 10/10!

I would go back, if we ever find ourselves in the area!

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The stack of tortillas sat in our fridge for a few days, so I chopped them up, fried them, and added cinnamon and sugar.  Had we added ice cream and whipped cream, it would have tasted just like our desert! = )

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later days

*speaking of Avia, she is the one that sweetly funded our outing!  I brought 2 rounds of sandwiches (lunch and dinner) but when the state park was out (it was going to be two hours and change there, and then two hours and change home, on a school night!) we decided to find a more urban adventure.

edit 10-26-24: backdated for continuity. 

78 Michigan Parks: Silver Lake State Park #49 and Doctor Visit

The three smallest ones had an Endocrinology appointment on the very first day of August.  Alice was in between Band and the start of school and did not want to spend her day at the doctor, even knowing we were adventuring afterward.  Either way, she didn't want to come and that was okay.

Their appointment went well.  They've all grown bunches and are looking good!  We had to get some bloodwork done and routine xrays, but good news all the way around.

Once we finally finished at the hospital, it was time to adventure!   We were almost out of Grand Rapids before I realized that Billy's car doesn't have the state park sticker (my car was in the shop getting a new radiator.)  Emily and I discussed it, and decided that it would still be worth it to go on an adventure, and just pay the fee** anyhow. I'm glad we did!

The area surrounding the park is beautiful, and I feel like we kind of snuck in the back way.

These pictures are totally my favorite!  Let it be noted that not all the signs are in the same condition.  Some parks must get more funding than others...

First task was to scout out the park, to see where we wanted to sit and so forth.  My children thought the bike rack made a lovely playground.

But, after our scouting expedition, they had a chance to play on a real playground!

These trees were all along the lake and they look so pretty!  In the background you can see the dunes.  We didn't drive around the lake to visit lake Michigan (or the dunes) because I don't have an ORV sticker and didn't know how close we would actually get to the dunes.  Also, we left the hospital a few hours later than anticipated, and I knew we'd already be driving home in the dark.

Once they were tired of the playground, it was time to change and bring out 'camp' over to the beach.  Sadly, it was sprinkling just enough that I set up under the shelter, so that our things were not wet when we got back into the car.

The water was very shallow in the entirety of the swim zone, so they didn't get to swim much, but still enjoyed playing in the water.

William was the first out, I think he was cold.  He got dressed and found some other boys to play with on the playground.  Next out was Emily.  She was a little cold, but mostly bored, so I let her read on my kindle (since I wasn't using it, only listening to my audio book, while keeping a vigilant watch on my children in the water.)

The twins had so much fun that Emily had to go back in to get them, because they weren't watching for my 'time to get out' wave.

Once everyone was out, they changed into dry clothes, and we reloaded the car.  I wanted to see what else was in this little town, and it turns out, a lot!  It's what convinced me that we came in the back way, most of the fun was the other direction!

All the same, we had driven by an ice cream shop on the way in, so we left the same way.  Avia had given us money (yes, again) for more ice cream, so we took some pictures to say thank you!

Don't worry, Alice didn't miss out, we saved her portion so that she could take herself down to the shop her in town at her leisure. 

After ice cream, the kids got to spend time on yet another playground!

We stopped over at the photo op sign, and my children opted to be weird, again. lol.

When we made it back to the highway, someone liked the trees or clouds, or something, because I have like 6 versions of this picture.  It is quite pretty.

About 20 minutes from home, the sky opened up and we were slowed to a crawl on the interstate due to a line of rain.  It only lasted about 5 minutes for us.  It was already proper dark by this time, and after such a long day, it was very unwelcomed. But we made it home, where it was dry, as we unloaded the car after our day of adventures!

later days 

If you want to see all the ones we've visited so far, here are the links to the posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33

Muskegon State Park #50*

Newaygo State Park #51
PJ Hoffmaster State Park #52
Grand Haven State Park #53
Ionia State Park #54
Sleepy Hollow State Park #55
Holland State Park #61
Island Park State Recreation Area #63b
Fort Custer Recreation Area #69
Waterloo Recreation Area #70a
Pickney State Recreation Area #70b
Van Buren State Park #73

*this post marks the start of the project, and as such, has information about what I hope to accomplish!

**one of my favorite things about this project is that I only have to pay a yearly fee to get into each of the parks!

edit 9-10-24: backdated for continuity.