Take Me Out

We had phenomenal spring weather this week, so of course we had to get out. We’re still getting over the allergies from last week (Mike has sinusitis—yuk), but the sun kept calling us to come out and play.

On Monday, Hallie, Priscilia, and Sara took the kids to Macy’s 2nd Monday celebrating spring at Greenfield Village.

Tuesday afternoon saw Landon venturing out of the garage wrangling the “big boy” bike he received from Bryan last year. While it’s heavier than he’s used to, he got right on and took right off.

Eliza went to the doctor for her well visit on Wednesday, and we are pleased to report that she is at the 50th percentile for her height and weight. She was a trooper when she received two inoculations. Hallie gave her a bottle right after, so that seemed to help settle her right down. Hallie and the kids ran some errands before going to Landon’s gymnastics class. The boy continues to amaze with his feats of strength and daring. Mike met everyone else there and joined them for dinner. He felt really under the weather afterwards, so he also went to the doctor and received his diagnosis. Daughter hit the sack soon after arriving home, but Daddy did not, because we had a temple preparation class with Priscilia. We have enjoyed having her over and renewing our own commitment to attend the temple.

Landon has been practicing his writing skills at therapy. He successfully wrote his name, the capital letters, and several numbers. He has also learned his street address and phone number by heart. Priscilia watched Eliza in the mean time, which was helpful when Hallie ended up getting mixed up and heading to Pontiac instead of home. Hallie quickly dropped Landon off at home before rushing back out to get her nails done. The rest of us spent a lot of afternoon time in the backyard on Thursday playing with a bubble machine Hallie found and purchased at Sam’s Club.

Hallie celebrated her birthday over the weekend, starting on Friday with lemon cake in the morning followed with a trip to the Titanic Artifact Exhibition at The Henry Ford. The exhibition puts on display over 300 items recovered from the ill-fated luxury liner and provides a historical context for the artifacts, the voyage, and the recovery. Photographers also take your picture so you can pretend you are Jack and Rose.

We each received a boarding pass with the name and background of a passenger. Mike’s didn’t make it, but Hallie’s did. Mike was pretty sure his passenger was going to bite the big one when the extra little biographical tidbit noted that the family dog, who never paid my passenger any attention before, suddenly started barking, carrying on, and following my passenger’s vehicle as he left home to board the ship. On the centennial of its sinking, maybe it continues to hold fascination because of the many human stories that give us a glimpse into our complex human nature. After all, what would you do if you knew you only had two hours to live?

Later in the day, Hallie treated herself to a massage at A Healing Touch. In the evening, we attended the Metropolitan Detroit Bureau of School Studies’ Annual Dinner Meeting at the Detroit Athletic Club. It’s a beautiful historic building in the heart of downtown. We had an elegant multi-course formal dinner in one of the private dining rooms, and Mike did a little networking. The parking garage looks out on center field at Comerica Park.

We finished the meeting just in time to watch Justin Verlander come achingly close to a perfect game against the Pirates.

Hallie went to a mom-to-mom sale on Saturday morning while Mike and the kids helped clean the church. Later, Hallie and Landon went over to the Spring Festival at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores.

We hoped Eliza might start her nap early so she and Mike could go, but that didn’t happen. She did wake up in time for us all to go to the Tigers game with Vivi’s Friends.

Interestingly, our seats in the stadium were only a little better than our view from the DAC parking structure.

Unfortunately, the game did not turn out the same as that of the previous evening. Oh, well. We had fun. The kids lasted a couple of innings before Mike took them down to the carousel and Ferris wheel. 

By the time they came back, Hallie had come down from the stands, which by that point were baking in the afternoon sun. OK, we’ve been out long enough. Time to come in!