More vacation fun

On day two of our vacation, we started at the Castle Museum in Saginaw MI. It was built in 1898 and although it looks like a castle, it was built as a post office. It was a beautiful building.

This building was beautiful, inside and outside.

On the 3rd floor, was this little hall that had slits to look down to the floor below. The postmaster used these to make sure the workers were doing what they were expected to do.

Our next stop was a zoo in Saginaw.

We took a train ride...

made our way across a swinging bridge...

and enjoyed the animals.

I think that's enough for today. I'll continue the adventures tomorrow.

Vacation - day 1

We had a wonderful time away with Alaina and Ruby. They are growing up fast and I realize more all the time, that I need to enjoy this time with them. They knew we were going away, but didn't know what we were doing and it was fun to surprise them.

They are animal lovers, and on day one we went to a farm where we were able to reserve a time for them to spend one on one time with miniature highland cows. We also got to be toured around the farm and see other animals and then go on a motorized vehicle to see all the cows in the field. Here's a few pictures.

There were triplet goats, only 3 days old, that the girls got to hold. The flop eared bunny was so soft and snuggly!  There were chickens and baby pigs and kittens too!

And oh my - the alpaca's were so cute and friendly!

Then it was time to see the highland cows. We went into the maternity barn and the girls got to groom the babies.  They are so cute!

After spending time with the babies, we took a ride in the fields and saw all the adult cows.

Aren't they beautiful cows?

Then it was on to the hotel, and the joys of the pool!
I'll share more tomorrow!

I'm back!

 Hi friends!  I'm back after an extended break. I've missed blogging but have tried to keep up with you all at your blogs even though I haven't done much commenting. I just couldn't do all the commenting and still get done what I was trying to do.

While I was gone, we took a little vacation with Alaina and Ruby, and then I worked like crazy to finish a family history book.  So, now I'm going to share a little so I can catch you up.  Before I do that, I have to share what's been going on in our area recently.  We've had a heat wave, a lettuce parasite and now the smoke issue!

Haha!  So this little meme has been making the rounds in our area. You have to laugh, right?  I know some of you have also had these issues in your areas.

I have heard they found the cause of the parasitic lettuce, linked to lettuce from Taco Bell.  I haven't eaten there in ages, so I think I'm safe!

The heat is supposed to be a little better this week.  You know, we Northern folk are pretty wimpy about heat and on Friday our heat index made it to 108 degrees!   :)

Hopefully the fires in Canada will be stopped.  It's incredible to me how far that smoke spreads and how bad it is, this far away.  I've been inside most of the time, as are most people. It's kind of strange, because no one is out walking or biking and kids aren't out playing. Most outdoor activities have been cancelled and lots of parks with trails were closed.

This is why everything was closed.  Look at that horrible air quality alert!  On Thursday they said that Michigan had the worst air quality on the whole planet!  

I did go out for a short time in the car to get some photos so you could see what it looks like around here.

This is around the corner from our house.

Another spot not far from us.  The visibility was under a mile all day on Thursday.  Friday was a little better in the morning, but in the afternoon it got worse again.

This is the Grand River, near our house.

Do you see the sun?

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'll share some of the things we did while I was on break.