"I Ha(ve) Rough Day!"

Here we sit on Sunday evening, at 20 until 8 and both girls are down for the night. As Aaron says, I could get used to this. It's been a busy weekend, filled with lots of fun. Spring arrived in full force this weekend, sunny and warm on both Saturday and Sunday, so we took full advantage.

Yesterday afternoon we made our first trip to Holland. We left right after lunch, heading west toward the shore. After a quick stop at the Carter's store, we headed to Tunnel Park. We played at the playground for a bit before we climbed all the steps up the side of the sand dune, and there it was - Lake Michigan! We headed down another long set of steps and then walked on the sand toward the water.



Alyssa found a few school-age girls, playing in the sand and joined right in, sitting right beside them and digging in the sand herself. She was so happy. Soon the girls were sticking their feet in the water and guess who wanted to follow. We took her socks and shoes off, rolled up her pants and let her stick her feet in the water.



She did this a few times and then she took one step too many and lost her balance. She panicked - whether from the cold temperature, the shock from falling or because she was surrounded by water and couldn't get back up. I had Lauren in the Baby Bjorn so I was yelling at Aaron to go get her, and he had to jump in - jeans and all. She was only like three steps out, but it was enough for her to be drenched and Aaron wet on the bottom and the front where he picked her up. After making sure she was ok, we all walked toward the tunnel (avoiding the steps) to go back to the car.

Luckily I had a change of clothes for Alyssa, but not for Aaron (much to his dismay). We dried her with a blanket we had in the car and changed her clothes and then it was back to the playground. Both girls were having fun swinging, climbing, and playing on the slides. Alyssa somehow managed to bump her cheek on the slide on one trip down, which brought on another set of tears. Lauren just smiled at everyone and giggled, enjoying her time outside.






From there we headed into town, making a pit stop at McDonald's for some ice cream for Alyssa - it made everything all better as you can imagine. She ate every bite of that strawberry sundae.

We checked out downtown Holland; there are some really cute shops, especially with kids clothes and treats for those with a sweet tooth! As we were walking, Alyssa announced that she "had to go potty", so we popped into the nearest shop (a really yummy-looking ice cream and fudge shoppe). She had her sunglasses on and somehow managed to run head on into the side of chair, bumping her nose...bring on the tears again. We enjoyed dinner at at the New Holland Brewing Company, then headed back to the car. As we were walking, Alyssa managed to trip over my feet, landing on her hands on the sidewalk. She was crying (again), trying to say something. Aaron convinced her to take her hands out of her mouth and she said "I ha(ve) a rough day" - true enough!

She fell asleep around 6:45 in the car, then was in bed for the night at 7:30. Lauren didn't experience nearly the tears that Alyssa did; in fact, I don't think she cried at all while we were exploring Holland, and she had a great night sleep.




I woke up in the middle night, thinking about the incident in the water at the lake, going over it and over it in my head. And thanking God that she was ok. It was really scary, in hind sight, we probably should have been holding her hand. But sometimes I think we forget how little she is, she's growing and changing in so many ways, but she's still a very little girl. Last night and today, when we talk about going to the park, she keeps saying "I no want to go in water" or "I no like beach", but then we tell her the next time we'll put her bathing suit on and we'll hold her hand and she says that will be ok. Time will tell...

We woke up this morning to Lauren having a pink little face; the sun must have been too much for her yesterday. Alyssa and I enjoyed an afternoon at the park with friends and a walk/jog in the stroller - what a great day. Aaron grilled our dinner and we all went barefoot in the back yard (avoiding the deer poop of course that Alyssa would point out). Lauren loves to try to eat any grass, sticks, or leaves she can get her hands on. She enjoys the swing and has even gone down the little slide a few times. Days/weekends like this make me realize how truly blessed we are and how much I love our family. I can't wait for more fun times like these this summer.