Fourth of July and Traverse City

I have lots to update on. It has been a busy, but very fun month. It starts with the weekend before the Fourth of July. Caledonia had its Fourth of July celebration the Saturday before the 4th with a parade in the morning and fireworks in the evening. My family always puts a float in the parade and some of us ride on the float and some of us walk behind the float and throw candy.

Grandpa loves to pull the float with his tractor.

...................Carolyn, Mom, Aunt Betty, and Ashley.

I hung out with my family all day, and we went to the fireworks in the evening. It is always a very fun day! :)

On the Fourth of July, my friend Cristel and her son Brendon and I kicked a soccer ball around at a park and then we went to Grandville's fireworks....(in between those two activities we went to Target because we always go to Target whenever we get together). :)

Brendon having fun with his shadow! :) He was yelling something while playing with his shadow, but I don't remember what it was.

Cristel and Brendon waiting for the fireworks to begin........

Then on July 8 and 9 I went to the Traverse City Cherry Festival with a friend from church. We had a wonderful time enjoying the festivities and relaxing. We hung out at the festival on Tuesday. One of the activities we chose to do on Tuesday was taking a shuttle to a 100 acre research farm in Leelanau County. It is held at the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station which is operated by Michigan State University Extension. They had guided tours of the farm. There were MANY cherry trees and they use all of those cherries for research only. They also had a petting zoo and samples of cherry products such as cherry salsa, cherry butter, cherry fudge, cherry barbeque sauce, and more. It is so delicious! Here is Christine holding a bunny.

After the festival we traveled back to Cadillac and spent the night. On Wednesday we just hung out at Lake Cadillac all day.

Christine is a wonderful friend and spiritual mentor! Our trip was a time of sharing what God has been doing in our lives and the things He has been teaching us. It was also a time of enjoying the beauty of His creation..........look at this...................this was the sunset we were able to see in Traverse City Tuesday night before leaving the festival. This was on the bay in Traverse........

I have much more to post about, but this is pretty long already so I will wait. :)