Trip to Michigan

The girls and I returned home from Michigan on Monday.  We had a wonderful time visiting family and having fun outside.  The weather was amazing at about 80 degrees for the whole time we were there and the humidity was not too bad.  We were able to be outdoors most of the time.  Elsie swam in a "lake with the fishies" for the first time and she was very brave.  Jolie loved the water also, but more importantly she loved getting dirty in the sand and mud.  She would mix it all up and squeeze it between her little fingers.   

Jolie and I with my mom and sister Lindsay at Holland Beach on Lake Michigan.  It was such a beautiful day.

Elsie and my cousin Steven's daughter Lexy had a wonderful time playing together.  Elsie had her first sleep-over when Lexy spent the night with us.  We ended up having to let Lexy fall asleep and then put Elsie in the room to fall asleep.  They were like teenage girls and just wanted to talk.  It was very cute.
I bought this dress for Elsie while we were in Michigan, so I had her model the dress.  This was one of her little poses.  She loves to sing, dance, and pose for pictures.  She is a little actress.  =)
Jolie loved getting dirty in the dirt.  The girls dug a little hole and started to fill it with water until Jolie crawled over and climbed in.  She took over the little mud hole as her own.  She would climb in and out, mix up the mud and then kick her legs to make it splash around.  She was fascinated with getting dirty.  Then she would crawl into the water (with mom close by to monitor how far in she went) to clean off.  She was able to spend over an hour two separate afternoons on this little beach just playing.  
Elsie also liked the mud and dirt.  In Arizona it is hard to let the girls play outside because we mostly have rocks and Jolie just puts them in her mouth.  So it was fun for the girls to get down and get dirty without me repeating "No Jolie, you can't eat the rocks."  Elsie also liked swimming with the little fishies.  There were a few small schools of fish that came pretty close to where Elsie was in the water.  She actually thought it was pretty neat after I reassured her that they were as much afraid of her getting too close and she was of them getting too close.