August 11, 2009

A year ago our sister Willa Esperanza was born on August 11th. She only lived for a few minutes, but we still got a chance to hold her and sing to her. On the day that would have been her birthday, we decided to get out of Goshen and go to the beach, as we did soon after her birth last year. We had not been to "the dunes" since college, or ever, for the younger ones of us, and so we didn't know if we should go to the Indiana or Michigan dunes. It seems like everyone thinks the Warren Dunes (MI) are "nicer," but we decided to stick to Indiana pride and check out our native dunes. :) It was a nice (but buggy) walk through the woods to the beach.


There were the typical rocks near the shore, and the beach dropped off pretty quickly into fairly deep water, not a beach Adam could walk out into very far. However, there were wonderful waves, and Mommy and I had a lot of fun riding them. I was riding in an innertube we had brought. One time I got tumbled over by a couple of big waves, and had to get out for a bit, but then I headed right back in after I had caught my breath. I even rode some waves without the innertube later on.

Adam's latest thing is asking all sorts of "why" and "how" questions (How do we make rocks/tractors/you-name-it etc.). His quote of the day, while in the water with Mommy, "Do we ever ask questions in the water?"

Maybe this view is why people say Warren Dunes are nicer? Good old Michigan City...

The huge sand dunes (called Mt. Baldy here) were a huge hit! So fun to tumble and run and jump down.

We finally got out the portable kite that Grandpa Mark and Grandma Jan gave us so many years ago!!! And it flew like a dream.




After a while we just secured it to our cooler, and it kept on flying, making some of us think of Willa and Grandpa Mark "up there" enjoying our day, too.

Well, it was a lovely way to spend the last day before Daddy had to go back to school, and a day remembering Willa. And only an hour and 20 minutes from home! And why don't we do this more often???