August 16 with Emma at Roselle Park

 Sunday:  Calvary LiveStream was wonderful this morning. Pastor Jim's family has recovered nicely from COVID. He delivered the last sermon from Malachi--what a wonderful teaching it was! It's Emma's birthday today. I had wanted to travel up north a little ways--perhaps Ludington or slightly north--to walk on the lakeshore where Emma hasn't been--but we didn't have adequate time today to do that. 

Since Kaity-Girl wasn't "up" for exploring yesterday, I knew that Emma would like to see this place and take a walk, which is what we did.

Some of these pictures are so pretty! I was so happy to have Emma with me to enjoy it.

There were quite a few monarchs flying about today. This was the only picture I caught of one that is any good.

It felt super cool while we were in my house, but the sun was bright outside and it was a lot hotter than we had bargained for. These shaded areas were quite a relief.

We walked the trail all the way to the Grand River ...

I took some pictures of Emma--but they aren't what I was hoping for--only because we were in the shadows, and I evidently don't know what settings to use on my camera to pick detail up very well.

These are the best of the ones I took.

We had a lovely walk--perhaps one hour's worth! But we had an errand to run. A close friend of Emma's family has a little daughter who has the same birthday as Emma--only Kenzie is nine years younger than Emma. Every year, Emma is invited to Kenzie's birthday celebration, and this year was no exception!

Emma and I left Roselle Park and drove over to Meijers to get a gift for the party. We stopped at my house, Emma wrapped the gift, I made a quick card from a few pictures I had taken of Kenzie weeks ago, and then we went to her party. 

Emma moved out of Diana's house this weekend. She will be paying rent where she lives ... so technically, she turned 18 and has entered adulthood big time. I'm proud of you, Emma. Good job!