July 4th in Howell

We spent the July 4th holiday in Howell, Michigan, visiting Elise’s Aunt Pauline. Pauline raises championship Labrador retrievers and has some fifteen dogs at her kennel in Howell. Pauline’s Labs have won numerous awards, including “Best of Breed” for her yellow Lab Marty at the 2004 Westminster Kennel Club dog show. In addition to Labs, Pauline has a Yorkshire terrier named Bebe and a black cat named Oz.

Henry received an early birthday present from Mimi Pauline: a step ladder with his name in puzzle letters. It was a huge hit, as Henry enjoyed both eating the letters and climbing on the ladder. Mimi Pauline also found some of Elise’s old stuffed animals and one or two (sanitized) dog toys for Henry to play with.

On Friday, Josh and Janet Smith stopped by with their son Nicholas. Josh went to high school with Elise and worked with Bryant in London. In fact, it was at Josh and Janet’s wedding in Kalamazoo, Michigan that Bryant and Elise first met.*

On Saturday, we left Henry with Pauline and went for an early anniversary dinner at Bella Ciao in Ann Arbor. This was the same restaurant where we held our wedding rehearsal dinner. It was a beautiful evening, and we were able to sit outside and later take a stroll through town. Although brief, it was nice to spend a few hours together in Elise's old stomping ground.

*Strictly speaking, this is not true. But more about that in a later post.