Stitching with Elli

After finishing their brunch/snack, the dolls were ready to go to the park. We all loaded up in the car, all 7 of us. It was quite a car load! Good thing dollies can share seat belts. 😉

It was a short ride so they didn’t have to be in the back seat too long. The park was gorgeous!

Some of the dolls just wanted to sit and think while the water drifted by….

Others wanted to scramble around and over rocks and explore….

Guess which ones made me more nervous to watch 😀

OH NO! where did Debbie go??

Where are those adventurous cheerful little pigtails?

Felicity called to me and assured me Debbie was still in sight…I would have felt more sure if Ellen had assured me. Felicity sometimes glosses over  potential problems. Plus, right after Felicity told me Debbie was fine..I heard her telling Debbie to watch out… that rock wiggled.

 Ellen declared loudly “I see nothing! I hear nothing!! but if I did hear anything or see anything I would not endorse any type of reckless behaviour…so it is a good thing I don’t SEE anything!!! I’m just sitting here a SAFE distance from the water, I’m SURE you all are too, but of course I can’t see any of you”.

Naturally, none of this made me feel too certain that Debbie really was perfectly fine and not in danger of falling into the water. As I moved along the opposite bank I could hear murmurings and “hurry up she will see you in a minute!” Felicity disappeared from view for a second…Then I came in view of them. Debbie looked a little flushed from effort…and Felicity looked a little too eager to be nonchalant.

But like Ellen, I didn’t *see* anything so I don’t *know* that Debbie climbed down to see how cold the water was….but later on she seemed pretty certain that the water “probably” wasn’t terribly cold. She tried to explain her guess by saying that  the sun was so warm…and the sun warmed the rocks…and the rocks warmed the water…. 😉

The park had a peninsula in the middle of the river. I was walking around on the opposite bank so I could take pictures.

By the time I got to the opposite bank they had all moved to the other side and were looking for fish in the water.

I couldn’t see Emma and Debbie…but I could hear Bonnie and Ellen talking to them and asking if they could see the fish. (Can you see any in this picture?)

They were discussing their options for catching the fish. Ellen said she had seen people catch fish with their bare hands in movies…but they had to stand in the water to do it. That didn’t seem like a good option for dolls.

Debbie asked the dolls on top to look for a stick so maybe she could spear a fish.

 They couldn’t find one….they were then discussing if we could go to the store and get fishing poles…and if dolls could handle fishing poles. What if the fish pulled them in the water? How strong are fish? Do they make doll size poles? What would they use for bait?

They ended up deciding they wouldn’t know what to do with the fish even if they caught it. (I told them I was NOT getting a fish off the hook for them) The idea was abandoned and they just watched the fish for a while. They also saw a turtle sunning himself….

Felicity wanted to know if you could eat those too.  That idea was loudly voted down as a terrible idea.

They moved on to examine the quaint band stand in the middle of the park.

“Look! I’m in the stocks!” Ellen goofed around for the camera.

“Oof! I don’t quite fit in here!” Alice exclaimed, “Ahh! My skirt got snagged!”

Debbie was exploring and trying to figure out why sections of railing were missing.

“Debbie, come get in the picture…Can you get the whole Gazebo in the picture, Emily?” called Felicity and Ellen.

The picture took a couple of tries…because dolls kept squealing…

“Eek! I’m about to fall! catch me!”

“Help me back up!”

“It is too windy. I keep falling over.”

“Are we doing a funny face picture or smiling?” (we did both but the funny face picture was so ridiculous I will spare you 😉 )

We finally got everyone smiling…in place… and the whole gazebo in one picture.

Debbie leaned over and asked Emma if she had a plan for how to get back down.

Emma replied that there was an easy way and a hard way…

The hard way was to lower yourself down while getting a friend at the bottom to stand still so you could climb down on their shoulders.

The easy way was to ask Emily to help….they decided the easy way was the best option 😉

We were leaving the park when they saw some intriguing rocks on the edge of bridge. CHARGE! Everyone had to run towards the rocks and climb all over them to see if the view looked any different from there.

I finally got them all back in the car…but then we saw something. Ellen begged me to pull over and take another picture or two…

..because the street had the most perfect name 😉

Back in the car again….and another stop! There was yet another beautiful lake and park area…

“I can’t believe we go home tomorrow”, murmured Felicity.

“Michigan is beautiful. But I’m ready to go home..I miss the others at home.” Ellen replied.

“I will miss Emily’s grandmother. She is so fun to talk too!” Bonnie added.

Debbie was staring off in to the distance at the far side of the lake. I thought she was dreaming…little did I know what she was planning to do on the trip home!!!

Bye Bye Michigan! it has been lovely!!