Michigan 2014 (August 8-16)

Michigan 2014 (August 8-16)

Last year I kept sketchy notes on Dave's laptop.  This year I had the computer but didn't want to get it out every time I wanted to write notes so I traveled around with a notebook and used a pen for handwritten quick notes about what each day's activities held.  There wasn't much "down time" as there was in years past.  

This year was unique from other years because we chose to share a large cabin.  The same cabin we rented in 2013.  The biggest reason for sharing was to save money since both Josh and Carrie's budget and mine and Dave's vacation budget this year wasn't as big as previous years.  Making this choice was helping each of us save about $500.

Since we rented the same cabin last year, we expected the cabin to be the same.  Not an unrealistic expectation of course, but we had planned to split floors, with one family upstairs and one family downstairs.  The big surprise upon arriving was to find the cabin completely renovated!!  The upstairs bedrooms were torn down and this created room for a much bigger kitchen, large eating table, large full bathroom, and large living room area.  This forced all the bedrooms to be set up on the lower level.  So all 11 of us were splitting space among three bedrooms off one small hallway downstairs.  The accommodations were nice, with new beds, fresh bedding, nice sturdy bunk beds, and a renovated bathroom on the lower level as well.  The rooms were pretty small though.  A large room with two sets of bunk beds and a queen bed housed all 7 kids, and the couples each took one of the remaining smaller rooms.  The "set up" wasn't what we expected, and it didn't provide any separation between families, but we "rolled with it" and made the best of it.  One of the downfalls from that set up is the fact that the kids didn't sleep as well as they would have had they been separated from their cousins.  Some of them are early risers and woke everyone up early along with them.  

Anyway, here's my "journal" ~ I'll decipher my chicken scratches the best I could.  I'm already 10 days post trip so my memories are already not as good.  But I'll do my best!

Josh and Carrie's journey to the cabin and our journey to the cabin were very different from each other.  They left early on a Friday afternoon to go to Green Bay to stay overnight and swim at a hotel in the morning.  We did this last year, but we did something different this year.  The end of VBS at Bethany connected with our leaving for Michigan.  Dave was an actor in the VBS drama this summer and the performance of all 5 scenes in sequence happened on Friday night, August 8th.  We planned to finish up the performance, be packed and ready, and drive as far as we could make it Friday night.  After the VBS play on Friday night, we ended up in conversation with so many people we hadn't seen for years that it was hard to get out of the church.  The Duppong family was there, as well as Matt/Nicole Rhoad and their kids who came to see the play (they were in town for conference).  Rachel so sweetly and thoughtfully gifted us with some treats for the kids, fun pens, drawing pads, and a Starbucks gift card on our way out.  She's amazing.

I haven't even described the "packing up" day yet.  Ohhh man.  Stress.  Not sure I want to go there.  I'll wrap it up by saying that I pretty much thought of everything, formed the list of needs, packed for everyone (except Dave), and loaded the van.  All while Dave was running to and from the church for play practice and simultaneously painting all the exterior doors in our house and the shed with a fresh coat of blue paint.  He likes to be productive when he’s not “at work in his office”.  I don’t blame him.  I wasn’t frustrated with him.  I was glad he was working on the house.  It was just hard to do it all myself.  All while watching and feeding kids and letting them “help” me.  It got done though.  I arranged the car seats in the van so a 1/3 of the back seat was folded down, which meant Violet and Calvin had to squish on the 2/3 of it left.  I took off the back of Calvin’s booster and Violet didn’t ride in a seat.  Eli and Vanessa were in their harnessed car seats in the two captains chairs. 

We left approximately 9:15 pm from the Bethany parking lot.  We dropped off Dave’s costume clothes at our house and took off.  We weren’t sure where we’d end up that night but we thought possibly Green Bay, or if we didn’t get that far, Appleton or Madison.  We made a reservation using Dave’s Hilton hotel points for a hotel in Madison.  We got there about 1 am.  Eli slept in a pack and play crib, the three older kids shared the pull out sofa bed.  The wires under the mattress bothered Violet so I made up a bed for her using the couch cushions on the floor.  She seemed to like that.  I knew ahead of time to pack ONE bag with toothbrushes and a change of clothes for the next day for this particular hotel stay.  The year previous I didn’t do that and it was a big pain to haul everything in.  I think we all slept ok. 

Saturday, August 9^th

Violet and Calvin needed showers in the morning, so they both showered with mom/dad respectively – and we headed down to the lobby to get breakfast.  There were waffles, cheesy omelets, sausage, VERY cold milk, fruit, cereal, etc.  Delicious breakfast.  I snagged some cute little boxes of fruit loops, the kids were excited to see someone’s pet dog in the hotel (big fluffy white thing).  We washed hands, went to the bathrooms, and got packed in the van.  Off we go! 

Vanessa found a letter "V" chocolate cracker in the bucket of crackers

The drive seemed very easy.  All happy – stopped at Seguin’s cheese, communicated with J&C via text on our progress, drove thru Culver’s in Marinette for lunch, made a stop at Ted and Cindy’s house because Dave wanted to see his new roof (they weren’t home), and we made our way up to Escanaba to meet up with J&C.  We planned to have the kids play at a park with the dads while Carrie and I shopped.  Met up, beautiful day! Got to park, Carrie and I took off.  Drove to Walmart parking lot in her van – we pow-wowed meals and then got to shopping. 

Yayyyy Walmart...our favorite place...

It took much longer than anticipated even though we were moving as fast as we could.  Guys were impatient.  Had a tough time at park with kids (dealing with somebody else's stray kid pooping in the wood chips!), it was supper time so we chose to grab McD on the way back to the park so kids could eat supper there before getting to cabin.  

Kids were FILTHY.  Drove to cabin.  Discovered it was all renovated (wowza! Shock!), unloading frenzy, discovered the main new fridge in the cabin was not working so we moved things to the spare fridge in the “mudroom” area.  Kids ran downstairs to discover their room and shortly returned with reports that Calvin broke the ceiling.  Discovered the suspended ceiling had come down in one part and bars were sticking up every which way.  A screw driver and 30 minutes later and all was put back together like new.  Bathed all kids, settled them into bed, WHEW! Adults stayed awake awhile longer to hang out, Josh got string on all his fishing poles, played some guitar, went to bed.

Sunday, August 10^th

Josh was the first to get up and go out fishing early in the morning.  Caught at 16” bass.  Wes, Renee, and Violet went out on the boat with Josh.  Carrie and I made breakfast.  Made blueberry muffin bars and eggs.  Devotions, sing, pray.  Decided what to do with our week, plan things out.  Checked weather, discovered Sunday was predicted to be the hottest day of the week so we chose to go to Pete’s Lake and rent two jet skis for the afternoon.  Planned to go at 1 pm after lunch.  Or was it 2pm?

Kids went out on dock with fishing poles for the rest of the morning.  Josh helped on dock, Dave put worms on hooks.  This whole scene is a little hectic with kids holding fishing poles with hooks.  Eek.  Carrie and I showered, then made lunch for the crew (pbjs, cut up peaches, carrots, chips) and discovered we had no mayo to make turkey sandwiches so we made pbjs for guys too, haha).  Brought food down to dock, kids ate in shifts.  I wore Eli in backpack carrier.  Kids caught little fish we threw back.  Time to get to Pete’s lake (across the road and a mile north of our cabin, not too far) – packed up stuff, drove over there, snacks were chocolate crackers and peanuts.  Jet skis went in water at boat ramp, guys drove them over to the beach area where Carrie and I and kids met them.  Weather was beautiful – sunny – warm.  All took turns on jetskis.  Vanessa, again, was fearless.  Wanted to jetski 100% of the time.  She flattened the gas button while riding with me, wanting to go fast.  Violet was more cautious, wanting to be in control, and Calvin (who seemed more uninterested in the jetskis than anything) only wanted one ride, Eli got a ride too and seemed happy about that.  J&C went out together, then Dave and I went out together.  Dave showed me how to turn fast.  It was way more fun driving a jet ski alone than with a kid in front of you.  Vanessa tubed behind jetski also, she went under water a bit and seemed sad, but got over it quick.  Dave gave me a ride on the tubes, gave Josh a ride, Josh gave Dave a ride...nobody else went.  Eli finally warmed up to water splashing and doing the alligator crawl, then shortly after that the sun was going behind the trees and it seemed time to go.  

Wesley 

Violet and Renee 

Drove home, made tacos for dinner, yum!  Got kids to bed at 8pm.  Dave told a funny made up story and kids liked the “wa-bang” part.  Not sure what the story was about (DL - it was about two adventurous kids, Ben and Amy, and their trek into the woods and encounter with a bear.  Whapped the bear in the nose (wa-bang) and made it puff up red like Rudolph...kids went into fits of laughter).  Dave and Josh went out fishing for the evening, Carrie and I stayed back and enjoyed some mojitos on the deck.  Beautiful night.  

Guys joined us for awhile on the deck.  Josh caught a 24” northern pike and wanted to show us the fish but when we got to the dock discovered it had thrashed itself against a cinder block at the bottom by the dock (while on stringer) and its insides were all ripped up and hanging out…had to let it go.  Bummer.

Monday, August 11^th

Kids all up at 7.  No sleeping in on this vacation!  Josh and Renee went out fishing.  Caught 1 13.5” bass.  Threw it back.  Kids watched cartoons – Carrie and I made pancakes/sausage.  Guys decided to move their 4x4 Wildcat car reservation to the next day (instead of today) because guys arms were tired out from jetskiing/tubing day before.  Decided to chill today.  Dave and Josh had a breakfast of hashbrowns/eggs.  Sang a few songs in the kitchen w/ guitar.  Josh was tired – took a 2 hr nap.  Dave did a devotion with the kids outside rewarding them with chocolate crackers for answering questions correctly.  Devotion was about how Samuel chose King David.  I got Eli down for a morning nap somehow (he was mad going to bed because he wanted to swim) after that devotion while the rest of the kids went to the lakeshore by the cabin to play.  Paddleboats, played with fishing nets.  Vanessa initially scared to go down slide but got brave, did it, and said “fun fun fun!” while squealing.  Josh slept through lakeshore playtime.  Renee played with a baby bass another family caught, moving it from bucket to bucket.  

Eli woke up from his nap and came outside to find us (smart little guy).  Carrie and I made lunch, mac n cheese with broccoli.  Josh and Dave took Renee and Violet fishing.  Not a nibble but lots of weeds (DL - Violet was bummed because everyone else got weeds but not her...lol).  Meanwhile Wes took a nap.  Calvin and Austin played legos.  Vanessa played Kindle, Eli played around, Carrie and I sang songs w/ guitar.  We whipped cream by hand and made strawberry jello for later.  Did some dinner prep – chopped veggies for soup.  Boys had jello/cream.  Felt “antsy” so had to go outside.  All out for walk on trails.  Kids wanted walking sticks, I wore Eli in backpack carrier.  We found “Spot Lake”.  Felt rain drops, Calvin freaked out, scared of the rain and possibility of a storm and wanted shelter and cried.

Vanessa says, "I'm going to look out for the cabin," then put her hand up like this.  :)

Back to cabin.  Girls had jello/cream.  Finished dinner, made creamy chicken soup, Carrie made cheddar biscuits.  Kids watched Cloudy with a chance of meatballs movie until dinner was done.  Yummy soup!  Kids all bathed and showered, to bed.  Wes too hot in PJs so changed a few times.  Vi and Renee up for an hour talking.  Josh and Carrie went out fishing together.  Caught some but fish threw the hooks and fell back in.  

Meanwhile I gave Dave a (bad) haircut.  Cut it really short to fix it.  Stopped to journal while he showered after haircut.

Tuesday, August 12^th

Dave got up early to go fishing with Violet.  Weather was cold, foggy and windy.  Kids were all up first.  Josh turned on cartoons.  I made oatmeal with blueberries.  Austin complimented my cooking by saying “You’re a better cook than I thought,” LOL

Carrie slept in.  Josh went to pick up Wildcat car at 9am.  Dave and Violet came back from fishing with no fish.  Dave and Josh headed out in the Wildcat for a few hours.  Carrie and I tried making cotton candy with the machine she brought along.  It worked pretty cool but didn't make much per kid.  They all enjoyed it.

Violet was feeling pretty yucky for some reason and slept the day away on the couch in the living room.  She did spike a fever of 102 but it went down by the end of the day, thankfully!  She really did sleep most the day.  Unusual for her, but I'm guessing she was affected by the cold windy morning of fishing.

Carrie and I tried entertaining kids outside but with the wet, cold, windy weather (50 degrees) it was nearly impossible.  There was a lot of cartoons watched that day.  We tried going outside but nobody was happy and there wasn’t much else to do.  Some card tricks, coloring, Spot it games, etc.  “10” magic card trick with Austin – he liked that.  Carrie and I got tired of sitting inside so we bundled up with blankets on the deck to sing/play guitar but right then the boys came home.  Carrie and I took Wildcat vehicle thing to general store down the road a few miles to get some butter and other random needs.  Dave was quiet, a little grumpy.  Dave and I went out fishing – I caught one fish but it flipped and the hook came off.  Dave caught 12” bass, threw it back.  Then caught a 15” bass, kept it.  J&C fed kids supper (spaghetti, sauce, garlic bread, roasted cauliflower, salad, berry pie) and Josh gave kids rids in the Wildcat.  

that's Austin in there - Josh is the photographer

Dave and I came back in to eat supper – then all 4 of us went outside to lay on dock to watch the stars.  Meteor shower!

Wednesday, August 13^th

I got a chance to sleep in a bit this morning.  Josh and Austin went out to fish early in the morning.  They caught 2 fish.  Dave and Carrie cooked breakfast – English muffins, bacon, eggs.  Packed up to go to Munising.  Goal was to get out the door by 10:30 but we left at 11:30.  Packing frenzy.  Carrie and I packed lunch for group. Turkey sandwiches, mixed fruit, chips.  Got to Laundromat and discovered we’d left detergent at the cabin and basket full of white cabin towels.  Dave went back to fetch them since Eli was napping in his car seat.  Josh made a run to store to buy detergent.  Carrie and I got started.  $5/load!  There were lots of toys in the corner to play with so kids stayed entertained.  Violet and Austin had a hot wheel track system they designed.  Renee had Vanessa all dressed up with butterfly wings and pushed her around in a laundry basket.  

Done with laundry around 1pm.  All hungry.  So went right to beach on Lake Superior  (Sand Point) to have picnic lunch.  Kids got feet wet but ended up getting legs/pants wet too.  Eli fell belly first into the cold lake water...funny...he wasn't happy.  Wash off sand, all back in van.  

whoo! I made it in a picture!

yes, those are my toes

Eli was mad he got wet 

my beautiful 8 yr old!

Decided to hike on trails at Miner’s Castle which ended up at Miner’s Beach.  This was absolutely beautiful!  One hiccup in the plan happened when I realized I’d left Calvin’s shoes on the ground where I’d shaken the sand out of them after lunch.  Dave and Calvin drove back to get his shoes (45 minutes round trip, ugh).  Wes had fallen asleep in van so Carrie stayed with him.  Josh and I took Violet, Austin, Renee, Eli and Vanessa to the Miner’s Castle look out.  Eli said “oh water!” which sounded like “oh wa-er”.  Renee and Violet's hair stood straight up from the upwind draft while looking over the edge.  

view of the "castle" from the lower observatory

Dave and Calvin got back, Wes woke up.  All were together again, started down hiking trail.  I hiked down with Eli in backpack carrier.  Trail was really neat.  Roots to climb over, rocks to dodge, up, down, logs to climb on, bridges over water, etc…it was really neat.  

look at all those cuties!

look at these adorable adults!  (photo courtesy of Violet)

Wes straddled a little twig and made it bend over, then posed this expression.  ha!

We could hear splashing water and waves as we got nearer to beach ~ getting to the beach was like something out of a movie.  We were just missing the majestic music.  Beautiful.  Sunny, windy, white sand, big waves, smooth rocks, clear water to put feet in, no bugs, warm but not too hot.  Kids and adults splashed in ankle deep water. Kids dug in sand.  Hours went by there.  Pics taken, air breathed in.  

We felt a little hungry and noticed it was 6 pm and we still had to hike back up trail.  Asked someone else to take group and family pics on beach.  Highlight of the week for me for sure.

Hiking back up trail seemed to go faster.  Well, maybe its because Dave carried Eli on the backpack carrier.  Vanessa fell four times while hiking (DL - spread eagle face down...no injuries, but funny to watch, poor girl).  At end of trail Eli fell asleep on Dave’s shoulder.  Dave led the pack so nobody got too far ahead.  Plan was to get pizza at Main Street Pizza.  This was in place of the expensive-not-so-good-cooking at the Dog Patch restaurant we've normally gone to for years.  On the drive, Dave was complimenting the kids on how well they hiked and didn't complain.  Vanessa said, "No I'm not a good hiker, I fell four times."

saw these stickers on the back of someone's vehicle in the parking lot

yeah, that.

Tried something different and it was delicious pizza.  All sat down to wait and kids seemed nuts.  Got them all paper/pens to draw and it seemed to calm them down while waiting.  Dave told them if they whispered the entire time, they would each get a quarter.  Almost perfect quite the entire meal...lovely.  4 pizzas, all w/ extra cheese. 2 cheese, 1 pepp, 1 saus. Sierra mist and root beer drink options.  After dinner Carrie and I made a run to Glen’s grocery store to get odds and ends – milk, peanut butter cheerios, cinnamon rolls, paper towels.  Drive back home and washed kids feet (they were black!) – we had no energy to bathe them all.  While getting kids to bed we discovered blood drips everywhere.  Eventually discovered it was 2 of Eli’s fingers that must have come in contact with the razor in my bathroom bag.  Dave, Carrie and I got it all cleaned up.  Bandaids on Eli’s fingers.  Put Eli to bed in my bed so he wouldn’t distract the older kids.  He was a bedtime stinker.  Sometime in the middle of us getting home from Munising and washing kid’s feet Ted and Cindy had arrived and walked over to greet us.
After putting kids to bed, Carrie and I “stood guard” outside the kid’s doors to make sure they were all sleeping while Dave and Josh chatted with T&C.  We joined them upstairs.  To bed at 11:30.  Tiiiiired!  Moved Eli to kid’s room.

Thursday, August 14^th

Dave and Violet woke up to go fishing early again.  Were out there til 9:30 am.  Carrie and I made a “Yooper breakfast” – scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, sausage and hashbrowns.  T&C came over for breakfast.  Kids only ate cinnamon rolls.  Except boys who ate everything on their plates. 

All showered. TV stopped working. Kids played games, Kindles, T&C went to shower, walk dogs.  Maria journal.  Carrie, Josh went to clean fish.  T&C hang out with us, gave kids coloring books, new crayons, sticker scene game.  

Guitar songs, went outside for campfire.  Sang some songs by fire. 

thanks Dave for taking this pic. :)

T&C join.  Decided to heat up leftover pizza for lunch.  Walked over to general store to get ice cream cones for all. 

a happy Eli.  I'm in more pictures than I thought.

Josh got rental fishing boat while we planned to take to Fish Lake twice.  Dave and I packed up to go fishing at Fish Lake.  J&C stayed and fed kids leftover soup, garlic bread, and salad.  They had fire and s’mores. 

Fishing on Fish Lake was a dud.  Caught nothing worth keeping.  Unfamiliar with lake.  Used minnows and caught some little northern but threw them back.  A few bites with worms but no fish.

Fished from 6-9 pm.  Got back in the dark.  Campfire with T&C, J&C.  Saw 2 shooting stars, went to bed.

Eli slept in our room and moved him to the lower bunk in our room for the night. Somehow he got all wrapped up in some nylon thread from the mattress, all in his fingers and toes.  Thankful it wasn't his neck!  Didn’t work well as he woke up sooo early Friday morning.

Friday, August 15^th

J&C up early in the AM to fish with rental boat at Fish Lake.  They had a memorable experience catching no fish with small rod.  Dave took Calvin and Violet out fishing.  I stayed in cabin with rest of kids.  Austin and Eli were up first.  Austin played kindle.  I fed kids breakfast, bagels and stuff.  Washed Eli’s dirty blanket in sink and let it air dry.  D, V and C came back about 9:00 – caught nothing.  T&C came for breakfast at 9 am….egg/bacon/cheese English muffins.  Josh & Wes went out fishing.  Austin and Calvin eat oatmeal.  Dave, Vanessa, T&C take rental boat out for boat ride on Fish lake.  Carrie took out garbage.  Eli napped 2 hrs (approx. 12-2pm).  Carrie took oldest 4 kids to lakefront.  I stayed to make sure Eli was napping, joined Carrie and kids at lake.  Challenged kids “stuck” on floating dock to swim back to shore – motivated them with bars of chocolate.  Austin went first.  Calvin followed, Renee next.  Violet hesitant, but eventually went.  Vanessa was trapped on dock in turmoil until Dave rescued her and swam out to get her and swim back with her.  She got her chocolate bar.  Josh and Wes came back from fishing – caught nothing.  Wes wanted to fish from dock.  All kids then wanted to fish from dock.  J and D helped kids fish from dock – all caught little fish.  

Vanessa's first fish

Violet's fish

Wesley's fish

Carrie was happy to be avoiding the worming/fishing scene

Calvin's fish

Carrie floated in floaty and Dave threw fish at her.  T&C joined us on dock.  Kids all had cereal bars for snack.  Adults had chips/cheese dip for snack.  Eli woke up.  He wandered outside w/ a bouncy ball and his blanket to find us.  I brought him inside to eat.  Renee, Vanessa and Eli all came in with me to have cheese, crackers and Cheetos for snack.  All ate under table like puppies.  I journaled in cabin for ½ hr.  Back outside with everyone.  Dave and Josh went back out fishing and brought Calvin along.  Calvin was bored on fishing boat...wanted someone to paddle out and rescue him.  Violet and Austin weren't up for the rescue mission so I decided to help.  I took Austin, Violet, Eli and Renee in paddle boat on mission to get Calvin in paddle-boat.  It seemed like the never ending paddle boat ride, inching along in the lake to get to the fishing boat across the lake.  Austin helped paddle there.  Austin and I decided paddle boat steering made no sense.  (paddleboatsthatmakesense.com)

Calvin got on paddle boat and sat in front to help weigh the paddle-boat front end down.  Violet helped me paddle back. 

Carrie and Vanessa wave from dock.  All back on shore eventually. T&C joined us on chairs.  Hang out by shore to play in lake for the next couple hours.  Austin, Violet and Calvin went inside to play with legos.  Eli wanted help going down slide.  At one point Eli was floating in water with life jacket near shore and my back was turned.  Ted jumped in to pick him up and got jeans all wet.  Got word via radio that Dave and Josh each caught a perch.  Called them in at 6:30, they said they were planning to cook fish.  Dave, Josh and Carrie went to clean their tiny perch fish. Here's the fish from the week.  On the left on the paper towels is the perch. It makes me laugh.  I know, guys, I'm not calling your fish tiny.  Maybe I am.  On the right in bags was the delicious flaky white bass.

We estimated approx 5 lbs of fish.

fish fryin'

Mmmm....yummy....

Carrie made run to store to get tartar sauce.  How could we have forgotten that? Ha! Josh said it was a must to go with the fish fry.  I agreed.  Along with fried fish, we served cut up watermelon, coleslaw and chips.  Campfire.  T&C brought a birthday cake for all the kids, passed out cards and gifts. Thank yous! Glow sticks.  Vanessa and Eli needed baths, so did I…I bathed with those two, somehow.  I put Eli to bed at 10:30.  Got Vanessa’s hair tamed – captured her made up song on video “some people think I’m a toy but I’m not”.  Campfire a little longer. Rest of kids showered/bathed and in bed.  Stayed out by campfire a little longer but all were so tired. 

Saturday, August 16^th

Dave and Josh back out to fish in the morning again.  Caught nothing.  I made the rest of the pancake mix.  Made 14 pancakes, this split among all the kids.  Carrie whipped cream.  We had last few pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.  Boys came back.  Dave ate leftovers from taco night, Josh had peanut butter cheerios and English muffins/honey (yum).  D & J took all the kids to dock to fish so Carrie and I could have some silence to pack.  We used this opportunity to eat a piece of leftover cake in silence then go to work speedily packing.  We split up pantry food, then split up fridge food.  Then started packing our own family’s things.  Shower, pack, Dave pack van.  J&C got packed first and headed out first.  Said our goodbyes, paid bill at general store for cabin.  Josh paid for rental things, they decided they’d settle differences later.

Dave and I sit in parking lot of general store while we had internet reception to plan the rest of our day.  We weren't going home yet, the plan was to go to Jeff and Denise’s house until Tues AM in time for us to leave for Mason City to get our teeth cleaned and visit with dad.  We looked at the map and decided the entire drive to Ramsey, MN was too long and far for the day’s goal – we called them and made sure it was OK with them if we came the next day.  We really wanted to get Main Street Pizza again for lunch so we drove to Munising, got gas, went through car wash, got pizza.  This was the worst van ride in history.  Violet and Calvin were fighting like they wanted to kill each other in the back seat.  I moved Eli to the back with Violet and Calvin sat next to Vanessa in the middle of the van.  Vanessa slept in van and continued to sleep through 1/2 of lunch, but eventually woke up and ate.  As we made decisions on where to stay for the night, we discovered all hotels in Duluth were booked up so we re-routed through Wisconsin a little further south and ended up booking a hotel room in Plover, WI.  We arrived there about 8 pm.  The hotel staff there was really cheerful and helpful and let us put our fridge/freezer items in their hotel fridge overnight and re-freeze our ice packs.  So convenient.  We took all 4 kids swimming in the hotel pool from 8:30-9:30.  Eli was obsessed with jumping off edge of pool into my arms in the water.  Over and over, he would say “again!” and repeat.  Vanessa demonstrated her swimming skills – she can swim a few feet on her own.  Tried out hot tub.  Very hot.  Calvin didn't get in and got frustrated he wasn't allowed enough time to get used to the hot water.  Back to hotel room.  Single bed on floor was a fight...thought Calvin would like it but he refused. Vanessa volunteered to take it, Calvin was happy to let her and sleep on a big bed with Violet.  Eli in a pack and play crib.  He’s head-to-toe touching in those things so it is probably his last month sleeping in those.  Our trip to Ramsey the next morning was after a nice breakfast in the hotel lobby of biscuits/gravy, scrambled eggs, waffles, toasted bagels and cream cheese, fruit, and yogurt.  Got refrigerated things, packed van again, and left. 

I hadn't planned on journaling our time in Ramsey, but it was nice.  We went to a bouncy house on Monday morning, had a campfire with Jeff and Denise one evening, I helped them prune some tomato plants, and we enjoyed their cooking talents every meal.

We left for Mason City Tuesday morning at 10am.  We got to my dad’s dental office right at 1:50 pm in time for our appointments.  All 6 of us got teeth cleaned, no cavities!  We killed some time at East Park while dad finished up working from 4-5 pm and we met him back at the house for dinner.  He brought home some good ol’ comfort food – KFC, mac n cheese, baked beans and biscuits.  Kids climbed favorite tree in backyard.  I took some kids out for canoe rides with life jackets.  Calm water. 

Dave helped my dad put up a roll up shade in the house by a window.  I walked around the lake using the back trail to get them out of the house.  Got a good pic of all four kids.  

We said our goodbyes and took off, arriving home in Cedar Falls about 10pm.  Super fun, totally exhausting, and absolutely worth it!