LaMarche family : July 2015

MICHIGAN 2015

July 11-25

on the way....

Violet's first catch!

there were three in the bed and the little one said...roll over!

Fri-Sat, July 10-11, 2015

Each year we plan this trip to Michigan and each year looks a little different – from the place we stay, to the family that joins us. Year 1 (2012) was when Eli was a few weeks old. We were up visiting Ted and somehow we stayed longer than we’d planned and camped out in Ted and Cindy’s camper. Josh and Carrie had a cabin already and we somehow joined up with them.

Year two (2013) was more intentional and we reserved a cabin (#12) for just our family. It wasn’t renovated yet. J&C and family rented another cabin further back in the woods (with the balcony). We went the same week and traded off cooking dinners for the whole group.

Year three (2014) J&C and our family joined up in the big cabin (#12) and shared the space because it was big enough and we all wanted to keep the vacation expenses down. As we arrive and go in the cabin for the first time, a surprise to us was that the cabin was renovated. All living quarters were downstairs and the living room/eating area was expanded upstairs.

THIS YEAR is different again. We are in a different cabin (#14), and we plan to stay for two weeks. The first week will be just our family, alone, doing the things we want to do as a family. The second week, Josh and Carrie AND Sean and April and their family will all be joining. They each have their own cabins rented (S&A in the big #12 and J&C in another one further back in the woods, different than they’ve had before). J&C and S&A will only be staying one week, July 18-25. We are hoping for a lot of quality time with our kids with nothing else than the regular duties to care for. Fishing, swimming in the lake, hiking, taking pictures…it all seems so dreamy when I type it.

One reason we are staying a week early is because last year it felt like when the week was over, it didn’t seem long enough and it almost felt like we were just getting the hang of being there.

So here we are. I’m sitting in cabin #14. A stone’s throw away from last year’s cabin but we have a lake front spot, a boat, and trees surrounding us. The kids are asleep. The cabin’s hot humidity that greeted us at 8:30 pm tonight upon arrival has turned to a cool balmy atmosphere. The sky is pitch black. No city lights to create “light pollution” to block the view of the night sky.

Getting here was no walk in the park, however. It is slightly…grueling. This year’s “getting there” was different (I guess the only predictable thing in life really IS change, right?) because we picked up Violet from Willowbrook Camp in Des Moines, and drove straight to Madison, WI, the mid-point hotel stop. We have an on-going list of things we like to remember to pack and we printed it out Thursday night last week and Dave helped me get things on the tarp next to the van in the garage. Things on the tarp go in the van….keeps things organized. We cross off things that we realize we don’t need because the kids are getting older. The item we didn’t pack was “sippy cups for Eli”.

Somehow the van seemed to be SO INCREDIBLY FULL and more packed than any other year. I looked at the pile of things on the tarp and the space available in the van and it wasn’t calculating in my mind as to how it would fit. Dave is so much better at packing a van than I am. He had such a fantastic idea. Install the middle skinny seat in the second row of the van between the captain’s chairs, and fold down 2/3 of the rear third row, making a larger, deeper more cavernous space for big things to fit into. I sincerely thought we’d have more space to pack things since we didn’t plan to pack the larger clunky items like a stroller and fold-up crib. A boat motor and a guitar took those spaces instead. So three kids sit in the middle of the van, and one lonesome kid gets to sit in the rear alone. I changed the car seats around.

Friday morning was packing day for me. Dave had already gotten this things ready because he knew he’d be working all day Friday and wouldn’t have time to help me. I washed one last load of laundry Thursday evening, folded it all on Friday morning, bathed Calvin, Vanessa, and Eli, and started packing. It was 10 am. I said “we’re leaving at 3! 6 hours to go!” Because there was a 2 hr drive to Des Moines to pick up Violet. I need to back up a thought. Our original plan was to pick up Violet, bring her home, and wash all her laundry, re-pack her suitcase, and start the trek to Michigan as early as possible on Saturday morning. Dave suggested we just pick her up on Friday evening and go halfway to Michigan…and the idea was just to find a place “on the way” or “somehow when we get there” to do her laundry. I thought, “alrightie! Let’s go for it!” So I packed ferociously on Friday morning after kids were bathed. I let them watch a few Octonauts episodes so I could get busy. Eli was tired after the bath so he said “I’m gonna go to sleep” and crawled in bed and fell asleep for awhile. This was around 10:30 am. He’s so cute about that…he knows when he’s tired and asks to go to sleep. Such a little sweetie. As long as he has his “softie blankies” he calls them…he will sleep about anywhere. That hasn’t changed since he was an infant. I packed each kid’s suitcase or bag…finished packing my bathroom things. I had to direct Vanessa to pack more than just 14 pull ups. She didn’t realize she’d need clothes. She packed her wet mermaid doll she had just bathed with and some princess toys. I put the mermaid toy in a plastic bag. She helped me pick out her clothes. She’s worse than any teenager when it comes to choosing clothes. No, not that one, yes, that one, no I don’t like that one, yes I like that one…these with those pants, I have to have a skirt, I have to have a dress for this day, etc. OK Vanessa. Skirts/dresses/princesses…she was ready.

Re-checked the list. Packed up pantry items and food, and at the last minute…packed freezer/fridge items in the coolers. The van was so, so, so full. It looked a little sunk down. My goal was to leave at 3. We pulled away from the driveway at 3:07. I’m incredibly impressed. I was sweating when we left. I only wore a little tank top while packing and tossed my a clean shirt in my purse so I could put that on before arriving at Willowbrook to pick up Violet.

The Lord had the whole evening worked out in our favor. The pick-up routine for getting a camper is to greet them and stay for supper, a short message about how the week went, and watch a slideshow. This all takes a couple hours. Willowbrook Bible Camp has a laundry room inside of the “motel” which is a cabin that has a lot of rooms like hotel style that accommodates people who don’t like communal bunks. My friend Kim Costello (wife of Randy who was directing the week of camp) suggested I use the laundry machines to wash and dry all her stuff while we ate and watched the slide show. Perfect idea. One our drive from Cedar Falls to Des Moines, we passed the Hemmer family who followed us the rest of the way to camp. As I was driving on 35S I saw a white dusty van and thought to myself “I wonder if that’s the Hemmer Van…” (they live on a dirt road). I don’t think Dennis knew the way, so he was glad to follow us. I was just watching my GPS directions. Anyhow. Violet was happy to see us. She had all her stuff organized and we were able to walk over to the motel building and wash all her stuff in one load, switch it to the dryer after supper, and fold all her clean clothes into her suitcase and be completely ready for our weeks in Michigan. Amazing. SO blessed by that and thankful for those resources. Thank you, Willowbrook! A short note about camp…Violet was one of 27 campers, so it was a smaller group. She said she had a great time, and enjoyed the teachings about the Exodus from Tony Myers, and associated the blood of the lamb over the doorposts at the Passover with Jesus being the lamb who died for the sins of the world. She memorized some important people in human history (Adam, Moses, Abraham, Jesus) and the 10 commandments. Her favorite friends this year were Ivy, Casey, Katie and Bree. Counselors were Kari Jo Wilson, Hannah and Allisa Gartin. Such a blessing to send her to a safe, small camp where she is familiar with almost everyone, and I know she is well cared for and safe. She was beaming when we picked her up and was excited to share some gifts with all of us she made. A painted wood snake, a brown little dog for Eli made from perler beads, a duct tape purse, a string/stick craft, and lots of candy. Skittles for Vanessa, Twix for dad, ring pop for Vanessa.

Back to Michigan. I’m actually here. Right now. Its dead silent in the cabin and all I can hear is the fan whirring next to the kids’ room so they keep cool. Dave is relaxing in a lazyboy behind me and playing a game on my kindle. I love recording events and love reading them after time has passed so I’m going to try keep up recording what is going on. We have sketchy internet service and fleeting 3G reception . It comes and goes. We’re next to the Forest Glen general store, which has a Verizon tower, but it doesn’t reach to the cabin very well. Which is fine. We like being “off the grid”. Turn off those phones.

So getting here. Where did I leave off? Oh yeah…traveled to Madison, WI. We booked a hotel room in the Homewood Suites hotel. As we pulled up we realized it was the same hotel we stayed at a year ago. Calvin and Violet remembered the big white dog they saw on our way checking out last year and how kind the woman was who let them pet her dog. Dave booked the room last week redeeming some hotel points so it was a free stay. Thankful for that too. The suite we booked had two rooms. Violet cozied up with a spare blanket on two couch cushions pushed together for a bed. Vanessa, Calvin and Eli shared the queen size pull-out couch bed. I got smart after one year of “not-packing-that-one-bag-for-everyone-for-only-one-night-and-digging-through-huge-suitcases-in-the-parking-lot” and packed ONE backpack with changes of clothes and toiletries for all 6 of us. We arrived at the hotel around midnight, woke up kids who were sleeping, checked in, trudged to our room, got settled somehow, teeth got brushed, beds were prepared…some didn’t have pajamas (oh well) and after some giggling and rustling around and lots of “go to sleep!” reminders from us, they eventually kicked the bucket. Slept like logs. Poor Violet was SOOOO tired from her week of camp. Apparently she was awake until 1 am the night before and she had on her “tired eyes” all day. She slept well and when the kids woke up in the morning, she slept in and I invited her to our bed to finish sleeping more. She welcomed that invite, and slept for another 2 hours in our bed. Dave took the younger 3 kids down to have breakfast, and I showered. I took Violet down to breakfast before they packed up all the food for the morning, and the two of us enjoyed some egg/sausage sandwiches, fresh fruit, chocolate muffins, and shared a peanut-butter-syrup covered waffle and some juice and milk. A welcome treat. We packed up the van and started our journey to Wetmore, MI. We stopped for gas, then stopped at Cabela’s for Dave to check out some fishing gear (while the kids and I oohed and ahhed over all the awesome fish tanks and stuffed (but real looking, like taxidermy whatever…) animals on rock mountains in that store, it was a pretty cool display. Picked up another pair of flip flops for Violet. Stopped at Chipotle for quesadillas, chips, and quesadillas (and some amazing guacamole). Eli was so wipe out he slept through that meal in my arms. Kids loved the quesadillas. Vanessa exclaimed how amazing the quesadillas were and had seconds or thirds. Violet and Calvin each tried a chip with some guacamole and Calvin immediately disliked it. Violet said, not wanting to disappoint me, said, “I like it but I wouldn’t want to have it everyday.”

Dave and I switched around driving after each stop it seemed like, but the next leg from Green Bay to Marinette, where Seguins cheese is we worked on planning out our food for the week so we could make up a grocery list. Violet and Dave went into Seguins and picked up some string cheese and cheese curds. On the road again. Normally we’d all go in and try samples of things and look around at their store and take a bathroom break, but time didn’t allow it this time. So we did the necessary, and bought cheese. Just cheese. Violet remembered that on her USA placemat at home, Wisconsin has a cheese symbol on it, so therefore, we must be close to Seguins the moment we pass over the Wisconsin border. So anyhow….we were back on our way. A little less than an hour to Escanaba. I’m wanting to plan food on the drive. We think we’ll have all this useful car time but it just disappears. Dave and I really dislike planning. It may have been the most tense part of the trip. He reminisces and wants to think of amazing culinary delights we can enjoy. Nothing wrong with that, but I tend to think more practically and easy. What is your favorite jarred sauce I can put over noodles? I ask him. He says, let’s make chicken and shrimp fajitas instead. OK! So we are planning shrimp/chicken fajitas. Maybe he’ll cook `em. J We’re planning some really good breakfasts, bigger suppers, and almost nothing for lunch other than sandwiches, snacks, and the occasional pbj or apple that will hold over the kids. We realize we wouldn’t be able to grocery shop with such a tightly-packed van, so our plan was to stop at the Walmart for some basic breakfast necessities (eggs, bread) and go back for more groceries tomorrow. It is about 45 minutes to the Walmart in Escanaba from our cabin. We made plans to have dinner with Ted and Cindy tomorrow in Escanaba anyway. So, the shopping will occur tomorrow. We literally picked up eggs, bread, ok..some glazed donuts made it in the cart, some Italian bread to make garlic bread to go with the leftover soup I brought for lunch….and that’s it. For food, that is. I somehow remembered that I didn’t pack Calvin any pajamas. He never wears them, so it is no surprise. But it just felt odd to me that he had nothing to wear at night. So I found a size 8 pair of batman pajamas for $10 I thought was worth it. Eli had been complaining about his flip flops hurting him so Dave picked up a pair of walking shoes for Eli also at Walmart. A size NINE pair of shoes that felt lightweight. Blue with lime green piping and laces. Eli loves them. He poked around the Walmart fishing section and ended up with a fishing cage and a minnow bucket. The boys and girls split up for this shopping trip somehow. We got more bug spray (absolutely necessary) and checked out. Looking forward to a yummy fried egg over toast tomorrow. Yummy!

THE LAST LEG. Dave drove the rest of the way to the cabin at White Fawn Lodge and it only took us about 45 minutes. The entire way the box of eggs was on my lap because it was the only place the box would fit. And they’d probably break if I put them somewhere else. Vanessa and Violet fought over the minnow bucket. Eli complained about all sorts of things.

I helped Dave go through his script for VBS. He’s playing the role of “Camp Director” for Camp Kilimanjaro at VBS at our church the week of Aug 3-8 and he hadn’t memorized any of his lines yet. He’s got a pretty big part so I helped him go through all of it except for Day 5. He says it helps him better to memorize the lines audibly instead of reading them. Violet was plugging her ears trying not to listen to the whole script because she doesn’t want to ruin the play when she goes to VBS. Then it appeared….the lodge! We were finally there. Finally. 8:30 pm or so. Don’t even know what time. Dave went in to check in and get the key, and returned to the van. I was itching to unpack. We pulled up to our cabin and we formed an assembly line (which Violet thought she was in charge of) to get things from the van to the cabin. I told them the most helpful thing to ask right now is “where does this go?” and put it wherever daddy or mommy say. I ended up on the receiving end of the items in the cabin. It has a big entry way/mud room where all the fishing gear, coolers, life jackets, etc can go, and the kitchen somehow consumed all the food/pantry items I brought, and the suitcases fit into rooms. Kids were kind of all over, walking around, exploring each space, commenting on everything.

Kids were all hungry for supper so I cut up an apple- each got a pile of slices, and Dave toasted bread and slapped on some crunchy peanut butter. Usually I’d put honey on it but he wasn’t liking the sticky-factor that can involve so he skipped the honey. Kids ate up their supper, we got their teeth brushed, dirty feet scrubbed, only Vanessa and Violet wanted pajamas, boys in pull ups (Calvin has been dry the last week but I wasn’t wanting to risk a wet bed and not being able to wash it, despite his reluctant attitude about wearing pull ups – he feels so grown up sleeping in undies). Dave and I take big breaths of relief….and feel so much better that we aren’t crammed into a van like sardines. I offered to play some music on my guitar to help kids go to sleep…so I played for about 20 minutes. Kids started clapping to me after every song, it was cute. Eli got out of bed to poop. Violet went through about 20 tissues because she kept sneezing and coughing, poor girl. She’s sick and tired. I hope she gets some good rest and gets better.

I’ve written this post for about an hour and Dave’s making progress with his Stickman Epic game. He keeps laughing.

I gotta close my eyes pretty soon. I will call it a night and keep recording the events of our 2015 trip up north!

Before I close, here’s some “Eli quotes” from the day I don’t want to forget. As I was packing the van in Cedar Falls, one of the last thing I did after the kids were buckled up was fill up little water bottles for each of them. As I was handing each water bottle to each child, Vanessa said, “This is such a happy day!!” So Eli associated his water bottle with the phrase “happy day”. So a few minutes after leaving camp with Violet on Friday evening, Eli says, “where’s my happy day?” which took me a long time to figure out what he was talking about.

Eli also said to Dave on the way, after noticing Dave had opened up a bag of chips to snack on, “Can I have a pack in my hands?” Dave handed him the whole chip bag. Eli was a pretty happy camper for about 15 minutes while he snacked on potato chips. I remember him saying, “whoa….it looks like fire!” after pulling a big wide ruffly chip out of the bag.

Towards the tail end of our trip I found a few sheets of “Cars” stickers in the glover box. I handed a sheet of the stickers to Eli and a pad of paper and he put stickers on the paper for awhile. A little broken sticker ended up on his thumb and he was struggling to get it off his thumb and he said to Violet, who was next to him, “Get rid of the baby sticker!”

One more little comment about Eli …. HE IS LOUD. SO, SO, LOUD. His voice just has a way of filling a space. And he’s persistent. If he calls for mom or dad and we don’t answer, he’ll call louder. The whole drive he was crazy obsessed with his window shade that is able to be pulled up and hooked to cover the window to make it darker. First he wants it up, then down, then up. He would randomly complain about some pain, but I think his back just got to hurting because of sitting so long. Calvin enjoyed his “alone time” playing kindle and reading way in the back by himself. Violet and Vanessa did OK together.

OK I’m really finishing now. Dave told me he wants to go out and look at the stars. Of course, honey. Let’s go do that! Besides, I’m on page 5 of my word document and 3, 727 words into this post. Quit typing, Maria!

Sunday morning – July 12, 2015

Calvin wakes up at some point complaining about sleeping next to a thrashing Eli, so Dave moves Calvin to the living room couch. Eli wakes up first at 7 am and climbs into bed with me. He actually fell asleep for another 20 minutes or so. I just stared at his sweet angelic face. He woke up and wanted us to tickle him. Then he wanted to get dressed. Calvin tried waking up Violet to play legos but we didn’t allow that…girl needs her sleep. So Dave let Calvin quietly play minecraft on the Kindle. He is creating a treehouse in his creative world.

We all eventually wake up and peel ourselves out of bed. Vanessa is the last one to get up. Eli wants to go on the deck wearing his new shoes. I get breakfast going and we have some delicious fried eggs over toast and some glazed donuts and grape juice. A little sugary for our first morning but it was an exciting breakfast for the kids because they get donuts like…once a year. Coffee made, table cleared by Calvin, dishes washed by Violet, now we are going to have a time of worship with music and reading from the Bible. So far its feeling pretty awesome.

The plan today is to do a little exploring – later today we will drive back to Escanaba to meet Ted and Cindy for dinner and do the rest of our grocery shopping with the van emptied out.

Being that it is Sunday, we decided to take time to praise God and remember what He did for us. Dave gathered everyone and I played my guitar. Violet exclaimed, “I think this is going to be my favorite time!” She got out her Bible. We sang a few songs, and she requested Lord I lift your name on high. I played that and Dave used the words of that song for a short lesson. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high. The debt we owed for our sin was taken by Jesus. Violet shared what she learned at camp and told us during free time she read the whole book of Ephesians. Calvin prayed and thanked God for dying for our sins – and we broke a piece of bread and ate it. Then Dave prayed and thanked Jesus for giving his blood as a sacrifice for our sins. We all took a drink of grape juice. We sang the song one more time and finished. Dave was impressed Calvin could explain the debt we owed and the depth of which Violet is beginning to understand everything.

Dave and I got ready for the day and kids played some games. I introduced them to sticks game on the kindle that can be 2, 3 or 4 players – a spin off the “dot to dot” game making boxes. We finished getting ready and decided to go outside.

So exploring turned into fishing. We got some worms at the general store, then got our fishing poles. We discovered that the dock right next to our cabin is totally underwater because the water level of the lake rose a few inches. The dock suddenly wasn’t useable – so we decided to go out on the boat. This began the process of bringing down the trolling motor and battery, life jackets, and finding a big enough boat to use. It was an effort to manage everyone but overall, all did very well. I sat near the front of the boat and helped kids sit and be patient…Dave strung up hooks, bobbers, and worms.

Vanessa’s pole with a worm was in the water the longest but she didn’t catch anything. Calvin’s pole with a bobber and a worm went in and caught a fish right away. Then Eli’s pole went in and as I was holding it for him a fish bit his hook and he got to reel in his first fish. Dave held the little bluegill fish for him and Eli wanted to hold the fish and ended up kissing it. Ewww and hahaha!! Violet was so grossed out Eli kissed it. Right on its lips. I think it “bit” him and he said ouchie.

Violet had been casting and reeling with a lure with no luck other than a lot of seaweeds so she opted to get a bobber and a hook with a worm so Dave dutifully changed her fishing line along with everyone else’s during this little fishing trip and Violet caught a bluegill right away. I don’t know why Vanessa didn’t get one. She didn’t seem all that disappointed. But the fear on the boat is always hoping the kids don’t drop their fishing poles in the water. Nobody did. So we’re thankful for that. The sun was beating down pretty hard and sweat was dripping down my back. Kids were getting overly hot and hungry, so we went back to shore, washed up hands, and I put a bag of thawed out spinach/orzo/veggie soup on the stove. It heated up so fast and we all had soup with in minutes. I had to help Eli eat he was so tired and grumpy. He fell asleep for a nap quickly and rest of the kids finished their soup. Calvin washed the dishes and they all played legos while Dave napped in a recliner. We’re leaving for Escanaba to meet Ted and Cindy for dinner at a restaurant and finish our food shopping at Walmart.

So we drove to Escanaba to meet up with T&C – the goal was to meet them at 5 for dinner at a place called The Family Inn Restaurant in a little town just north of Esky called Wells. 6 minutes after leaving, Dave said, “Oh, don’t we need the coolers and ice packs?” Yeah. We forgot those. So we turned around and got those quickly and got back on our trip. The hour drive seemed to take a long time. Vanessa and Eli fell asleep. Calvin and Violet in the rear of the van were all silly and crazy playing around with the headrests on their seats. Put a stop to that. We pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and Eli whined he wanted to go home. He shoved his head into his blankets and was kinda ornery. Ted and Cindy had a table for 8 in the rear of the restaurant and were waiting. Violet and Calvin rushed up and hugged them and greeted them nicely. Vanessa and Eli were a little more hesitant. Vanessa remembered a year ago when Cindy gave the kids all birthday gifts and she was reluctant to say thank you for the longest time. I asked Calvin if he wanted a burger and fries and he said yes. The younger two wanted pancakes, and Violet wanted mac n cheese and mini corn dogs. She ate all of hers and finished Eli’s pancakes. Calvin ate half his burger plate and finished all of Vanessa’s pancakes. Dave got perch, I got an oriental chicken salad. Conversation with T&C was nice. They were happy to see us and we talked about changes over the last year.

We had to get going fairly quickly and didn’t hang out too long after eating. We said our goodbyes, we’ll see them both next week. We drove a few more miles to Walmart and tackled our shopping list. Three carts and too much money later, we exited the store and loaded the van. I ran back in to get ice last minute. The drive home we let the kids watch Frozen.

Getting home we quickly unloaded the grocery items. I worked to put everything away and Dave got the kiddos ready for bed. Melatonin was needed. All were super crazy, overstimulated and probably OVERTIRED….wouldn’t stop messing with stuff and getting in our way. Calvin’s head hit the pillow and I think he was instantly asleep. The sleeping arrangements aren’t totally perfect with this cabin because three kids are in a queen bed under the bunk bed and one kid is on top, so the lower three (whoever they may be, it keeps changing) are a little squished. We brought an air mattress but I forgot a sleeping bag or sheets, so maybe we can borrow some from the lodge. Haven’t gotten to asking for that yet. The guy, George, who runs the lodge, is kind of hard to get a hold of. Dave and I are going to practice his lines for the VBS play and have some down time now. He walked up to the general store vicinity to get reception on his phone so he could check the sunrise time for tomorrow morning – he wants to get up early and go fishing. Best time to fish, so they say.

Our time is an hour later than Iowa time and since we’re so far up north, the sun sets around 10 pm. Its kinda nuts.

Tomorrow we plan on staying around the cabin/beach area. I made a bunch of hard boiled eggs for our breakfast plan.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Dave got up at 5:45 and took Violet with him to go fishing. I heard a toilet flush at 6 am and got up to see what was going on. I then noticed the fishing boat go backward and it was Violet pushing it away from the shore. I tried to snap a pic but there are a lot of trees that blocked my view.

I fell back asleep for awhile but the other kids were up by 7. Calvin laid in my bed and said he was starving. Dave and Violet returned with success and reported that on the third lap around the lake Violet caught a 15.5” bass. She was so happy! The morning and the majority of this day has been very relaxed. I made cheesy creamed eggs on toast. Got lots of mmmmmmmmmms from the kids eating. Especially Vanessa. And Dave.

After breakfast Dave fell asleep in the rocking chair. Kids watched some cartoons, then worked on some puzzle mania books. I hit a wall and fell asleep in our room for an hour or two, I don’t even know. Dave was sleeping, I was sitting down and all the kids were occupied, my head just started bobbing down and my brain shut down. So I crawled into bed. Dave woke up after some screaming and played around with the kids and I think a lot of junk food was eaten. I woke up and felt so groggy but after waking up and some coffee, I feel much, much better. Naps do wonders. I walked up to the general store to get a battery, light bulb, and ask for a set of sheets to be sent to our cabin for our air mattress.

We feel a big cooped up so we’re going to head out and go for a walk through the woods. Bring on the deet bug spray!

The walk we took outside lasted maybe 45 minutes. We roamed around the trails, discovered the cabin that Josh and Carrie will be staying in when they are here next week, and collected pinecones that grandpa Ted had told us would be good fire starters. Found some walking sticks, Eli pointed out all the big tractors parked along some of the big storage buildings that are part of the lodge. Calvin got nervous about being too far away from our cabin and getting stuck in the rain. He even remembers crying on a walk last year in the woods in this same place because he didn’t like getting wet away from the cabin. Eli then told us he had poop in his butt so Dave checked and he had a little issue, so we had to turn around and head towards our cabin. About 200 feet before we reached “home base” it started to sprinkle then rain harder, so Calvin bolted for safety. We all got in the door and it started to DOWNPOUR. Sheets of rain. Water formed a trail from behind our cabin all the way down to the lake over the “steps” and it looked like tiny waterfalls – this was Violet’s favorite part and urged everyone to come see. It rained like crazy for about 3 hours. Kids cozied up with their kindle games and took turns showing Dave their minecraft worlds, of which he was very impressed. He noted that Violet seemed to take an “engineer” approach to her creations that are well developed and well thought out - and Calvin took a more decorative and random approach to making his houses in his worlds.

Eli napped from about 3-5:30. We opened the door to where he was sleeping to help wake him up and he got annoyed and said, “shut the door!” He eventually woke up very thirsty.

Dave and I started dinner prep. I thawed out 4 chicken breasts and a pile of shrimp. The plan was chicken/shrimp fajitas, cheese quesadillas for kids, and salsa/chips. Dave sliced up some peppers and onions and I cooked the meat. I added the seasoning, and it smelled pretty amazing. While I was cooking the chicken in the oil, Violet told me that the smell of it all cooking was making her feel sick so she tried going outside but the mosquitos were too bad, either that, or she couldn’t see the screen of her game in the sun. Dave set the table once it was all ready and we ate. The food was just one of those meals when you were hungry and it hit the spot – so, so delicious. This one might become a staple for our Michigan trips.

Dave decided to take Calvin out fishing. I sent him with a bottle of water and a clif bar thinking he’d get hungry, because Calvin is always hungry. Violet so desperately wanted to contact the boys with the walkie talkie but I didn’t want to bother them. I played Spot It Frozen with Vanessa, Eli and Violet (Eli was getting the hang of the matching concept o f the game), then I taught Vanessa how to play war. She LOVED IT. And turned crazy. She was squawking, squealing, and enjoying every win/loss. Violet and Vanessa never “finished” the game but Violet ended up with more cards than Vanessa at a count of 32-20 when I said it was quitting time.

Dave and Calvin returned from their fishing trip with stories of two fish getting away but no fish in the net. Dave claims Calvin still needs “netting-the-fish-technique-work”. Despite bringing home no fish, Calvin still said he had a fun time and still wants to go fishing another night.

Its 10:30 and Calvin is going to bed, he’s gonna be a sleepy boy.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The morning started again with Dave and Violet going out fishing again. They caught three fish but all were too small to keep. They have to be 14” minimum. They returned really cold. The weather was misty and windy. I woke up to the other kids waking up and got a walkie talkie message from Dave saying he’d love to come in and have a hot cup of coffee. I love it when he requests things like that so I can make it for him. Coffee made. I decided it would be a great pancake and bacon morning, so I started frying up the bacon on the skillet I brought (so thankful I brought that skillet, I’ve cooked every meal so far with it). I had bought a box of buttermilk pancake mix that was “just add water” and the pancakes turned out pretty good. Dave commented that they were light and fluffy. J All the kids ate their fill and we decided what to do with our day. It was still breezy, misty and cooooold so I decided to walk up to the main store where I could be connected to the internet and research a little what to do in Munising that is indoors. Vanessa walked up with me. She read a Cinderella book on my phone. George suggested a new indoor park that someone set up in a school gymnasium that is no longer in use, I thought that sounded like a pretty fantastic idea. I checked my email and called Rachel to say hi. I wrote down some information about a bowling alley that might be a possibility. Vanessa and I returned with the idea and all seemed in favor. I showered and included Vanessa and Eli in my routine so they got cleaned up too. Dave got ready, the other kids played around with either legos or kindles, I don’t even know since I was so busy with the little two. I packed up a lunch for everyone. Peanut butter & jelly, fresh strawberries, a bag of doritos and a box of clif bars and some flavored water. We got IN THE VAN. This process of getting off somewhere with our family just takes….time. J We got all buckled. Then Dave looked up and noticed the sky was clearing up and the sun was shining.

Sun shining! Oh! Soooo we changed our plans.

We decided not to waste a sunny day (we checked the weather) and decided to keep the picnic lunch for the day but instead, drive to Kitchitikipi, the state’s largest body of water that is spring-fed. It is only a couple hundred feet long, but it has a motor-free boat that glides along the water’s surface guided only one way and back on a rope with a viewing area in the middle so you can see directly to the bottom of the lake – approx. 45 feet deep. Kids were slightly bummed at the quick change of plans but warmed up to the idea after figuring out what we were going to see. We navigated there w/ my phone and headed that direction. It was 45 miles away and took about an hour. We admired the huge trees. We got to our destination and parked the van, stopped at some porta potties, had a discussion about why it didn’t look like normal toilets (just a hole in the ground), played with some swings along the way, and walked over to the spring. On the way we chatted with a lady who had a fabulous display of skins from local animals…foxes, wolves, squirrels, deer, otter, etc. Kids got their hands all over those and ooh and ahhed over how soft they were. Walked over to the spring (finally) and waited our turn to get on the boat. It was super cool. The absolutely crystal-clear water was icy-freezing-cold. The “boat” was more like a floating raft with railings and a roof, with an open center for clear viewing of the bottom. We did see a group of large fish, I’m not sure what they were. We expected more fish. The neat part for me was seeing the bottom of the lake bubbling up almost like an exploding volcano where it is fed with water.

We stopped in the little gift shop and told the kids they could spend up to $3 but quickly discovered there just wasn’t much available for $3 except for a tiny bag of cotton candy. They got to pick out something and we agreed it could be a little more. Violet got to fill a little small drawstring bag with her choice of pretty rocks for 3.99. Calvin chose a necklace made of black string with a little scorpion encased in thick plastic (he loves it, wow), Vanessa wanted cotton candy and Eli didn’t get anything. Dave and I chose a cute little moose ornament for our Christmas tree that says Kitchitikipi. Those are the things that bring back memories we love to think about!

All of us were starting to feel hungry so we stopped at some nicer bathrooms we found near the gift shop, walked to our van, and drove a couple miles to a site near Indian Lake State Park and parked our van right by the water’s edge and ate on a picnic table. There were more swings there too. The flies were biting something fierce and only seemed to want to munch on MY legs. We enjoyed watching someone else’s dog frolic in the water.

The swings at the spot we ate our picnic lunch swung so high. I got to running under all the kids as they swang back and forth. Dave set up his camera and we snapped a few selfies as a family. We checked routes for the drive home and noticed the two options were about the same time to drive but one was 28 miles vs one that was 50 miles. We chose the shorter route even though it said it would take 10 minutes longer. The first 30 minutes or so was normal. Dave took a short detour to check out some lake a sign pointed to that said Jack Pine Lake. It was just a cute little lake with a couple campground spots. Kids were annoyed we “went off the map route” and the last half hour of the drive was through these little service roads that were SMALL and felt as though they should have only been occupied by 4 wheeler vehicles. It was kind of fun and adventurous. We were literally driving through a forest. Saw one deer. Eli fell asleep. The kids said once or twice they were feeling carsick because it was so bumpy. The air was crisp, the sun was shining (62 degrees), and the forest smelled amazing with the windows down. We had to stop and move Violet over because she was sitting in too close proximity to Calvin and somehow hurt him. We had a meltdown situation with both the older two kids in the back but got through it.

The tiny service road ended and we were back on the main road heading towards the cabin. We arrived back at the cabin a little jiggled up from the bumpy but exciting ride back (and I’m still amazed that those little 4 wheeler service roads were ON GOOGLE MAPS and substantial enough for navigational purposes). The weather was so beautiful the kids wanted to be outside so we decided to go fishing off the main dock. Camera ready, life jackets on, poles ready, tackle box in hand, worms ready. We can’t really handle fishing with 4 kids at a time so we let the younger two start fishing and the older two sat and watched. Fishing with littles means dropping a hook in the water a foot away from the dock and watching a bluegill bite the worm on the hook and pull the bluegill out of the water. Its pretty exciting for them. Vanessa’s line went in first but Eli’s pole caught the first fish. He was all smiles and giggles. Too scared to kiss the fish however. Vanessa then caught a fish. Eli caught another one. It was crazy – Eli just puts his pole in and a fish bites it. Violet and Calvin felt the water and realized how warm it felt. I think they got bored waiting for the little kids that they decided they wanted to go swimming. Ok. Switching gears – I helped kids get swimsuits on and life jackets back on – and Dave packed up fishing stuff. Soon all kids were in suits and all their life jackets were zipped up and I sat next to the water on a folding chair and watched them. Dave returned to sit with me. Eli got brave and went down the slide. Vanessa was too scared. Violet and Calvin both went down the slide. Eli got all crazy and realized how warm the water was. He started jumping off the dock into the water doing belly flops. Dave suggested I use the continuous camera shutter setting to snap some photos of Eli jumping into the water. I got some really cool pictures of Eli airborne . Violet gave Eli a ride in the paddleboat and then Violet and Calvin wanted to go out to the island (the floating dock about 30 feet off the shore). Dave got on the paddleboat and helped transport and of course ended up with soaking shorts. I kept watch on the younger two. It was a really fun relaxing time on the water just playing around. All were so happy and giggly. We got to a point where some kids got out of the water and were really cold and wanted towels. I showed them their new towels I had gotten them from the store prior to our visit, which Calvin knew about but kept a secret. Calvin got a new lego towel, Vanessa a Sophia the first towel, and Eli a minions towel which he called “bandaids!” because at Christmas time we got him Minion bandaids. And forever since he’s been calling anything with minions on them “bandaids”. So funny. Took some more pictures. Eli wanted in and out and in and out and in and out of the water.

We all got hungry and felt kinda cold so it was time to get back to our cabin. Calvin was shivering so I turned on the shower and let him stand in the hot water in the shower for awhile – he cleaned up too. Violet took a shower after Calvin. Younger two wrestled around. I started preparing dinner. Chopped garlic, boiled water for noodles, sautéed walnuts and garlic together and added it to the cooked noodles with a heaping pile of parmesan cheese mixed in. It was a recipe from a dish Martha used to make years ago and is one of Dave’s favorites. Dave buttered garlic bread. We served up some really icy cold Italian salads along with the meal and the lettuce was frozen, literally. The coldest salad ever. I don’t think it was really edible. But the pasta ‘n walnuts and garlic bread. was. amazing. Simply delicious. Violet and Calvin told me it was the best kind of food they’ve ever put in their mouth and Vanessa just copied everything they said. Eli ate his pile of noodles without prompting. Another “hit the spot” meal in Michigan. Put the garlic bread away so I can stop eating it! We shared some Sierra Mist drinks all around.

Dave helped a naked Eli pick noodles off the floor to help clean up. Apparently he wanted to go to the bathroom but got distracted.

Dave knew he had to go clean the first fish Violet caught. He took Calvin and Violet with him. Calvin wanted to watch when Dave cut its head off, but wouldn’t watch when Dave cut the guts out. Violet refused to watch the head getting cut off but instead was interested in watching the guts get cut out. Opposites, naturally.

Dave took Violet and Calvin out fishing and got out on the water about 9:30. Kind of a late start to the night of fishing, but hoping for a good night. I got Vanessa and Eli’s teeth brushed, PJs on, and tried to calm them down. Both were some crazy version of hyper. I tried teaching Vanessa the song, “Thank you Lord for saving my soul, thank you Lord for making me whole, thank you Lord for giving to me Thy great salvation, so rich and free.” But she kept forgetting the tune and wanted to sing a different song. (Violet returned with a bag that the fish meat was in and I stuck it in the freezer after removing the paper towel around the two fillets.) Then Vanessa gained some confidence in learning it so I would quickly whisper the words that were in each next line quickly so she could sing along with me. She goofed up some lyrics and said, “Thank you Lord for making my whole.” And made me giggle. She was such a giggle box. I sang her the song a few more times and she sang with me, and was instantly motivated to teach Violet and Calvin the same song. Maybe she’ll get that chance tomorrow. . I gave Vanessa and Eli some melatonin to go to sleep because they were so wired and 10-15 min after they’d taken it, both were completely asleep. I cleaned up the dishes and swept the entry way and shook out the rug.

I took a walk outside with the walkie talkie and got a message from Dave saying that they’d caught two fish but they flipped off the hooks before they could be netted.

It was getting dark and they planned to go around the lake just one more time.

I started writing in my journal on the computer. Then the walkie talkie bleeped and I heard Dave announce that Calvin had caught a 16” bass. So exciting! He later told me it was an event that stunned Calvin and after reeling in his fish for a few moments, he decided he didn’t want to finish so Dave took his pole and Violet netted it. He said the hook was barely holding it. Calvin burst into the cabin and exclaimed that I needed to come see it RIGHT NOW. It was THIS BIG around, he said, with his hands held up in a big circle. I got my camera and went down to the boat and snapped a couple pics. Great job, Calvin! Dave told me Calvin said this: “Hey dad, God gave us a piece of His creation. It was a small thing for Him but a big thing for us!” He had prayed before the fishing experience to catch a fish that was bigger than Violet’s. Hers was 15.5’.

Calvin ate a clif bar. The boy is always hungry.

Violet and Calvin changed into pajamas, brushed teeth, and I set up the air mattress for Calvin to sleep on since he didn’t like being crammed into the queen with the younger two. I used duct tape to hold the flat sheet to stay wrapped around the air mattress since no fitted sheet was provided with the extra set of bedding that I requested from the lodge. No biggie….seemed kinda Yooper to do so. We prayed to wrap up the night and thank God for a good fishing night. Got Calvin’s bed settled in the corner of the room and he was incredibly happy to go to sleep. Violet climbed into bed too.

Dave is enjoying a new Kindle game he found called Monument Valley – it’s a thinker brain game.

I wrote in this journal for an hour and it is close to the time we need to get some sleep too.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

I gotta confess I’m not sitting down to journal with a big sigh of satisfaction like today was the best day ever. Vacation has its ups and downs. And though it wasn’t entirely down, the day didn’t end all that well so I’m a little annoyed sitting here. The beautiful sunset and quiet cabin is certainly helping. The beginning and middle of the day were quite nice.

Dave decided last night that he would sleep in and not fish early in the morning. He’d already gone twice in a row morning and night and he said it was starting to feel like too much. He needed sleep. So he slept in. Calvin and Violet also slept in until 9:30. Vanessa and Eli were awake early so I got up with them and they had some cold cereal and played some alphabet games and read books on the kindle. It was a quiet enough activity for them to do so the 3 sleepy ones could sleep. Somehow in the middle of the night last night Violet fell out of bed. The top bunk. There is no railing but we thought she’d do the best. We heard a loud bang and a few thumps and she started yelling “help me please!” Dave jumped out of bed like he had a fire under his bum and went to get her. He picked her up and snuggled her while she cried on the couch. She complained her knee hurt. She was also still sleeping through the crying. She calmed down, and agreed to snuggle up against the wall so she wouldn’t fall out again.

In the morning, she was the first one of the three late night fisher-people to wake up. She headed to the bathroom and at the same time, asked me if dad and Calvin were out in the boat still fishing. I told her they never went and were still sleeping. She was a little surprised because the plan was for Dave to take Calvin out but ultimately sleep won and they didn’t go. She just nodded. Dave and Calvin made appearances and knew they’d made the right choice.

I made Calvin and Violet egg/sausage English muffin sandwiches for breakfast. Calvin thought he’d eat two and Violet only had one, but Calvin only finished one and saved the other one for later. He ended up eating it a couple hours later for “lunch”. The morning is something I’d call….lazy. We bummed around, made coffee, napped a little, ate food, played games, read books, etc. It was overcast and cloudy. Since we’d had an adventure away from the cabin all day we decided to stick around this area all day. Stuff like…fish off the dock, swim in the lake, make a campfire, etc.

While we stayed in the cabin in the morning, I taught Violet, Calvin, and Vanessa how to play war with cards, then slap-jack. Calvin really loved slapjack. Dave had some leftover creamed eggs for breakfast, then worked on the next “world” in his Monument Valley game and the kids were amazed at what he was doing. All were interested and constantly offering suggestions on how he could beat the levels.

So about the time we all felt like it was time to get out of the cabin, kids got swimsuits and lifejackets on and we decided to park ourselves by the main dock area to play around. We stayed at the dock from about 1-4:40. Long time. Kids swam, splashed, floated, jumped in, and plunked the paddle boat around. Dave and I saw a big bass circling the area so we grabbed our fishing poles to do something while the kids swam. This caught the attention of the kids and all of a sudden they wanted to fish too. Three kids got their poles. Violet got brave enough to tear apart worms and put them on hooks and take fish off the hooks for Vanessa. My bobber and worm hooked a big sunfish which we threw back. The kids remembered my camera feature that would snap quick pictures of them and all of them wanted me to take pics of them. We even caught a painted turtle with our net! I saw it swimming near our dock and disappear for awhile until Dave saw it closer and netted it. We all looked at the turtle for awhile and let it go back in the water. Three boys from a nearby camper were catching bluegill fish as bait to use for trying to catch northern pike. Violet gave them some of her bluegill fish…we didn’t need `em. We didn’t catch that bass I spotted again and again through the afternoon. He must not have been hungry. All were getting hungry. I don’t even recall feeding anyone an official lunch…there was a lot of snacking going on. Salsa, chips, cheese, Swedish fish….ya know.

The plan for the rest of the day was to eat some leftovers for supper, clean Calvin’s fish, and start a campfire. Dave planned on taking the two older kids fishing. Violet, Calvin and Vanessa came running when I told them leftover pasta ‘n walnuts and garlic bread. I served them outside on the deck table using my big skillet as a tray to bring the bowls and plates outside. Vanessa said, “mom you’re like a waitress!” I walked inside after giving them their food and set down my skillet. I heard them singing the “thankful song” thanking God for their food. That made me smile – a sweet part of the day. I love seeing my kids take initiative to pray.

Eli and Dave had walked up to the general store while the others were eating. Dave had to talk to George (the owner) about some issues with our cabin and when he got back, I gave Eli some toast, peanut butter, and honey. Dave and I finished off the noodles and the bag of lettuce for Italian salad. Eli was really, really dirty. I started a campfire. Dave fell asleep on the couch so I took the kids outside to search for firewood. Vanessa prayed to God that we would find a lot of sticks. I spotted a dead tree with its roots exposed on the hill by the gravel path near our cabin. I wiggled the roots and it seemed pretty loose so we wrapped the dead tree with a rope and the kids helped me pull the tree free for firewood. Calvin loved the fact that we just yanked a tree out of the ground, haha. We dragged the tree over to the firepit. I acknowledged Vanessa’s prayer and told her God helped us find a lot of wood to burn. She said, “God said yes for lots of sticks but he won’t let me turn into a mermaid. When I get to heaven I will turn into a mermaid!” Then we got into a discussion about how we won’t be able to ask God to turn us into anything we want. Heaven is about Him, not us. And our new bodies that God gives us will be perfect and we will praise Him. She still didn’t get it. We loaded up the firepit with the two Walmart bags of pinecones we found and lit them on fire. Ted had told us they were really great fire starters and he was right, it worked like a charm.

Vanessa said she loves campfires because we can have s’mores. I got the s’more stuff and she ate two. Eli only wanted the graham crackers and chocolate chunks, no marshmallows.

Dave woke up after we got the fire going and got another hunk of dead wood out of the woods. Violet was helping him and this is when the night turned sour. All of a sudden she started screaming bloody murder, ran for the cabin, and was SOBBING. Dave went in to see what happened and she had gotten some kind of bug bite that was really painful. I was watching the little kids and then I felt a sting on my back. I swatted at it hard but the sting got worse, and I ran inside the cabin too. Vanessa and Eli followed me, and Calvin also joined in because he was so curious. Violet and I had gotten stung by bees. She was calmed down but my shoulder had a burning sensation all around where it had gotten bit. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Ugh, that is so not fun. Kids were all spooked and so was I. Dave, Violet, and Calvin all went off to go clean Calvin’s fish. I sprayed myself, Vanessa and Eli with some serious bug spray and we went outside again to enjoy the campfire. Eli just dug in the sand nearby and got himself filthy. Filthy. Vanessa was really dirty too. So when Dave, Violet and Calvin got back, I told Dave I was taking in the younger two for showers and to put them to bed. We got in the tiny shower, just the three of us, and through lots of whining and crying about water and shampoo spraying in their faces, I got them squeaky clean and ready for bed. This whole process was very exhausting and my shoulder was hurting really bad. Teeth brushed, pajamas on, and in bed. Told Dave g’night and got them in bed. I sang them some songs I remembered “I’m so happy…” and “Thank you Lord for saving my soul” again, and “all the children ought to know”… Vanessa wondered why I knew so many songs. I told her I remembered them from when I was in camp and in Sunday School. They bopped their heads and clapped to “I’m so happy” but the singing wasn’t calming them down so they got another dose of melatonin and were asleep in 10 minutes. That stuff is amazing.

So I sat down to write in my journal all tired and exhausted from the drama of the bug bites and having to clean up dirty and whiny kids. Not really worthy of all my complaining, now that I’m sitting down to write it all out.

Dave has Violet and Calvin out fishing right now. I’m enjoying a margarita and enjoying watching the sun set and the birds chirp.

Only two or two and a half more full days until our family arrives, and we have another full week of activity ahead of us! We will probably go hiking to see some waterfalls tomorrow or the next day, and get all our laundry washed before “the new week” arrives with everybody here. Josh and Carrie and Sean and April and families all will roll in sometime probably late on Saturday evening.

The above photos are from Tues, July 14th in front of the raft on Kitchitikipi.

**late night fishing report: Brought home no fish, but Dave said there were tons of bites. Calvin reeled in a big one but it let go of the line underwater somehow. Dave caught what he thought was the biggest bass ever but Violet apparently didn’t scoop it with the net fast enough and it flipped off the hook. There were a couple other fish caught but too small to keep. They have to be minimum 14”. Sooo…biting fish, disappointing moments.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Today we planned to go up towards Munising, but instead go further and catch a ferry over to Grand Island. None of us had ever been there so we decided to give it a go. Vanessa and Eli were awake, and Violet and Calvin were still sleeping.

When I woke up it was about 7:15 am and I discovered Dave was not in the cabin. He’d forgotten the walkie talkie so I couldn’t get in touch with him. I took Vanessa and Eli out of the cabin with me for “a little tiny walk” to go see if we could spot Dave in the fishing boat. Sure enough we saw him across the lake – he wears a red sweatshirt when fishing so he’s easy to see. The lake was misty, still, and beautiful. We walked back up to the cabin to get some breakfast – they both wanted different kinds of cereal, Vanessa with her signature honey nut cheerios with honey request and Eli wanting Life. I don’t even remember the early events of the morning. Kids woke up. Dave got back reporting no bites on the fishing, he showered, I think Violet and Calvin both showered. I started making chipped beef on toast and realized I needed salt. I drove the van up to the general store at 8 when it opened to buy more Dark chips and salt/pepper. I asked the lady if there was a baking pan available to put in our cabin and she directed me to the “community center”. I drove down there and discovered a building/garage that was filled with tables, a ping pong table, foosball, firewood, and a kitchen. It’s a lounge area the people who stay in the motel building use for things. Its available to everyone, apparently. She told me to rummage around the kitchen there so I went down there and found a sheet pan, cake pan, tongs, and hot pads, which our kitchen was lacking. I never knew this building existed, and was glad to have found it – maybe it can be a place to go on the rainy day when there’s nothing else to do. It felt pretty run down and gross though, so maybe. Maybe.

Anyway, with my “loot” I drove back to the cabin and started making breakfast. Dave loved it, of course, a childhood favorite. I didn’t grow up with this dish so to me, it was just a recipe to follow. But on the way here, I googled the “history” of this “chipped beef on toast” meal and discovered it was a way to ration meat and something military people used to make all the time. It has also been coined the “SOS” breakfast – (pardon the language…”shit on a shingle”). I know, gross. Sauteed corned beef, soaked in a buttery white sauce, cream of mushroom soup, all spread over toast. BUT nonetheless, its something he loves. Violet liked it. Calvin, not so much. Vanessa and Eli didn’t try it, and I had one scoop over one piece of bread. In my opinion, it was just OK. Creamy and filling, however. Once breakfast was cleaned up, I think that’s the time people showered…anyway, it was time to form a plan for the day, and we decided on Grand Island. We’d only heard things about it. That there’s possibly a lot of moose and black bears, cliffs, beaches, forests, trails, etc. We got so late in the planning stages that it was time for kids to eat lunch. Violet made up a bunch of pbjs, we finished some strawberries and raspberries, and decided if we were going to Munising we’d do laundry, so we packed up the laundry bag, soap, towels, etc…and then packed the backpacks with clif bars, oatmeal bars, and bottled water, sweatshirts in case we got cold, and took off. It was a little after noon when we left our cabin. We drove through Munising to discover what the ferry situation was. The next one was at 2. So we bought our tickets and had about an hour to kill. We drove up to a scenic overlook, stopped at the bathrooms, drove around Munising to find this indoor park location I’d planned on going earlier but never went. Went to the atm and got out some cash to ask a bank teller to exchange for a couple rolls of quarters – for laundry. We had forgotten to print off the book full of song lyrics that I’d created in a word document last week getting ready for a guitar campfire group sing. So I called a local print shop while we were waiting for the ferry and asked if I could email them my word document and have them print off and staple the sheets for me. They were very friendly and agreed to do it so that was fantastic to get done. I used Dave’s hotspot to connect my laptop and download the lyric booklet I’d made so I could email it off quick before catching the ferry.

We got onto the ferry, which was like an enormous pontoon with benches, and the ride was a whole 3 or 4 minutes to Grand Island. We got off onto the dock and looked around at some signs, checked out some maps, and picked our path. The path to Duck Pond was 1.8 miles, so we headed that direction. The first leg of the trail went through some thick woods and we loaded up so heavy on the bug spray. It was feeling pretty miserable. We weren’t so sure about this hiking plan. Then the forest cleared, and we saw water, felt the breeze, could hear the crashing waves, and decided to keep walking. Vanessa began to melt like an ice cube on a hot day. She kinda wilted. She was whiney and tired. Not the best way to start a walk. Our phones had 4G reception on the island (yeah, who knew) so I could use GPS to detect exactly where we were on the walking trail. The end goal was to stop at the beach on Murray Bay and go .8 miles further to see a pond in the middle of the island. It was kind of grueling, to be honest…with the kids. They were complaining, and it wasn’t feeling all that worth it. I carried Eli in the backpack carrier and he quickly fell asleep on my back. Nothing like hiking in the hot sun with an extra 40 lbs on your back. We tried our best to keep a positive attitude, admiring the black and white butterflies, unique birds, huge trees, and cool scenery. Having never experienced Grand Island before we had no idea what to expect, so we chose the shortest walking path on the island. I know there’s high up cliffs and peaks but we didn’t want to take chances with kids and high cliffs after reading how dangerous they were in the guide pamphlet – there were suggestions for keeping dogs on leashes because dogs had fallen off peering over the edge and the ground falling below them (the ground is really soft on the cliffs, I guess). We just picked a safe path. We learned quickly that biking is the way to get around this island. Groups of bikers passed us both directions. We kept on walking on the trail and eventually came to a sandy beachy area where the kids got to feel the sand and water of Lake Superior. The waves were high, so we barely let them touch the water with their fingertips, those waves and the undercurrent can be dangerous. So our goal was to complete the walking trail that leads to a lake called Duck Lake. We used the little outhouse in the woods and kept on the trail, which led into more woods. Another layer of bug spray went on. Dave told me clouds of mosquitos were flying around my head. I sprayed my hair. Yeah, my hair. We got to duck lake. It was just a little tiny pond looking thing, and we admired it (and some dead bugs in the water and a cool looking flower) for about 1 minute and decided to head back and make progress to “end” this hiking journey. Vanessa wanted to ride in the backpack carrier. Eli had since woken up and wanted to run, so he gladly ran and ran and ran. Violet and Calvin ran to keep up with him. His little spurts of energy are short so I carried him some of the way back. Calvin started melting down. Violet remained steady and complained very little. Each got to eat some oatmeal and clif bars and drink water which was helpful to keep the moods up. We checked the time and it was 4:00 when we left duck lake. Our goal was to make it back to the ferry landing to catch the 5:00 ride back to the mainland. If it took us a little less than two hours to GET to duck lake, we weren’t really sure how we’d get back in an hour’s time. But we didn’t stop on the way back. We stopped a lot on the way there, looking at old shacks from 200 yrs ago, stopped at the beach, the bathrooms, etc. We were hard-driven to get back by 5 because the last ferry took off at 6. Vanessa even prayed that we’d get back fast. Well, we did it. We had to encourage the kids to speed up their pace a lot, and carry little Eli when he was tired, but man, he remained cheerful THE ENTIRE TIME. When I carried him, he wanted to kiss me and hug me and make funny faces. When he was walking/running he plunked along with whatever stick he could find to carry. We kept up a faster pace on the way back and made it back to the ferry landing location right at 4:59. We happily sat on some picnic tables in the breezy shade and rested, while at the same time, eagerly watched across the water to the mainland to watch for the ferry to leave its dock at 5 to come get us. A smaller pontoon boat picked us all up and we were back on the mainland within minutes. While we had been walking, we decided what to do about dinner. We could either drive back to our cabin or go to Main Street Pizza. Kids all agreed on pizza, so that was the decision. On the way we picked up the lyric books from the print shop across from the ol’ DogPatch restaurant (where we’ve gone in the past but not this or the year before), then headed to get pizza. We ordered two, and then waited. Kids sipped on root beer while we waited. They weren’t even crazy. They just kind of sat in their chairs and stared. All wiped out. Pizza came after waiting for about ½ hour, and we all chowed down. It was so, so delicious. We got one cheese, and one half pepp and half sausage. Cheese was the majority favorite.

Drove back to the cabin, and sat down, a bit exhausted. I knew Eli and Vanessa were so tired, but all 6 of us had three layers of 25% deet bug spray on. Ick. Vanessa’s hair was a netted up tangly disaster. I showered again with Vanessa and Eli – scrubbed their skin and washed their hair. All fresh and clean again for bed. Meanwhile, Dave, Violet, and Calvin went out fishing. I read Vanessa and Eli a book on my kindle which was “The Lion and the Mouse”. Vanessa loved it so much she wanted to read it again but we didn’t have time. Sang the kids some songs, prayed, kisses and hugs, and then lights out. Both were asleep with in minutes, again!

I swept out the entry way again, and then sat down to journal about the day. If I had to do the day all over again, I wouldn’t have chosen a tiresome hike. But…at the same time, it was fantastic exercise for the whole family and we learned about persistence, endurance, and pushing through a difficult situation. And really, 3.6 miles in one day for the kids isn’t all that much. I don’t think we’ll do Grand Island again, but hey, we can check that off the list and “say we’ve done it” and “hey, we’ve been there”. There were some beautiful moments and some nice photos taken.

As I’m typing and sitting here Violet just messaged me through the walkie talkie telling me daddy caught a big 16” bass and Calvin netted it. Yayyyy! “Evening fishing hours” have been approx. 8:00-10:30 (or when it is pitch black) and its only 9:15, maybe they’ll catch more! The sun has been setting around 10pm each night. We’re so far north in the smack dab middle of summer, its no wonder it sets so late.

I also got caught up reading the end of 2 Samuel and the first 13 chapters of 1 Kings. Dave and I have been watching the Bible series on Netflix, and while it isn’t totally accurate, there are some really well done scenes and the events of Scripture are played out accurately. It got my attention focused on the kings of the old testament and how King David’s reign was a bloody one full of war and his son Solomon’s reign was building Israel in numbers and building the temple – just really neat stuff.

P.s. About the day….laundry never got done. There just wasn’t time. So we’ll go back in the morning and try another spot, maybe this time a shorter hike with a much more impressive waterfall and some sunny sandy beach time to relax.

Friday, July 17, 2015

The early morning hours between 2-5 am were awful. Eli and Vanessa thought it was morning time and they wouldn’t stop goofing off. It was so frustrating to me. It was the “dead of the night” sleep time for me and to get woken up out of that is so. not. fun. I ended making Vanessa sleep on the couch so she wouldn’t bother Eli. Every time I thought they were settled, I’d get back in my bed and get settled and hear them messing around again. At one point I mumbled about it to Dave but he caught on to the situation when he heard Eli whimpering “mommy!!!” and I refused to go see him. Dave told me he had one of his arms up out of the neck of his pajama shirt and back in through the hole the wrong way. Dave slept with Eli the rest of the night and let me sleep in til 9:15. I woke up when I heard “Sshhh!! Mom’s sleeping!” over and over. The morning was another relaxing morning. Some had cereal, Dave chopped up green peppers and sautéed them in butter/salt to make green pepper sandwiches. Another nostalgic thing Dave grew up with that nobody else in the family has affections for. But I had a half a sandwich. Got in my veggies for the day. J I had an egg after that. I think the kids all finished up the leftover pancakes. Violet and Calvin took showers. Dave and I got ready. I don’t know how much time passed. We knew we were planning on going back up to Munising to do laundry, so we packed up all the clothes. There was an enormous duffle bag full of dirty clothes, and two more reusable bags full of dirty clothes, plus a big garbage bag full of white bath towels, all the kids beach towels, swim suits, dish rags, kitchen towels. At some point I walked up to the store to get enough reception to check the weather in the area for the day and tomorrow. I took Calvin, Eli and Vanessa with me. They poked around with the flags that were stuck in the wooden steps on the cliff. I got info that said the day would be 80 and cloudy but no rain, and tomorrow was sunny with a chance of thunderstorms. Calvin thought that was really weird. Vanessa knew it might mean rain with sun which means a rainbow.

I worked on writing down what was left for food in our freezer/fridge/pantry and planned out what we’ll have for meals the rest of the week. The kids got all involved with this creative game they made up. This game they made up involved capes, and they pretended to be all sorts of things. Bats with super powers. First Calvin had powers to create storms. Then he made up another rule that you can have two super powers. Then they weren’t bats anymore. Vanessa was always a mermaid in distress wanting to be rescued. Duct tape came out, they used the duct tape to do something, I am not even sure. Violet and Calvin constantly pretended up ideas, being different creatures and having different super powers. It was amusing and entertaining to listen to them.

We all were around the cabin long enough for kids to need lunch before heading out to Munising so the kids had their fill of leftover pizza, Dave and I each had a slice too. We pulled away from the cabin about 1. The 15 minute drive to the laundromat was pretty dull. We got there and I had the kids help me sort the laundry into different colors – we had enough for 4 large double size ultimate duty washing machines. Blacks, whites, pinks/reds, and “middle colors”. At $4.50 per load, this adds up! We got everything in the washing machines and had about 25 minutes to wait around for them to finish so Dave turned on his portable wireless device from Verizon and we hooked up the kindle and let the kids watch a movie. I put the clothes in the dryers, $2.50 each. The dryers needed extra quarters to add extra minutes to ensure dryness so I kept watch on that. The loads came out one by one fresh and clean. I called everybody in to help sort/fold/organize, so everybody got to work. Violet was on task to fold all the white things. She meticulously folded each towel perfectly and exactly the same so the stack looked like something out of Bed Bath and Beyond. Calvin helped here and there where he could, and Vanessa got to keep playing kindle games. I think Eli just ran around. It was hot, hot hot folding clothes. I was sweating by the time we finished. The big long countertop was full from end to end with stacks of our clothes. It sure felt great to have it all done, repacked, and put in the trunk. We got some ice cream from the Frozen Flamingo gift/ice cream shop across the street. Violet and Calvin chose “superman” ice cream, and the flavor was undetectable, but it was swirly bright yellow, blue, and red. Fruity, maybe? Vanessa and Eli got cups of mackinaw island fudge, Dave and I had island fudge and toffee caramel cones. We sat outside and enjoyed our cool treat. The sun began to shine and the day started feeling really hot. Violet begged me to go back in to see something she wanted to look at – a glow-in-the-dark rock kit with a UV pen. It was $11 and I knew it was some cheap little kit that wasn’t all that impressive. She had $20 to spend from the money that Mama Row gave her from reading over the summer. I explained to her that the kit wouldn’t really be all that neat and instead it would be fun to get a t-shirt from Munising that would be something she can use over and over again for a long time. We found a child medium size pink shirt that had a colorful moose that said Pictured Rocks, Munising, etc…and she loved it, and it was only $14 so she spent her $ on that, and I carried the change for her.

We wanted to explore some local waterfalls, so after cleaning up ice cream we went back to the laundromat to use the bathroom. I took the girls in, Dave took the boys in. We got back in the van and headed towards something we thought we’d like called Horseshoe Falls but on the way, we passed a tourist shop that had a big sign that said, “Free Waterfall maps!” I said, “why don’t we go pick up one of those free waterfall maps?” So Dave pulled in and I hopped out and the lady at the counter let me take 2. I had planned to put one in Sean’s cabin. We examined the maps for awhile and decided to look at Tannery Falls, which was supposedly a short walkable trail off the road. We navigated, parked, and found the hidden wooden staircase off the highway after driving past it once. We all got out and discovered this was going to be the highlight of the day. The trails were so fun. Easy to follow, but ups, downs, turns, twists, over logs, under logs, over roots, around trees, down hills, through sand, and 15 minutes later, came to a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the woods that fell into a cavernous rocky space full of sand. It was so beautiful! Eli said the sand was like our sandbox. The trail went right behind the waterfall and we could reach out and touch it. We snapped a lot of pics, but had to keep moving otherwise the mosquitos would start biting. We followed the trail and came almost to the end and noticed a new trail that went off another direction to another waterfall called Memorial Falls not too far away. The trail was the same, and the waterfall at the end was no disappointment either. More oohs and ahhs, more pictures, and had to keep moving. We came up to a spot on the trail where the rock had a little “window” in it so the kids went to the other side and peered through the hole for another picture. I can’t wait to post the photos from my camera – they’re better quality than the ones from my phone.

The hiking back from the second waterfall was a little different. We tried following the trial that kept on going, not turning back on the one we had gone on, thinking it maybe was a loop that got us back, but we came to a steep muddy part and not everybody could make it up so we had to turn around and go back the way we came. Eli and I fell and he got a scratch on his face.

Vanessa had carried a little plastic ball toy with a little pop up button that makes eyes/ears pop out – some little toy that seems to only live in the van. She somehow dropped it and it fell down the edge of the fern-covered cliff towards the creek at the bottom of the waterfall and we decided to leave it. I’m surprised she wasn’t more upset. But Dave and I were more annoyed that she decided to bring it in the first place…it was bound to get lost.

Our trip back to the van was uneventful. I was most impressed with Eli. He was so excited about everything. He had an exuberant comment about everything his eyes landed on. He noticed the sound of the waterfall but we couldn’t see it, so he says “I can hear the waterfall!” He was also motivated and confident enough to hike most the trails by himself. He wanted help at a few times going up steeper areas but he was mostly sure-footed and only fell once, and recovered well. I think he enjoyed it. Dave led the group and held onto Vanessa’s hand. Violet, then Calvin, then me and Eli were the caboose. We stuck to this order the whole way. We thought about going up to Sand Point beach but opted to go back to the cabin instead and get supper going. We had to light the charcoal to grill the burger patties. Vanessa says “cabin, sweet cabin!” when we arrive ~ a play on “home sweet home!” Eli had fallen asleep on the ride back so I laid him on our bed to finish his nap. The other three were getting terribly squirrely so I sent them down to the lake to play by the shore/deck with their life jackets on while we got supper ready. I had to wake up an incredibly grumpy and dirty Eli from his nap and shamelessly bribed him to happiness with some chocolate. He was still kinda grumpy and whiney before and during dinner. I made mac n cheese, set our carrots/ranch on each plate that Violet put on the table for me, and supper was ready when the burgers were flipped and cooked. Calvin ate two cheeseburgers ( all except for a few bites), a pile of mac n cheese, and carrots. Eli and Vanessa each had a quarter of a burger and noodles with some carrots. After finishing his burger Eli asked to go to bed. I had an idea while driving back from Munising to find a way for me to go out in the fishing boat at night. Put the younger two to bed like I’d done all week, then call in Violet to stay at the cabin while I went out fishing with Dave and Calvin. She agreed to it and we let her play kindle games. I got Vanessa and Eli to bed. I read them the Lion and Mouse book again, brushed teeth, sang songs, prayed, and turned out the lights. Took them 20 minutes or so to settle. Violet and I swapped places. I went fishing with Dave and Calvin – Calvin was a nut. Everything was funny and he had the goonies, and complained about being hungry over and over. He didn’t have enthusiasm to hold out his fishing pole so he wanted to net some fish. I caught a little 8” baby bass which we threw back. Dave caught two bigger bass worth keeping (15” and 16”) and we called it a night. He caught them using the 14 foot lure, the 10 foot deep one didn’t catch anything. I held Dave’s pole with the 14’ lure and didn’t catch anything, but I did get to net the fish.

We returned. Violet reported a little tossing and turning from Eli but otherwise a quiet night. Calvin and Violet went to bed and Dave and I went to bed shortly after that, but I spent an hour writing in this journal. The nights are late, but I like recording the events of the day ON the actual day instead of the day after. I seem to remember a lot more.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

This morning was another relaxed morning. Dave got up with Vanessa in the middle of the night a couple times. Vanessa and Eli were up by 7:15, and Calvin, Violet and I slept in til 9:15 or so. Calvin may have gotten up between the early and late risers. We heard a big bang in the kids room sometime in the middle of the night and the fan had tipped over, and Calvin was no longer in the top bunk but in the lower one instead. Nobody was hurt, thankfully.

Dave made coffee and the smell helped me drag myself out of bed. Kids watched the last part of the movie Fox and the Hound on TV. I don’t know what was eaten by all but Violet and I had oatmeal. Dave played a car racing game and the kids watched him. I worked on putting the enormous duffle bag of laundry away. I took everything out of the kids suitcases and put all their clothes back, outfits together, fresh undies in stacks. This took me awhile! Dave and I made a plan for the day. We are sort of waiting around for family to arrive, but we know they’ll arrive later in the evening, so we had to get a plan in place. We thought we’d pack a picnic lunch and head up to Sand Point beach with our suits on to play in the sand and in the water. Our rainy day plan was to go check out the indoor park or something. There was sun and scattered thunderstorms predicted. Dave wanted to clean the three waiting fish before dark so I took a couple pictures of them. Calvin read the book The Mouse and the Lion to Vanessa and Eli. I worked on typing in the journal and had more coffee. Oh! I need to pack lunch! Bye for now!

Lunch packed, lifejackets in the van, kids in suits, packed in the van. We drove up to Sand Point Beach north of Munising a couple miles. The weather absolutely cooperated for our picnic on the beach. We coated kids in sunscreen. The sun was HOT, the weather was 80-something, and the water was nice and cool. We stopped at a picnic table and had lunch – cold meat sandwiches, apples, chips, Coke and Swedish fish. J After lunch they headed to the water and splashed and played with driftwood for hours. We started playing/swimming around 1, I think. About 3:30 we got the feeling like it was time to go. Kids were kinda tired/hot. We cleaned sand off as best we could and drove back to our cabin. Eli had fallen asleep in the van on the way home so I put him in our bed while the other three kids played around the cabin. I took the older three down to the lake to swim, and the game quickly turned into “Quick! Go underwater! There’s a horsefly on you!” and they swam for another hour. Josh and Carrie arrived – but only Josh, Austin and Renee were with him to greet us since Carrie was probably unloading groceries in their cabin. They played around a bit, Renee got all wet. Austin helped Josh with the boat he chose, and we visited a bit. Josh, Renee and Austin went back to their cabin for supper….and around our cabin, we decided it was just time to put kids to bed at 8. A lot of evenings the older two had been up til 10 or later fishing with Dave but they were all glossy-eyed and laying around so to bed they went. It was soooo hot in their room though….they “went to bed” at 8 but its 9:25 and they’re still tossing and turning. We let them sleep with ice packs but two kids kept licking them so we took them away.

Josh and Dave just went out to go fishing, Wes is with them. I think there’s two boats going.

I heard Carrie on the walkie talkie and try contact Josh. She says the shower in their cabin doesn’t work at all. She shows up at our cabin and we happily let them shower up.

Funny thing is…Calvin came out of the bedroom to complain about being hot again, and discovered his cousins were waiting for Carrie in our cabin. Calvin’s jaw dropped and couldn’t believe it. News caught wind that they were here and it quickly turned into a party. Expectations…gone. Haha. Vanessa, however, was sleeping and missed all of it. Everyone got the “midnight munchies” and all got cheese sticks, apple slices and popcorn.

Josh returned from fishing and said, “our roles have officially been reversed! Dave is killing it out there catching fish after fish but I haven’t gotten any!” Josh enjoyed a coke and popcorn with everyone. Dave came back. He made mention that Sean and family had arrived. We scooted over that way to say hi and greet everyone, then get out of their hair so they could set up and get to bed. We have a week to chat!

Dave and I talked awhile about the enormous amount of things and decisions that have to be made when we get back. Dave has tons of memorizing of his vbs play lines to do, we have to get people in positions for Awana, we have to decide on homeschool curriculum, etc. Anyway…enough of that, we’re on vacation.

I drove up to the store near our cabin and got reception to talk to Rachel a bit and finish my journaling for the day and post it on the blog. The week will look very different, I think, with 14 extra people to consider. Will we travel as groups places? Or do individual things? We’ll see.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Today felt like the longest day ever. But in a good way. The morning began much like any other morning – Vanessa and Eli waking up around 7:15. Dave got up with them and gave `em cold cereal and fell asleep on the couch. I got out of bed around 8. Violet and Calvin got up somewhere after that. I made the sausage links that had been in the fridge since we first went shopping, so I didn’t want them sitting around much longer. Fried eggs for the rest of us, sausage, toast. The excitement about cousins being around was in the air. Sean wandered over to our cabin, Josh ended up at our cabin, Dave came out, and the three boys chatted for awhile. They all thought about having Sunday devotions and breaking bread/wine together. All were in agreement, so I was asked to bring over my guitar and song sheets and we met in a big circle in Sean’s cabin and worshipped God as a group of 20 people. A large number of kids are saved in the group and were able to break bread too. We sang, read verses, and prayed together. It was sweet.

The time ended and all the kids went fishing for awhile – some kids swam. Awhile later, Sean had heated up some leftover Novi’s beef he’d picked up from Chicago. What a treat. Kids put peanut butter on bread. We wrapped up lunch and made a plan to meet in Munising at 3:00 to head towards the Miner’s Beach trail. In the 2 hrs of time we waited, Eli took a nap, Vanessa tried sleeping but couldn’t. Logan played with Calvin doing legos for awhile. Some kids went fishing, some went on walks, some went to other cabins, Sean gave some fish cleaning tips to Dave, etc….

Time to leave and we got in the van and waited a few moments for Dave to finish showering after cleaning fish. He had a heavy bag of fish filets. So great!

After we left and arrived at our meeting place a few minutes after 3, a few got stuff at a grocery store in Munising (Dave got popcorn!), but we got there “on time” and hiked down the 1 mile trail to the beach and had a BLAST there. The water was arranged differently, the sand was still perfect. There was a little inlet of water that a lot of the kids swam in, rolled around in sand, and had an awesome time. Eli even swam, did alligator crawl, twisted around and splashed – all the kids were so cute and funny. Emily was attentive to Eli.

About 5:30 we wrapped up beach time after we asked a lady to snap a group photo. We hiked back up the trail, and all split in our own vans to our own cabins for dinner. Spaghetti/sauce for us. I had to shower up Vanessa and Eli. There was sand everywhere. Violet and Calvin took turns showering. I put younger two to bed. Waited until they were sleeping then went to join others for campfire. Dave, Josh and Sean were all out in fishing boats with some of the older kids. Violet and Calvin ran around with cousins. I set up a fire, starting the fire with pinecones. The kids caught on to the fact that there was a fire and tossed in as many pinecones as they could find, making quite a smoky fire.

Dave ended up catching two more bass, Logan caught a big bass and didn’t know what to do when it was hooked and swimming all over the place.

Campfire, s’mores, chatting. Put Violet and Calvin to bed at 11:30. Stayed out admiring the blanket of stars above us along with some others by the fire in front of Sean’s cabin, and then called it a night. My journaling is brief and it is so late that I need to keep it short. My favorite memory of the day was watching the kids play at Miner’s Beach in the water and sand. They pretended to be turtles hatching and swimming towards the water. Vanessa “made a friend” (like she says) and walked up to a boy who was burying himself in the sand up to his neck and he offered to bury her in the sand. So funny.

G’night! Bed awaits. Its probably later than 1 am right now. Yup, 1:07.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Another late night, but today was pretty straight forward. Today was a “stick around the campground” day. As soon as we finished breakfast (cereal and bagels), kids went straight to the dock to swim/fish. Carrie and I pretty much sat. all. day. It was so nice. We chatted, watched kids swim. I drank a whole mug full of coffee. Violet and Renee are able to worm hooks and take little fish off hooks so we didn’t have to. Older cousins helped watch Eli. Eli swam a LOT. Calvin ran around with Bowen and Austin playing legos, hide and seek, the other games. At one point Carrie and I carried down a rocking bench that was on the porch of a nearby rundown cabin and rinsed it off to use to sit in the sun. I found a pot in the run down kitchen to scoop up lake water to wash it off with. Alyssa used a pot from her cabin to help clean it off. We broke off for lunch as separate families at one point – I had a leftover burger. Violet heated up noodles, and I do not remember at all what anybody else ate. Eli took a nap. Some kids played around just entertaining themselves all day. It was so, so relaxing. After lunch, more swimming/fishing. Vanessa ran around with Adalynn all day. I was amazed at how long Violet, Renee, Lynnea and Wes were occupied with fishing. At one point we found more pots/pans in the old run down cabin and that group of girls “organized” their fish into categories, like “crazy”, “mellow” and “tired” pots. So funny.

Eli woke up from his nap and wandered outside to find me. He did, and was grumpy like normal after a nap. He wanted to swim. Then he was cold, so the suit came off. He peed in the trees. Then he wanted to get dressed. Then he wanted to swim…so the suit went back on, and so on. This happens at home constantly too.

But the afternoon looked just like the morning. Reapplied sunscreen on kids, and around 5:45 decided we should think about supper. Dave had been off with his brothers running errands and stuff, I didn’t see him much. He came back to the cabin with us to have dinner – we heated up beef hot dogs and I cooked broccoli and served it all with carrots. It was time for some veggies. J Dave was so tired after dinner he fell asleep. Kids had some ice cream in our cabin. The older 3 ran off to play with cousins. Logan had started a campfire, so we sang a few songs around the fire w/ my guitar. Kids wanted to roast marshmallows. Bowen and Calvin tried catching a bass they found while paddle-boating, but a turtle kept stealing the worms off their hook. Dave was out fishing so I got kids rounded up by 9:45 and we walked over to our cabin together and I got them all in bed. It was a cooler/windier evening so the cabin was kind of cold. Calvin wore pajamas and socks. Violet insisted on showering because she had gotten marshmallow melted in her hair somehow – I let her. She couldn’t handle the thought of sleeping with sticky hair. Fine with me! So she got to bed later than the rest but still was pretty tired.

I stayed up a bit later with everyone else around the campfire. Dave, Josh and Sean plan to fish in the morning.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Dave did go fishing in the morning, and Josh and Sean each caught a northern pike. Sean was determined not to let those fish go to waste so he went up to the store to get an internet connection and checked youtube for helpful videos on how to filet a northern – they’re typically harder because they have a ton of bones in the meat but Sean figured out a way to get some nice pieces of meat off them. I think our fish fry is going to be great!

My goal was to get out of bed after 8 because the girls’ plan in the morning was to leave at 9 am to hit the laundromat for Carrie and April to wash some clothes. I didn’t wash any clothes since I’d done it just a few days ago. I didn’t need my alarm clock because Eli woke me up saying he had to poop. He climbed into bed with me and tried to fall asleep but I don’t think he did. At one point he wanted me to hold his foot. Maybe it was cold.

Dave came back right at the time I got out of bed and I showered, grabbed a mug of coffee, and went to pick up April and Carrie. April wasn’t quite ready so I went to get Carrie and then get April. We enjoyed our “girl time” and while waiting for the 6 loads to wash in machines, we walked over to a little bagel/coffee shop. It was pretty nice. I had an egg on a asiago bagel with jalapeno cream cheese. So yummy. We talked about the book Carrie wrote. April, Carrie and I all scurried to quickly fold everything and were out of there in less than two hours. We did go to a grocery store and get some random grocery items. Brat buns, grapes, some necessary items, and coleslaw to go with the fish fry on Friday.

Carrie wanted to check a dollar store to see if they had any flip flops she could pick up since hers were worn too thin. No luck there but we did remember to get more s’mores ingredients. “more s’mores!!” hahaaa

We headed back after stopping at the grocery store for one more ingredient Carrie forgot to get (some greens for a salad she had planned), and she tossed me a bag of mini reeses peanut butter cups upon jumping in the van when we picked her up. Yum-o! Lunch on the fly.

We drove home, unloaded laundry bags, cleaned up a coffee spill, and greeted the boys. They’d decided to grill out for lunch and collected brats from lots of cabins, put out chips, I cut up some apple slices, and we all ate lunch behind Sean’s cabin by the lake. I’ve never enjoyed a jalapeno cheddar brat before, it was so, so good. “Cheddar is beddar”.

Logan kept a fire going all day. All our kids went swimming/fishing. We sat by the lake and relaxed the afternoon away, it was so beautiful outside. Sunshine, light breeze, and the kids were so entertained. A lot of tortilla chips and regular chips got consumed.

We all broke up for dinner around 6pm. Dave and I teamed up to make the rest of the chicken fajitas – we had enough ingredients to make it again after I got another packed of fajita seasoning. They turned out just as yummy – with sour cream, guac, cheese, shrimp, chicken, and cilantro. Kids all had quesadillas. Violet went to play with cousins outside.

Eli had slept from 2-6 pm. A crazy long nap. We decided after a few screaming/crying episodes that Calvin needed to go to bed right after supper. So Dave put Vanessa and Calvin down for bed (Calvin revolted strongly, was really upset he couldn’t play with his cousins). I took Eli down to swim for awhile so he could get some wiggles out. He jumped right in without even feeling the water. He said, “I want to swim with my feet” His life jacket makes him float so he jumps in and kicks with his arms and feet and its about the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. Well, maybe besides when he blows me kisses at night. So he swam and Logan and Corban played with him some. He was cold and wanted to get warmed up so I brought him back to the cabin and put him to bed. Dave went out fishing. Eli came out of his room hungry, so he ate Life cereal. Calvin was still awake and mad. He wondered if his cousins would all be at our house for his birthday again. I told him I didn’t know what we were doing for Christmas. I really want to go out fishing with Dave tonight so maybe if the kids settle and sleep I’ll get to, but its getting to that point in the night when the fish start biting so I gotta go quick.

I went out to the campfire by Sean’s cabin and I found Corban and Logan and I said, “hey, anybody willing to sit at my cabin while I go out fishing?” Corban hopped up and said he would. So thankful! I got Corban settled – let him play my kindle if he wanted. I got my pole and life jacket and joined Dave in the boat. We trolled around for awhile. Tried the 16 foot lure but nothing. Then Dave and I switched poles. I used the 14 foot lure on Dave’s pole and finally got a bite. I reeled in a 15.5” bass and Dave netted it. Yay! Dave was happy I caught something!

I got a second big bite with Dave’s pole and his 14’ lure and reeled it in but it flipped it off the hook. Dave was more disappointed than me. But we ended fishing around 10:30…called Corban on the walkie at some point during our fishing trip and he said Eli had woken up but Corban laid down with him to comfort him. So sweet. Dave and I sat by the campfire with Sean for awhile. Talked about the next day’s plans, and decided that since we were jetskiing in the afternoon, that we would make morning plans. We decided to walk the short trail to see Munising Falls. We chatted a bit longer but it was around midnight and we were all exhausted and headed back to our cabins.

Somewhere in there we got kids to bed. I’m journaling a day later so I forgot.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

We had hashbrowns and fried eggs for breakfast. Calvin really wanted toast to go with his eggs. I am pretty sure (but for some reason I can not remember if Dave went fishing in the morning) Dave got up with little kids – I think I found him with a pillow and blanket on the couch and Eli and Vanessa with cold cereal. These mornings are blending together!

We ate breakfast fast and I showered – Dave showered – kids in van – met Sean at the main road and headed up towards Munising. Met a traffic worker on the road and he stopped us to make us wait for some road repair happening on one late – we followed a pilot car through after awhile. The trek to Munising Falls was nice! Shorter than I remember. We couldn’t get to the waterfall and couldn’t walk under it/through it but snapped some great photos. Josh and Carrie decided to stay back and hike in the area with their family.

After Munising falls Sean wanted to hit a gift shop with his family so we went to a local park to let the kids run around. Sean and family got Main Street Pizza for lunch on our recommendation – and gave rave reviews. We drove back around noon and got stopped by the same road construction and waved at the same worker who recognized us and waved back. During that first stop we had a few moments to stop and chat. He said he doesn’t see many families go places together anymore and liked that we did.

Lunch was a frenzy. Some got PBJs, some got turkey/cheese sandwiches, I had a leftover burger…carrots, whatever. We were in a hurry. We packed up our bags/towels for the beach at Pete’s Lake and headed over there. George from the resort was planning to meet us to drop the jetskis in the lake. Dave and Sean zipped them over to the lakefront where we were and the “day at the beach” started. This swimming area was pretty amazing. The water was so high there was no beach so we set up on the grass. Kids had an absolute blast. Maybe that phrase is overused. But they really did. This particular lake has clear, clear water, sandy bottom of the lake to swim, and it is shallow for a long, long time, so there’s tons of space to swim.

Eli went crazy…swimming like a mad man and going under water. Sean gave all his kids rides on the jetski. Dave, myself, Josh and Carrie all used the second jetski to give our kids rides. I took Eli out and he started belly laughing. He didn’t like the noise in general though so he wanted to go back. I got a chance to get the jetski out myself and drove around in a lot of circles. I felt it tipping and didn’t my weight to pull it over so I jumped off and climbed back on. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. A lot of cheesy popcorn, chips, grapes, and goldfish crackers were consumed. More swimming. Swatting horseflies. Dave had the jetski out himself and gave us all show and wiped out after circling like crazy. He’s fine, don’t worry. Said he had fun.

The sun was moving across the sky and more shade entered our area. Josh and Sean finally had the jetskis to themselves and Josh somehow flipped his jetski totally upside down. Flipped it over and got it back upright but it was too full of water. George showed up to help with a new battery. One of the jetskis didn’t work either, so it was replaced with a different one at some point.

Ted and Cindy arrived and greeted us at Pete’s Lake too. They had set up their camper next to our cabin a bit earlier in the day at the resort while we were gone.

We all got things packed up. Back to our cabins for supper. I prepared carrot/potato grill foil packets for dinner and Dave grilled steaks and hot dogs. So. Delicious.

Ted, Vanessa, and Dave went one round around the lake for Vanessa to get a chance to fish. She was done and I think Ted went out later with Dave. I got involved with Sean’s cabin, and everybody hung out there for the evening.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

I fully expected the kids to sleep in longer than they did. I don’t know when I’ll learn that little kids just don’t sleep in ( or at least hoping they will, because they won’t.) . My journaling this week the extra family has been here has been super hard to journal and get details I wanted to remember, because at the end of the days it all felt like a crazy blur and I have to think hard about what happened. But my goals are to finish writing about each day THE DAY IT HAPPENED, so normally at midnight or 1 am I’m writing about the day. Back to the morning. Eli was the first to wake up. I surprisingly woke up and felt really awake and chipper (it may have been the only chipper moment, because lack of sleep made me kind of a zombie today. When more than one person tells you you look tired, you probably do. Anyway. I really wanted at least Violet to sleep in and she did, I think. OOoookay, now I remember. Eli was awake and wanted to eat so my plan was to mix up some pancake mix. I measured the dry ingredients from the box and added the water and Eli helped me stir. I turned on the oven to keep the pancakes warm so they’d be ready when kids rolled out of bed. Vanessa and Calvin woke up and joined Eli at the table to start eating. Violet continued to sleep. I found a package of three sausage patties in the freezer so tossed them on the griddle after I finished flipping a huge batch of pancakes. I put three blueberry pancakes in a separate foil wrap for Dave – that’s the only way he likes pancakes. With 100% real maple syrup, not Log Cabin Lite, haha. So the younger 3 kids ate and shared sausages. I ate with them. Eli played kindle games for awhile. Dave rolled himself out of bed and greeted me with a big bear hug. He had his pancakes and I hppped in the shower. Dave was in “rest in the cabin mode” so I decided to roll the van up to the store and sit there with my computer and phone and post the update on my blog and check email. I sat there in the silence for awhile. I also bought another bar of soap with the $2 bill in my purse. We were low on soap and that’s not something you want to run out of out here. The day goes like this…wake up, smear/spray on sunscreen. Then bug spray. Then run around and sweat. Swim. Repeat. Sunscreen, bug spray, sweat, and by that point you’re dusty and disgusting. Ohhhh the dirt this vacation has seen. I just signed audibly while thinking and typing about it. It is all worth it but so much work. Ok, back to the day. Um. I drove the van back down to the cabin. Violet had woken up and eaten pancakes. The only plan made so far was to visit Corner Lake Beach…which is “the lake” that Sean, Dave, Josh and Lisa grew up going to each year, staying in a cabin at Uno Lodge (which is no longer there). We agreed to go there after lunch….so the morning was hanging out at our lakefront. I think Sean wanted to visit the beach and was glad he did. Talk about reminiscing for those three boys! The adults ended up grouping men/women, and lots of talking happens. This particular beach area was incredibly shallow, almost 70 feet away from the shore and it only went up to my waist. Eli had another blast in the water. He got his life jacket on and went down the slide by himself, and used his little arms to paddle back to where he could touch. He had so much fun he did it a few times over and over, maybe 5 times. I chatted a bit with some other people who were staying in a cabin near Josh and Carrie. They commented on our group and said our kids were well behaved. With 14 of them running around I wasn’t sure which ones they were referring to but I took it as a compliment. The water in the lake in the mornings is so still, while staying on the end of the dock, it was like looking into an aquarium. Some other kids came down to fish. A lot of kids caught fish using pieces of grass on their hooks. Those bluegill fish will eat just about anything. Logan found out they would suck up tiny rocks. The adults discussed the day’s events and agreed Corner Lake would be the only outing. Corner Lake is also a very shaded beach, with little sun so we wait until the sun is about past the halfway mark in the sky and go there. Around here up this far north, and the time of year, the sun doesn’t hit the top of the sky until 3 pm. It is the oddest thing…around 5 or 6 in the evening, it “feels like” 2 in the afternoon. The sun sets around 9:30 and isn’t pitch black until after 10:30. Back to the day….I ended up going back to the cabin around noon because Eli said he was hungry. He ate “yogurt and crunchies” which is with granola. He changed into clothes and I let him play kindle because I just wanted some time alone. I think my social tank was absolutely overflowing and needed to empty a little bit. Bowen, Calvin and Austin came to our cabin and nicely and quietly played legos for a long time. I put Eli to bed after a bit. I made PBJs for the boys, gave them the last of the grape juice and one piece of chocolate each. When the boys were playing legos and Eli was sleeping, I sat at the table and read the next 4 or 5 chapters of 1 Kings, again, the story captivated my attention. I could see Vanessa and Violet playing by the water with the rest of the girls. I had a fajita for lunch (leftover), Dave munched on snacks that Cindy served from her camper, and Violet and Vanessa each had a ham sandwich and peach slices. Still in “get rid of stuff in the freezer mode” I handed out popsicles to whatever kid would eat `em. They went fast, believe me. Dave had gotten some sour popsicles for some reason and Vanessa couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to eat them.

As Eli slept, we discussed leaving for Corner Lake Beach. People got packed...this “packing up kids” effort takes 45 min to an hour for our group of 20 people. Where is so-and-so’s life jacket, towel, shoes, swimsuit, and whatever-else-belongs-to-them-and-might-need-it-at-the-beach? I helped Violet hand-wash her swimsuit that she’d lent to Renee to wear and the washing was because she claimed that Renee peed in it in the lake when she wore it – whether or not that’s true, I don’t know, but it was making her want to wash it before she wore it. So we hand-washed a swimsuit and I tossed in a sweatshirt I wanted to wear. We put Tide in a sink with water and swished and squashed them til they were clean and rinsed them out. I laid it in the sun to dry while were gone. The packing was complete, kids were in the van, and all had eaten lunch. What is the first thing they say when we “set up” at the beach a whole 15 minutes later? “We’re hungry! What did you bring for a snack?” I tossed the gaggle of kids a huge bag of goldfish crackers. They were gone in 15 minutes. Ted and Cindy sat with us, took some photos with their new camera, and we just sat around for awhile. The horse flies were terrible. Eli got in the practice of diving under water to avoid them like the other 13 kids. He was so capable and enjoyed himself so much. I watched him stand in the water, jump and twist a 360 spin and fall in the water with a giggle, do bobs, and go in the water headfirst so many times, and come up with a smile on his face. If the boy had gills he might just never leave the water.

Vanessa got mad at me because I wouldn’t let her set up her towel in the woods. I wanted to avoid the ticks, I had a very good reason, but of course, she wasn’t happy about it. She turned into the annoying child that wanted to be in any adult’s lap that would hold her. She’d poke them and twist around, we decided she was just too difficult to be on laps and made her sit on her towel. She eventually got bored and swam. Calvin disappeared into the woods for awhile with a group of boys. We could hear them and came back at random times to swim. Violet swam the entire time, other than when she was eating crackers.

Ted and Cindy left an hour into us being there so they could start putting macaroni and cheese casseroles in the oven and start the water boiling for the corn can. We packed up beach gear, drove back to the campground, and kids played near the water until supper was ready. Ears of corn were dipped in a crock pot of butter, mac n cheese was served, then T&C brought out cupcakes and we all sang happy birthday to everyone, since they always miss everyone’s birthdays. They handed out fun gifts for everyone – goofy hair pieces, sparkly skirts for the girls, squirt guns for the boys, and Eli got a special little fire truck. Emily and Alyssa took some epic selfies with their ipods. I was feeling tired and just sat in a chair for awhile.

I can’t remember the events of the evening. I helped Carrie unsuccessfully hunt for Wes’ shoes. Kept watch on him while Carrie made a run to her cabin to get a change of clothes for Wes since he’d gotten soaking wet in the lake. Back and forth from place to place wondering where everyone else was. Boys went out fishing from 8:30-11ish. Violet caught another bass, 17”. Dave got a 15”. I asked April if I could use the tub in her cabin so I could more easily bathe Vanessa and Eli. Their hair was coated with sand and their bodies just visibly looked so incredibly dirty. I brought over towels, shampoo, and their pajamas. I carried them back to our cabin all clean and brushed their teeth and put them to bed. I walked back over to the Sean LaMarche cabin and helped supervise everybody – Carrie mixed up some margaritas, I gave back rubs to April and Carrie – we heated up plates of chips and cheese. Girls colored Frozen coloring pages. At midnight, I brought Violet and Calvin back to the cabin and they were just as dirty. I made them shower…Calvin was incredibly tired and resisted the idea but wanted to go first and said he was glad he did. I couldn’t even imagine climbing into bed after a hard day of playing, sweating, wearing sunscreen and bug spray, and having campfire smell/ash all over you. *shudder* He showered quickly, and went to bed just as fast. Violet got in the shower and then she went to bed. Dave was at the campfire chatting with his brothers and I didn’t want to interrupt their time to chat so I stayed in the cabin. It was totally OK though…I sat down to journal and took some time to write today’s notes. It is 1:12 am and I’m going to bed!

Friday, July 24, 2015

The last full day of vacation. Dave had gone fishing with Sean and Josh early in the morning. This was the strange morning that everyone slept in. Eli was the first to wake up (besides Dave being gone fishin’) at ….drumroll….8:45 am. I found my feet and trudged to the bathroom when he got up. I saw Dave come in from fishing and he was surprised to see people just waking up. Calvin and Vanessa came out around 9 or so, I don’t remember. I was trying to clean out the freezer/fridge so I made a ton of food for breakfast. The rest of the hashbrowns, about 8 scrambled eggs, a pound of bacon, and a cinnamon crumb coffee cake.

Violet ended up sleeping in til 12:15 pm. She missed breakfast but we saved her a plate. Corban came over to borrow a can opener and we gave him a piece of coffee cake. Then he returned the can opener, and then Cindy needed to borrow it. Funny how that item was in such high demand. Dave fell asleep after breakfast and took a much needed 3 hour nap. I had Calvin, Eli and Vanessa and they played some games in the morning while Violet and Dave slept.

I took all the fish out of the freezer that we’d been saving for the last two weeks and let it thaw in cold water, in preparation for the fish fry later that evening.

I cooked the last two pounds of ground turkey in the freezer and seasoned it for taco meat. Dave woke up around 12:30 and said it smelled really good in the cabin. I told him it was taco meat. He suggested we pack up the taco meat for lunch at the beach so we put all of it in a container and brought some leftover fajita filling and some tortilla shells, cheese, and sour cream. Packed up the cooler, towels, and changed into suits.

The plan was to meet up at Sand Point Beach a couple miles north of Munising at 1pm. We got out of our cabin around 1:45 and drove up there. S&A and J&C and families were already there. Carrie called me as we were pulling in and wondered where we were – I told her we were trying to find a place to park. The parking spaces were really full! We pulled up next to the end car on the gravel. I smeared all the kids and Dave and I with sunscreen – and used up all the sunscreen spray I had. We set up on the beach near everyone else and the kids had a blast (I need a new phrase)…again. Violet got involved making a teeter totter thing out of a tree on another log with Bowen and Austin. Vanessa and Adalynn used an empty pitcher to fill a sand hole. Calvin swam…everyone enjoyed this time. Sunny, hot, windy, no bugs. Kids got hungry and we ate tacos we brought along. It was a little odd filling the shells with meat and cheese on the beach, trying to keep sand out of the food, but it worked out OK. Dave fed the kids bites while holding their tacos. Emily, Josh and Carrie braved the freezing cold water of Lake Superior and swam out far. I didn’t wear my suit because I didn’t feel much like swimming. I just kinda sat there and relaxed. As I sat I observed things around me. Felt like a page out of a children’s story book about the beach. There was a group to my left of people doing yoga exercises and a guitar player with them, there was another group further away that was a larger family with lots of kids, some younger babies too. Another family to my right sat under an umbrella to stay shaded. I saw some double-box kites in the sky, people in the water, a campfire site behind us, picnic tables further back occupied with people, my toes dug into the sand, and the strong waves of the lake hitting the beach like an ocean created a rhythmic relaxing sound. Beautiful scene. Ted and Cindy joined us after they had lunch at Subway and sat with us in chairs watching everyone.

A couple hours went by, and the sky got a bit overcast, the wind picked up, and the beach started clearing out. We all wanted to get back to the cabins to start getting ready for the fish fry. On our way out we got a text from Cindy saying “meet us at Dairy Queen! Grandpa and Grandma are buying ice cream for everyone!” so we drove to DQ and met everyone for cool treats. J We ordered (which for 22 people is no simple feat) and sat in some outdoor picnic tables. Drove back…and since everyone was kindof stuffed with ice cream, nobody wanted to eat right away. We set a fish fry time for 7:30. When we got back to the cabin, Eli fell asleep for a long 3 hour nap. I think he slept from 4-7. Vanessa ran around with some princess gear she got from T&C, and Violet and Calvin had enough energy to swim at the lake and jump off the docks. We knew their swimming capabilities so felt comfortable enough with them doing that w/ no supervision. Kids are growing up!

I took all the fish from the sink and put it in a big plastic container and hauled it to S&A’s cabin. It was heavy. Felt like quite a few pounds of fish. Carrie and I worked on getting the fish ready. Josh heated up the oil in the deep fryer they brought. I cut up the fillets and soaked them in milk, Carrie breaded them, and set them on trays and took them down to Josh by the fryer. Alyssa mixed up the coleslaw, Cindy put out a bean salad, and others put out any food that needed to get eaten up. Guac, chips, other chips, etc. I heated up a bowl of grilled potatoes/carrots made when we did steaks – it got gobbled up with Emily and Alyssa. J The fish was finally ready to be served up and everyone gathered. Eli woke up before the meal. There were rave reviews on the fish. Only one piece was found to have some tiny bones in it but otherwise, delish bites of fresh caught fish. April was pleasantly surprised at how yummy it was. So were the kids, too!

Cindy brought out the customary glow sticks and all the kids went nuts with those. Girls made lanterns to decorate the tree. Logan set off some fireworks he brought along, which was really fun. Eli loved those. Glow stick were everywhere. Head bands, necklaces, glow balls stuck in trees, lanterns attached to the trees, etc…it was a fun night. Fire was going.

One memory to record is Josh leading all the younger girls in an annoyingly loud and boisterous singing of “Let it Go” that could be heard from across the lake. The giggles from the girls was contagious though.

It was getting pretty late so I collected all the kids and brought them to our cabin. They were all incredibly filthy so it was shower time again. They also all said they were hungry. Dave heated up all our leftover pancakes for them while I took turns showering the younger two. I think Calvin and Violet ate while I had the younger two cleaned up, then Calvin and Violet showered separately. Its pretty nice to have them clean themselves up. I don’t know when they got to bed but it was somewhere in the midnight range.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

I think everyone woke up around 8 – first thing I did was make breakfast. The last 8 eggs in the fridge I hard boiled yesterday got turned into creamed eggs on toast. Used up some butter, sharp cheddar, milk, and bread. The S&A crew came over to our cabin to say goodbye at 9. Hugs all around.

Packing up began. Showered, kids helped collect things/pack up some stuff, then we let them watch cartoons while we got to work. J&C and fam showed up around 10 am to say goodbye. Hugs/goodbyes. Their kids were all packed in the van so we came to their van to say goodbyes. Carried kids over the sand to their van – was trying to keep things relatively clean. T&C left, they packed up their camper and drove away. We were the only ones left. Dave collected everything from outdoors – fishing equipment, boat trolling motor, and found flip flops and towels by the swimming area. I worked on inside. Suitcases stuffed, laundry bag full to the brim, bathroom stuff collected, pantry items in bags, fridge/freezer stuff in cooler with ice packs, shoes in a bag. As I was packing the fridge/freezer things I set random things out for the kids to eat. Vanessa ate a bowl full of pickles – Calvin ate a handful of grapes – Violet ate some cheese – cut up some peaches and all shared. It was helpful to get rid of some of those things.

George stopped by our cabin to see how things were going. We suspected he wanted us out of there. We were truly hurrying as fast as we could. The van seemed impossible to pack but it all fit in there somehow. Every nook and cranny had something shoved in it. Under kids legs, under seats, beside their seats, etc. We heard from Ted that the road we took on the way up was under construction with a bridge completely out and there was an hour long detour. We chose a different route out of town by going up to Munising and taking a different highway south. This saved us some time. We settled with George at the store and paid the bill and took off on our way home. The entire trip was 500 miles, and took us about 9 or 10 hours. The ride home was mainly uneventful but typical of a roadtrip with kids. Vanessa ended up in the rear seat alone and the three other kids rode in the middle row 3 across. Eli only slept for 45 minutes of the entire drive. He was the most irritated and annoyed with the driving by FAR. He complained things hurt, said he had to go pee (and even said at one point, “I want to go poop in the woods!”). He complained he was tired, but never slept. He was hungry all the time, but ate tons of snacks. Wouldn’t stop talking! Kids all had some screen-free time for the first 4 hrs then they got to watch a couple movies and play kindles on the way home. Dave hooked up his Jetpack device that created a wireless signal for all our devices so the kids could stream Netflix movies on the road. We kept hearing from Vanessa way in the back, “can I watch another one?” in the series of Sofia shows she was watching. Yessss would be our response. There was lots of wiggling and squirming and fighting towards the end. On our last stop at the gas station a couple hours from home we let them pick one treat. Calvin picked Dark Skittles, Eli got peanut M&Ms, Violet chose Duo Mints (watermelon or something), and Vanessa got sour rainbow straws.

The last leg was kinda grueling – counting down the miles and minutes. Eli was awake the entire drive except for the short nap he took shortly after we left the cabin. He was so loud and difficult, he just kept saying, “I want to sit in your lap!!!” I let him hug my arm through his tears and I tried tickling him but it didn’t work.

So thankful for the safe drive home. Dave drove the whole way and most of the time I was helping him rehearse and memorize his VBS lines. He has 5 “acts” for the 5 days of vbs, and he has a lot to memorize. It was easier for him to drive and me to read him the lines and help him so he could learn audibly instead of reading them. He’d work hard on the lines for 30 minutes than need a short break, then we’d work again.

It was interesting walking back into our house. My eyes settled on the enormous island in our kitchen and the vast L shape of the kitchen and I realized how big the kitchen was. The countertop space in the cabin was about 8” across, max, which was a shared space with a toaster and a coffee maker so it was such a tight squeeze. I feel like I can really spread out at home. The kids went, “whoa…our house is huge…” as they walked many steps across the length of the house. Violet said she almost forgot what her room looked like because prior to the 2 weeks in MI she was in Des Moines at camp. Calvin fell asleep on the floor of the living room. Violet collapsed on the couch. Eli was the most exuberant about being home and exclaimed that there were SO many toys! He got on his little green trike and rode it around. He wanted to run around and play with trains. Vanessa was happy to go to bed. It didn’t take much for us to get the kids to bed. Brushed their teeth after fishing them out of the packed supplies and tucked them comfortably into their beds. I think they were all happy.

Dave and I unpacked only the freezer/fridge cooler full of food and our bathroom things – we were both so tired and decided to do the rest the next day.

Overall, the trip was amazing. The biggest difference we felt was the length of time we were gone. Two weeks being gone was so much different than the one week we’ve done in the past. A longer time to separate from “home demands”, to forget about “to do” lists, really settle in to where we were, not feel rushed to get everything in we wanted to do, and truly relax. It was perfect. The first week we went with just our family was perfect and much needed, because the week the cousins arrived, it was almost like we were somewhere else. Totally different and a new level of fun with 12 more people involved. Cousins connected and have relationships that we feel will last their whole lives, and just have fun together.

Sunday morning Dave let me sleep in til 11:30. He’s so great. He made coffee, fed the kids breakfast and lunch, and we had “home church”. Dave set out bread and wine and we sang songs w/ my guitar and we went through Isaiah 53. We remembered Christ’s death on behalf of us and it was another sweet time of worshipping God together. Kids helped sort laundry. They played legos and helped put away some clean things. Dave and I felt really odd being at home and it was weird getting through the day, not sure what to do…unpacking some, getting laundry clean. It is 10pm at night right now as I’m writing on Sunday evening and the 5^th load just went in the machine, there’s one more to go. The piles of clean clothes are piling up in a mountain on the couch that I need to fold, but instead I made it a priority to write about the trip so I wouldn’t forget things. I’m on page 28 of the word document I started to record this trip, and I’m always so glad I recorded things. I will upload more pics later when I dig the camera out. There’s a few hundred photos to sort through.

Thank you Lord for an incredibly blessed trip, amazing memories made, and family relationships strengthened.