Michigan 2016 – July 29-Aug 13
Friday, July 29
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Packing day! Well, most of it happened Thurs
too. My mom came to take kids to Finding
Dory so I could pack. We decided to
invest in the Jeep, get a 6th rear seat in the back, add a soft top,
and tow a borrowed trailer. Thank you Dave Williams for that! Writing about packing is pretty
uneventful…but notes to remember are that Vanessa wanted to pack ALL BY HERSELF
and put four articles of clothing in her suitcase and decided she was done. And we discovered upon arrival at the cabin
that Violet forgot her swimsuit!
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Dave had an extremely busy day at work wrapping
up some things, then he spent 2 hrs putting on the soft top, then he
packed. So we left about 9 pm. The drive to the Homewood Suites in Madison,
WI took 3 hrs. Nobody really slept well
on the drive.
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Got to hotel around midnight, kids to sleep
around 12:30.
Saturday, July 30
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This was the grueling day. Lots of driving, lots of food shopping. We had a big yummy breakfast at the hotel and
got on the road by 10:30. Drove with top
down, kids only tolerated that for a short time, ha! Dave worked a bit. Snacked for lunch, met up with Ted and Cindy
for dinner, they grilled burgers. Beautiful weather – ate outside. Saw new
improvements with their place (back porch, laundry room, front porch), Ted took
Dave and kids for ride on the side by side thing in the river....pretty
funny. Left T&C’s about 7:30, 20 min
drive to Walmart in Escanaba. Dave dropped
me off to start food shopping, then took Jeep to get bugs washed off
front. Dave and kids met me in Walmart,
finished shopping, then it was a big project to load the food into the trailer. Finally finished, then drove to cabin! Took
about 50 min to get there – big unloading began. Kids hungry – ate cereal. Got to bed after massive unpacking about 2
am.
Sunday, July 31
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All in cabin slept in til 9:30! Pancake
breakfast. Beautiful sunshine, devotion
time and have time to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. Sang songs, played guitar, “Lord I lift your
name on High” meaning of lyrics explained.
Clean up, change into suits (Violet then realized she forgot her suit…oops..),
and head down to lake to swim. Swam for
awhile, til about 2 pm, then got hungry, had ham/swiss
sandwiches/applesauce/pickles for lunch…then geared up for fishing. All had
popsicles on way to store to get worms.
Picked up taco seasoning there too.
Violet/Calvin swam more, Vanessa and Eli wanted to fish. Catching bluegill takes about second with a
hook and a worm…fish after fish after fish coming out of the water. Stored some in bucket, but dumped them
out. Met another girl (11 yrs old,
Mikayla) who came down to dock, swam with her for a bit. All done swimming by 5:30, came back to
cabin, taco dinner…mmmMMM…favorite meal there.
Chill on couches and watched Planet Earth video on cable and played
movie Ice Age on TV. All a bit tired. Eli fell asleep during movie and I put him
right in bed. Vanessa and Dave went out
fishing. Vanessa caught 4 fish (2
northern, each 20”, too small to keep, and 2 bass, each 12”, too small to
keep). Dave caught 20” northern, and
then lastly caught a 17” bass. One
keeper out of the bunch! The fishing
review from Vanessa was “the best time ever in Michigan!” Dave reports she was bragging the whole time
that she caught more fish than Dave….trying to tell Daddy how to catch
fish. She netted the big fish Dave caught
at the end. She was tearful one time,
but mostly smiling and talking. Overall
good experience. I stayed back at cabin
with Violet and Calvin. I brought them
down to dock and they wanted to take out the paddle boat to where daddy was
fishing. They went out on the lake for
awhile, then we talked about constellations and ate beef jerky. They really wanted to stay up late and see
the stars. I agreed, but they ended up
fighting over some kindle game, and I put them to bed. I went with Dave to fish house to clean the
fish...well, I just watched…he did the duty.
We tossed the fish guts in the trash and brought back two nice white
bass filets. About an hour later I woke
up Violet and Calvin to let them down to the dock and see the stars. The milk way streams across the sky from N to
S and we identified a few constellations.
I saw one big bright shooting star.
Kids felt too cold and wanted to go back to bed.
Monday, August 1
What a beautiful, beautiful
day. Hot sun shining and a cool breeze
to make it tolerable. 80 degrees. The day began around 8:30 sometime when Eli
woke me up saying he was hungry. I gave
him a fruit bar, the kindle, and the headphones and he played quietly while I
went back to sleep. I might just put a
fruit bar out on the table in the morning he can grab because I taught him how
to open the wrappers, and now he can do it himself. At least he’s confident he can. The rest of us woke up around 9:30-10. Dave had planned to go fishing with Violet in
the morning but he was too exhausted and decided not to go. She was mildly bummed, but understood. They plan to go tomorrow morning. Violet said she doesn’t like to fish at night
because it gets too dark, and she likes the idea of it getting lighter out as
the fishing time goes on. So, breakfast
happened. I didn’t go back to sleep
fully after Eli had woken me up so I got up and made blueberry muffins, got
those in the oven, and then people started making appearances. Calvin got up and watched Eli play kindle for
awhile. He asked me what that delicious
smell was that was cooking. I gradually
finished making breakfast…washing strawberries/blueberries, cooking bacon, and
by that point, Dave was up and cooked the eggs for everyone while I set the
table. We all made it around the
breakfast table and had a yummy meal.
Violet was grumpy because we didn’t serve toast with the eggs (the girl
HAS to have toast under a fried egg), but we didn’t give in. Eli and Vanessa attacked the eggs and ate
them up quickly and she took notice and ate hers just fine.
We made up our plan for the day
and decided it would be fun to see a tour on a boat with a glass-bottom viewing
area to see some shipwrecks in Lake Superior.
We put the top down in the Jeep, ironed out some fighting children, and
headed towards Munising. It was close to
12:30 by the time we got ready and out the door. Talk about vacation timing…we put the top
down on the jeep and enjoyed our 20 minute drive up to town. We got some tickets for the 3:45 boat tour,
and had some time to kill. We tried a
couple store to look for a swimsuit for Violet, but there aren’t many options
up here. Shopko and the Family Dollar
store are about it, and all were completely out of suits. She’s been swimming in her shorts/tshirt up
until now, which are working just fine. Believe
it or not, kids were hungry. We got food
at the DogPatch restaurant. Calvin &
Eli had uncrustables PBJs and Violet and Vanessa had grilled cheese…Dave and I
loaded up with salad bar/soup. We
recognized the waitress – I asked her how long she’d worked there and she told
me 40 years! I didn’t really believe
it…the lady looked only 40!
We spent the next 2 hrs on the big
tour boat called “Miss Munising” which took us out on Lake Superior to see two
shipwrecks. The Bermuda and the Hettler,
both with different stories. One sank in
1870, was carrying an enormous heavy load of iron ore, and got caught in a
storm. The frigid waters of the lake
keep it in really good shape. This was
pretty cool! The other came upon a
sudden shallow spot in the water and crashed.
We could see the anchor was 5’x8’ and weighed 2500 lbs! Saw train tracks on the second boat which had
its own type of transportation system on it.
The captain’s bathtub and toilet were still visible!
The boat tour lasted a couple
hours and gave us some great views of the shoreline that had a mixture of
multicolored sandstone/rock and caves that the shores have eroded over
time.
We made a quick stop to the
grocery store to get charcoal, hashbrown potatoes, and ice cream cones (I know,
random), then came back to the cabin.
Kids were hot and wanted to swim, so Dave took them down to the
lakeshore while I made supper. Eli had
fallen asleep on the ride back so we laid him on the couch and I think he got
an hour long nap. Someone covered him up
with Vanessa’s pink blanket and he looked so cozy. I chopped carrots and made up a chicken pasta
Florentine soup chock full of veggies, V8, tomatoes, spinach, and little tiny
noodles. Eli slept through dinner, so I
called the swimmers in for supper, and it was a welcome treat to have warm soup
in their chilled bodies from the lake.
Dave took Calvin out fishing after supper, and Violet n Vanessa wanted
to swim, so I grabbed Eli from the couch, got him his own bowl of soup, and
brought him down to the lake so he could eat and watch the girls swim. He ate up ¾ of his bowl of soup quickly and
he decided to swim too. Dave and Calvin
reported from the walkie talkies that they’d caught a lot of fish but none big
enough to keep. Violet, Vanessa and Eli
swam for awhile. Vanessa got a little
grumpy…Eli wanted to fish…so he and Calvin switched spots so Calvin could help
Violet work on their “burrow”…which is some underwater “dig” they’ve been
working on and keep making bigger and deeper.
Eli got a chance to jump in the
boat while Dave was out fishing in the evening and at one point, Dave reeled in
his line and found a northern pike hooked on the lure. So funny – because they didn’t notice the
catch. Eli said “That’s a biiiiiig
fish!” compared to the little bluegill he’d caught the day before. He kept talking about how “heavyyyy” the fish
was as he reeled it in.
When it got too dark to swim, I
walked in with the three kids and somehow only 3 of the 4 got showers. Violet cleaned up Eli, Calvin was in and
out. Calvin likes to take two brushes
and “spike up” his hair.
All were hungry … again … so all 4
kids had seconds on the soup which was still on the table. Dave took another round on the lake – I got
kids to bed. All seemed SO wired. It wasn’t until about 11 pm that they finally
settled down. Calvin was so sweet to Eli
and Vanessa – he let them sleep with his much loved stuffed animals. Eli got Calvin’s new “woofie” animal which is
a large beanie boo animal, and Vanessa got his little white tiger named Tundra.
I journaled for awhile and Dave
read a book. Nice relaxing nights! We discovered that if Dave puts his Elipsis
Verizon Jetpack device up on a wall it receives the internet signal to give to
our laptops and devices, so he was able to check in with work and see how
things were going. We are praising the
Lord that the teams Dave put together have exceeded their goals.
Tuesday, August 2
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Dave and Violet went out fishing at 6:45am –
caught a handful of fish (northern and bass), almost caught a bass but it got
away, Violet lost her lure (northern ate it, snapped fishing line). None to keep.
I got up around 8:30. Made some
lemon poppyseed muffins and everyone ate cereal. I chopped up some green peppers for GP
sandwiches (Dave’s fav). After breakfast
cleanup, I read Bible for awhile. Dave
read a book and kids played games. We
didn’t have any energy “to make a plan” so it was quiet in our cabin for a
couple hours. Dave fell asleep after
fishing so early. Talk about
relaxing. I’m reading through the Bible
chronologically and note-taking at the same time, so it is more like a Bible
Study, and it is taking a long time to get through some parts but it is really
helpful and thorough. We felt the need
to get outdoors so the kids suited up and went to the beach to swim. Right before that though, Violet, Eli and I
walked up to the store to check Amazon for a swimsuit for Violet. The storekeeper’s granddaughter, Mikayla, was
there too (she’s also swam once or twice with the kids) and she decided to meet
us to swim. She’s 11, and has what I
observe to be a difficult life. She said
she doesn’t have a mom, and we haven’t seen her parents around much. She’s quite bossy and we’ve had to tell her
to stop treating our kids in certain ways (putting frogs close to their faces
when it is apparent they don’t like it, or pushing them). But we’re keeping a close watch, and 80% of
the time, all 4 of our kids and her have fun together. I think she’s incredibly bored and loves
having kids to play with. Next week will
be interesting. Kids swam until 1:45
when Dave and I decided it was time to get lunch, so all 6 of us departed the
beach and went up to our cabin. Dave’s
the “sandwich maker” guy. Calvin had one
ham/swiss/mustard and 2 pbjs (that boy can eat when he’s hungry) and Violet got
creative and used 2 pieces of bread to make 2 different types of sandwiches on
either side of the bread…one side turkey/cheese and one side PBJ. I noticed some lettuce in the fridge getting
frozen so I chopped up what was left and used some leftover taco meat and
toppings to make taco salads for Dave and I.
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We wanted to stop into Munising to see if any
stores had a different fishing net (made of rubber so lures wouldn’t get caught
up in the netty net like we have but none had any). We hit Sand Point beach for a couple hours,
and that was also beautiful. Crystal
clear water, soft white sand, gorgeous weather and happy kids. Can’t really improve on that!
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The drive back home after that beach turned a
little sour…kids got mad, started fighting over really silly things, Violet
fuming, Eli konked out, Vanessa’s unbraided hair a massive tangled disaster,
Calvin remaining calm somehow…all a little tired out and hungry, I imagine.
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Dinner was a joint effort between Dave and I –
we made chicken & shrimp fajitas with 3 colors of peppers, complete with
salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and hot spicy cheese.
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Dave took Vanessa out fishing, and I started a
fire for s’mores. Calvin and Violet
collected a huge amount of pinecones which are amazing fire starters, and we
roasted marshmallows on sticks found in the woods – who needs expensive metal
roasters you have to clean…haha.
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We also ran a really random errand. Violet found a red thing that belonged to a
person who lives on this lake. We knew
this info because the night before, a guy canoed really slowly by the swimming
area and asked us if we’d seen a red “torpedo shaped” floaty, and said his
grandson was playing with it and let it drift off across the lake on accident,
and he was looking for it because it was pretty expensive. Violet noticed this red thing by the dock and
came up to me so we decided to get in
the paddleboat and boat it over to his property. Calvin put it in the guy’s canoe, and we went
back to our cabin.
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After such a sweaty, sunscreeny-sticky and sandy
day, all got showers (and I bathed Vanessa and Eli in the kitchen sink!
Haha!). Dave read them a Bible story
from the Action Bible and got everyone to sleep. We found it is best to put Vanessa to bed in
our room separate from the rest of the kids and later transport her to the place
where she sleeps in the kid’s room, so as to give the other 3 kids peace and
quiet. She can be a little stinker so
tonight we did the same thing and it worked out much better in terms of going
to bed much faster.
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I kept plowing through Numbers and Dave went up
to the store to use the WiFi to check work email. He is so happy about work progress going so
well in his absence, what a blessing from the Lord.
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He’s reading a book, and I’m typing! Signing off til tomorrow!
Wednesday, August 3
Everyone agreed that today was to be called “the swimming
day”. I made breakfast sandwiches
(inspired by how much Vanessa loves them!), so I toasted 6 english muffins,
cooked 6 sausages, 6 eggs, ½ slice cheese, and they were ready. Dave cut up a peach for us to share too. I can’t quite believe all the kids were
hungry after such a big hearty sandwich but they all had cold cereal after it
as well. We title this day “the swimming
day” because that is all we did in the morning and all we did after lunch. We went down to the dock by Town lake (the
lake our cabin is on) and swam from 10-2.
Calvin and Dave collected big rocks for Violet and Calvin’s underwater
“burrow” and I don’t even know what that means, but V and C are constantly digging
underwater and outlined this burrow with rocks, whatever that means. Vanessa is gaining confidence in the water,
taking off her life jacket and jumping off the dock where she can’t touch,
purposely bouncing straight down to the bottom and straight up so she can get a
breath, then letting herself go to the bottom and bouncing straight up for a
breath. She can swim for a little bit,
and knows how to tread water a little too.
It gets shallower where she can touch rather quickly. She liked it when I would sit on the dock
with my feet in the water and she could hold my hands and stand on my feet like
“she was walking on water”. Eli is
fearless, wearing his life jacket, and jumping anywhere. Calvin prefers to stay where he can touch and
Violet is daring enough to swim about anywhere too. The water is really clear and most the
swimming area is sandy.
We brought down the new net from the hardware store and a
paper bowl with a couple slices of American cheese to try catch some fish the
untraditional way. When I was a kid, my
friends and I would go across to the more clear lake across the street and us a
plastic crate with holes and some American cheese and try catch fish that
way. We’d hold the crate in the water
and drop cheese pieces right in front of the opening and scoop them up and let
them go. We did this with the net and
caught maybe 5 fish. It works only to
hold the net horizontally under the water’s surface and drop cheese on top of
it and wait for a brave fish to swim over the net then yank up quickly. The smell of American cheese transports me
right to the neighbor’s blue-outside-carpet-covered dock!
Dave and I used the “wrists locked together” to launch the
kids high into the air which everyone except Calvin liked.
Lunch at our cabin was leftover tacos, soup, whatever could get
finished up. I scooped ice cream cones
for a treat. We cleaned up lunch then
kinda collapsed on the couches while kids played legos. About an hour later at 3:30-4 we packed up
and headed 1 mile north and 1 mile east to a lake called Pete’s where there’s a
large public swimming area. It is a very
clear lake, very sandy, and an easy to swim in lake. Violet and Calvin got busy making burrows
again but cracked themselves up not being able to find any that they’d created
and just kept making new ones. This was
a much bigger swim area than by the little dock by our cabin! Vanessa made a new friend named Crystal. The kids swam there for 2 more hours. We brought folding chairs and didn’t swim
with them this time, rather let them explore, and we sat in the shade and
watched.
Dave cooked up spaghetti, sauce and Italian sausage for
dinner. We planned to go fishing and let
the kids watch some movies, locking the doors and leaving Violet in
charge. We got everyone happy and
settled and kept checking in with her over the walkie talkies and it all went
very well. Dave and I had a good time
fishing – we caught northern on the north side of the lake only, and bass on
the south side of the lake. Only 2 bass
were big enough to keep, but that was good!
Kids did really great and got ready for bed when we got back
in the cabin. It was a hotter day and
kinda stuffy in the cabin so it took everyone a longer time to go to sleep
despite a lot of fans moving air around the cabin.
Thursday, August 4
Eli is always, always the first one awake. His tummy wakes him up and he’s always hungry
at 7:30. He loves strawberry tiny toasts
cereal. I was feeling super sleepy, but
realized that I forgot to journal about the day so I stayed up and am currently
writing about Wed on Thurs am.
Thursday was one of the hottest days. I am writing a day late so I’m having a hard
time remembering. I checked my phone
pictures and don’t have any. I think it
was a “stay in the cabin and play games” while daddy read a book and I kept going
through my Bible reading. I think we
just relaxed for 3 hours. We did end up
swimming by the cabin’s shore, and finished off the veggie soup for lunch.
I think the kids swam by the cabin lake again. We got out a kayak we thought was for
anyone’s use but later discovered it belonged to someone else. An amish family! Anyway, everyone took showers while Dave
grilled pork tenderloins and made wild rice.
I heated up broccoli. Vanessa and
Eli bathed in sink again. We ate our
meal outside on the deck table, because it wasn’t too hot.
In evening, Dave took Violet and Eli out on the boat, I
played slapjack with Vanessa and Calvin.
They both got their stuffed animals out to be their audiences and
cheerleaders.
With Eli on the boat, his last catch was a bluegill using a
bluegill shaped lure. He thought it was
so funny he caught a “blueskill” with such a big lure. Earlier in the night Eli caught a 20”
northern pike fish too. He likes
catching the big ones.
Friday, August 5
Dave took Violet fishing in the morning today. Kids played games, I read Bible, cooked hashbrowns and fried eggs. Dave took nap, we got going by 1! Oh my. We had to wash clothes, mail some letters, get some groceries for next week. Dave dropped me off to do laundry in silence while he took the kids to a park for an hour. I used his computer to look up some recipes and come up with my final plan for meals sharing with Lisa and family next week. We got quarters from a nearby bank and returned 2 unused rolls for $10s. We ordered pizza from Main Street Pizza and ate it there. Such delicious pizza!! Calvin remembered the place and said it was his favorite place. They have memorable pictures on the wall. We checked out the waterfalls map before heading out and decided to look at Scotts Falls which was a 7 mile drive west. We drove past the “Sasquatch” statue, Eli called “Sea-squatch”. We drove past a little cute city called “Christmas” and then parked near the waterfall sign. We had to walk across a street which required hand holding. J The “Waterfall” was more like a trickle, but it was interesting anyway. We could walk to the top and see the stream that was its source. The shore of Lake Superior was right there so we walked down there and enjoyed the sand/water/views/rocks. I noticed something overwhelmingly black in the water, whether it was dark weeds or whatever, but it washed up on shore in shape of the waves at their peak and made the coolest black squiggly lines.
Vanessa got attached to a pretty white stick she called her
wand. I had her leave it on the beach
and as we walked home she broke down in crocodile tears because she wanted to
keep it. I went back with her and got
it. We got some quick shopping done at the
local grocery store, and discovered how small the aisles seemed as the 6 of us
moved through with 2 carts and 6 bodies.
You should have seen Vanessa piled in the back of the Jeep
with the huge bag of laundry AND all the groceries back there! J
We got back and were greeted by the gal, MiKayla, and she
wanted to swim with our kids so they went swimming for awhile. I gave Calvin a haircut. Dinner was leftover pizza, peaches, and
popsicles. Vanessa was really into the
peaches and got full eating 1 ½ of them.
Dave took Calvin out fishing and Calvin caught a 15” bass to
keep. He even wanted to watch Dave clean
the fish. Calvin showered up when they
got back and headed to bed. While the
two boys were out fishing, Violet showered, Eli and Vanessa played with their
new matchbox cars Dave got them from the grocery store. I tried the find the hole in the air mattress
with no success. I played a few Bible
stories from the Bible app on the kindle to each of their choosing, and the 3
of the kids with me fell asleep by 10.
Eli and Vanessa were incredibly hyper and after a little dose of
melatonin, were asleep in seconds.
We are all anticipating a very different day tomorrow. We need to pack up our stuff, move it into
the trailer, go meet family for lunch in Escanaba with Sean & family, Josh
& family, and us with their cousin Michael, Jamie, and their children. Then we come back, move to a different cabin,
and Lisa and family will arrive tomorrow night.
Tonight Dave and I finished up the chicken/shrimp fajitas, I
read more in my chronological-read-through-the-Bible (currently in Deut 29),
and Dave read a book.
Saturday, August 6th
We spent the majority of the morning from 9-11 moving out of
our cabin and into the trailer. We had
to leave everything (except fridge food) in the trailer so the cleaning people
could get in the cabins. George told us
as we drove away that they’d be done by 4ish.
No problem. We parked our trailer
up by the new cabin and took off for Escanaba to meet up for lunch with Dave’s
cousin Michael and his family. We found
Van Cleve Park, actually located in the little town near Escanaba called
Gladstone. Vanessa and I went for an
adventure to find a bathroom. We
discovered finally where the rest of the family was at this enormous park. It was gorgeous, right on the Lake Michigan
shoreline. Sean had gone to pick up
Michael, his wife Jamie, and their three kids, Jordan, MiKayla, and Danny. Neither of them can drive. Sean had gotten pizza and different flavors
pasties. It was near a wooden park
structure so mostly all the kids went off to play leaving the adults some
conversation time. It was really interesting
to hear what’s going on in Michael and Jamie’s life – their interests, health
struggles, and things their kids are up to.
Ted and Cindy had come up for the family lunch, and Josh and
Carrie also appeared a bit later than everyone else.
Sean and family were off to grocery shop, so Josh & fam
followed us back to the cabins. We
busted it to clean out the fridge and get out of their way so we could move
into the new cabin up on the hill. The
“move in” process took a couple hours.
Kids hauled things in, I told them where to put it all. The most thought was required of me in the
kitchen, where to arrange fridge and pantry things to leave Lisa room. This kitchen is 10 times the size of the
previous cabin so I was thankful for this!
Violet immediately “fell in looove” with one bedroom but Dave wanted it
because the double bed was a queen, not a full, so they had to work that
out. We got the room we wanted.
Nobody went anywhere – everyone just spent time moving into
their cabins and enjoying the views. Some kids went fishing, some went swimming,
some went paddle boating. Everyone had
supper in their own cabins.
We gave our kids leftover pizza, some applesauce, etc. I searched the community center for a baking
pan and found something. I made a chocolate cake with 43 candles for
Lisa (Vanessa and Carrie helped me with the chocolate).
Lisa and family arrived close to 10ish and everyone gathered
in our cabin to greet her and sing her happy birthday.
After getting kids to bed we hung out by the campfire a bit,
then looked at the stars on the dock.
Somewhere over Thurs/Fri I got sick. My throat started hurting and I lost the
majority of my voice. This makes for a
difficult time but thankful for walkie talkies.
The first night consisted of a lot of tossing and turning
for me. Violet climbed into a bunk in
our room early in the morning.
Sunday, August 7
Kids slept until 8ish.
Lisa and I were up making bacon, eggs and toast, she cut up pineapple
and honeydew melon. She’s a morning
person, not many people are in the cabin. :P
Breakfast lasted a couple hours feeding people as they
rolled out of bed. Everyone spent the
majority of the day by the dock again, either swimming, fishing, or
paddleboating. Violet, Renee, Adalynn
Lynnea just fished, put fish in a bucket, and played with them, and let them
back in the lake. They claim they could
catch bigger fish by fishing off the raft a few feet off the dock.
Lunch happened around 2.
Lisa wanted to go see Corner Lake so the crew headed that direction and
played there a couple hours. Calvin
found a huge amount of clay in the swimming area under the water and stacked a
mountain of it on the shoreline. Lisa
found a lilypad and took it to put in her pond in Texas, I hope it
survives! She put it in the lake near
our cabin and plans to take it back in a bucket. Lynnea, Violet and Renee discovered the spa
treatment the lake provided…smearing clay all over them and counting to 100
before rinsing it off. I remember doing
that as a kid.
We left Corner Lake a couple hours later with the idea that
we’d all eat supper, then go fishing. I
cut up a watermelon, made mac n cheese and Dave grilled burgers/brats for
dinner for everyone in our cabin.
Delicious!
Kids played around, we had a campfire. While heading out to fish, Alyssa
accidentally got a fishing lure hook lodged pretty deep on the inside of her
hand near the bottom of her finger. We
didn’t see it happen but Corban was part of moving the pole out of his way while
he tried pushing off the shoreline. Sean
tried getting it out but the barbed part it would have torn a lot of
flesh. It was lodged pretty deep into
her tendon so they drove her up to the Munising hospital to have it taken out. They numbed her up with lidocaine. Not a fun way to start he week, that’s for
sure! Alyssa is OK. She came back smiling.
The rest of the fisherman on the lake caught nothing. A few too small to keep.
Kids to bed (after making Calvin shower for getting soooo
dirty) about 10 and campfire at night.
Sten shared a bit about Kristina and things she’s learning. My voice is still to weak to talk.
Monday, August 8
Calvin/Eli were the first two awake. I realized I had not gotten my journaling
done since Saturday so I spent 30 min typing while Vanessa woke up, and got some
Tiny toast cereal for herself and Eli.
Plans formed as we looked at the weather report for the
week. The hottest day was supposed to be
Tuesday so we planned to do jetskis that day over at Pete’s Lake, and hike the
Miner’s Beach trail today.
After a yummy breakfast from Lisa (creamed eggs) and
announcing that there were leftovers and they’d be handed out first come first
served, Josh and Sean came running up the hill to have a bite. This is a favorite Martha used to make for
them. Lisa said this was a heart warming
moment to have your brothers come and enjoy your food.
The whole group in our four packed vehicles got on the move
towards the trail around Noon and we tried stopping at a coffee place for some
delicious espressos, only to discover the employee didn’t know a thing about
brewing espresso.
The hike was gorgeous, as always. Because it is now the third time we’ve hiked
this same trail, it becomes more familiar and seems less of a distance every
time. I get a better sense for when the
next turns are and what’s coming up after major landmarks. Eli was a trooper, as I knew he’d be. No backpack carrier for him! “I don’t meed help” and “I can do it” were
his words if I offered help up or down a difficult part on the bumpy
trail. He tackled most things
himself. We had one photo op where we
all gathered on a bridge and used my selfie stick to get a shot of ALL of
us. Turned out ok!
The beach was gorgeous, as always, and looked different than
last time – the structure of the back water entering the lake reshapes the sand
path it takes. It also seemed more
populated! We parked ourselves in the
sand or in the lake and enjoyed a few hours by the water. Sten didn’t realize there was water at the
end of that hike so he went swimming in his jeans. Dave and Sean both got in with their
shorts. Frisbee was thrown around, sand
structures were made and destroyed by the occasional bigger waves the big tour
boats would make.
The sand was like big rocks.
It wasn’t fine powdery sand, it slipped right off and didn’t stick. Josh and Carrie’s dog, Jade, enjoyed being
buried by the sand. Carrie said it was
funny to see this because Jade likes being cozy under a lot of blankets. Because she’s black, it may have felt nice to
get cooled off by the wet sand. The
biting black flies were an issue though, and we buried our legs/feet in the
sand to keep them off.
We headed back around 5 to get dinner in our cabin. The hike back seemed shorter, but
harder. My chest was still tight. Lisa cooked up a yummy supper of tacos and
chips/salsa.
Kids swam in the lake again that night. Fished a little but didn’t catch anything.
I think we had a campfire again that night by Sean’s
cabin. The topic of discussion leaned
towards history, and Emma asked some interesting questions.
Tuesday, August 9
I think the cabin woke up (with the exception of Calvin and
Eli) around 9:30. I made breakfast
sandwiches and coffeecake, and Dave helped me with cooking and cleanup. Lisa was helping me but got called to go
help clean a fish.
The plan was to do rent jetskis and meet George up at the
store at 12:30. After breakfast, kids
played outside and swam, and it was 12:20 by the time I realized what time it
was! It was hard to gather kids fast and
get packed up for the other beach day we had planned. Life jackets, chairs, towels, snacks, water
bottles, sunscreen, and 4 kids in the jeep within 15 minutes!
The jetski day went pretty well – all the kids enjoyed
rides, and hangout on the beach was relaxing….all except for the last 10
minutes of renting them, somehow, Carrie got stuck out in the middle of the
lake with no gas and Josh tried towing her back and she accidentally flipped
the jetski and lost the key.
Vanessa spent a lot of time making a U shaped sand structure
that she wanted me to take a picture of.
We had also discovered that Ted and Cindy arrived at the
campground right before we left so they joined us at Pete’s Lake when they got
set up. This was the first time in about
10 years that Lisa and Ted had seen each other.
He hugged her for a long time. She invited him for dinner, which was
noodles/Italian sauce/garlic bread/salad.
Lisa and fam went back to the cabin a little early to get
dinner started. Right when she left is
when the jetski incident occurred so that delayed our coming back by 20-30
minutes.
Dinner together was really pleasant and nice. We enjoyed having them there.
A group went fishing but I don’t think much was caught. Anja caught two bass off the dock!
I went to the store once to check my messages and some
others also walked by and found me, so we chatted and decided to make a
fire. I went back to the cabin because
I’d heard Eli was awake and hungry, so he ate noodles and watermelon. Weirdly enough, I started getting a bloody
nose right then. I laid down to hold it
until it stopped while Anja asked me “Would you Rather” cards as something fun
to do while we waited.
Josh, Carrie, Sten, Dave and I “campfired” and chatted about
random things. I remember talking about
Carrie’s book and Sten’s new job pastoring.
Wednesday, August 10
I woke up around 7:30 and wrote in this journal in the
morning. Eli and Calvin were up, of
It was a cool feeling morning and looked overcast, so I put
on jeans. By the time the morning warmed
up I was ready for shorts. It was a
“play by the dock” day for everyone.
Some groups went to Munising to do laundry and other things. We decided to keep the rental for the
paddleboard another day so we played with that in the water too. Dave swam with the kids.
At some point in the morning we got a demonstration of the
drone that Sten and Lisa brought.
Some went fishing a bit earlier in the evening but came in
to join the group for the corn roast.
That evening at 6pm, Ted and cindy prepared dinner for the
group by roasting some fresh picked from Wisconsin sweet corn and serving BBQ
meat on buns. They served up a big
cupcake cake and handed out gifts/cards for birthdays. There were so many glow sticks it looked like
craziness outside. Wands, glasses,
balls, all glowing. Eli played with a
little toy truck that rolled and made truck sounds.
I tried out the paddle board and gave Wes a ride around the
dock.
The campfire got started, and we somehow ended up singing a
lot of patriotic songs. Dave and I broke
away to put kids to bed, after a round of baths, because the Deet had to get
washed off. The mosquitos were pretty
bad that night.
We did return to the campfire around Ted’s camper.
Thursday, August 11
Lisa made sausage gravy for the group. Emma, Vanessa and Eli snuggled on couch,
people woke up pretty slowly this morning. It was cool, overcast, and felt like
you just wanted to keep sleeping. Lisa
mentioned she’d never seen any waterfalls yet so we made a plan to go see
“twins falls”…where you park by the split in the road, and walk up a little staircase
you have to find that goes up into the forest.
A short, but medium difficulty hike led to a sweeping open
round sandstone area with a waterfall.
Sten Geocached and told us there was one in the area, so we all searched
for it. Lisa found it, we looked at the
randomness in the little box and signed the log. We took some pics, then another trail to see
the other waterfall which was smaller but we could go up to the top and see it
from that side. We searched for another
geocache and it was harder to find but Sten found it a hole in a log.
Eli decided he needed to go poop so I found a spot for him
in the woods. I had brought wipes and
things so we had the needed supplies, it just took him forever to go. The whole group couldn’t wait so just the
Dave LaMarche family stayed and waited.
They went on back on the trail “the long way” and we went the short way,
thinking we’d meet up with them, but instead, they waited for us at one point
but we didn’t know.
We tossed in a load of clothes at the laundromat, went to a
gift shop, met everyone else there, and then tossed the clothes in the dryer,
got T shirts, then met everyone else at Frozen Flamingo for ice cream. The rain in Munising kept us inside.
Lisa and crew were hungry so they took the cabin key and
went back early to start cooking the frozen pizzas. We headed back to the cabin after a few
minutes. Back at White Fawn Lodge, it
was a little drizzly so we all met at the community center and played games. A crew of kids swam for a couple hours. The only plan later was for Sten to give
those interested a “whiskey tasting” experience. He had brought quite a few really nice kinds
(single malts and blends) and gave Dave, Josh, Carrie, Sean, Ted, Cindy and I a
tiny sample of each kind, learned how they taste and how a drop or two of water
changes the flavor. Kids watched a movie
(Madagascar).
Dave got funny and started trying to get rid of
leftovers. He had kids eating ice cream,
loads of noodles, and leftover pizza.
Friday, August 12
Dave took our older 3 kids out fishing (Vanessa said she only
wanted to net fish) and Eli slept in. I
got up to journal over the last couple days.
Josh came by our cabin to look for his lost cell phone with no
success. Carrie sat with me for a bit
while I finished journaling. I have
continued to cough and hack.
Dave came back from fishing with no bites. Vanessa said she was cold but refused to try
to warm up because she wanted to be ready to net the fish. J
Sten and Lisa, Kristina, Emma and Alyssa all rented kayaks
and took them on a chain of lakes north of our area, which upon returning, said
it was really neat. Back at the cabins,
everyone hung out by the dock, campfire, and around cabins. We pretty much had s’mores for lunch. I found sticks to roast marshmallows. Before we knew it, it was around 4 pm and the
plans to organize the fish fry needed to happen. We all figured 7 pm would be a good
time. Sten got the drone charged and we
got a family photo taken around 6:30 by the lake. Armitages let everyone use the kayaks for the
remaining time on the lake, Carrie and I went out across the lake, and Renee
and Lynnea went out across the lake.
Other kids got turns with the kayaks too. Dave went fishing some of Friday with Sean, Vanessa
and Adalynn.
April, Carrie, Lisa, Sean, Dave, Josh and I got going processing
the fish. There was a smorgasbord of
food for the fish fry. Cut up fruit,
baked beans, corn, fried and seasoned grilled fish, mac n cheese, meat/buns,
and pink lemonade. Fish was
delicious…the grilled was my favorite!
Everyone stuck around for a big campfire after the meal and a lot of
sharing stories happened by the brothers/sister/dad. The kids got busy making a raft out of
floating logs, which turned out pretty cute and adorable.
Lisa went up to pack because their family needed to leave by
6 am. Sten and girls helped. Sten joined fire afterwards. There was a strange rain/mist that we
couldn’t feel on our skin but looked really cool with a flashlight shining on
it. Sten caught a leopard frog and put
it in his bucket to take back with the lily pads. So funny.
Saturday, August 13
Dave woke me up at 9:50.
I ended up sleeping on the top bunk of the bunk bed for the last 3 hours
of the night because the light from the window was waking me up. I peeked around the cabin at 7:17 and the
Armitages were not there.
Dave had warmed up breakfast for me, and made coffee. J&C came to say goodbyes. I showered up. Sean’s family came to say
goodbyes. We packed up like crazy, and
got of there by 12:30. We loaded the
trailer, Calvin made PBJs while we loaded up.
We took one last look at the lake, snapped some pics, and
left at 1:00.
What a wonderful time, such a blessed experience, and we are
so thankful for such fantastic family.
