A Day at the Beach

Back in August the kids, my nieces, my mom and my brother all spent an afternoon at the beach. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time enjoying the water and soaking up the sun :-)

Morgan and Blake playing in the park by the beach while they wait for their cousins to get ready.

Blake in the water...I love how the sailboat is in the distance :-)

Morgan holding hands with her cousin in the water...melted my heart seeing how well they get along. :-)

Playing in the sand...working on a castle!

While the kids played, the adults enjoyed the view...the lighthouse and Blue Water Bridge to Canada.

The area's little cruise boat.

More sailboats

Another type of sailing...a windsurfer! This must really take some skill!

Besides all the sites, water and sand, we also enjoyed checking out all the shells and stones on the beach. The kids thought it was great, but I was even in awe of the beauty of it all! I couldn't have asked for a better afternoon :-)

Summer 2010 Update #2

This summer has been BUSY! I'm going to try to catch you up with everything we've been up to, but I'm sure I'll miss something. (And you'll probably be glad I missed it, because it's already going to be a LONG post! LOL!)

Forth of July weekend was packed, especially that Saturday! We had a parade to ride in the fire truck. Morgan decided she wanted to watch the parade and get candy, so she watched with my mom and Blake rode in the truck. Every year in the 4th of July parade, they set up the engine to shoot out water and it's a HUGE hit with the kids....they were running behind waiting for us to stop and shoot out water again...even the adults were asking for it as we drove by! SO much fun! :-)

We also had a birthday party on the 4th of July Saturday for a young cousin who was up from Virginia and later we had a 4th of July party with fireworks and a bunch of fun! It was an AWESOME day! :-)

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The following weekend the kids and I went to the tip of the thumb (of Michigan) and camped with my family. We left on Friday, but Thursday night, as Rich, the kids and I were dragging home our calves that had gotten out from a half mile down the road, my dad called and asked if the kids and I would want to head to Minnesota to visit my mom's uncle after camping. It was going to take the whole next week of driving and camping. As last minute as it was I decided we'd go. Here are some pics of the trip:

The kids playing in Saginaw Bay.

Just crossed the Mackinaw Bridge.

Lots of camping on the trip!!

Blake in awe at the Mall of America in Minnesota.

First time eating at the Rainforest Cafe.

This was in front of our table.

Us minus Morgan who didn't want to be in the picture.

The Volcano dessert....YUM!

Morgan was excited to try it ;-)

The Lego store in the mall.

The kids watching all the rides from the American Girl doll store.

So we went on a ride on the Ferris Wheel! This is when they first got on.

And THIS is when it started moving!

View from the top of the mall (top of the Ferris Wheel)...it's HOT up there!

After the mall, we went back to my mom's aunt and uncle's and stayed the night. This pic is of Blake the next day as we headed back home.

We stopped at the Leinie Lodge in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin where the Leinenkugel beer is made. (It's the beer in the movie 'Escanaba in da Moonlight')

This is the storm that was coming while we were at the Leinie Lodge...and the reason we only stayed for a short time...we left to try to stay ahead of it, but it didn't work! That had to be the scariest storm I've ever been in...tears in my eyes, hugging my kids-no fun!

This is at the hotel we stayed at since it was storming. No fun camping while it's storming!

Had to take advantage of the pool while we were there!

Blake still not sure about going in the water...never been in a pool before!

But he changed his mind...

...and had a blast!

That was the extent of the trip. We stayed a night in Mackinaw City on the way home and mom and I got to do some shopping while dad watched the kiddos at the campsite. I also had a tick stuck to me the next morning....Heebie Jeebies!!!!

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The next week we got 5 new windows! I took the kiddos to my MIL's and went out to eat with an old friend while Rich stayed with the window guys. Well, while at my in-laws, we saw a kitten she had and it was just too cute to leave to possibly be eaten by all their doggies, so we brought it home :-)

This is Leinie...yes, after the beer! See Bear in the back...very anxious to do some cat chasing! ;-) (Don't worry, he doesn't eat them.)

The Friday we got the windows was also the start of the Yale Bologna Festival! I met up with some college friends that night to watch the fireworks. The next night, the kids, Rich and I went to the Bologana parade and then Sunday we headed back and had some Bologna sandwiches under the Bologna tent! ;-) LOVE that festival! It's very family friendly and always fun!

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The next week we had Rich's birthday. The kiddos got cuddly in a chair during it and it was too cute to pass up pics! ;-)

LOVE this face! I think they were having lemonade.

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The weekend after Rich's birthday, we also had my grandfather's memorial service and the next day was the annual family reunion. It's always at my aunt and uncle's place on the St. Clair river, so it's fun watching the freighters float by-they're HUGE!

My sister with one of the 4 Scotties running around.

Blake had a blast in the bounce house.

Morgan had a blast in the pool!

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Of course our garden has been producing. I've gotten 62 pints of green beans canned, 16 pints of corn froze, more squash and zucchini than we could handle, but it's been fairly easy to give away and we grew eggplant for the first time. It's a very new thing for us, since neither Rich nor I had ever even eaten eggplant before, but it's been interesting. This is the Eggplant Parmesan that I tried making. :-)

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Besides all that we also made it to the county fair, but I forgot to take the camera :-/

Like I said, a BUSY summer...and this post only covered July! (Except for some of the garden update). I'd like to have another update with the August happenings too...not quite as hectic thankfully ;-)

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer too! :-)

Our Holiday Weekend

Our weekend kind of started on Friday with the excitement of getting a new truck! It's a 2006 Ford F-150 and Rich couldn't be happier having a truck again! As Rich went to work at his Grandma's farm, working ground and planting, I had the luxury of having my own vehicle...or so I thought...

This isn't actually our truck, but it's almost the same. Ours doesn't have running boards, vent visors or fog lights, but has a bug deflector and a light on top for Rich to respond to fire calls.
I had all these plans to make a run to a nearby town to do some shopping before we went camping when I just happened to look out the kitchen window at the car and noticed something wrong with the front passenger side tire. When I checked it out, it was what I feared...a bulge! I ended up taking it in to the same place we had just picked our new truck up at, earlier that morning, to have a new/used tire put on. What were the chances that I finally get a vehicle of my own and there was something wrong with it?? LOL! I still made it shopping and all is good now ;-)

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I also mowed our lawn for the first time in 5 years! Rich has always mowed the lawn. It was HIS thing that he LOVED to do, so I never really thought any different. Well, I decided to offer to help this summer because he is so busy with everything that is going on and I did it! After not mowing for 5 years I was kinda nervous, but I didn't have any troubles (besides taking out a little hay, but no big deal-LOL!)

Speaking of doing things that I haven't done in 5 years, I also rode a bike again! My bike got ruined at the bike racks at college and I have never replaced it, but I actually got on my sister's bike while camping and it came right back to me! Yay! I kinda want to get a new one now! ;-)

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The big event of the weekend was our camping trip. We went up north to Otsego Lake State Park and camped Saturday through Monday. On the way up we met with some friends of Rich's had lunch and took them some beef they had bought. I couldn't believe we spent over 2 hours with them!

After what turned out to be a 6 hour trip, we got settled in and went to the beach to enjoy the warm water. Rich and I rolled up our pant legs so we could walk in, Morgan borrowed a swimsuit and a life vest from my brother and was having a blast in the water and Blake was sitting and playing in the sand. (He will NOT go in the water!)

Morgan and her cousins playing in the sand. (Morgan has green on.)

Blake not in the water...he wouldn't even put cooler clothes on because he thought that meant that he had to go in the water-LOL!

We couldn't have been at the beach for more than a couple minutes when Rich's cell phone rings and after a few choice words I find out that Rich's friend, who was taking care of our animals, had just shown up to our place with his 5 year old daughter and a couple dogs were killing the chickens! After many phone calls to the sheriff, relatives and animal control, the dogs were taken away, the chickens were cleaned up and we were left with 4 hens out of 6 hens and 2 roosters. As much as we liked our roosters and hens, I'll have to admit that I was relieved that the roosters are the ones they got, plus the hen that we always called "the ugly chicken" (poor thing). We'll still have some eggs, but not enough to share anymore. (We actually had 12 chicken a little while ago, but lost 4 to a raccoon.)

Rich on the phone during the chicken incident. Things were mostly under control at the time so he could smile ;-)

So, a little story to go along with the chickens. The 5 year old daughter that came with Rich's friend unfortunately witnessed the dogs with a chicken (from their truck) and said to her Daddy "Look! They're wrestling!" and after is was over "The chicken lost". Rich and I had felt terrible that she had to witness that, but knowing how innocently she viewed the whole thing made us feel a little better.

The rest of our camping trip was fairly uneventful. Here are a couple more things that happened:

*Morgan had the chance to ride her balance bike on pavement and got quite good! She still needs to learn that she cannot take her hand off the handlebar to wave....doing that leads to a pretty scraped up knee! (My niece also got her training wheels off while we were there, so it was a great biking weekend for all of us!)

*We made it to Jay's Sporting Goods in Gaylord and got Morgan her first bow and 6 arrows. I'm excited for her to learn, because it's something that Rich and I would enjoy doing more of. :-)

*The campgrounds were dirt....no grass whatsoever! That means 2 VERY dirty kids! LOL! Blake, especially, had a blast in the dirt-we never had to entertain him-he was busy the whole time! (And only 1 pee accident the WHOLE time...didn't even wet at night! Not doing as good now that we're home though-LOL!)

This picture needs no explanation.

Not happy that he had to stop playing to get a picture taken...and this wasn't his dirtiest!

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We made it home between 1:00 and 2:00 pm Monday, got unpacked, did some laundry and left by 4:00 to go to a Memorial Day get-together at Rich's grandma's. We would have been outside if it hadn't been raining, but it was still a really nice time and we didn't make it home until 9:30.

As fun as our weekend was, I'm glad to be home and settling back into things.....and catching up on some sleep! ;-)

The sunset over Otsego Lake.