No rain = time to walk

First of all, thank you for the Happy Anniversary wishes for Bill and I. We enjoyed a laid back day yesterday walking with the kids outside and then enjoying a dinner of take out.

We were able to go walking/hiking because after a week of daily rains, we finally got some dry weather this weekend. There has been area flooding, but thankfully we didn't experience any here at our house. We decided to take the kids out on a walk on Sunday as the humidity finally broke and the sun was out.

We headed out to Gambier to visit the choo-choo and to walk the trail.

One of the first thing we noticed, was that there was a huge tree branch down that just a couple months ago, my brother Josh had sat on.

Then (May):

NOW:

The Kokosing River was running high. In fact, we saw several streams where there had not been any. And where there are usually sandbars, there wasn't any.

We saw MANY butterflies on our walk, a frog or 2, and a worm.

Overall, it was a lovely way to spend our anniversary with the family.

After our walk, we treated the kiddos to McDonald's for lunch.

Then it was home to cool off and relax for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

Our 12th Anniversary

July 16, 2005 Bill and I stood in front of our parents, families and friends and promised to love one another throughout all times-- good and bad.

Over the last 12 years, we have been through many ups and many downs. We have seen the birth of our 3 children. We have experienced vacations that refreshed our souls. We have had many happy times. We have been through job losses, pregnancy losses, sicknesses, surgeries (gall bladder, hysterectomy, kidney stones, etc.). We have moved several times. We have been through a ton.

Honestly, life right now is going at break neck speed and there are a lot of obstacles that we are facing. But I am so glad that I have Bill as my partner. Yes, there are times that we don't agree. Yes, there are times that we have different priorities. Yes, there are times that we drive each other nuts. But at the end of the day, when we go to bed, we know that we are in this wild ride together and we love one another and that is the main core of our relationship. So on this, the 12th anniversary of our marriage, I would like to take this opportunity to tell Bill that I love him a lot and look forward to many more anniversaries to come!

Week in Review (July 8- 15, 2017)

I find that I am in the season of life where I might not be able to come on here everyday and post in real time. It is easy to schedule posts and work on series (like our vacation) or book reviews, but to actually come on at the end of each day and talk about that day....well with my schedule there is always a chance that that might not happen. So I thought I would start maybe recapping my week, with some photos, on Saturdays. I like to think that this blog is a recap of my life, almost like a diary, so there are things that happen each week that I would like to document but don't always have a chance to. So that is going to be the purpose of these Saturday posts.

So let's see what things happened this past week (July 8-15,2017):

THE THEME OF THIS WEEK WAS RAIN, RAIN, AND MORE RAIN! We had thunderstorms and downpours every day except Friday. The rains dumped several inches of water so we had some flooding in the area. We got a little bit of water in our basement but nothing serious.

High water ponding in the yard outside my dining room window.

One of the storms did knock out our power. We were without power for a little over 6 hours. Thankfully it wasn't too hot outside. We just relaxed by candlelight and flashlights. Power came back on just as it was getting dark enough in the house for me to start scrounging up all the extra flashlights and candles.

Jacob reading by flashlight

Ben playing

Rebecca said she had a flashlight, markers and her coloring stuff, what more did she need?

WE TOOK A LIBRARY TRIP DURING ONE OF THE HOT AND HUMID AFTERNOONS.

Ben loves playing on the computer at the libray

Rebecca and Jacob playing at the STEM table at the library.

WE GOT CORN, CUCUMBERS AND TOMATOES AT THE FARM MARKET! They were delicious! Can't wait to get more.

First of the season corn! It was SO good!

My dinner plate--- says Summer to me!

I ASKED MY BROTHER TO COME OVER AND HELP WITH YARD WORK. The rain and hot/humid weather meant that the weeds and grass was taking over. Our lawnmower has been on the fritz so I asked my brother to come help mow and weed whack the weeds, as Bill has been working an extreme amount of hours and I wanted him to have a break. While Joe worked on the yard, I trimmed the front hedges. I hate hedges! I am glad to get them neat again. I smile every time I drive by the front of the house this week.

The hedge on the left has been trimmed. The hedge on the right has not.

While we were cleaning the patio furniture from the front porch, Ben got stung by something. He had 3 bite welts on his leg and one on his arm and he started crying that it hurt. Well Ben typically doesn't cry so we are not sure what bit him. He said it was a tiny red spider, but we are thinking it may have been a fire ant. Thankfully the welts were gone by the next day, so I think we dodged a bullet there.

WE CELEBRATED THE CATS! I took the kids to get them treats at the store and I made a cake for the humans.

The cats' birthday treats

Cake for the humans

Gus Gus

Gronk

I COMPLETED A SEWING PROJECT THAT WAS ON MY LIST FOR OVER A YEAR! Rebecca has had this SpongeBob toy since she was a little over a year old. Well, probably a little over a year ago the arm came off. It was put in my closet and I just haven't had a chance to fix it. Well, much to my daughter's delight I bit the bullet and sewed the arm back on today! I also sewed Ben's Star Wars pillow shut after the seam came undone in the wash.

This was before the sewing got done. Complete with my Grandma's cookie sewing tin.

Overall, it was a crazy week! Today, Saturday, I am going to be cleaning house. I will probably also be helping Rebecca with her SWAPS project for her upcoming AHG Camping trip. Lots going on, so I better run! Hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday!

Bagger Dave's, Port Betsie Lighthouse, and Coming Home

I am taking this opportunity to recap our 2017 Michigan vacation to Kingsley, Michigan. To get caught up, you can get the recaps here:
Day 1, June 25, 2017: So we rented a cabin in Michigan
Day 2, June 26, 2017: Just chilling at the cabin and making s'mores over a fire
Day 3, June 27, 2017 Part 1: G. T. Butterfly House and Bug Zoo, and the Jolly Pumpkin
Day 3, June 27, 2017 Part 2: Mission Point Lighthouse and S'mores

Day 4, June 28, 2017: Boardman River Nature Center and The Blue Tractor
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Thursday morning, June 28, the sun came out and we decided to spend our last full day in Michigan with some shopping, lunch and more sightseeing. 

We spent our morning in downtown Traverse City doing a little souvenir shopping. We bought a couple of magnets (as that is my thing as far as souvenirs). We also stopped in at Cherry Republic store and tasted some of their cherry wares. I bought some chocolate covered cherries which were so good. 

After shopping for a bit, we headed out to lunch. We stopped in at Bagger Dave's Burger Tavern, after reading some good reviews online. (Well, don't believe everything you read!) The atmosphere was great... Benjamin absolutely loved the train going around the restaurant and loved watching it. Which was good, because it kept him busy as the wait for our food was very long (considering there were not that many other tables full.) 

Once we got our food, Bill's burger was completely dry there was no BBQ sauce on it. He asked for the sauce. It was literally 20 minutes later that the waitress brought it. By then the kids and I were done eating and it ruined the whole experience. My food was good and the kids said theirs was good. The lack of service however made the whole experience not good.  

  

After we left Bagger Dave's, we headed west about an hour to visit the Point Betsie Lighthouse on Lake Michigan. This would be our first visit to the Lake. The first thing I noticed when we got out of the SUV was how much colder and windier it was at the lighthouse. It was VERY windy! We visited the interior of the lighthouse, and then the boys and I headed down to the beach, while Bill and Rebecca went up to the top of the lighthouse.

The beach was very rocky, but it was so beautiful in it's own way. The rocks were beautiful as well. Once Bill and Rebecca joined us the kids decided to splash in the water (which was freezing!) and also to find some rocks.

On the way back to the cabin, we were talking about dinner. We decided that the kids would eat the leftovers at the cabin--hot dogs, uncrustables, etc. and that Bill and I would get Subway for dinner. It seemed like there was a Subway on every corner as we were driving to our different destinations.

That night, after dinner, we took one last walk down to the river and the kids played outside for a while. They had fun finding a frog near the wood pile, throwing sticks in the water and just being in nature. As we were getting ready to head back to the cabin for the night, Jacob started tearing up and saying he didn't want to leave.

Once we were back in the cabin for the night the kids watched "Cars" while I packed everything up to get ready to leave the following morning.

Friday morning, June 30, we packed the SUV up and headed away from River Tracks Cabin for one last time. We made pretty good time coming home, stopping at McDonald's for lunch and for a snack.

Once home, we had Wendy's for dinner and I headed out to get a few groceries to tide us over until the next time I could make a trip to the store (primarily milk and pop was needed). We all went to bed that night tired from our drive but glad to be home and basking in the memories of our time in Northern Michigan!