Silver Lake

This year we tried somewhere new for camping, and really loved it. We headed out to the Yogi Bear Campground in Silver Lake, It was fun to experience a new town and all that it had to offer, our only down fall this trip was a Storm like NO OTHER that occurred on Friday night. Luckily we were able to enjoy the full day but come 11:30 p.m....... WATCH OUT.....this storm was fierce, Chris and I laid awake for the better half of the night trying to guess which tree would fall on our pewney little tent, so besides a bad night of sleep and a few drips a rain a the foot of our bags (I say this because when I saw the campground the next morning we were the lucky ones.....) we had a great time, did some new things, enjoyed some great company, and had dry weather the rest of the trip!

The kids really got a kick out of the Yogi Bear festivities, I have never seen a more active and crowded campground.....but lets just say they were entertained more that they imagined.....Wagon rides, pools, arcades, concerts, face painting ......you name it Yogi had it planned......

The big draw at Silver Lake besides the water, both Michigan and Silver lakes is the sand dunes. They are vast and wide and the thing to to there is climb them and ride them like you are on a roller coaster......So we did. These are the portals.....

The kids were hyped as you can tell.....

The girls waiting for their ride!

All aboard.....

The kids had a blast, they hooted, they hollered, they held their hands up like they were riding a roller coaster.....It was hard for the adults not to do the same......

The tour guide stopped fro some photo ops......

The camping gang 2011......We loved having the addition of a few more families!

This picture sums it up.....yup it was worth going......

Back to the campground and the 101 activities that they were having.....here....face painting..

We climbed up the lighthouse - some 130 steps.....and then Chris and I ordered the kids to immediately climb back down..... seven kids .....that high......with only a tiny little bar to hold them back.....wasn't my idea of comfort.....especially when the kids thought it was cool to stick all their body parts through the bars........"Great view....yup its purty.....now lets head down..."

So they headed down.....phew.....

We hit the beach next, enjoyed some sunshine and some water!

The Dad's hanging.....The kids hit the pool at night to rinse away the day.....they called it fun....the parents called it a shower.......

Airborne.....

We had two families host a dinner each night......this was the Allen and Doyle's Mexican fiesta that put our salmon to shame.....It was delicious......

The kids all got along so well......then again what is there to be mad about.......

Ms. Beth brought along a surprise - Rock n Roll make over kits for all the kids......Here is my little Ke$ha.....The girls thought it was the best thing ever.....

Three little rock stars......

Dad wasn't as "impressed" with the look.........

Betta get used to things like this Daddio.....

Somehow the kids came up with this "great" idea to make over the mommies......I think they went a bit overboard .....I am not sure when a full mustache stood for "Rock n Roll" But we went with it.....

The crew getting ready to head down to the yogi bear concert at the pavilion.......face paint and all.......I can't even imagine what the other campers were saying......

But we didn't care......we boogied and danced the night away.......

We capped off the trip with some Craig's cruiser time .......conveniently attached to the campground.......you really couldn't escape it.....

And topped it off with The Chicken Shack.....starting out at a joke and then realizing we would all drive the hour and a half back just for these wings.......Brooke included......who knew......

Good times......thanks Allens, Doyles & Damuths!!

Trying out T-Ball....

Brady decided to give T-ball a whirl this summer. I am not going to lie, it was sometimes painful for Mom and Dad, just for the fact that the game is soooooo slow. Then you add 15 kids with the attention spans of fleas and the ability to only advance one base at a time, lets just say sometimes it makes for a long hour. Despite the pace, Brady seemed to enjoy it, he hit the ball, he would throw to first base, he would laugh with friends, and he would run his heart out, that part was easy to watch......

And then sometimes that attention span thing I mentioned would set in.......and funny enough this stuff was also pretty funny to watch...... It included eating gravel, talking to his mitt, being the funny guy for friends, climbing the dugout cages.......

And that my friends is T-Ball with a five year old.....

Pure Michigan

In the week that Grandma and Grandpa came to visit we went on a whirl wind West Michigan Tour. In a matter of a week, we hit Torch Lake, Grand Haven, Saugatuck, Traverse City, and Holland. All such great beach towns within a day trip radius. So as the commercial goes we…..set our compasses to all these beach towns and found ourselves in the magic and the moment of ……Pure Michigan…….

Grandma and Grandpa who came in for a visit and prompted the WM tour....

Annual Boating trip in Torch Lake with neighbors...

A Beautiful day on the lake with friends!
The infamous "Tippy Tappy Toupe game that turned into Tippy Tappy Tackle"
Then we were off to Grand Haven to spend some good beach time on Grandma's lake!

It always surprises me how much time these kids can spend in the sand....

Out to Blueberry Hill to pick some of the best berries I had all summer.

We froze 7lbs of them to enjoy them all winter long!Only 1/3 of the berries made it into his bucket - open mouth insert berry.

Off to Saugatuck for some shopping and lunch out on the water.

Back "up north" to Traverse City for some shopping, sight seeing and wine tasting......

Everyone takes their kids to wineries .....right?

Off to Pirates Cove to ease some of the adult activities for Brooke.

Then finally out on a boat tour from Holland to Saugatuck with some friends.The guys climbed and climbed and climbed while the girls made sure their life insurance policies were up to date.

The payoff running down......and straight into the water!Another beautiful day out on the Lake.

All all of this right at our fingertips, within a few hours of each other..........
Pure Michigan.

Two Decades.

That is the time that has passed since I walked across the NCHS graduation stage and left my Redskin ways behind. As I ponder where the time went, sometimes I can accept that twenty years has gone by……College, Marriage, Career, Colorado, Kids, Michigan. I mean I guess it adds up, but then sometimes I can’t accept it. I feel like it was just yesterday when I spent everyday with these folks that I literally haven’t seen in decades, except a few solid friends that you hold on to dearly. So this summer I was faced with the daunting invite of my 20 year reunion. Rachel and I were on board 100%, our husbands however needed a little coercing. It went something like this: “You have to go, you just do, I can’t show up by myself…..you just have to take one for the team.” Rachel did not help the cause when she added “come on guys you will have each other to hang out with and it’s not like we won’t talk to you ON THE WAY OVER TO IT” Haha…….got to love her for it. So they complied and took one for the team, and in hind sight we didn’t need them there anyway.

So the night before we (meaning Rachel and I) studied our yearbooks, we argued about how we remembered things, We laughed about how Rachel thinks she hasn’t changed one bit, we wondered how did we get here from there. It was fun. We went on a tour of the school, I promised Brooke I would show her my old locker etc……well I didn’t recognize one hallway, it’s all very hi-tech and different. So my locker is somewhere in there in spirit…… There is now a pool so these poor kids don’t have to bus over to the neighboring high school for first period swimming after they got up to at 6am to hairspray their permed rats nest just so they could look good on the bus, go swimming and re-spray and defuse that perm after first period for the rest of the day(I don’t know who did that, but I heard a rumor someone did!). The night was full of familiar faces (thank goodness for name tags) because against Rachel’s wishes we have ALL changed! It was fun to talk and see what everyone is doing. I sort of relate it to speed dating a little…….
“Hi”
“What have you been up to? Where do you work? Are you married? Do you have children?”
And then on to the next…….

So after 20 years I have added this for you Rachel, Hopefully we have changed a bit (at least for the sake of the ozone layer!)

Twenty years later........

Why the shirt dribble Rach?

Beiber Fever......

To put it lightly, we have the feva for the flavor of a Beiber. So much so that I am contemplating medication. It all started back during the school year when Brooke proclaimed, "I don't like Justin Beiber!" So we went through the whole parenting mumbo jumbo about you don't just dislike someone without a reason. (Her reason was he was cocky, and when I asked her what cocky was she just shrugged her shoulders and said I dunno") We decided to take her to see the "Never Say Never" movie and if she didn't like him after she watched it, well then fine we would let it be. So Chris and her went and since then we now own the movie, they have watched it 996 times, we own the trading cards, the posters, the doll, Brady tried on a girls purple and pink 5T Justin Beiber shirt at The Gap today, and PLEADED with me to buy it for him for the first day of school, we haven't listen to a non Beiber song on the radio since the day they went and saw the movie, we know he was born on a Tuesday, we know his inspiration is MJ, we know his favorite color is purple (guess who elses is too now.....) So you get the picture. It's Beiber 24/7. Their are nightly concerts, dance moves being experimented with, Brady frequently changes his name to Justin and introduces himself as Justin to friends he meets at the pool. Chris and I are just praying that he comes out with a new album soon just so his EIGHT songs will stop playing in our heads ....nonstop. But as a parent I guess there could be worse things.....because secretly after watching the movie myself .....I can't lie I wish there was "One less lonely girl"....... Here are some items to prove the ridiculousness of the current obsession.

There are posters everywhere, store bought and homeade.

And here are some of those links to the daily concert occurances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azDlJK0H130

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtnxFrjVtj8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW4DBfQAH2E