Partied Out.

I had a little friends' party for Hayden today. Just the neighbor boys and a few other friends from church and preschool. WHEW. Of course, we did a pirate theme with a treasure hunt, sidewalk/driveway painting, duck pond, and cupcake decorating. The kids had lots of fun with the pirate theme and I AM TUCKERED OUT! Here are some highlight photos:




So, the four-year-old birthday celebration is officially over....and now I have 2 weeks until we start all over again with my daughter's birthday. I keep telling my husband that if we have another child, we need to shoot for a winter birthday, because summer around here is already birthday-ed out. In a matter of 5 weeks, we have Hayden's, mine, Kennedy's, my mom's, as well as a couple of our cousins. I love birthdays and love throwing parties, but I just wish they were more spread out sometimes.

Tonight will be all about cleaning up and packing, as we are leaving for Chicago tomorrow morning. Just a few days away with the kids, doing the zoo and some shopping and checking out a few scrapbook stores in the Windy City. While CHA is going on downtown Chicago, we will not be attending. After the emotion of the last week, we are ready for a little get-away.

Travel, Bears, Ferrys and Hello, Island Adventure.

Our last morning at the campground was spent getting packed up. For a final camp treat, I showed the kids how to make campfire doughnuts, something that I remember we used to make as kids when we went camping. Basically, this process consists of wrapping raw biscuit dough around a stick, roasting it until it's baked through, buttering the hot roll, and shaking it in a bag of sugar and cinnamon. YUM! The kids, however, were less interested in the taste of the doughnuts and more interested in the fact that the left-over dough made for some great make-shift playdough!





After a final photo taken at the state park sign, we were off on the next leg of our adventure. As we made our last trip past the Deer Park General Store, I noticed this cool old phone booth, so we had to stop and check it out. The kids couldn't fathom that booths like this one used to be on every street corner, and that people used these phones instead of cell phones. Kennedy thought it was so funny that you actually had to put quarters in the slot to make a call....IMAGINE! I felt a bit old, telling my kids about "How it used to be."

On our way to the campground, we had spied a sign for OSWALD'S BEAR RANCH.....our curiosity got the best of us, so we took a little pit stop. We got to view several bears, and the kids even got to pet and interact with a black bear cub. Doesn't that old guy just look like a 2007 version of Grizzly Adams? Yes, I am dating myself....I loved that show! This isn't exactly what we had in mind when we had hoped to see wildlife in the U.P., but I guess it was better than nothing.

After the Bear Ranch adventure, we were back on the road. We stopped for a nice lunch at another local dive in Newberry, then settled in for the trip back to St. Ignace where we would board the ferry for Mackinac Island. Hayden was just excited to ride the boat, as he was too young to remember what "Makna" Island was all about (in his words). Tomorrow, highlights of our time on the Island. Pray for more rain....the little bit that we have gotten is making our little garden grow like crazy.....fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, anyone?

Nighty-Night.

From sweet Ruby, the puppy who snubs the puppy pillow but instead has taken to our leather library chairs for her favorite napping spot. I'm loving that you can hardly tell where leather chair ends and puppy begins.

Rainy Saturday.

I was so happy to wake up to the lazy sound of rain on my window this morning. It has been SO incredibly dry around here....the grass is all brown and crispy, which does not make our barefoot-toes very happy. Hopefully, we can get some more rain in the next few days, to refresh the earth and ease our watering bill! It is nice to have a day to just hang out at home and get some things done. We enjoyed a nice time at the wedding of one of my husband's former players last night. Good long-time friends to catch up with. Young people in love. It is so nice to hang out with people who have known you for a long,long time and who have had important roles in your life....like my second grade teacher, high school softball coach, choir director, and church youth leader....people who know you best and love you anyway! Congratulations, Andy and Jenae. We wish you only God's best as you begin this incredible adventure. So today, we are just watching movies and being together and cleaning up a bit. I am getting ready to head downstairs to do some scrapping and make a few cards. Still reeling from the loss of these two teens....in everything that I do, I find myself thinking things like "I shouldn't be enjoying this breakfast.....Those parents lost their child and probably can't even bring themselves to eat.....I shouldn't be laughing and joyful right now....so many are grieving." And we are too. Even driving close to the site of the accident is painful. We will have the visitation tomorrow and the funerals on Monday. Please pray for these families not only this weekend but in the coming days as they try to resemble some sense of life without their little girls. Unimagineable.

I will resume the vacation highlights on Monday. We are readying to leave for a few days in Chicago, so more great photos are hopefully on the way! Enjoy your Saturday.

Perspective.

One thing I am coming to know about the human experience here in this world.....things are so unpredictable. Truly, hear me out. The ONLY thing that we can count on being 100% infallible and stable in this world is Jesus Christ. THE ONLY THING. People fail us, even those who are the most committed and trustworthy by human standards. Accidents happen when we least expect them. Tragedy strikes, leaving us asking why.

In our little town last night, two young teenage girls were killed in a car accident. They had just left a softball game, had grabbed dinner, and were driving less than 2 miles from their homes. Tney ran a red light, and were struck full-speed by a truck driven by two teenage football players from my husband's team. One girl was killed instantly. One girl--our principal's daughter-- was life-flighted to the hospital where she died earlier this morning. Two young boys, forever now living with the realization that they drove the truck that killed these two girls. Nobody at fault, really. Nor does it matter who was at fault, in the grand scheme of things. Four grieving families. A grieving school and community. Our friend, a grieving father who just yesterday was living typical life with his two young just-teenage daughters, now grieving the loss of one of his girls. I can't even imagine.

As you can imagine, it has been pretty somber around here today. Lots of just thinking and pondering and praying and pleading with God. And hugging our kiddos very tightly. And taking the extra time to hug and kiss and say "I love you" and share lunch together and just BE TOGETHER. This father did not know that when his daughter got in that car with her friend, he would never talk to her again this side of heaven. He did not know that his world would change so tragically in one brief instant. And such is the nature of human tragedy.

Trying to make sense of this, I am brought back to the one truth that we can hold on to in this tragedy. Jesus is the ONLY ROCK. THE ONLY HOPE. THE ONLY SURE THING. We can drift so far from this truth, become complacent...assume that life will always be like this, that my family will always be here, that nothing will change.......but tragedy like this has a way of bringing us back to our One True North, and that is Christ. Not one of us is immune.

Take the extra time today to hug your kids. To say "I love you" as many times as the opportunity presents itself. To do that kind gesture. To make that call. To reach out. To notice the simple blessing that God surrounds us with. To be thankful that you have one more moment. For truly, that may be all we have. I'm praying that I can live with more awareness of this truth each and every day.

Go Fly a Kite.

That's exactly what we did today. It was such a mild, sunny and windy day, just perfect for getting the kites out and heading to the open field to fly them. Hayden received a very cool, very large3-dimensional pirate ship kite for his birthday on Saturday, so he was very excited to try it out. Kiteflying has some family sentiment involved; every Easter when he was growing up, Matt and his siblings would received a kite on Easter morning, and they would spend Easter flying them together. This is a very special family tradition that we want to pass on, so we got both of our kids a kite this past Easter, also. Today was perfect kite-flying weather, and both kids (with Daddy's help) were able to get and keep their kites up. Thanks, Uncle Dan and Aunt Kendra, for a very sweet birthday gift.....we really enjoyed it today, and the delight in Hayden's eyes as he flew his kite was so fun to watch.

And, on the topic of kites coincidentally, I am reading a best-selling novel entitled "The Kite Runner" which is all about life and political upheaval and persecution in Afghanistan. This book comes highly reviewed and recommended, along with the second novel by this author, "A Thousand Splendid Suns." So far, the writing is vivid and colorful and gripping, and I am enjoying doing some reading for pleasure that is not psychology-related.

Day Five-Laundry and Fishing

Day Five of our Vacation--Sunday--was pretty low-key. We stayed around the campground to enjoy Muskallonge Lake and Lake Superior. We all caught more fish, though none of them surpassed the 10-inch mark, so even though I was hopeful and even brought two jars of tartar sauce along with us in hopes of grilling fresh fish, that never happened. We had to settle for having the delicious whitefish at the area restaurants as we were traveling from one place to the other. Here are some of my favorite fishing photos from Sunday, including my infamous 3-inch-bass (not sure how this little guy even got his mouth around the minnow!), my husband's tiny catch, and some more of the kids. After we had pulled the boat in for the last time and packed the poles away for the week, I awarded several fishing awards for the week: Kennedy won the awards for Biggest Fish and the Most Fish Caught; Hayden was the Most Impatient Fisherman Award (but also the Cutest Fisherboy Award; Matt won the Prettiest Fish Award for the gorgeously colored sunfish that he caught; and I won the award for the Tiniest Fish with my 3-inch little guy:

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Laundry was also part of my festivities on Sunday. I figured that we wanted to be clean and at least somewhat presentable when we arrived at Mackinac Island on Monday, so we definitely needed some clean clothes. Matt and the kids headed down to Lake Superior for more rock-hunting, while I made the trek to the General Store in Deer Park, which also had a laundromat. Ahhhhhhh, memories of college evenings spent at the laundromat came flooding back! After paying a fortune for detergent and dryer sheets, and scrounging around for a small fortune in quarters, I loaded up two washers and started reading. And reading. And reading. Let's just say these machines had obviously seen their better days, because they were TIRED and SLOW. And really didn't get the black camp dirt out of our clothes. The driers were no better, so this is what our campsite looked like on Sunday night.......we kept joking that we were living like true Yoopers now (no offense to any Yoopers reading this!).

After our dinner of grilled burgers and fresh tomatoes from our own garden at home, we started packing up the campsite. It was kind of sad, as the week was packed with so many wonderful experiences and memories, but we were also excited about moving on to our next destination and a little bit more luxurious accommodations.....like a real bed! Tomorrow's highlights include a road trip, a bear ranch (!), and our first night on Mackinac Island.....Happy Monday, Eh!!