Big Fish Stories

Both boys love to fish.  They must get it from their Grandpa Dray and Grandmommy, because they sure don't get it from daddy or mommy!

Both boys have fishing poles, and were eager to try them out this summer.  Snug is clearly pleased with his catch!

Here is Little Monkey Man and his big fish.  He caught the biggest fish all summer.  Snug catches lots of fish....LMM  catches the big one.

 Snug is more than happy to brag on his brother too.  He and LMM take turns telling everyone about their fishing adventures.  They tell some big fish stories too.

 The pictures above were all at #1's aunt's house.  They have a fishing pond and the boys had a great time.
The pictures below are from my aunt's cabin.  They live on a lake, and there is also good fishing off their dock.

 If your pole isn't ready, just lay down and try to catch some by hand.  They made me nervous.

 Waiting and waiting for fishing time!  (Ok, they maybe waited 5 minutes)

 This picture is really fuzzy.  I like that Uncle Alligator made the shot.  Also, it shows that Grandmommy is the worm lady.  I helped for awhile, but got lightheaded standing up and sitting down and leaning over.

 One of Snug's fish (he claims he caught hundreds).

And, of course, LMM caught the big one.  He also caught another big one a few days later, but I wasn't there so I don't have photo proof.  If you ask how big his fish were, he'll open his arms as wide as they go and claim they were that big.  Big fish stories I tell ya!

Camp CedarRidge The Dunes

 Eight years ago #1 proposed to me at Lumberman's Monument Dunes.  It is only a little bit down the road from camp, and we always visit there when we can.

 When you first get there the visitors center has a great display of logging stuff (very technical, I know) along with explanations of what life was like for the lumberjacks.  When I was a camper, I LOVED climbing on this stack of logs.  Now my kids enjoy the same ones.

 After a half mile or so walk, you come to the actual dunes.  This is a view of the AuSable and the main dune.

 Our library has a photo "contest" this summer that you take the library mascot's picture with you on vacation, snap a picture, and upload it.  Then everyone can see where "Booker the Fox" went.  I say "contest" because a winner is drawn at random, it isn't a who-took-the-best-picture thing or anything.  But I think my kiddos would win for cutest!

 Playing on the dunes.  Snug got in trouble because he thought it would be fun to bury his crocs in the sand and then have us look for them...I was not impressed.  I really thought we'd never see those shoes again!

Grandmommy and Rosebud stayed at the top of the dunes.  At this point we didn't have a life jacket for Rosebud, nor was I carrying her back up the dunes once she reached the bottom.  

There's the bottom.  W A Y down there.  We took the boys down, and then after playing in the water, canoed back to where we keep the camp canoes.  My brother and sister-in-law drove to the canoe landing, canoed (while towing a canoe) to the dunes and picked us up at the bottom.  None of our family had to climb back up  :o)  It was about a 30 minute canoe trip back to the landing, and the boys were thrilled to get to be back in the boats.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite places on earth, and I think #1 picked a beautiful place to propose, don't you?

7 Years

 My husband and I have been married seven years today.

 I don't have too many pictures of the two of us together.

 But I love these ones of him playing ball in Las Vegas last year.

Happy Anniversary honey, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Camp CedarRidge Part 2

These pictures make me a little "homesick" but then I remember how much I do love my air conditioned house, especially in this heat wave.  Enjoy another installment.  

 Slingshots were a hit with Snug and Little Monkey Man.

 The horses are always fun too.  I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the summer.  He is SO happy.

 Hanging out with daddy at the corral.

 We didn't take the kids to the rifle range, some of the staff volunteered to watch them while we went down and shot.  I did ok, but my best position is prone and that wasn't happening!

 The boys had boots to ride in.  LMM's were Snug's a couple of years ago, and I picked up Snug's at a resale shop.

 Our cabin is the one on the right.  I love these cabins!!!!

 Monkeying around!

 LMM wants a guitar so bad he can taste it.  He loved playing this one with our friend "Woody".  "Woody" has been someone we've known since he was a camper and it is so fun to see him all grown up and serving at camp.

Snug made a buddy during the week, and they enjoyed tether ball, sandcastles, and lots of soccer together.

Camp CedarRidge Part 1

If you do not like to see pictures of our three children, if you do not like beautiful woods or outdoor adventures, you'll have to excuse us for a few days.  I have four posts about family camping at our beloved Camp CedarRidge, and then posts about fishing, my aunt's cabin, going to the beautiful beaches of lake Huron, and an especially fun post about bugs planned.  Smattered in there will be some other posts if I am able, but otherwise we'll see you later in August for beginning of school pictures.  

If you do like to see pictures of our three children, if you love beautiful wooded scenes and outdoor adventures, please, join us each day for what we've done so far this summer!

After spending the beginning part of the 4th of July weekend with #1's family, we traveled further north to my parent's church and then on to my Aunt's cabin.  It helped to break the trip into four pieces.  We arrived at camp before the other families, and spend the day in town.  This is a picture of LMM on the big deck at camp on the actual 4th.  He was excited to be at camp, and even more excited about fireworks on the beach and sparklers!

 I know this picture is a little...weird...but I was messing with my camera's settings and was pleasantly surprised with this one.  If you look very close you can see Little Monkey waving his sparkler.

 Donning on their boots, both boys were excited to go to "Wildcat Creek" and float the boats they had made out of paper.

 The family camp staff was phenomenal and they were so fun for the boys to be with.  Here is "Hammer" helping with boats that got stuck on their way downstream.  You can hardly tell, but they are standing in about four inches of cold spring water.

 Another day we drove to the canoe landing for swimming and canoeing.  Little Miss Rosebud did neither, but hung out with her Aunt Danielle on the beach to catch some rays and eat rocks.  Aunt Danielle didn't participate in the latter activity.

 #1 and I took a canoe out for a few minutes so the boys could have a turn out on the water.  I can't say canoeing is my "thing" but I do enjoy it on occasion.

 This is "Lyra" and she is "one of mine".  During the two weeks after family camp I did what I have been doing every summer for the past eight years-training teen girls to become camp counselors.  "Lyra" was one of my CILTs (Campers in Leadership Training) the summer I had LMM.  She plays quite a few instruments, and my boys especially loved her ukulele.  I plan to purchase one in the next year and help them learn to play.

 What would a week at camp be without S'Mores?  Snug was a sticky, happy mess.  I brought gluten free graham crackers so that LMM could also enjoy the treat.  In fact, I obtained a copy of the menu ahead of time and pretty much had a gluten free version of everything that camp served (and camp food is starch city, let me tell you) for him to enjoy.  The camp cooks were long time friends of mine and I enjoyed being in the kitchen with them.

Mama isn't super brave, and didn't feel like washing marshmallow out of every nook and cranny this girl has...so she simply had a cracker.

Stay tuned for more family camp adventures.  If you'd like to skip the kids and simply see the beauty of the Huron Forest, you can see the scenery pictures I took here.   Thanks to a really great camera I got some beautiful scenery shots.