Up North

 How wonderful it was to spend time in Fife Lake again.  This time was different and even better because Jill and Z and their kids got to join us for a couple days.  I didn't get to be there for all of it because I was at home with Benjamin and Peter while Benjamin attended drum line camp in preparation for the upcoming marching band season.  Once that was over, we joined the rest of them and had a wonderful 36 hours until they drove on home to Utah and we stayed through the 4th of July holiday.  They claim its the "best fourth in the north" and while that's debatable, it was a lot of fun to celebrate the 4th in small town America.

The favorite time was while the family was still there, though.  Games inside, beach time, and out door made up games like "splits" (throw a sharp stick at people's feet and make them do the splits to touch it) made the time race by.

While we were there, we also celebrated Benjamin's 16th birthday.  Breakfast donuts, his favorite cereal, and lots of embarrassing singing were his only presents up there.  He got the rest at home.

  Then he got to spend his birthday afternoon driving himself and Bella to scout camp.  My favorite picture his scoutmaster has sent:

He seems to be having a lot of fun.

After the family and the scouts left, it was just us two boring parents with Peter and Christian.  That meant that Christian and Kelly spent most of the days motorcycling and I spent them playing at the library/playground/beach with Peter.  But let's not forget that we still had the 4th to celebrate!

Christian practiced the art of starting a fire and after many, many tries, figured out the secrets.

No 4th of July in Michigan is complete without and antique car show and an Elvis impersonator.  This guy was amazing.  An hour before Bella had to leave for camp, I bribed her with fries and ice cream if she'd take a picture with him.  This is how much my social anxiety, introverted child loves fries and ice cream.

He changed outfits, talked with people, sang, took pictures, and gave away scarves for 2 hours in the hot sun.  It was awesome.

Peter insisted she share her ice cream with him.  "You didn't have to take a picture with Elvis!" she protested, but she's a sweet sister and let him.

There were picnics, museum open houses, fire station open houses, marching band and other concerts, fireworks shows, and of course, the candy throwing parade.  Peter loved all of it.   We all did.

We even did a few fireworks of our own.

So, the question is simply, when do we go back?