Last Days of Summer

As summer came to an end, we tried to squeeze in as many last minute fun things as we could.  Our annual Huron River clean-up couldn't be missed.  The local canoe livery provides breakfast, lunch, and free canoes to anyone who wants to float and clean the river.  We do it every year and the highlight is always the section of river that passes by the golf course.  We collect dozen and dozens of ball every year.

Christian and Peter weren't quite as into it as last year but they still managed to have a good time together. 

Benjamin and Kelly made a great team.  Kelly was able to keep the canoe in place really well even in the current and Benjamín was never shy to jump in and get the good stuff.  He found a gameboy, an iphone, and about 10 lbs of trash, including more golf balls and anyone would know what to do with.  Well, full disclosure, Christian found the phone and the gameboy, but Benjamin was the one to actually retrieve them thanks to my lack of solo-canoeing skill compared to Kelly and Christian's unwillingness to jump in the water.  He's got some amazing eagle-like eyes, though.

As I watched this big man of mine walk around in the river, I couldn't help but think of the young boy who was also always so excited to walk this same stretch of river and collect golf balls.

He and Christian would always collect so many!

Another annual tradition is the touch-a-truck event.  Peter loves being able to sit in all the construction vehicles and the school bus, jeep, etc.

I had to take the Jeep Rubicon picture again.  I love cmparing to old ones.

This year:

2021:

Studying the map of possible trucks while sitting on the school bus:

How about this jeep?  Historic Vietnam jeep complete with the gun.

Bella spent her last days of summer camping and hanging out with friends from scouts.  They reserved a camp site and stayed up all night having a blast.  Then the wanted to hang out again, this time farther away than she felt comfortable driving, so Peter and I took her up and spent the dat at the beach nearby.  It was perfect weather and a ton of fun.

That same day, Christian and Kelly decided to go motorcycling.

Before:

After: 

He's 14!

 Christian keeps getting better and better.  What an amazing kid.  Hard working, intelligent, fun, witty, and spiritual.  We love him so much.  He didn't want to have a party, just a chill, relaxing day, so that's what we had.  A guy as busy as he is needs a day just to relax.  This fall he is in 8th grade but going to the high school for math class.  He is on the robotics team, the cross country team, and in the band (saxophone).  He is still taking piano lessons too.  He is also dog walking and mowing for neighbors. When he's not doing all those things, he loves to play football (IRL and on the PC), watch movies, and hang out with friends and family.   Happy Birthday, Christian!

He got a robotics kit and he got right to work building it.

Mom Went Motorcycling

While Bella was at scout camp and Benjamin in Chile, we decided to go camping and motorcycling in the area where Bella was camping and thereby avoid the 6 hour round trip drive twice to get her there and pick her up.  It was a great idea.  The campsite was wonderful and the scenery was gorgeous.  I could have done without the motorycycling, but I did it!  I DID IT!  I'm proud of myself for that.  Now leave me alone with your loud, fast machines and let me go on my hike. :)

Kelly and Christian looking like they're about to be interrogated.  I just wanted a picture of them with the tent! Loosen up, guys.

Me, all decked out, so I don't end up like Benjamin if I crash.  Luckily, I never did.

You can tell Christian is not nearly so worried about crashing.

Peter lives for the speed.  On the bike with Daddy, he could be heard laughing and cheering most of the day.

All smiles after that awesome ride.  Peter was against having his picture taken.

Nothing says camping like hotdogs and s'mores.

He's 5!!

Peter, our long awaited miracle, has been with us for five years already! What a joy he is to have around.  I'm so excited for him to start Kindergarten this year and have so many fun adventures.  He is reading, and doing math, and riding a bike, and swimming like a fish - he's just so amazing.  He also has the most tender heart and tells me every day how much he loves me and that cuddling with me is his favorite thing (in addition to playing legos).  We love him so much.

He got a transformer but needed a little help from big brother to figure out how it transformed.

A few other cute pictures:

Peter acting like a gorilla

Peter at Urban Air:

Peter being a really good sport as my mom and I dragged him on a three hour tour of Detroit architecture and history.

Peter at our library's annual watermelon drop.  That's a man at the top of that crane and he's holding a watermelon.

Now the watermelon is falling.  Can you see it? Sadly, I didn't get a picture of impact.  Trust me, it was spectacular.  It always is.  We come back every year.

Peter and Christian at a fun lake day.  

Another time we went to the same lake with friends from youth conference:

Peter doing his chores.  He is always willing to do chores in theory.  He promises he'll do them "later."  He's always got something else he wants to do first and then he'll do them.  Sadly, some days those other things never run out and the chores don't get done.  Or he'll start and then get distracted and not finish.  It's been a battle to get him to do them right away, but for someone so young, it's a great start.  He's a great kid.

Christian had a fundraiser for robotics that Peter and I helped out with.  Christian and I put Peter in the stroller and we went all over the neighborhood passing out flyers for Christian's bottle drive.  In the end, he collected $160 worth of returnable cans/bottles.  It was a great haul.

Hocking Hills, Ohio

 While Bella was at band camp, we wanted to take our last opportunity to travel with Benjamin before his mission.  Usually we would go north and go motorcycling, but after the broken wrist, we decided something less dangerous would be better.  Hocking Hills, Ohio seemed perfect.  Lots of hiking and nothing motorized.  I'm so glad we took this trip.  I worried Benjamin wouldn't want to go but he did and it was wonderful getting to spend time together.  They are definitely memories I will cherish during the next two years.

The area is absolutely gorgeous.  So much to see just on foot.  We decided to camp so we would have money to spend on other things, such as rock climbing, horseback riding, and kayaking.  That was a great idea. The first day we hiked all over.

This hike was called "Cedar Falls."  Those aren't cedar trees and there were no falls.  Still a gorgeous hike, though.  Christian spent some time trying to see the little water drips and imagining what it must have been like when the falls were actually falling.  We were apparently too late into summer.  Everything was dried up.  I still felt like I would have loved to spend days more in the area.  It was all so amazing.

We all left rock climbing with sore fingertips and sore arms.  The guide, Sean, picked climbs that were the perfect level of difficulty - just hard enough to be really challenging, but we were all able to successfully complete them. 

Sadly, Peter was one year too young to climb.  He still had fun, though, and was a real trooper spending his birthday just watching other people climb around while he had to stay on the ground.

Peter is in a "I hate family photos" phase and refuses to be a part of them.  I'm so nervous about our professional pictures I have scheduled next week so we can have a nice family photo before Benjamin leaves.  Is this what we're going to get?

Our kayak guide was Mimi - a woman born and raised in that area of Ohio who had a real passion for nature and conservation.  She leads all sorts of tours - kayak, biking, hiking, etc.  She took us on a sunset kayak tour that was take your breath away gorgeous and gave the kids the perfect chance to swim and play and have a wonderful time.  Each called that the highlight of the trip.

Peter was eating pretzels while floating in the water.  He couldn't have been happier.

The horseback riding was good, but sadly my horse, Copper, decided to take a short cut home despite my very best efforts to lead her elsewhere and so our ride ended much too quickly.  I expected the guide to refund us or find another trail to fill the time or to use her horse abilities to make my horse comply, but she was apparently as excited about quitting early as the horse, so our one hour ride turned into a 35 minute ride with no apologies or refunds.  Pretty disappointing.  

Other than those things, we played in another lake after all our hiking and we went to the Jack Pine glass blower shop to see him work.  That was a lot of fun and it was amazing to see his beautiful use of color in his creations.  

Peter was having a lot of fun being thrown into the water by Benjamin.  Mostly, though, he swam around while the other two played football in the lake.

With so much adventure, we always slept very well at night.

Our campsite was amazing too.  Had it been busy, it would have been hard because each campsite was very, very small.  However, because we were there mid-week, we were nearly the only ones there!  So we straddled three sites with our stuff and had plenty of space the whole week.  The owners said that was totally fine.  They were so nice about it.  And it was only 20 minutes to all the things we wanted to do.