Riptide Ride

Munising Michigan is probably most famous for Pictured Rocks.  It is an amazing stretch of Lake Superior where there are cliffs and waterfalls that fall off huge cliffs into the lake.  A few years ago we took the Pictured Rock Boat Tour which was a 4 hour ride along the lake shore.  It was beautiful to see all the rock formations so up close.

On this trip we wanted our cousins to see the cliffs and rock formations, but we didn't want to sit on a 4 hour boat ride.  So we decided that we would rent a pontoon boat and see some of the rocks that way and then also go around Grand Island and possibly beach the boat and explore some of the island.

The most greatly laid plans sometimes just don't happen, like in this case.  The wind was coming out of the north and we were told that if we took a pontoon boat out we could only really stay on the south side of the island and that's it.  Why spend so much money to rent a boat and then not get to fully explore what you had intended to explore?  On a whim we pulled into this brightly painted yellow and blue building to see if they possibly would still take a boat out with the winds coming out of the north.

BINGO!! They took their boat out in all kinds of seas and the waves forecasted at 2-4ft, didn't stop them from going out AND since our group was so big we would get a discount!!  We decided to schedule a ride on the Ripetide Ride.

Little did we know what we were in for.  The day was cool, the winds were blowing and the skies were partly cloudy with on and off again showers.  Most of us dressed warm and upon arrival were offered a poncho to help with wind and water.  Most of us took the ponchos with gratitude.  3 of us did not.  2 were men, who didn't think they needed a blue poncho to add to their studliless and one was a child wanting to be like his crazy father.  I will let you figure out who the 3 were...

We were brought down to the coolest boat ever, it is a Navy Seal vessel, and told that the seats upfront were the bounciest and the seats in the back were the wettest.  Those of us with younger blood chose the seats at the front and left the seats in the back for the... more mature people of the group.

We were instructed to put the seat belts on and pull them tight.  REALLY tight.  The instructions continued with how to brace yourself when we went into 360 degree turns... yup you read that right.. 360 degree turns!!!  It was like the prep for a roller coaster ride when they come down the sides and check to make sure your seatbelt is fastened.

The Captain introduced himself as Captain Tim and his son was his first mate.  Kevin naturally started egging Captain Tim on from the very beginning.  Captain Tim called him Funny Guy before we even left the dock and he continued to call him that the entire trip.  Lucky me, I was sitting next to Funny Guy, so the "tricks" played on Funny Guy ended up getting Mrs Funny Guy whipped, soaked, and laughing!

We slowly pulled away from the dock, the adventurous spirit was coming out in all of us!!  Captain Tim gave some last minute instructions and then the music was turned on and turned up!  We took off racing to our first destination.

Scott Falls

My last post I told you how excited I was to show you the pictures from New York and I am, but I need to get through our UP trip or I will get all confused as to where I left off and where I need to start again.  So here we go back to the UP....

In Alger County where we were camping there are more waterfalls than anywhere else in Michigan.  We didn't even make a dent in seeing all of them, but we made it to as many as time allowed.  This cute little falls is right on the side of the highway.

Scott falls is one of the few waterfalls you can still walk behind.  You can also climb to the top and look down.

While I was taking the picture of the kids, Kevin went climbing...

Then Tyler went running to find the quickest way up to get to his Daddy and away from me and my camera... But then I had to take one of the two of them, which he smiled for!

I think I put this picture on the blog before, but now you know where it was taken.

On the way back to the vehicles Kevin picked up Micah... He's not too big to be carried by his Daddy!!

Next up... Ripetide Ride, the best boat ride ever!!!

I'm Home...

I arrived home a few days ago from the most amazing trip.  I can't wait to share all about it, I can't wait for you to see some of the things I got to see, yet most of all, I can't wait for you to meet precious Lina.

It's going to be hard for me to write about my trip, so many emotions are wrapped up into a week.  Leaving my family (for the first time), flying (for the first time in 15 yrs), being in Manhattan (for the first time in 18 yrs), and meeting Lina for the first time.  I tear up just thinking about it all...

It is sad that we live so far away, but there is a blessing in it too.  I was able to be with Lina 24 hours a day for 6.5 days, I was able to drink her in and just love on her day and night.  I also loved the time I could spend with Tim and Melissa.  When they come home to Michigan, it's busy and full of family obligations, trying to see and spend time with everyone.  There, I had them all to myself and it was fabulous! I had so much fun talking and laughing with them, even just living life with them for a week was an amazing experience.  It was a beautiful week... one that I will write about very soon.

No Words Part 2...

Work it.. Baby.. Work it.....

And yes, even after witnessing this, I still LOVE this man!!

No Words...

Truly... What do you write when you gaze upon this picture?

All I can say is, these two guys crack me up!  I laugh every time I look at this!

Blessings!!

Rocks

I am really kind of bummed, I snapped this picture quickly as the kids were watching the cliff jumpers.  They had all found a place to sit on the rocks and I asked them to quick look at me and smile.  But the full sun with the sun reflecting off the water blew out my picture.  But I still love it because it was from a moment in time that I can never get back.

Very shortly after this moment by boys saw their Daddy standing on the rocks below and it quickly turned into rock climbing time to get to a new location.

This place would have been a great location for adventure had we been able to stay here longer.  Next time I will plan on several hours at this park.

Blessings!!

Discoveries

Well, it's been two days in a row that we here in Michigan, have seen the sun.  I think it's a record or something.  But never fear, more snow is on it's way for tonight and then lake effect kicks in and it will continue to snow until... stay tuned, the weather man hasn't figured out when it will end yet.

I have learned a lot this past week, two of which I will share with you.

1.)  Micah is 1 inch taller than Uncle Timmy was at his age, Tyler is 2.5 inches taller than Uncle Timmy was at his age, and Jillian is .5 inches taller than I was when I was 6 months older than her.  I think I am raising some tall jeans over here.  Jilli will probably end up around my height, but look out Daddy, I think your boys are going to tower over you!!

2.)  Micah HATES slush.  Found that out when running errands with him the other night.  He hates to walk in it because of the "annoying sound it makes" and because of the "weird way it feels".  Who would have thought.  Not I, that is why I am sharing!  Slush has never crossed my mind except when it could splash on my pants or gets all over the truck.  Never thought of how it sounds or feels when you walk on it.  But guess what... NOW I DO, and he is right, it does make an annoying sound and it does feel weird.  So now you can go forth and never experience slush the same as well!!

Blessings!!

A Million Thoughts

I love this picture.  Why? Because I may not know exactly what is going through his head, but I know a million thoughts are running through it per second.

I married a man who's brain never sleeps, he is constantly thinking of.... well I never really know what all he is thinking.  He only shares a small percentage with me, which is probably good, because I don't know if I could handle it if he shared more.  I tell him all the time that he is like a roller coaster, his thoughts take us up, then drop us down, watch out... here comes a quick turn, and then back up again.

Life is never boring with him, I can always count on a new idea popping out of his mouth when I least expect it.  He is a dreamer with a good dose of reality and he is mine.

Cliff Jumping

My cousin called me today, we ended up talking for 2 hours!  It was great catching up and also reliving our UP vacation.  It got me excited to blog about it again.  I told her that I have like 700 pictures from our vacation and it's so hard to decide which ones to include and which ones to leave out.  Also, what stories to tell and what stories to leave unwritten.  I get a little overwhelmed and end up doing nothing.  I am trying really hard to start this new year off right, and part of that is to get back to consistent blogging again.  So Thank You Carey for lighting a little fire under my butt!!

It's been awhile but here is a quick refresher.  There is an "island" (really a peninsula) called Presque Isle Park.  There are many little pull offs that you can go exploring and see views like this.

These little pull offs kept calling my name.  Everyone we passed that we didn't stop at I felt great loss for what I didn't see.  But there was a pull off that I told Kev he had to pull over for.  I walked a little ways down the trail and headed back to the cars to get the rest of the troops.  This was something too awesome to miss!!

 Its really hard to describe looking back now, I wish that I had taken more pictures so you could get a better taste as to what this like. We were standing on some rocks on one side of a rocky cove and there was a family on the other side of the cove.  They were enjoying an afternoon of cliff jumping.

Here goes the Dad... His kids were so excited when he jumped. He was acting very nervous before the plunge. 

Here are our kids watching the craziness. You can kind of see the cove in this picture and other onlookers taking in the cliff jumping.

I did turn around and take some pictures looking the other direction.

So Amazing... Everywhere I looked I was struck by God's artistic imagination.  I think I could have stayed in this one place all day.  Apparently this little area is very popular for the cliff jumping and the rocky shore that you could catch some rays on.

Update and Rambles

My husband reminded me the other day that I was neglecting the blog.  It seems as if every time I sit down at the computer it is to edit pictures, get orders ready or deal with keeping our email box some what cleaned out.  By the time I am done working, my desire to stay on the computer and blog is gone.

I think I am all caught up on everything now, hopefully I can get back to blogging!

The Sun is showing it's pretty face today.  Last week was a long week of snow.  I love snow, I love the coziness that it brings, but there is something uplifting about the sun.  As it shinning off the snow on my deck it makes the snow look like a million small diamonds sparkling.  Just gorgeous!

So Christmas is just over a week away.  I'm not in panic mode yet, but we haven't gotten everything.  I actually did some shopping from my couch yesterday.  The internet is a beautiful thing.  Since the person I bought for doesn't own a computer and she really has no idea what a blog even is I think it's safe to disclose my purchase here before Christmas.

I work for this beautiful sweet elderly lady named Betty.  I might have spoken of her here before, If you are part of my everyday life, you have heard me talk about her.  She is such a blessing to me.  She taught me how to make old fashioned pie crust.  Even using old sheets/pillow cases soaked in water over the edges to prevent from burning the crust.  She is a wealth of information that will be lost if someone doesn't tap into her knowledge, thank goodness God placed me in her home to learn from her!

Going on a quick tangent....
The 'GREEN' movement really isn't new, it's very old and if we would just listen to our grandparents we would glean so much information!  We go to books, and the internet to find information, but really, if you find someone old'er' and ask them questions you will gain so much knowledge, much more than from the books that claim to have all the answers.  Don't get me wrong.  Books have their place (especially old books) and the internet is a great source of information, I use both all the time... I just think we have forgotten our greatest resource, our elderly population!

OK, back to Betty...
I have been thinking about giving her something for Christmas.  Then last week she gave my family a Christmas gift and when I was opening my mouth to protest and she cut me off and said "Now Lyn, don't go stealing my joy, I have no one to buy for and I wanted to buy for you and your family."  What do you say to that??!!  So I smiled and excepted her gift and it is sitting under my tree waiting for Christmas morning.

She is not expecting a gift in return.  I could totally have the kids draw her pictures with thank you notes and she would be over-the-moon happy.  But I really wanted to do more.

She has had a hard year, surgery that has taken away her ability to care for her home the way she likes too, an unknown sickness that leaves her spent, diabetes that is slowly killing her body. She has lost 2 husbands to cancer and her children each present with their own set of difficult circumstances.  Even though she struggles at times, she works hard at maintaining the Joy of the Lord.

About 2 months ago we were switching her home from being set up for summer to being set up for winter and she mentioned in passing that she has lost all her handkerchiefs except two.  She was sure she didn't take them to the hospital for surgery or to the rehab place, but she can't find them.  We even took her winter purse out to check in there to see if she left them in there.  She then told me she had received a beautiful handkerchief for her birthday several years ago, but it wasn't made out of cotton and so it didn't do the job very well.  She had also checked many stores for new handkerchiefs, but they are not as widely available as they used to be (darn kleenex... how much money could we save if we went back to handkerchiefs?!)

Anyway... I had locked this information away for 2 months, yesterday I hauled it out in search of cotton handkerchiefs that I could buy for Betty for Christmas.  Here is where the internet is wonderful!  I found a company, I have no idea from where, that still sold old styled handkerchiefs.  Beautiful white cotton with a little lace around the outside.  Just like what I remember from my childhood!  Hopefully they will be as serviceable as they are pretty.  I also plan on baking her some little treats that she can keep frozen and take out on occasion because even a diabetic likes a little treat every once in awhile!

So that was my little Sunday purchase.  I thought it quite fitting that I was buying handkerchiefs on Sunday... the day that my Mom used to slip one into my little purse before we left for church in the morning.  I thought I was so grown up with that little handkerchief!!  Handkerchiefs were also the first thing I was allowed to iron.  I must have been 5 or 6 when I started that lovely little job of ironing.

In other exciting news, Lord willing, I will be seeing little Lina in January!  SUPER excited about that!!  And a little nervous, it's been 15 years since my last flight and somethings have changed since then.  But both Tim and Melissa assure me that its a piece of cake (coming from two people that have flown all over the world).  Come to think of it, everyone in my family has flown all over the world.  I am the only one who has never been out of the country besides Canada, and that really doesn't count.  The Love of my Life will be holding the fort down with the help of both sets of grandparents.  It will be very strange, I have never been away from all of them at the same time.  I might be a basket case the morning I leave...

OK, so I think I have caught up on some of the happenings over here and because I hate to post without a picture, here is one from our UP trip this past summer.  This was the first falls of many that we visited.

Goodness, what a beautiful family I have!!

Blessings!!