michigan - part 1

We are in Michigan for the month of July. I've spent 2 weeks of my life in Michigan - two WyldLife camps which I prefer to not remember! We drove 12 hours (should have been 9 but holiday traffic foiled my plans) to drop off a Work Crew girl and see Ben at Timber Wolf Lake. Then Shawna, the kids and I headed north to the Petoskey area to spend 4 days with the Santens. The Santen's have invited us many times but it never worked for us to go after assignment when our summer was almost over. So we took advantage of being an hour and a half away - minus Matt and Ben.

3 adult women, 3 teenagers and 4 children under the age of 8. We had a GREAT time. I'm so thankful for great friends, beautiful place to be, good food and fabulous weather. Here are some pictures and a little commentary in no particular order.

ready for tubing

ted tubed for the first time with riley. he loved it.
so proud of his bravery and him just jumping right in.

the strong men

we could barely keep sophie in the boat. she totally wanted to tube so i put her in and away we went. she absolutely loved it. she squealed and waved her arms and got herself stuck in all sorts of crazy positions. the girl is fearless.

s'mores after tubing

swimming in the evening. the lake is the perfect depth for the littler guys to play no problem. we had to make them get out most times. they played HARD.

an early morning game of skip-bo

thank you radiator springs - dad gum!

we hit an outdoor church service sunday morning. everyone did a great job.

my view while reading a book

we went to a beach on lake michigan one day and took a less crowded spot. probably b/c of all the algea and grossness in the water. sophie's hair was nasty as could be and the kids were covered in gook. of course they didn't give two hoots about it.

sophie building a sand castle. my kids have never been to a beach (besides the little sand pile at rockbridge) lake or otherwise. they loved it. sophie played mostly in the sand. ted either kicked or jumped over waves for really long amounts of time.

more grossness. his back was covered

shawna teaching ted sand castle building techniques

nasty hair

we took a walk/hike on some sand dunes. very fun.

found this really cool tree.

and this really fun spot to run way too fast down a really big and steep hill.

and then we had to go back . . .

ben missed the whole thing. he got sand in his eyes and cried himself out under this towel. shawna was on sleeping-child-duty. 

That was the first two days. Ted & Ben shared a room and got up a little earlier than we would've liked. But they did so well together.  Gone are the days of fighting and making each other crazy. Sophie had a room with a little half bathroom which thrilled her to no end. Emily brought her friend Cassidy (both going to be freshmen in high school) who were always a huge help. We taught everyone how to play Skip-Bo which was a real crowd favorite. Stacy planned some super yummy dinners for us. I loved my time in the morning before the kids got up looking over the lake and spending time with the Lord. I got to read some. The kids played so hard and had so much fun. It was so great.

More pictures to come. I'm only halfway done.