July Vacation in Michigan 2009

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We took our annual trip to Traverse City this year.  The weather was not too great in the beginning.  Thankfully we had wi fi at the condo so we could at least entertain ourselves.  We did get a few good days in and we went canoeing on the Manistee River and hit the beach and pool.  We went to Leland and ate at The Cove.  It was really good.  They have the best parmesan garlic crusted whitefish and they have Chubby Mary’s which is a bloody Mary with a smoked chub fish in it.  Yum!  We saw the Leland fireworks which is always great since you are so close to where they light them off.  We also took in one evening at the Cherry Festival.  The kids rode the Ferris wheel, we ate nachos as big as our head and cherry pie and ice cream.  Later we sat at the beach and watched the Traverse City fireworks.  Very nice!  Ken had two weeks off work this year so we added a trip up to the Upper Peninsula Michigan.  I have always wanted to go and see Pictured Rocks.  We camped out at Muskellunge Lake in our tent.  The kids loved it.  It was a really nice state campgrounds.  The bathrooms were super clean.  We also went to Tahquamenon Falls.  They were prettier than I expected.  With the falls and the tall tall trees you almost feel like you are in Seattle rather than Michigan.  I’m glad we went.  They have nice decks to walk out to the falls and great views.  Definitely bring your bug spray because the mosquitoes were thick.  Also, right at the fall is Tahquamenon Falls Pub and Brewery.  We were so happy to have found this restaurant.  We ate dinner there and Ken had Black Stout beer and I had a Peach Wheat.  Very good.  This was our version of camping!  LOL.  The next day we drove to Pictured Rocks and took the 3 hour Pictured Rocks cruise.  This was the whole reason I wanted to drive the many miles up there and it’s a definite must see.  The 500 million old sandstone rocks are really beautiful.  Again, it’s unbelievable that is is in Michigan.  What a amazing state.  Unfortunately the weather turned really cold and we started to get lots of rain.  So the many hikes I had planned to see some waterfalls were cut as well as our tent camping.  We just weren’t equipped for this weather so we packed it up and headed to the cabin for the remainder of the week.  The weather greatly improved there and we had four nice peaceful gorgeous days on Rollway Lake.    All and all we had a great vacation despite the weather difficulties, but as just as John Sheridan says “If you aren’t having fun it’s your own fault” and how true that is. 

Florida 2009

This year instead of going at our school’s designated “Spring Break” we went to Florida the end of April.  We stayed with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sue in Bonita Beach.  It is one beach south of Ft. Myers.  They were staying there the entire month of April.  

We had a great week of relaxing, playing, digging for crabs, fishing, watching the sunset, and swimming.  Ken, Noah and Grandpa Mike spent a lot of time fishing off the dock behind the condo.   They caught Snook and Mackerel.  Noah really enjoyed it and he would hop out of bed really early and go out and fish.  Nathan and Katie had fun getting crabs and playing at the beach.  Kate learned how to use the net to catch minnows.  They both fished off the dock at night too and caught snook.  Nathan discovered a sea creature he named “Flippy”.  It was so strange looking and came out at night and swam slowly around the dock.  We had to look up on the internet what it was.  It was a Sea Hare which is a form of a Sea Slug.  Nathan wanted to take “Flippy” home, but of course we didn’t.

Then we spent two nights in Orlando and went to Disney Hollywood Studios and Epcot.  We had a great day.  We stayed at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.  They had a really cool pool.  It wasn’t too busy at the parks.  We walked on most rides and used fast passes for the two most popular rides Test Track and Soarin.  Katie and Ken braved the Tower of Terror and The Aerosmith rock in roll roller coaster, but the boys and I stuck with Toy Story Mania.  It was another memorable vacation.  

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Nathan can finally ride a 2 wheeled bike!

After many struggles and frustrations Nathan my third and youngest child learned to ride a bike! So congratulations to him. We have been trying for a couple of years to get him to do it, but I put my foot down this year and said this was it. With a few tips from the Internet I got him riding his bike in a week on his own. Something I was sure he was not ever going to be able to do I might add. LOL! Enjoy the clip of his accomplishment. Also there is a short clip of Noah rip sticking. He is getting so good at that!

Winter 2009

Our winter fun started right after Christmas when we went up to the cabin for the day. We couldn't believe all the snow they had. It must have been almost two feet deep! We went on a family snow mobile ride through the woods. It was really beautiful. There was piles of snow on all the tree limbs. After a night at the cabin we headed further north to Traverse City. It was raining when we got there. We intended to ski, but the weather was not looking good. We shopped and got a movie. Overnight it got cold again and the rain turned to snow. We woke to a couple of inches on the ground. So we headed to Mt. Holiday right in Traverse City. It's a small ski resort and also a non profit organization. Therefore the prices are very low. In the early afternoon we did an hour of tubing. It was really fun. They let you hook up your tubes together and go down the hill. It's really fast. A tow rope takes you up the hill. You just sit and ride. We went back to the condo for a rest and dinner. After dinner we went back to Mt. Holiday for a Sunday night special. For $15 you get lift, rental and an hour lesson. The kids took a lesson and we skied. Then we came back for the kids and they were ready to ski with us. Nathan just wanted to climb a snow hill so we took turns going on the chair lift with Katie and Noah. It was really fun! Definitely check that place out if you want to take your kids skiing. It's inexpensive and perfect for beginner skiers.

Since we had such a good experience skiing we wanted to go again. We got our chance in Ohio when we got a snow storm resulting in Ken and the kids having off from work and school. We braved the roads and headed to Bellfountaine to Mad River Mountain. The roads really weren't that bad, but for Ohio not many people were on the road. This time the kids were ready. Nathan skied the "bunny hill" all by himself. He liked the "magic carpet" ride a conveyor belt that took you up the hill. There was a thick blanket of new powdery snow. Katie and Noah went up to the bigger hills on the chair lift. We even got Nathan on the chair lift and Ken helped him down the hill by holding out his poles for Nathan to hang on to going down the hill. It was a really good day. We were glad we got to ski on our day off. We think we may have found a sport the 5 of us enjoy. We want to try out the other ski place here in Ohio soon. Hopefully we get a chance to go again this winter, but definitely next!! Positive thoughts and good wishes go out to everyone who reads this blog!! I will try to update again soon! I have just been lazy!

New School Year off to a Great Start!!

I know it's been awhile since I have updated this blog so here it goes.... School started and Nathan got to ride the bus for the first time on his way to Kindergarten. Everyone is asking me what am I doing with all this "free time". Well frankly it's not that much free time, school is only 2 1/2 hours long, just as long as pre-school. So ask me next year when Nathan goes all day! Yeah me! Now I barely have enough time to run to the grocery and an errand and that bus is pulling back up to drop him off. Noah went to third grade and according to him has the nicest, best teacher of third grade. Seriously this women is extremely nice and she works at Disney every summer. She seems really into teaching too. He is doing great and he is even working on algebra with his math enrichment teacher which he really likes.

Katie started 6th grade that is at Middle School. I was a little freaked out, but it's turning out to be a good experience so far. There are a lot of activities and clubs. The teachers seem great. We can get all her grades online and her homework too. She is meeting a lot of new friends. So far middle school is pretty cool and her grades are so good. We are very proud of her.

Ahh.... Vacation!!

Our Vacation began with a stop at the cabin. We checked out Uncle Jimmy's mule deer mount. WOW it was really big! Plus a little fun with some cousins and really big frogs.

Next we went to Traverse City to stay at the condo on East Bay beach. We go every year this week for Honda's July shut down. Every year we try to different things while we are there. This year we went to the Cherry Bowl Drive-In Theatre. I remember going to a drive-in when I was a kid and Ken remembers going with his family so we were excited to show the kids what it was like. This place was great too. It had the playground and even some putt-putt golf plus a really great snack bar. Oh my! The people running the place were so nice and their mission statement states that they want to make it as family friendly as possible and won't show any movies over PG-13 rating. We saw Walle and the second show of the night was Narnia II. However, with a movie start time of 10pm we only made it through Walle and Noah and Nathan didn't even make it that far! We backed our van up and closed our back seats down and turned the two middle seats around for Ken and I to sit on. The kids had blankets and laid on the floor. Next time we'll bring more pillows. It was really fun. Everyone enjoyed it.

Yes the toilet seat light up!! The kids wanted me to take a picture.

The next day we went canoeing on Crystal River in Glen Arbor. It's about 5 miles and takes about 3 hours. Most of the river goes through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake shore park area so it's remote and beautiful. They try not to alter the river at all so you will come upon trees in the river and will have to navigate around them. The water is crystal clear and you can see all the river rocks in the bottom and some fish as well. It's really beautiful and peaceful because there weren't a lot of people around us. Katie and Noah used a kayak and they did great together. Ken, Nathan and I used a canoe. Last year we went on a different river that went through a lake. It was a lot harder last year. This year was great. Everything went smooth and we were able to enjoy all the scenery.

There were three different Portages that you had to carry your canoe across a road, but it wasn't that bad. One of them however, you could go through the tunnel to get under the bridge. That was a little tricky because you had to bend way down and had to get in the tunnel just right to go through. Katie and Noah somehow went in sideways and were stuck. Luckily Ken could just walk over and help them out.


We stopped and had lunch on the side of the river. It was so pretty, but there were a million mosquitoes. We went through a brand new can of spray that day! Yikes!

After canoeing 3 hours we took a drive down the coast and came across the Sleeping Bear Dunes where you can climb the dunes. The kids wanted to climb them. We must have been delirious because we agreed. Noah and I just made it up the first hill. That was enough for us. It's really hard. The view up there is awesome. You overlook Glen Lake. It's light blue against the green of the hills and trees. Wow!




Ken, Nathan and Katie went up further to see if they could see Lake Michigan.

Next we drove further down the coast to Pierce Stocking scenic drive. It's park of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake shore. It's a one way drive with 12 scenic stops. Some of are the sand dunes others are the lakes. Number 9 was really cool. It was a 450 drop off to Lake Michigan. They have a deck you can walk onto. It was so windy and steep. Some people actually walked down the hill. I thought they were nuts! They looked like ants from the deck it was so far down. It was a really neat place to go though and I'm glad we found it.

Needless to say this is what the kids looked like on the way back to the condo. When we got back to the condo Ken and I got in a nap too!

We stayed pretty much on the beach all day the next few days. We were treated to a Blue Angels air show while we sunned on the beach. They were practicing for their up coming weekend shows in Traverse City. It was pretty cool they flew right over us all day long. Then we headed to Leland to watch their fireworks at night. The sunset was so pretty. The Manitou islands were in the background. The kids checked out the breakwater with the harbor in the background and hopping down the sand hills to the beach while we waited for the fireworks to start. They had a good display and we were really close to where they were lighting them off so we had a great view. We will go back to that spot next year too.

The kids like to call this old slide at Mission Point lighthouse "The Slide of Death". As you can see by their faces you hit the bottom pretty hard. They just don't make slides like this anymore! He he!

We went to my parents house on the way home for a night of fireworks. Grandpa Mike gets a few on his way home from Florida and they are great. Chrissy and Rich and kids came too to watch. It was a good ending to our vacation. Until next year......

Memorial Weekend at The Cabin

Going to the cabin has been a tradition for us for years, for Ken it's been a tradition for his whole life. It is fun to see the kids enjoying time with their cousins at the cabin and enjoying nature. This group of crazy girls swimming on Memorial Weekend! Yikes a little chilly, but they enjoyed it.
Katie's spotted salamander "Spud" found under a log. Of course we let him go back after a few hours of observation.
Erin Sheridan and Katie Sheridan climbing an apple tree.

Nathan got a horse ride. How cool was that???
Ken's trip to Slide lake with count em....20 kids from several families on Rollway. What fun.
As Ken drove from John's cabin to Slide Lake many kids hopped on board for Slide Lake fun.
The whole group on Slide lake being "marine biologist" collecting bull frogs, minnows, a snake, and polliwogs for observation at the cabin.
Some of the polliwogs. All were released back into the lake. I never had to guess where Nathan was he was never more than 5 feet from this pool.

Katie caught this 19 inch bass on Rollway on Friday morning fishing with Ken, Noah, and Nathan. She was full of eggs and released back into the lake after we took a couple of pictures.
Of course no trip to the cabin would be complete without a little shooting in the woods with Noah's bb gun.
This was just cute.
Chrissy's son Luke with Noah and a skink Noah found by the barn. The skink is in his hand.
Ken and John with Ken's turkey he got on Saturday morning. John also had a polka party on Saturday afternoon and a really nice mass at 6pm with the new priest. We are all so grateful for a new priest at MFL since Fr. I. had to go back to St. Lucia. It was a nice time, perfect weather, and if I didn't give Ken the camera to hold on to I would have some pictures. I will try to get some from John to post for all of you who weren't able to come. He had a great time.