Day 11

This morning in the ladies room there was a bat flying above the stalls. I just decided not to look up and pretend it wasn't there. It was going to be a very hot day today - so we decided to pack lunches and spend the day at the beach. Grandma came with us to Beti Gris beach on Lake Superior. It was very breezy on the beach with felt great on such a hot day. We set up the large umbrella so Adam had some shade to lay under. Jacob did not want to go in the water with the waves so Jared built him a little pool in the sand. Grandma also helped dig it out. The waves would come up and keep the pool filled with water. After a while, Aunt Kat, Uncle Eric, Andrew and Pepper came and joined us at the beach. Aunt Kat put Andrew in the pool with Jacob. Jacob thought he needed to take Andrews hand and show him how to splash. Andrew was happy chewing on the little shovel. Jacob used Grandma and my crocks as boats in the water. I looked at him and noticed he had packed wet sand on his head. He carried some buckets of water over to Truman saying, "Tru Tru drink". We had stayed there for close to 3 hrs when we decided it was time to head home. It was time for Jacob nap but it was too warm in the tent so we took him for a ride in the stroller. He was asleep before we were done with the first lap. Both boys slept while Jared and I played dominos. This evening we had fish dinner at Grandma in celebration of Kat's birthday. Jacob had just woke up from his nap when it was time to be at Grandma's for dinner. He started out throwing a temper tantrum in his seat, but it soon fased out and he ate his plate clean. He and I had mac-n-cheese for dinner. We went out for "cold cream" and Jacob got his green one. He kept going up to the man sitting with his family at the other table and saying "hi". When the man would turn and say hi back Jacob would get excited and run back to Daddy telling him that he said hi. This evening Grandma came down to sit by our fire when it started to rain. She helped us put things away before going back to her campsite. We put tarps up around our dining fly and got the boys dressed for bed. The rain stopped so we decided to take a walk around camp. I told Jared I was going to put my journel, which was in the dining fly, inside the tent so if it rained more it wouldn't get wet. I set it on the changing table and got busy doing something else. Tonight, after feeding Adam, I lay him in his playpen and he was full of smiles. Soon he was fast asleep for the night. We lay in bed and listened to the wind and thunder. We watched the storm light up our tent. I started to get more windy and then started pouring rain. Jacob wanted to lay his head on me and pulled my arm around to hold him. I looked at him and he was plugging his ears. He fell asleep and I moved him over to his bed. He woke up, lay in his bed, and said, "cool rain". He watched for a little bit but then fell asleep. The storm lasted for almost an hour.

Day 12

This morning Jared found my journal on top of the changing table along with Jacob's coloring book. It had sat out there all night during the thunder storm. I set the journal and coloring book on top of the car to dry them out. Grandma watched Adam while we took Jacob to the Laughing Loon store. We got Adam a little black bear and Jacob a Copper Harbor t-shirt. On our drive to the store we hear a strange noise. We looked in our side mirrors to see a notebook in the road. We turned around to find my journal in the road and pulled over to get it. A car drove over it before Jared could get it. Aunt Kat and Uncle Eric got Jacob a sucker from the candy store and he loved it. A little further down was Jacob's coloring book. Jared and I played domino's while the boys were taking an afternoon nap. We went into town to see if Dennis had put out some new pottery. Grandma was there and she rocked Adam and watched Jacob while we looked around inside. Jared took Jacob into the shop and he came walking out saying, "here mama" while handing me a pretty little bowl. He had money in the other hand to pay with. We met Grandma and Grandpa by the lake to watch the Isle Royal boat come in. When we got back to our car we found Truman sitting in Adam's car seat. Tonight we skipped ice cream and stayed at our site and have a campfire. Grandma and Grandpa came down to sit around the fire with us.

Day 13

This morning Grandma made us pancakes for breakfast. She sat with us as we ate and Jacob said, "Mmmm thats good". We took a walk around camp and Grandma pushed Jacob on his tricycle. Jared and I took the boys over to pebble beach. On the hike there we saw bear poop so I had to get a video of that. Eric had seen a bear around 5:30 this morning. I guess I'm easily amused and was happy to at least see its poop. Jacob also thought it cool and bent over to get a closer look. It was a beautiful, cool morning and we spent alot of the morning at pebble beach. Jacob would pick up a rock, look at me, and say, "I throw rock water". By the time we got back to camp it was lunch time. While the boys were napping this afternoon, Jared and I packed up as much as we could for our trip home tomorrow. We plan to leave in the morning as soon as we are packed. We got alot packed before they woke up. Went into town to get one last look at Dennis's pottery. Grandma and Grandpa were there so we stayed and visited for awhile. This evening we all went out for dinner at the Pines restraunt. Then we went to the Berry Patch for our last ice cream cones. When we got back to camp Grandma took a walk with us around camp. We all met at Uncle Eric's site for a camp fire. After they went to bed we had a fire at our campsite. We were going to have smores, but couldn't find the stuff to make them. I thought I had set them on the changing table but now they were gone. Jared asked if I had packed them away. I told him that was something I could imaging him doing but I would not pack them away because I knew we were going to be making them tonight. We searched with a flashlight for awhile but could not find them. Jared said he was going to laugh if we got home and found them packed away (well, today we found them when we were unpacking at home). We took a drive up Brockway Mt to see the stars. We saw a few shooting stars but the moon was still a little bright. Just before turning into our campground a coyote ran across the road in front of our car.

Day 14 - On the road for home

Adam woke up hungry at 6:30am. I nursed him and he fell back to sleep. Jared and I got up and started to pack. Grandpa and Grandma came over with Andrew and picked up Jacob to go for a walk. Adam stayed with us asleep in his stroller. I got Adam dressed and took him down to Grandma's site. Grandpa was giving Jacob bites of a pop tart. I left Adam and took Jacob back with me to get him dressed. Then I took Jacob out on the dock to see the boats. Before leaving, Jacob picked a flower and took it to Grandma saying, "here Grandma". We were on the road by 9:30am. Jacob loved going over the Houghton Hancock bridge. When we were on the other side he kept saying, "more bridge". We stopped to fill up with gas at ~10:45. At 12:30 we stopped at McDonalds and Jacob got a happy meal.

Day 14 - Tahquamenon Falls

On the trip home we drove a little out of the way so we could see the Tahquamenon Falls. We headed towards the falls, through a town called Newberry, when we saw a sign saying the road was closed 3 miles up due to a forest fire. We were just talking about the sky, wondering why it looked the way it did. Jared had thought maybe it was coming from the falls. Instead it was smoke from a fire that has now burned over 10,000 acres and is only 30 percent controlled. We were only 7 miles away from this fire and we ended up having to going a lot further out of the way than what we had planned. The boys both had just woke up when we arrived at the Lower falls. We walked about a mile hike out to the falls. It was really neat. You could go right in the falls and the water was very shallow. Then we drove about 4 miles and hiked out to the upper falls. They were really beautiful - you could not go in this water. Jacob got very cranky on the hike back and in the fourth picture Daddy is having a little talk with him. He was understandable tired from the long trip. I took a picture of Jared driving a reading the map - which makes me very nervous. Jacob loves to look at the atlas.

Mackinaw bridge - Day 14

We crossed the Mackinaw bridge around 8:15pm and decided to take a stretching break at the beach of Lake Huron. Jacob ran around, happy to be out of the car seat. He threw rocks in the water and looked for boats. I was amazed at how rough the rocks on this beach were compared to Lake Superior. Jacob was really tired and climbed up on a bench and said, "night night" as he lay down on it. Adam was hungry so I nursed him before we got back on the road. We stopped at McDonalds for a late supper. Arrived home at 11:45pm. Kate was so excited to see us. Jacob seemed very excited to be home as he ran around playing with his toy like he hadn't seen them before. He talked excitedly as he ran around the house. I was worried he would go to sleep in his own room after sleeping with us for the last 2 weeks but he did great.

Copper Harbor Trip 2007 (7-20-07)

This evening I made our bedroom dark so Jared was able to get to sleep a little earlier. I stayed up with the kids until around 11 pm. The alarm went off at 12:50am. We took Kate out to her stall, got our pillows and packed the cooler. Adam stayed sleeping as I put him in his car seat. I then put Jacob in his sweatshirt and we carried them out to the car. Jacob woke up and said "bye bye, Daddy, bye bye - Tru Tru bye bye". We were on the road by ~1:20am. We stopped to fill up with gas and get ice for the cooler. Then we drove to Tim Horton's for coffees. We were heading north by 2am. Jacob seemed really excited and talked until 3am when he fell asleep. Adam woke up while we were crossing the Mackinaw bridge. I nursed him at the gas station and Jacob got out to walk with Daddy. It felt much cooler on this side of the bridge - the car read 36 degrees at one point. Jacob stayed awake until 7:30am. Then he slept off and on until we got to the Pats Food in Houghton. Jared and Jacob went in for a few things and I fed Adam. Then I took Adam with me into the Family Dollar to get some duck tape. Our tarp over the trailer was getting a few holes.