The Accidental Boilermaker

 School had a grounds clean up morning today. Since Evelyn and Jameson are at the same school this year I’m hoping to be more involved and thought this would be a good place to start.  The three of us worked for about 3 hours weeding, trimming and mulching a big flower bed in the front of the school.  I met the new principal who had lots of nice things to say about Jameson’s kindergarten teacher.  I also met some nice parents too. Not too many people showed up so I was glad we came. I wish I had taken a before picture because Evelyn and Jameson worked very hard. They got a little tired by the end but there was very little complaining. 

 Jameson started swim lessons this week. He is doing really well. He can front crawl without the instructor’s help for a few strokes with his face completely in the water and he is swimming underwater to retrieve dive sticks. It makes me a little sad to think about how much Evelyn might be doing if she was able to swim too.  My parents visited for the week too. On Wednesday we went blackberry picking. So many blackberries! My dad made a crisp with them.  My dad also set up our screen tent on the deck over the table. Before swimming on Thursday I found a raccoon in our garbage can. Thankfully my dad got him out. Evelyn named it Trashy.  In the afternoon we went to DeBrand for the chocolate factory tour. I think we got more samples this time than our first visit. And we came home with chocolates too.  Then Oma and Jameson got haircuts. Today Grandpa and Evelyn made meringues while Jameson and I were at swimming.  After Oma and Grandpa left, we ran some errand...

 Last day of camping we didn’t do much besides pack up and walk along the beach one last time.  We stopped at the u pick orchard again to buy cherries and a pie to eat at home. 

On Saturday we drove to a big nature preserve for a 4 mile hike. There were lots of mountain bikers on the trails but we had lots of time where it was just us walking.  Afterward we were all hungry so we went into town for lunch. It was very good.  We stopped inside a little historical museum before going back to the campground. One of volunteers seemed very happy to have people visiting and shared with us lots of interesting information about Bellaire, MI.  Back to the beach before dinner.  And a little baseball too.  We were all full from dinner, so we just kinda snacked and had a nice long campfire before bed. 

 Friday morning we all slept in. We made breakfast and went for a mile hike near the campground. On the drive up we passed a U pick place so we went back and picked raspberries.  Then it was back to the campground to eat lunch and time to get ready for the beach. The beach access at the campground is free and open to anyone but it wasn’t crowded.  It was easy to get to the sand bar (although the rocky) even Jameson could walk out there but it was too deep for Evelyn’s collar. So Nate would carry her until they reached the sand bar and she could jump in the waves. I think it made the experience more like real swimming for her. We also had her wear the slightly bigger collar she came home from the ER in for swimming and sitting around the campfire so her “nice” one would stay nice.  Hobo pies for dinner and s’mores for dessert. 

 Thursday we left for our big camping trip up on the Grand Traverse Bay. We haven’t camped for three nights just the four of us so we bought a few new camping items to help make the trip easier - stuffable camping pillows that fit much better in the car and a collapsible wash tub that made dishes much easier. We arrived around 4:00 and decided to check out the beach first. My new favorite thing - campgrounds within walking distance of Lake Michigan.  We came back to set up camp and eat dinner. It was also nice to have a site with a place for the hammock.  After dinner we went for a small hike to waste some time until we could go watch the sunset.  Walking along the beach, Jameson was the first one to find a petoskey stone. We found a lot over the next three days. 

 Kate and I took Evelyn and Jameson mini golfing for the first time. We didn’t keep score but we tried to play by the rules. It’s a pretty basic place in my opinion. There are three courses to choose from and none are particularly exciting or have fun features for any of the holes however we all had fun and Evelyn and Jameson really want to go back. Jameson even got a hole in one! Then Kate treated us to lunch at Mission bbq before she left to go home. After staying with us for over a week, it was sad to say goodbye.