The Accidental Boilermaker

 Trying to squeeze in some last minute fun before school starts. Tuesday we went swimming in the late afternoon. The water was warm enough and the pool wasn’t crowded. Wednesday we played mini golf and rode the go karts. I got 4 hole in ones! Thursday we met Evelyn’s best friend Nidhi at the splash pad. Nidhi’s family is moving to Carmel so it was one last chance for the girls to be together. Carmel isn’t that far away so hopefully they can still stay in touch.  Friday we went to the zoo. We let Evelyn and Jameson ride the carousel all by themselves.  On Saturday, Bella had a end of summer party complete with water bouncy house. 

 Our last night, it rained and was pretty windy. But thankfully the rained stopped by morning.  We ate breakfast, packed up the car, and took one last stroll along the beach. And the car started no problems once it was time to leave. It was fun to return to Barnes County especially with Amanda and the boys.  Next summer though Nate and I thinking about exploring some new Michigan campgrounds.

Our last day all together we went for a nice hike at the campground in the morning. Nate taught everyone how to build back up the fire using the embers leftover from the previous night’s fire.    We ate lunch and then all headed to the beach. No one stayed quite as long and soon it was time to help Amanda and the boys pack up and say goodbye. It was a lot of fun camping together. Lots of wonderful memories I hope were made.  Our family took a little rest time and then decided to go back to the beach for another round of swimming. After dinner we went back one more time to look for petoskey stones and to waste a little time before building a fire and making s’mores. Before it got too dark, Nate wanted to back the car into our spot a little more and then just like at Turkey Run, the battery was dead. Thankfully a campsite right across from us had jumper cables and the car started right up. All we can think is the Mazda does not like it when we leave the doors open, even if ...

 Friday morning everyone woke up pretty early but they were respectful and quiet. After breakfast, we drove to a nature preserve for a hike.  There was a very nice nature center and a naturalist who taught us a little about orchids. Part of the preserve is a marshy land that serves to filter ground water as it flows out into the Traverse Bay. You can access these areas because they have laid a boardwalk for a trail.  After lunch it was time to head to the beach!  The water was a nice temperature and we went out to the sand bar a few times. As the afternoon wore on, the waves got bigger.  Our last trip to the sand bar, Evelyn and Jameson had fun diving and jumping into the waves. We made hobo pies for dinner and more s’mores for dessert. Then it was back to the beach for another sunset. 

 We went back to Barnes County campground this year but we invited Amanda and the boys to join us. We met in Big Rapids for lunch and then caravanned up to the campground. We set up camp, got settled, and made walking tacos for dinner and s’mores for dessert.   Then we went down to the beach to watch the sunset and begin our quest for petoskey stones. 

 The Pufferbelly race was today. We were all thankful we were able to participate since Evelyn tested positive for Covid Monday night. We cancelled a lot of plans and did the best 5 day isolation/quarantine we could and so far no one else has felt sick. Pufferbelly is a funny name but it’s the name of a greenway in town and all the money goes to trail development in Fort Wayne. I got Nate to run too because Jameson is fast, faster than Evelyn. This is a decent sized race and I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of letting him run by himself.  It was a rainy morning, but once the 5k started the rain had stopped. Nate and Jameson ran it 30:37; 9:53 min/miles. Evelyn and I ran a 34:50; 11:14 min/miles. She didn’t want to run that fast which is totally fine. But she did have a big sprint left in her to the finish. Most important, everyone had fun.

We took a day trip to Dayton to visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Nate remembered visiting as a kid and thought Evelyn and Jameson were at good ages for visit. It is a very cool and informative museum.  And huge! My phone said we walked about 3.5 miles. The museum starts with the invention of flight by the Wright brothers followed by WWI in one exhibit hall.  Jameson was very interested in the planes, especially in the first gallery. Evelyn was a little anxious that if we took too long reading plaques we would never see everything.  WWII takes up its own hall.  This is the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.  Next is the Korean War and the Vietnam War followed by the Cold War gallery that also has planes from Iraq and Afghanistan.  The stealth bomber was pretty cool.  . There is the missle gallery and finally the space and presidential gallery. There were several planes you could walk through or go inside like cargo ...

 Evelyn and Jameson were supposed to start swim lessons this week but with all the storms today was finally the first day they got to go. In the afternoon we went to an animal program at the library. Evelyn was picked to help with the hairy armadillo, Doty.  The lady walked around so everyone including parents were able to touch all the animals. The final animal, Erwin the alligator, all the kids got to touch and hold.  After the library we went to the pool. Nate wanted to make sure everyone still had all their fingers and toes.  Finally, July marks 10 years for Nate at the VA. He technically started internship on 7/30/2012, but the end of the month gets busy for us, so we decided why wait, let’s celebrate now.  Evelyn and Jameson helped make a moose tracks ice cream cake with an oreo crust.