South Haven Adventures, continued

Michigan is blueberry country, and we learned that years ago the portion of Michigan we were in was called the Fruit Belt ... blueberries and peaches are in season right now and there were tons of "pick your own" farms and orchards everywhere.

Monday morning we went blueberry picking so we could enjoy the fruits of our labor all week long. With all sixteen of us working, we quickly collected over 18 pounds of blueberries - for $1.25/pound! At the time I thought that was plenty of blueberries, but when I only came home with a few cup fulls, I'm wishing we'd picked lots and lots more!

Sam and Alex cannot get enough blueberries and these were so sweet - nothing like the kind we buy in the stores here. Ahhh they were so good. We also picked up some delicious peaches which Mary Ann turned into two delicious peach pies ... yum

Sam and Grandpa Art picking a bush loaded with big ripe blueberries.


Rebecca showing off the blueberries.


Emily and Katy, doing the same.


All 18 pounds:

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One adventure Daddy wanted to go on, was a canoe float. Barbara made all the arrangements for us to "float" down the Kalamazoo River, about 30 minutes from the beach house. Since the two youngest kiddos couldn't go because of their age, she and Mary Ann stayed with the little ones while the rest of the adults took the four big kids canoing. This ratio worked out beautifully ... two adults per child, per canoe.

We left the canoe office at 1pm and got back around 4:30 ... we spent about four hours paddling a canoe (we took a couple little rests to let the kids explore wildlife tracks in the sandy mud along the banks.) We were all really surprised to find out the route was just over 8 miles ... it's a little hard to believe it took longer to paddle 8 miles than it would to hike it.

The river was beautiful and peaceful. We saw lots of fun wildlife and wildflowers. The most obvious wildlife were all the turtles sunning themselves on fallen logs along the banks. Early on in our trip the kids started to count all the turtles they saw ... 137 in all!

One of the more exciting portions of the trip was when GR and I got our canoe stuck on a log hidden well under the water. We tried for a few minutes, both of us baring down and paddling as hard as we could, to get dislodged, and it got us no where, we were going in circles. Joe and Katy and Matthew and Suz brought their canoes along side ours, I held on to both canoes while they added their paddling strength to GR's, then Daddy brought their canoe behind ours and bumped us off. Not 30 seconds later, Daddy's canoe got stuck in the exact same spot. Being a much more experienced at canoing than the rest of us, simply shifted his body weight from the back of the canoe to the front of the canoe and pop, off they went down the river.

The kids did amazingly on this trip! No one capsized, no one fell in, and they became pros at switching canoes, finding turtles, and helping row . And they want to do it again!

The adults also did very well. It had obviously been a long time since some of us had gone canoing, and next time, we'll think to pack water, sunscreen and snacks - minor details, right?











Tired, thirsty and some more sunkissed than others, we unanimously decided to go out to eat ... and called Barbara to choose the perfect spot ... and she did just that. Clementine's is downtown favorite for everyone in South Haven. Barb went to the restaurant early to wait for a table, while all the canoers got cleaned up, saving us a 50+ minute wait for a table. Oh wow was the food good!! They have fantastic salsa ... the waitress slipped us a huge to-go container of it for us on our way out!

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The last big, non-beach activity we planned was horseback riding on Friday. This was something the kids were very excited about, the girls because they've been wanting to get back on a horse ever since their lessons last summer, and Sam, because - well he's been wanting get on a real horse ever since the girls lessons last summer.

The tables were turned on this adventures. The kids knew more about horse back riding than the adults did ... GR, Barb and I had never been on a horse - ever. My dad's pretty sure he's been on some trail ride at some point in his life, but my mother, it turns out, took a horse back riding class in college, and even learned to gallop!

Here are the pictures. When the kids wake up hopefully they can help me remember the names of all the horses. Sam rode a pony at the front of the line and grinned from ear to ear the entire time. And the girls are talking once again about taking riding lessons again. Alex seemed to really enjoy the ride as long as we were moving - talking up a storm the entire time.











Next ... pictures from the beach.

Postcards from the Beach

Sand and water. Two essential elements my mom says help to make a family gathering successful when the ages span generations. So when my little sister proposed that we have our first real family vacation with my parents and siblings this summer, sand and water were two requirements. To narrow it down further, my father suggested Michigan. Daddy was born and raised in Michigan, so he's familiar with the area and what they have to offer. They have sand and water and the weather is mild, and more importantly, their economy is in trouble. Daddy felt if he was going to spend a chunk of money on renting a house and other activities, he might as well put it into an economy that needed him, rather than an economy that didn't - the prices were all the same anyway. And so we settled on South Haven, MI ... found a cute little house four blocks from the beach, that could easily sleep 16 and we were off! We stayed Saturday to Saturday, and except for one day, spent everyday on the beach. The water was cold, but gradually got warmer as the week went on. Spending time on the beach was all the kids wanted to do, and the sand was beautiful!

Here are a few pictures from Saturday and Sunday:

We pulled up to the beach house on Saturday around 4:30 and the kids were itching to go to the beach- they'd waited so long! After the papa's unloaded all the cars, they took the kids to the beach while the mama's worked out who was sleeping in what beds, distributed the luggage, and inventoried the kitchen. While mama #1 and mama #3 headed to the store, I (mama #2) headed to the beach to photograph it all. The kids, still wearing their traveling clothes and minus all the beach toys, still managed to have so much fun, running and digging through the sand, drawing with drift wood and splashing in the chilly lake.






Sunday we lived by vacation rules. We went to sacrament meeting only, came home for lunch and then spent a couple of hours on the beach. The kids had a hard time understanding "vacation rules" for Sunday, which I guess is a good thing. "We're allowed to go to the beach?" "But why can't we play outside on Sunday at home?" "Why aren't we going to Primary?"

I think this week I'll spend a lot of time explaining the difference between vacation rules and everyday rules ... especially when all the 12oz Gatorade bottles are gone and I don't purchase more, when bedtime goes back to it's regularly scheduled time and when asked if they can have ice cream cones at 10am, I say, "I don't think so." Why, why, why?







More pictures to come.