July 1 at Christy's "cottage"

Wednesday:  Our small group from Women's Bible Study was invited over to Montague to swim and hang out at Christy's "cottage" all day today. If this was MY "cottage", I would never ever leave it in a million years. So there!

We carpooled north to Montague--only a little over one hour drive from our starting point. I was in Margaret's vehicle with Lynda, Cindy, Bethany, and Ming. Ming and I were in the third row seating and were able to enjoy good fellowship all during the ride. The only negative being such a small amount of leg room back there for my long legs! 

I'll show you a few (!!) pictures that I took while walking around the cottage. I regret not taking more pictures inside--because the architecture/design of the house is so interesting and beautiful. The cottage is situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.

Isn't it SO beautiful? Honestly, nothing in this world would drag me from this place if it were mine. Probably a good thing it's not!

The picture below is of their lower deck which is nearer to the beach and water--they built this last year some time.

It was super hot even here at the lake today ... hot enough for me to actually SWIM. Was the water cold? YES! I'm a real coward about getting into cold water ... but I forced myself because I love, love, LOVE waves and being under the water.

I took a nice stroll along the beach before I went swimming. I love drift wood, don't you? I was wanting to pick this one up and bring it home with me, but I resisted the urge ... because ... it's not MY beach, and I would feel like I was a robber.

Here are a few of "the girls" playing a card game while waiting for dinner to be served. On the far left is Arlene, a very nice lady who has had a very hard life in many ways; but not bitter, just made "better" from her grief. The little Oriental lady is MING--one of the godliest people I have ever known. I am so thankful for her. Next to Ming is Pamela--she is explaining the rules of the game to everyone else. I thought I would try to play this game--but the rules seemed SO complicated that I declined, and instead walked around and explored for awhile. Across the table from Pamela is Bethany (white hair), and Tamela (who can hardly be seen).

Margaret--she was our small group leader for many years--is in the red (her favorite color) shirt--she is standing next to Tamela, who can now be seen. Lynda is on the far left of the picture. This dining room table is HUGE and so perfect for a lot of people to gather around.

Here is Christy--who was the co-leader of our group for many years, and the owner of this cottage. She and her husband own a company that makes a type of conveyor belt that is sold around the world. Both of them are just regular folk, who are especially kind and hospitable. 

While the card game was being played, I walked outside again. It was nearly 7pm and the sun was lower in the sky, making the water all sparkly.

This is the back of the cottage, with a very nice deck that wraps around on the side to a hot tub. 

This is the pathway leading D O W N from the bluff to the beach below. It's a steeper climb than it looks in this photo. I walked down to the beach and back up two different times, which was good exercise for me, but a lot harder on my knees than I would like to admit.

The upstairs room with the balcony, is the master bedroom--cathedral ceiling and all. It's just beautiful.

One of the beautiful daisies planted around the house ...

Mmm. What a view. Last year, we stayed for the sunset and it was worth it. But today, too many of the women had early obligations on the following morning; so we departed after eating our yummy dinner, and arrived home by 9pm. What a beautiful day.

June 30 A hot one!

Tuesday:  Today was very HOT. Only the mid-90's, but the humidity is way up there, making it super sticky hot. It's not really worth mentioning, except that the kiddos are all at "day camps" and outside most of the day. Thankfully, all of them have swimming available to them, so that will give them some relief.

I have NO air conditioning at my little house. Honestly, there are probably only a handful of days where I find that I am just TOO hot in my house to do anything physical whatsoever. Today was one of those. I did spend some significant time with the kiddos today. After everyone was picked up from their camps, we ate dinner at their nice air conditioned house. We heated up some Little Caesar's pizza, but I also boiled up some nice corn on the cob with lots and lots of butter, and brought those nice mini-cucumbers that all of the kids eat like candy. We also finished off the melon I had cut up for them the day before. All and all, I think everyone was pretty well-fed with full tummies when we were finished eating.

Here is Aidan, one hour after his huge dinner, telling me he was hungry--so he grabbed a bag of cheese crackers and sat down with "Calvin and Hobbes" while he enjoyed his snack.

Aidan loves to read while he eats--I know exactly how he feels ... because I am exactly the same!

Isn't this a nice kitchen? The island in the middle is so practical. I love the higher ceiling too.

We had a very low-key few hours this evening just hanging out. I listened to the kiddos tell me all about their time at camp. We did a little bit of laundry, and got their back packs ready for tomorrow. At 7:30, I got Erin and Cal upstairs and kind of ready for bed. They were pretty wound-up tonight, so I wasn't able to have them asleep before Joelle arrived for night duty. 

June 29 An unusual Monday

Monday:  Dylan and Kelly are out of town beginning this morning through Friday afternoon sometime, so extra "forces" had to be called in for the caretaking of their four beautiful kiddos. My first assignment (!) was to get Brendan over to his "camp" at nine this morning. The younger children were already going to be transported to their "camp" by 8am by Dylan and Kelly.

I delivered Brendan to his camp location, and then went back to my house for stuff that needed getting done, until I picked Brendan back up at 3:00 in the afternoon. It seems he learned a new swim stroke this afternoon--one of the trainers approached me to say how excellent Brendan learned this stroke! Yay, Brendan!

Brendan and I drove to their house where he "crashed" with some screen time in the basement while I tidied up their kitchen, and then picked up the littles from their camp at 5pm. We had two choices for dinner tonight: Eat out at Culver's, or heat up Little Caesar's pizza at home. The overwhelming YES decision was for Culver's. We'll have the pizza tomorrow!

Here are just a few pictures of us at Culver's. These kids know this place and all of it's ins and outs very well. They all knew exactly what they wanted--I wrote their orders down on a pad of paper before going to the counter. BUT I still managed to get the order wrong. I would make a terrible waitress! Thankfully, I was able to "fix" my mistake and Aidan eventually got his grilled cheese sandwich instead of a cheeseburger (Brendan ate the "mistaken" burger).

After we were finished at Culver's, we hung around their house until Joelle arrived at 9pm. I did attempt to put Erin and Cal to bed at 8pm--and I think they were sleeping by the time Joelle arrived, but I'm not 100% positive about Erin. She's a little tricky to get to sleep. I did play pretty music for her and rubbed her back for awhile. I did the same for Cal and he was sleeping within about 10 minutes.

That's all for today ... tomorrow I need to be picking up Brendan at 3:00 from his camp location. SO ... until then ...

June 29 Kaitlynn is FOURTEEN

Monday:  Kaity was born fourteen years ago today in El Paso, Texas. I was actually there when she was born! Not in the birthing room--NO! But I did meet her on her first day. Jesse brought all of us to the hospital in the early afternoon to meet this little squeaker.

Look how little Kaity was!

Emma, Chris, and Matt (and Jesse) were thrilled with her! Look at Emma gazing at this tiny sister.

Emma was still technically NINE when Kaity was born, but she turned TEN just about 7-8 weeks later.

Emma was immediately mothering her little sister from the first day of her life. I love these pictures so much.

I had to leave El Paso the next day and fly back to Grand Rapids. Kaity was my SIXTH grandchild born, and just my SECOND granddaughter.

When the family moved back to Michigan in 2013, Kaity was just a year. I had the honor of having these four grandchildren once again be close enough to spend time with almost every week. Once Kaity was about two years old, she and I began having one-on-one time, once per week, during the school year when the older kiddos were gone from 8-4:00 Monday through Friday.

But this year ... I didn't get to spend time with Kaity very much, and rarely one-on-one. She stopped coming over to my house every Thursday afternoon after school, and oftentimes on Saturday afternoons too for many years. I have missed spending time with her. But I came to realize that I cannot force anyone to come over to my house! I do stop by Jesse's place almost every Thursday and Sunday afternoons to deliver at Kit-Kat bar to Kaity and have a little "chat" time with both Kaity and her dad. 

BUT ... you can't just burst in upon people and start flashing your camera (or phone) in their faces to take pictures, can you?!!! Consequently, I really had to search hard for pictures of Kaitlynn this year. I did find a few that I used to design her card though.

 

So ... dear Kaity ... I pray God's BEST for you, sweet granddaughter. Trust me, no person on this earth will love you like JESUS does. I'm asking that you will give Him your heart every day, and learn to love and follow Him as He alone deserves.

June 27 more Deer Tracks

(continued): We entered the budgie pavilion and found about 50 other folk in there feeding the birds as well. It was a tiny bit crowded! Erin was thrilled to be there! We had so much fun feeding these beautiful birds.

Erin is scolding this one little bird because it was knocking other birds out of the way to get to Erin's food stick.

Look at this beautiful yellow one!

Erin kept trying to sneak in a soft touch on a wing or tail or back ... but these little birds are wise guys--it's like they have eyes on their backs and can see your hand coming, no matter how slowly and quietly you are making your move.

I noticed another group of people who had taken some stray seeds from the feed stick and placed them in the palm of their hand--and birds were flying right inside their hands to eat! Erin and I decided to try it! She was so excited to have a bird sitting on the palm of her hand.

Erin is very comfortable around animals. She is not one bit afraid and seems to soak in their beauty and wonder deep inside of her heart.

We stayed with the budgies for a very long time; but it soon grew apparent that they had enough to eat for awhile and were no longer coming on our sticks or to our hands. We walked a few feet over to the big play area--the one that has dozens of tunnels. Erin wore our head lamp and got along just fine.

I put a water bottle inside my purse for Erin--it was only in the mid-70's, but the sun was out full force, and it felt warmer than that.

Here is Erin at the 90-Acre Wood. We are at the guinea pig enclosure. Erin is holding "Junior" on her lap inside of a little fabric sack.

Practically next door to the guinea pigs is this CORN silo (kind of) where you can play for a very long time if you choose.

Erin was very glad to be here! She played, and I rested. !!

We buried Erin in the corn!

Erin isn't one bit afraid of heights, so she hung out near these steps so that she could practice her jumps.

It was getting later in the day. When I saw the horse enclosure, I remembered the cup of apples we had purchased. These little horses were quite hungry!

I think these sheep are named "Romeo" and "Juliet" but I'm not 100% certain about that.

Their bodies are SUPER soft, and they are very sweet animals.

I think Erin was rather entertained by them.

Here is Erin in the upstairs of the playhouse, a used-to-be favorite place of Kaity's whenever we visited.

Erin at the duck run ... except my pictures didn't show any of the ducks ...

Erin pretending she is a GIGANTIC SPIDER!!!

Ten years ago (!!) I crawled around in these underground tunnels too ... I DID! There is no way on earth I could do that now. The children LOVE to crawl around underground. Erin is wearing the headlamp, which helps her see better underground.

Here is the rotating tube, which is a lot heavier than I thought! Erin was having a hard time getting it to spin, so she asked me to assist her--I wasn't very much help.

We finally got it to turn a little bit ...

And here Erin is, pretending to run like a hamster!

It was about 1PM when we left Deer Tracks and headed over to the Rockford Culver's to enjoy our lunch.

I asked Erin for her very best smile, and she delivered! I love you, Erin. It was super nice to have you overnight this weekend.