Family Camp

Friends of ours have been inviting us to their church camp for family camp week for a few years now, and it keeps not working out. This year we finally made it work and we had a blast!

Eric ran in the Tough Mudder the day we left, so we got a pretty late start and didn't get to camp until after bedtime.

We had a great week with friends, playing on the beach, hiking, and the best part-free meals that were for the most part real food with fresh fruits and veggies, etc. I had brought a grocery bag full of Journey friendly foods in case it was all canned and pre-made foods, but the cook there was great and doesn't think anyone should eat foods like that. It was a nice surprise!




Jeb spent a lot of time in this water treadmill!

Going on a hike-they thought they might need their little flashlights



Hugs for the best brother after he ran back up the path (lit flashlight in hand) to find the flashlight she dropped.



Exhausted, dirty, and happy on our last day

Vivi practicing some of her afforementioned bravery, jumping off high things. She was also very proud of herself for jumping off the dock and 'swimming' up to shore, just like Jebby was doing.

Our cabin. They were doing some rennovations to the camp and the noise of the tractors and chainsaws bothered Vivi, so she used her headphones a lot.


We also made a mid-week trip even further north, but that's another post full of pictures!

Overdue farm update

I had posted a picture a couple of months ago of some cute little chicks and mentioned that it was our new science/business venture. Well that little venture grew into a big venture with a coop and a fenced yard for 15. We began with the idea of raising hens for eggs for health reasons, science, and if we end up with more than we can eat, to sell. When we went to a local farm to put a deposit on a coop, he gave the kids free week old chicks. We told the kids up front that if they grew up to be boys, we were going to eat them, and sure enough, 2 of them for sure are/were roosters.

It has become such a part of daily life that I haven't mentioned it much, but if you were wondering how that turned out, I'll s hare a story from this one of this week's homeschool lessons. Jeb was reading a short story about bad foxes who planned to nab some pigs for a snack. I asked what nab means and he couldn't remember, so I gave him a clue. "What do the foxes have to do before they eat a pig?"

He answered "Well first you have to kill it and let all the blood drain out. Then you put it in hot water so you can pluck it, then you cut it up and cook it, and then you eat it.". He went on to argue that the foxes aren't bad, they just want to eat some pigs, and eating animals is not bad. Just another day on the farm :)

A couple of weeks before we heard our first crow, a friend who also has chickens needed to get rid of 2 roosters who had started crowing. She was ok with them becoming dinner, she just didn't want them on her table, so she gave them to us. They were silkie chickens which are black chickens. Their bones, skin, and even parts of the meat have a gray/blue/blackish tint. Kind of strange, but they were delicious!

Those of you who know Eric will be very surprised that at the last minute, he made the decision to do the processing himself, rather than pay a butcher to do it. To be honest, right up until he came in and said the deed was done, I was kind of expecting him to come back in and, appropriately, chicken out. But he did it and he did great! We found a step by step website with pictures, and it really wasn't all that hard. This weekend he processed the first chicken we raised ourselves, he's resting in the fridge waiting to be carved up, and this morning the other one we're sure is a rooster started attempting to crow. We knew his time was coming because both guys started picking on the hens a few days before they started crowing. There are 2 more that we're not sure of yet, so until they lay an egg or crow, they get to stay and keep getting fatter :)

No eggs yet, we should start getting them by the end of the month.

Here are a couple of pictures, all grown up.

 This girl should lay greenish eggs

The guy with the black head and brown wings below is in our freezer

June Recap

June was so busy, I barely had a spare moment to blog!

Vivi had her dance recital, which she was so nervous about, and spent the entire time on stage crying, but when I went back to pick her up, she was so proud of herself for doing it! It was such a hard decision making her go, but I really wanted her to know that she could, and we've seen a streak of bravery since that day, she has been more likely to try new things and is very proud to tell people about it. She'll even tell Jeb and Journey "It's ok if you're nervous, you can just do it anyway!"

We spent a day at Greenfield Village and I tried to get some nice-ish pictures of the kids. Journey wouldn't stop posing with her hands on her hips, I don't know where she learned that!




Learning some new tricks at the park


Father's Day

We visited my mom at Camp Lael

We are finally able to announce that we are expecting a little girl from Hong Kong and are anxiously awaiting our court date (that is the line we were given and the only personal information we're allowed to share on the internet-I added the anxiously part :)


My sister and I planned a very successful surprise party for our parents' 30th wedding anniversary, they were so surprised!

We drove across the state to see my Florida cousin perform in a color guard competition, but it got rained out. We were soaking wet, but got to see my cousin, so it was still a good day.


We went sour cherry picking in my aunt's yard. We picked tons and tons of cherries, the kids even ate some right off the tree, I thought they were too sour!

And we ended the month with my birthday. Eric asked the kids what my favorite foods are to get for breakfast, and they thought I would love donuts and french fries :) I thought the camera was in the van, but it wasn't, so I don't have pictures of our day at Eastern Market in Detroit, exploring some of the other shops in Detroit, and wandering around the Detroit Institute of Arts. The kid's favorite memory of the day is probably a little shop that had an old fashioned elevator with no doors, so they could see as we went up each floor. After all of that we went to my favorite sushi/Asian food buffet, where the kids ate their weight in the variety of sushi and crablegs. We definitely get our money's worth there since the kids cost so little to eat and they have such adventurous taste. They also tried frog legs and a lot of the sushi had different kinds of roe (fish eggs) on it. Only Journey liked the frog legs, but Jeb loved the roe and kept going back for more sushi with roe on it. We ended the night at home with ice cream sundaes and a few rounds of Go Fish. The perfect birthday!

Sesame Place Day 3

Our last day of Sesame Place was mostly spent re-riding our favorite rides, then moving over to the water rides.

The girls love Grover's World Twirl

This waterslide was one Jeb could do himself, and he probably did it 8 or 9 times.

Even the girls liked this one. You may have noticed that it is Eric on the roller coasters and waterslides-they are so not my thing. I'm the happy photographer :)



The obligatory cookie in front of the Cookie Monster topiary. The cookies were actually really good, nice and thick and soft, yum!

One more ride on the tea cups before heading out for the day.

This time we did end up splurging on the Elmo plates of chicken nuggets and fries, but the kids shared 2 orders (I'm not paying $25 for 9 chicken nuggets and a handful of fries!) and Eric and I split a $9 salad. The park closed at 6 because it was Sunday, so we attempted to drive to a Subway for sandwiches, but they were already closed, so we ended up at a Target with a grocery store and bought a loaf of bread, a package of nitrate free (Journey friendly) lunch meat, sliced cheese, and grabbed a couple of ketchup and mustard packets from the cafe for under $10.

After eating dinner, we stopped at a gas station to fill up before heading out, and something happened...and the car started beeping again. So, we spent the 9 hour drive home tuning out the beeping, again. We ended up driving straight through since the kids were sleeping so well and Eric and I were doing alright awake. We got home at 7am, put the kids in bed, and napped until 10am. We had bought a new dvd to watch at Sesame Place, and their travel excitement kept them up until almost 11pm, so they still had some sleep left in them, which was great for us!

We had a GREAT time at Sesame Place and I think we're going to go back again next year!

Sesame Place Day 2

Woops, forgot to hit post!

The next morning we woke up early at the hotel and caught the first shuttle to Sesame Place for our character breakfast. It was so much fun, and I definitely recommend doing the character breakfast before actually beginning your trip there, because after we had seen so many favorite characters, we didn't need to wait in line to see them later in the day. We saw Elmo, Cookie, Grover, The Count (Journey yelled "ah ah ah" at him as he walked by and he stopped and clapped for her :), and Abby Cadabby.

Journey was nervous at first but warmed up to everyone, and Jeb was darting around giving all of them hugs as they moved around the room :)

When we were done eating and meeting the characters, it was time to go out and find some rides! The first one they all wanted to go on was the roller coaster! All 3 kids did it, and they all loved it!

The carousel was another favorite. Jeb was tall enough to ride by himself (without an adult next to him) on most of the rides, which was great because the girls were not tall enough for most rides, so for some rides, one of us would go on with one kid, then we'd switch with another. We also did a lot osf splitting up, usually Jeb and Eric would go do the more wild rides like the roller coaster and big water slides, while the girls and I stuck to rides like the teacups.



We got lucky and stumbled upon Bert and Ernie right as they came out, so we didn't have to wait in line to see them

Journey is quite the little thrill seeker, she loved the wild rides!

And when she crashed, she crashed hard. Don't worry, sling-obsessed people, we fixed her head right after this ;)

During the hottest part of the day (it was 90's all weekend), we went into the air conditioned theater to see Elmo's World Live, and got to play on the set after.



We left the park tired, but rather than pay outrageous prices for mediocre food at the park, we took the shuttle back to the hotel and went to a restaurant instead. The kid's meals are $9, and the adult meals are even more! We ended up eating at the cheapest place for lunch, Big Bird's Backyard BBQ, which was a buffet of burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, corn, chips, and pop. The food was only ok, but we got to sit under a pavillion with a nice breeze. We went to TGI Fridays for dinner, where the 5 of us split 2 yummy entrees with vegetables and an appetizer assortment and were stuffed for the same price it would have cost us for a bunch of Elmo plates with chicken nuggets and fries.

Overall, a very successful first day and we couldn't wait for day 2!

Sesame Place Trip, part 1: When nothing goes as planned

Eric was teaching the night we left, so I packed the van and let the kids stay up until it was time to go get him. Jeb must have told me 12 times, "Mom! We get to stay up while daddy teaches the college kids, and we do NOT have to go to bed!" I know, kid, it was my idea :) They were so excited and absolutely wild, talking nonstop and asking if it was time to leave every 30 seconds.

My mom rode up to the school with us so she could drive Eric's car home, and we were finally off! Almost 2 hours in, the kids were sound asleep and we stopped at a rest stop for a late night snack. Eric turned the car off, but everything else in the car running, including the air conditioner, and an extra long line at Burger King killed the battery. We called our insurance because they offer free roadside assistance, but because we were on the Ohio turnpike and only one tow company has permission to service the turnpike, we weren't covered. Luckily, a big pickup truck pulled up and offered to give us a jump. By this point the kids were up and asking a zillion questions. "Why are all those semi trucks over there?" "They SLEEP in there??" "Do we have to put our car battery into a charger?" "Can we help plug it in?" And around and around again. We did have a nice conversation about how God puts people in the right place at the right time, and we reflected on the prayer Eric said before we left.

We got the van started, thanked the man, and re-situated the kids. Then Eric put the car in gear, and...it started beeping. You know the noise it makes when the key is in the ignition and the driver's door is open? It made that noise. In the middle of the night. In the middle of nowhere. We didn't want to spend the night where we were because we'd only been driving a couple of hours and it would mess up the rest of the trip. We read the manual front to back and it wasn't helpful at all, so we decided to just keep driving. This is where having 3 small children comes in handy-we can tune out anything! We drove into the night, but our plan of driving half way and finding a hotel didn't work because there weren't any hotels halfway. So we kept driving until we found one (we needed a specific hotel because we had enough points for free stays at this hotel), but it was booked, and so was the next one. By that point it was almost 6am and it seemed silly to get a hotel for 4 hours, so we just pulled into a rest stop and napped for a couple of hours. I had been napping on and off all night so when I woke up, I switched seats with Eric and drove for a couple more hours. By that point the kids were waking up and we were low on gas, so we pulled off to fill up and I made peanut butter sandwiches for the kids. We got out to stretch and an employee at the gas station called the kids over to see this cool butterfly:



While we were there, we heard from Eric's aunt, who was going to be our next free overnight stay. Luckily she had taken the day off, even though we weren't supposed to be there until dinner time, so when we got there before lunch, she already had the inflatable pools blown up and filled. Don't they have a great view?



While the kids swam, Aunt Chris and Eric went to a local car shop to have them look at the beeping problem, then we went to her office so she could show us off, and then out to lunch. We came back for a nap and they called to say they had fixed the van, so Eric went back to get it. We decided to drive to the hotel at Sesame Place that night, rather than having to wake up and drive the hour and a half that morning. We all needed a solid night's sleep. Luckily they were not booked and could give us a room.

After dinner, we repacked the van while Jeb got to drive Uncle Howard's tractor. Then came the highlight of the day-going to the airport to play in Uncle Howard's plane!






After we said goodbye, we headed to the hotel. In our nice, non-beeping van.