The annual camping trip

While the idea of "camping" doesn't send thrills up my spine, it isn't something I flee from either.

Once a year, the opportunity arises to go up north with some fantastic friends from our small group,

so we borrow Dave's parent's RV...pack up....and head into the great not-too-far north.

We know we're getting closer to the campground when we see things like this:

Yes, northern Michigan....a place where hicks still go to roost.  :)

Why, yes...that is duct tape with it's reflective properties writing "Git-R-Dun" on the front of that Astro Van.

Ally came too.

My, a lot changes in a year. 

Kids are older.

Molly is gone.

Ally joined our pack.

Baby on the way.

Ally had a hay-day digging in the dirt.  Home girl had a great time.

She would dig until she found a root, and then play tug with it.

The kids learned that she doesn't bite...but she jumps.

Apparently, they liked to learn again, and again, and again.

Poor Ally thought they were only playing with her...and when they screamed,

she took that as screams of glee....which they weren't.

We had lots of fun family activities to keep us busy during the weekend:

Swimming:



Archery:

Father/Son shoot out

The men had a shoot out too.

I cannot even remember if there was a winner.  :)

Clearly, none of us have an archery background.

You can also see in the background of the above shot that there's a tennis court, obstacle course,

miscellaneous games, and a basketball court back there too!

Hobo pie making:

Saturday afternoon we made pizzas in them for lunch.  Mmmmmm.

Ally was smelling the remnants.  :)

There was fishing:

Lots and lots of fishing.

This dock was right off our camp site.

The boys had a great agreement.

C. baited the hooks, A. fished and reeled them in, C. removed the fish from the hook and released them.

This picture warms my heart. 

I even got to fish!!!

(Which is also #88 on my List!!!)

The boys were totally impressed that I could bait my own hook and take the fish off.

I think I earned some awesome-boy-mom points that afternoon.

However, chivalry is not dead.

C. was itching to help his mommy out by taking my BIG CATCH off the hook.

So, of course....I let him.  It was a small price to pay.  ;)

Of course, there was snacking:

(look, mom....GLUTEN FREE bird seed!)

Bird seed is a mix of Cheerios, raisins (or in my case, Craisins), peanuts and M&M's.

It's a tradition for any trip in our family.  :)

Of course, the boys got their own bag of gluten-ous Bird Seed.

I was just excited to be able to have it this year!

We slept....a little bit.

The first night is always a learning curve.

Dave always had A. in the top bunk with him, but A. is getting WAY too big for that.

So, he was down on the fold out couch with me the first night.

C. was on the fold down table.

Mistake.

A. clearly needed his own bed.

I slept about 2 hours that night....chopped up.

I was soooo thankful for Dave taking the boys swimming on Saturday afternoon so I could take a nap.

Saturday night, we gave A. the fold down table and C. slept in the middle, me on the wall.

Dave had the top bunk.

I put the travel DVD player on, and there was no fighting to go to bed.

No fighting in bed....and they zonked out within 15 minutes.

Here's Sunday morning's bed carnage by phone camera.

And last, but not least...my favorite picture of the weekend.

Our friends, Randy and Cindy celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary last weekend

and brought cake.

Graham really enjoyed it.  :)

On the road again: Wisconsin trip!

Apparently, this is the summer that we travel.

Not apparently, it is the summer we're travelling.

For so long, we've put all our energy and money into this thing we call the Love Shack.

I have been telling D. for the past 6 years that once we get into the addition, we're going to plan some fun.

Occupancy permits were received in September....so we're travelling.

Not that we have the extra money to travel,

so we're doing that on the cheap.

But, since there's not much to actually do on the house before the teardown,

we have a little more time and energy to travel this year.

One of my best friends, Gina, has been to visit in Michigan a few times now.

We haven't been their way since before C. was born.

Which is about 5 years ago.

A visit was long overdue.

Additionally, she had a baby 2 years ago that I hadn't met yet.

Worst friend award = right here!

Anyway...we borrowed my parent's car since it was in better shape than ours,

and got MUCH better gas mileage.

We loaded up, and last Friday we left our house at a scary early hour of the morning.

Since they live in Marinette (the boarder of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula),

we chose to go the north route on the way there.

By the time we reached Mackinaw, it was almost lunch time. 

So, we got out to walk around a bit, let the boys stretch their legs, and waste 40 minutes before lunch.

Family pic with the bridge

 D. was teaching the boys how to skip stones on the water.

 We crossed the bridge and had lunch at a pretty picnic area in St. Ignace.

We got to our friend's house by late afternoon and spent the day playing,

eating, playing some more, and just getting the boys acclimated to their kids.

Saturday started with my friends little boy freakishly hating me.

He threw a fit at the breakfast table until I left the room.

He wouldn't even look in my direction.

I was heartbroken.  :(

Later, we decided to head into Green Bay to visit a place called Bay Beach.

It's a really neat place! 

We packed a picnic lunch, found a table there and ate together.

Then, we found some great carnival type rides that are horribly cheap!

Each ticket was 25 cents

The kids' rides were 1 ticket.  The larger rides were 2.

Seriously, a cheap cheap day FULL of fun!

C. rode his first ride that day.

He loved it!

A. was a tad big for the tiny rides, so we switched between the larger rides and the little rides.

There was a really tall 3 tier slide that the dads got in on.

Can you find my kids?

It was such a hit that the kids had to go again immediately.

Neither dad pretested.  :)

There was a mullet sighting.  Awesome.

And another ride on the slide.

A. rode the tilt-a-whirl with Aunt Gina and Lauren.

He loved it.

(Bad picture brought to you by D.)

C. had no desire to ride that ride.

Neither did I.

While they were waiting and riding, C. asked if he could ride the ferris wheel.

So, I took him over and we got in line.

After we were loaded in our car, we went right to the top.

C. went ram-rod straight, looked at me out of the corner of his eye, and said,

"Mommy, I'm a little 'cared fer you."

After the first round or two, he was a pro at carny rides.

And, you know...if you're in Green Bay, might as well visit the mecca.

I'm posting both pictures taken in front of the stadium because A's poses are too cute and make me laugh.

OH YEAH!

And guess WHO Aunt Sandy won over?!?!?!?

This is sweet little Elliot T.

Which you will also notice is List Item #58.  :)

This little Goo is too funny.

Seriously, class clown in his future!

Elliot's big sister, Lauren, just received some guinea pigs a few weeks prior to our trip. 

She named them butter cup and peanut butter cup.

:)

C. was very eager to help her take care of them.

Part of taking care of them is socializing them and taking them out everyday.

He was very happy to help.

Which....much to my dismay....was a horrible mistake.

This "episode" started the sleepless portion of our vacation.

Allergies and asthma suck.

The next day we stayed close to home base and played on some playgrounds.

The adults only supervised....

Again, only supervision.

No fun was had by any adult at the playground.

Just throwing this one in here because the hotness needs to be shared.  :)

On the way home, we stopped in Appleton for lunch.

Dave's little brother lives there with his wife, and she graciously offered to make us lunch.

And gluten free dessert.  :)

It was neat to see their new house and talk to them for a while.

(Notice the boys' new t-shirts?)

Since we were already almost 2 hours south of Marinette, we decided to go the southern route to get home.

It took considerably longer...and I'm not reaching the opinion that I'm not a city girl....nor am I a city driver.

Neither is my husband.

But, we did complete an entire circle around Lake Michigan.

Which, you'll notice is my #89.

Two list items with one long trip- bonus to an already awesome weekend.

When the list items start crossing themselves off.

A few weekends ago - the week before the 5k,

we had a big family weekend.

It seems that one of my list items popped up all impromptu-like...

...and I thought that was pretty darn cool.

Not having to plan (you know, as much as I CAN plan with my type B personality)

to complete a list point.

So...I'm just going to take you through the events of the weekend.

See if you can identify when it pops up.

Saturday AM:  Baby shower for D's baby sister.

Who is now having a baby of her own.

It's a boy!

I'm very excited - I love little boys.

Sorry the picture is dark - darn back lighting!

We gave her a Michigan onsie.

Cause they live in North Carolina now, and I want to make sure

my nephew knows his roots.

This cute little duchess is the younger daughter of a dear friend of mine.

Also very sweet that she is also the sister-in-law of my sister-in-law.

(HA!  Try to figure that one out!)

Poor little F, she kept pouting while I held her.

She's a bit- wee-little -teeny-bit a mama's girl.

But ADORABLE!

My other sister-in-law made this cake!

And my dear friend Kathy made the cupcakes.

Well done, ladies!

Later, we invited the whole gang over to the Love Shack for some family time.

The entire family has not been together since a wedding a few years ago (C. was 6 weeks old).

I made brownie bites topped w/ strawberries.

C. found the biggest strawberry in the world and proceeded to eat it like an apple.

After dinner, the kids were playing with some balls in the yard.

Then, they started to play a game that looked a little a lot like kickball.

So, I popped out of my chair and joined in on the fun.

Before we knew it, more adults than kids were playing.

My team got their heinies kicked.

C. ran the bases every time - without stopping - regardless of whether he kicked the ball or not.

Uncle Mike told him to "stop on the base."

C kept running and said, "I don't want to."

What's that?

You're checking the list?

You found it?

YES!  #35.  Play a game of kickball.

Thank goodness it didn't say "win" a game of kickball.

And since it was the hottest day of the year, and we were all drenched with sweat,

D. decided to fashion a dew rag out of a kitchen towel.

Yep, that's hot.

And since we don't know when we'll be all together again,

we pulled out the cameras and self-timers.

I had to take mine up and down to fit on my picture wall,

but Matt's turned out awesome - and he took it landscape, so we fill the picture better.

But here's the family picture (all of us, in our sweaty glory)

from my camera:

My secret's out!

It's only a few hours removed,

and I'm writing this post with tears welling in my eyes almost in disbelief that it happened.

I can't believe it happened.

But I have the sore feet and sweaty clothes crumpled in a pile on the floor to prove it.

And now I have pictures. (Thanks Bob!)

Two words enter my mind:

Gratitude and pride.

Respectfully.

See my 101 List off to the right?

There's a "secret goal" at the bottom.

Why was it secret? 

Because I wanted to give myself an "out."

It was my "escape hatch."

I wanted to do it, it's been in my mind for 3 years now...but I was still doubting myself.

Even after months of training, I was doubting myself even yesterday when I wrote this post.

So...what's awesome is that God put some people in my life that I could trust.

Willing to support me more than I was willing to support myself at times.

People I'm so grateful for.

Let me tell you, my support system is amazing.

Amazing.

So....what did I do today?

Check it out:

Yes, that's me.  With a race bib on.

In lycra running pants.

With my adrenal issues, gluten issues, flat feet, thyroid issues, out of shape,

overweight (but down 40 pounds)

 me.

And I did it in spite of all that.

I ran, I walked, I power walked, I jogged, I ran some more.

 I had two of the most AMAZING people flanking me the whole way.

the.whole.way.

When I hit a wall, when I had a charlie horse (or 3), when I wanted to give up...

they pulled my head back in the game.

I can never thank them enough.

Thank you, Melody and Steve!!!

And I had the most amazing people on the sidelines cheering me on.

And LOTS of love via texts....

Family, friends....my heart is so full today.

And I'm proud.

Because other than the mental checks, it was my two feet that brought me through that course today.

I did this!

Me and my (flat) feet.

And the most amazing people giving some wind in my sails.

So...while I was tired and I still am.  And my feet will probably be screaming for the next week or so, I have a feeling this is only the beginning.  The sense of accomplishment...its addicting.

Bring on the training!

You know....next week.

Darn those socks!

And so the bug up my butt continues to fester...

Perhaps I should think of another metaphor for this bug...

Since I am not really apt to liking talk regarding my derriere.

And festering...

Sigh...I digress.

Anyway, the spring cleaning/ organizational spree (SCOS for short) continues to demand my attention.

This time, I realized it was time.

This was me on Monday of last week:

And Tuesday:

And Wednesday:

(side note:  I've fixed my polish since then.  This was a HORRIBLE attempt at a french pedicure....horrible.)

Anyway...see a pattern here?!?!?

It was time.

Time to tackle...

...the sock drawer.

I actually loathe my sock drawer, so I started with all.the.others first.

I cleaned house! 

Things that were too big (SQUEEL!) were taken out, things I haven't worn in a year, things I'm not really into anymore...

...let's just say that Salvation Army is about to hit pay dirt.  :)

Well, everything else was done.

I had to open the sock drawer.

There's a few reasons I didn't want to go there:

1.  I usually don't match many socks in the laundry, and I knew there were too many unmatched ladies to count.

2.  I've been slowly discarding the really-ripped ones (as opposed to the not-so-badly-riped ones), and was afraid that I'd have no socks left.

3.  I haven't been to the bottom of this drawer in a long time.  Given that we live in a house called the "love shack", I was honestly afraid that something had burrowed in there and I would find it on this fine afternoon.

So, here she is...muh darn sock drawer.

So...after I discarded the not-so-badly riped socks, and the ones that will perpetually be single...

I'm left with 18 pairs of socks.

Thank goodness sandal season is coming soon.

Oh yeah...and another one crossed of the list!  (#7)