A trip up north

- September 28, 2016

Right after school on Friday we jumped in the car and drug the camper up to northern Michigan to Bob's dads house. That night we made a much needed stop about half way at Aunt Katie and Jeremy's house and much to our surprise, Aunt Katie had a scavenger hunt waiting for the boys. They were crazy excited as they read the clues, completed the tasks, and gathered the goodies. Early the next morning after Grandma Angie made elephant ears, we jumped back into the car and finished the trip.

We were happy to open up the camper and camp out at their house. The boys love being outside exploring the woods, riding the Gator, and sitting by the fire. Bob grabbed a few rafts and decided to take the boys down to the river. Jeremy, Barb, and I took an afternoon garage sale adventure. I snagged myself a bubbling foot massager, an office chair, and wood chips for Bob's smoker for $10...it was a good day!

Back at the house, the boys had the raft in the water and were paddling around. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly Carter and Landon caught onto the whole paddling thing. A boy from across the river came over on his paddle boat and they were pulling each other around the river.

Anxiously awaiting their maiden voyage down the river!

Loaded up and headed to the river

Carter thought it would be funny to float around over the seaweed patch and he got a little crazy and lost his balance off the back. Check out the weeds on his head.

The activity the boys were most looking forward to was fishing. This is always surprising to me because the thought of patiently waiting for a swimming fish to eat a dangling worm doesn't sound like something my active boys would be interested in. I was dead wrong! Arlin's neighbor, a friend of the family, offered/demanded that we take his pontoon boat down the river to fish. The boat hadn't been used in 3 years but he insisted it would be fine. Bob, Jeremy, the boys and I jumped on board and SLOWLY headed down the river. We stopped and dropped the lines into several spots until we hit the fish jackpot. The boys could barely get their worms in the water before they were reeling them in. Within 90 minutes we had caught about 15 fish and the boys could have stayed there all night but the sun was starting to go down and we needed to get back for dinner.

Waiting for the fish to bite...when we are up north, appearance is not my top priority. Campfire hair don't care!

Landon was an expert at casting. It cracked me up because they were constantly casting and reeling in more than they were waiting for the bobber to bounce. I was a little crazy onboard because I was so worried they were going to hook each other as they walked around or cast out into the water.

The landscape is just beautiful and so peaceful. Grandpa Boone gave Carter this fishing hat before we went out and he wore it the whole time.

Hook, line, and sinker!!!

What a catch! Landon would pick up the worms and tear them apart. Fearless!

Even Uncle Jeremy caught a fish...the smallest fish of the group.

Now...... This is where things started to get really interesting. 🤔😱

On the voyage back, the pontoon sputtered out along the riverbank and we became stranded about a mile down the river. As Jeremy and Bob tried to fix the boat parts, I grabbed a wooden oar and tried to paddle us down the river...needless to say we weren't getting anywhere fast. We made a few phone calls and finally got through to Bob's dad. There are no other options for boats, so there wasn't much he could help with. We finally ended up flagging down a boat cruising by. They were kind enough to pull us back. It was a very slow ride with a couple very interesting folks blaring their favorite hits from the cd radio sound system on their boat. We had to have passed at least 50 or more people waving at us as we passed by. How Embarrassing. This was one of the funniest and most awkward situations I've experienced.

Ok.... Onto the next morning....

During the visit, we helped out with a couple things around the property, like trimming trees. Uncle Jeremy would cut them down and the boys and I would drag the limbs to the fire. It's funny how intrigued the boys became with watching the leaves burn in the fire.

Here is the beloved Gator. It has been around as long as I can remember and it keeps on ticking. Such a fun toy...lots of memories!

Bob requested we do one thing while we were there...take a late night Gator ride out to see the stars. I tried to talk myself out of this but he insisted that I come and I am so happy that I did. Nolan fell asleep quickly but we found the big dipper and just were in awe of how many stars we could see.