Camping - Grand Marais

Ahhh, Grand Marais.  A favorite place of mine and Scott's.  We usually visit this quaint fishing town in the late winter while one of the sets of grandparents watch our kids.  Our activites at that time usually include snowshoeing, hiking, a lot of sleeping, and a trip to our favorite local bar.  We've actually never visted in warm weather until now.  We all had a great time.  We hauled our camper 3 hours straight east from the Rapids, being sure to avoid Duluth and it's deluge-damaged streets.  However, there was still plenty of water to see in the arrowhead. 

We set ourselves up in the very crowded municipal campground and proceeded to have some fun.  And what did we do, you may ask?  Why, everything that's fun about a trip to the north shore, or course!

The kids rode their bikes around the campground, went swimming in the campground pool and ate at the picnic table outside of our camper. 

But the real fun of the trip was always the beautiful Lake Superior shoreline!  And more specifically, the rocks along the shoreline.  Whether it's skipping small flat rocks across the water or climbing the huge boulders that protect the bay, there's always fun to be had on the rocks.

Of course, there's always a fair share of sightseeing as well.  Boats and lighthouses are among the favorite things to see. 

We topped off our trip with wood-fired pizza and gyros atop the roof of a little shack (overlooking the lake, of course) followed by ice cream on the beach.  Attley even braved a dip in the water, which I was told was only 59 degrees.  But with his thick black fur coat, he love it.

After ice cream we did a little touristy shopping where we procurred some polished rocks, a couple of post cards, some candy, and a gift for a friend.  Then we loaded up and made the trip home in gorgeous weather.  All in all, a very successful and FUN first camping trip of the summer.

Gravitational Pull

Can I just say, I need for my kids to meet some friends!  While I love my kiddos very much, I feel like I currently have some gravitational pull and they all just endlessly orbit me.  The girls did meet a very nice girl who lives across the street and two doors down.  She is 10 which is a bit older than my girls but she's a slight distraction from the constant-ness of being around mom.  It is all compounded by the fact that we do not have any TV service yet (we had a problem with the previous owners still having DISH so we couldn't get anything set up while they had an active account - that's all getting fixed this Thursday).  It's not like I want my kids to watch TV all summer but mommy needs a break!  Thank goodness we can stream Netflix or I'd seriously be in the loony bin.  I try to get them to go outside to play, and they may do that for about 10 minutes, and then they are all right back to their orbit.  (sigh)

This week I was able to plant our garden!  A friend of mine couldn't believe I put in a garden before I had everything settled in the house.  But the growing season up here is so short I wanted to make sure that we had everything in as early as possible to make sure we get a harvest.  We now have growing in our back yard:  tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, radishes, carrots, sweet peas, green beans, cucumbers, spinach, leaf lettuce, and watermelon!  Ambitious, I know.  But I'm hoping to have some yummy veggies later this summer.  We already tried the leaf lettuce and it was great.  I'll have to plant a few more of those.

I also got around to weeding some of the many garden beds around the house.  They were very much overgrown with weeds.  So they are looking more tidy and we added some annual flowers to add some color around the house.  The weather has cooperated being nice and sunny during the planting and obliginingly raining after everything was planted.

We made a trip to Walmart.  It's a fairly new one with a grocery store, but it confirmed my long held belief that I hate Walmart.  I won't be going there on a regular basis.  I just don't like it.  But I did find a kitchen cart there to hold all my larger countertop appliances.  So we did get a little organization done.  Now we need to concentrate on the desk area - too much stuff is piled all around the computer!

We were originally going to go camping this weekend but saw the forecast and decided we didn't want to be stuck in a small camper all weekend during thunderstorms (also, see earlier paragraph about orbits and mommy needing a break).  But we did manage to head up there on Sunday for the day.  It's only 45 minutes from our house!  Scott and I spent the day cleaning brush, weed whacking the road, taking down trees that had fallen (one right over the shed) and generally sprucing the place up.  For the first couple of hours the kids just kind of sat there in a daze, following me around wondering what to do.  Sad.  But then they finally realized they could throw sticks in the fire, and go swimming whenever they felt like it.  They also found skinny dipping to be huge fun - its a very small and private lake and on Sunday there was no one there but us.  Digging the hole in the woods to go number two was a highlight for all three, don't ask me why.  But they got a big kick out of it.  By the end of the day, after yummy hamburgers on the grill eaten around a nice bonfire, we were all sufficiently tuckered out and ready to head home.  I think the next time we head up, they will have the hanging-out-in-nature thing all figured out from the get-go.

This week I'll be finding some summer activities to put the kids into.  I'm thinking T-ball for cooper, gymnastics for the girls, some swimming lessons, and hopefully VBS at some local church.

If you're inclined to pray please pray that the kids find some friends in the neighborhood to play with.  And that mommy loses some of that gravitational pull.  :)

Settling In

Congratulations to Cate, my new 3rd grader, and Clare, my new 2nd grader!  They had their last day of school last Thursday, June 7th.  There were lots of hugs and some tears as we left the school and headed on up to our new home in Grand Rapids.  Catie took it the hardest.  Clare talks about it the most.  Cooper just goes along with what everyone else is doing.  But overall, I think we're going to be okay. 

We spent the weekend settling in.  I unpacked some more boxes and got things more organized.  We made our first grocery shopping trip so that we could actually cook and not have to eat out any more - I never thought I'd get sick of eating out but it gets old fast.  We put in the air conditioners yesterday which brought some much needed relief.  And we got a bunch of stuff out of storage that I had put in there in Feb/March.  I can't believe how much stuff we have!!  It's crazy.  I think some downsizing is definitely in order.  Needless to say, we looked like hillbillies as we drove with all our junk accross town.  I don't think many noticed though.  :)

On Saturday, we took the now very short trip to Webb Lake to see Scott's parents where our refrigerator items were being stored and to get our camper out of winter storage.  It's always fun to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and go swimming in the lake.  And then we made the trip back that evening.  I can see we'll be doing a lot of little short trips like that while they are at the lake. 

We have also discovered the local park which has a nice beach for swimming.  And the best part is it's only 3 blocks away!  The kids are especially loving the new eiffel tower climbing thingy.

All in all, a good start to our life in the Rapids.  The best part for me is having Scott with us again.  On Friday he popped home during lunch - his work is only about 10 minutes from our house.  And he was home by about 4:30!  Which, if any of you know his work habits in the twin cities, is very early!  But oh so nice!  He took off again today for work and it's just so good knowing I'll see him again tonight.  I'm very done with being a single parent during the week.  3 months of that was plenty!

My saddest part so far, other than saying goodbye to everyone, is knowing I already missed an important event for one of my besties.  Her son graduated from high school and yesterday was his party.  I was hoping to make it back for it but with all the stuff we were doing and the trip to Webb Lake on Saturday, along with some bad weather moving through, I just didn't have it in me.  Sorry Paige!  I hope it was a great time!!

This week will find us cleaning up the gardens around here and planting flowers and veggies.  We need to buy some storage units to hold all our junk.  And we'll go discovering the local parks and trails.  And we're planning a trip to our lake property this weekend which is now only 45 minutes away.  I'll keep you posted!

Living Large

If you ask my kids, they will say we're living like rock stars.  We've been in the hotel for 3 nights now and we are kind of settling into a routine.  Wake up (way too early), get ready for school, go downstairs to eat the hotel breakfast (annoying every other diner with our boisterousness), drive to school, come home from school, go swimming, go out to eat, get ready for bed.  What's not to like?!  All you parents out there can probably think of a few things not to like.  But really, it's not been so bad.  The boy and I manage to stay busy throughout the day and it's amazing how fast the time goes.  I'm just doing a lot of reading which I love so all in all, not so bad.

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm getting the girls out of school early and we'll all head on up to Grand Rapids to get our stuff situated in our new rental home.  It will be good to get out of this hotel for a couple of days and to have another adult around to help with the kids.  And it will be good to start settling in to our new place and not feel so displaced.

Our house closed without a hitch so there are new people living there.  I was not very emotional as we were packing and moving everything out.  But when I noticed my neighbors heading out to the lake, we stopped on over to say our final goodbyes to them.  They are great people but we've never been what you would call close to them.  I went to give hugs and that's when the tears almost fell.  Which goes to show that a house is just a thing but it's the people you will miss beyond measure.  Even though we built this house and made all kinds of improvements that made it our own, and we raised all our kids here and there were so many "firsts" here, I know that there will always be another house that we can make into a home and there will always be all kinds of firsts.  This journey will just become part of our collective story.

As will living large in our hotel, holed up together, on the edge of everything new.  Years from now, settled in our home with other firsts behind us, we'll sit around the table together telling stories that start with, "Remember that time in the hotel before we moved up here?"  And it will be a really good memory.

Shifting

We're a little over a week away from the movers coming and packing up all our stuff.  I have never been moved by a moving company before.  I feel so spoiled!  I suppose I should really start figuring out what I will need during our limbo time.  Our stuff is leaving our house on May 25th and the kids and I won't be moving up until June 7th.  We will be staying in a hotel with a pool in the interim. So I've had to figure out what to do with our sweet black mutt, what to do with our gazillion fish, what I need to have with me for those 2+ weeks, and what to do in general.  Because I realize that just because someone is packing and moving all my stuff, doesn't mean I have nothing to do. 

In between now and June 7th, we have a dance recital, a preschool program, a gymnastics meet and a piano recital (which should be interesting given that we will be without a piano after next Friday and the recital is on June 3!).  Not to mention a bunch of final goodbyes with friends.  I've had a few already and it just feels so weird.  Part feels like an ending but mostly it just feels like a "see-you-later" kind of thing.  I haven't gotten overly teary-eyed yet, which for those who know me, is amazing!  But I'm sure it will come. 

I'm sort of at the point where I just want it over and done with.  I've been adjusting to this transition since January and I'm ready for it.  Ready to get the goodbyes over with (and all the emotions that go with that).  Ready to settle in and start figuring out my place in the Rapids.  Ready to move on.  It's not where I started, but I'm thankful its where I am now.  Because, as they say, resistance is futile.  Change happens. 

For those inclined to pray and want to do so for me and us, here are some prayer requests:

• That I won't forget anything and stay on top of what needs to be done in this last week in our home.
• That I will have patience and actually enjoy my time with my kids in a hotel for two weeks.
• That God will be close to my friends who are having a hard time with me leaving.
• That God would help me to help my kids through this transition.
• That the Lord would be so present throughout this time that I will look back on it and say, "Wow, that was way easier than I expected!"

Blink Of An Eye

They say life changes in the blink of an eye.  So true.  Having lived 22 years in the "big city" I find myself on the brink of change.  In less than one month, my husband, my 3 kiddos and I will be moving to a "small town".  I grew up in a small town and never thought I'd find myself in one again, having always wanted the buzz of the big city.  But the reality is I live on the edge of the suburbs of this big city, my kids go to a country school, I very rarely find myself in the center of the big city and there's virtually no buzz about my life at all.  My life centers around my family, my friends and my God.  It's a simple and very good life.  And it will remain so, no matter my location.  Because I'm bringing my family with me, my friends will stay my friends despite the distance, and God goes with me whereever I am. 

Yet this change will be hard.  It will require faith and patience.  There will be sadness.  For some, change is an adventure.  For me, change is something to "get through".  So while I go through this, I'll share it with you.  The good, the hard, the crazy.  And soon I will be "through" to the other side of the blink.

Change, no matter how it comes, makes a good story.  Don't blink or you'll miss it!