For heaven's sake

As you can probably tell by the stagnant conditions on the blog, I've been away for a short trip.   My loving husband sent me on a four day retreat to  Northern Michigan where I spent my time window shopping,  hiking ski hills, taking in the brilliant fall colors, and scrapbooking at a weekend convention.  It was a much enjoyed break, but I have always suffered from an overactive homesickness gene, an affliction that was not improved upon with the advent of motherhood, and was, therefore, itching to get home as the final day drew to a close.  I relished that first pint sized hug when I finally  arrived home, sat down to spend some play time, and though I was gone for only four days I could swear that Calvin's language developed tenfold while I was away.  Maybe it's a trick of the memory, having been working with pictures and notes taken nearly a year ago, but when I first arrived and sat down to play he was talking a mile a minute, in full sentences, and without much space for breathing.  It was while I was trying to drink in this wonderful moment that I apparently erred in my toy placement, to which Calvin responded "No, not there, the dude goes down here.  Oh for heaven's sake."  Yep, definitely tenfold.  And I really was only gone four days.

You really can go back

It was umpteen years ago on beautiful Walloon Lake in northern Michigan, and my family, consisting at that time of parents, sibling, cousins, and grandparents, was lazing at the end of a white dock stretching into the turquoise lake with its rocky edges and sandy bottom.  It's a memory that  has always lived vividly in my mind, and will do so even more now that we have been back and made good on the belief that it is possible to reclaim those times from the past.  The key to success in going back, of course, is understanding that it doesn't mean erasing time, but embracing it.  We missed those who are no longer with us, but enjoyed seeing each successive generation step into their waiting roles.  The baby sleeping upstairs was not Curtis, it was Calvin, and the man enjoying scotch and cigar at the end of the dock wasn't our uncle, it was Curtis.  Oh how time does fly.

Our time there was limited by work demands at home, but we thoroughly enjoyed the four days we had by packing them as full as possible (For the photo journal of our trip go to the Lake Vacation album.  Click on thumbnails for bigger pictures, and now you can click on the bigger pictures for even bigger pictures):

Saturday, August 9:   9am Meet at the Hiller homestead, pack cars, load people, head north.  10am Hit construction, slow to a crawl, realize that construction is an enjoyable diversion when traveling with a 2 year old.  11am  Make obligatory stop at Birch Run Outlet Mall, buy  sunglasses and Osh Kosh clothes, enjoy lunch and floats at the A&W.  3pm  Arrive at cottage on Walloon Lake in high winds but beautiful sunshine.  Unpack cars.  Enjoy watching the whitecaps on the rough lake from the dock while getting soaked by spray before going back inside to read before dinner (kabobs on the grill).  8pm Make last minute after dinner decision to dash into town to view the sunset over Little Traverse Bay from Sunset Park in Petoskey.  9pm  Return home to watch the Olympics.

Sunday, Aug 10:  8am  Wake up to sunny but still slightly windy and chilly weather.  Grandpa, Curtis, and Cortney all go running (the hills are killer).  Curtis and Cortney end their run with a jump in the still wild lake to the backdrop of boaters wearing sweatshirts and ski hats.  10am  Calvin tries the lake, but the air is just a bit too chilly, so we play in the hammock and with the toys and books we brought while Gram attends a high school reunion style luncheon.  1pm  The whole entourage makes a shopping trip into town, followed by naps (mostly) all around.  4pm  Extended family (cousin Polly, her husband Justin, Uncle Smokey, and Godmother Lonnie) begin arriving for dinner.  6pm   we all enjoy a dinner of steaks and corn on the patio.  7pm  Curtis, Patty, Calvin, Jon, and Cortney go with Polly and Justin to their nearby ranch and enjoy some ring riding time.

Monday, Aug 11:  7am  Cortney runs alone and opts out of the post run plunge though the day has dawned sunny, calm, and warm.   9am  The whole entourage packs in the van and heads to Alanson for a relaxing boat ride through the Crooked River and into Burt Lake (we had originally planned to motor through the locks on the river, but the locks just happened to be closed that of all days for maintenance).  11am  After said relaxing ride we enter Burt Lake and motor straight across toward the very small public dock that is our landing for lunch at Hoppies, our favorite  "local" frequented bar that happens to be easier to reach by boat than by car.  12pm  Finally locate said dock (it's practically unmarked and you have to know what you are looking for) and descend upon Hoppies for beer, burgers, and video games (and a view of the race winning outhouse) before heading back out onto the lake to enjoy the sunshine.  2pm  Locate sandbar and anchor for swimming and sunning.  3pm  Weigh anchor and head for home, with Calvin assisting the captain (Uncle Curtis) as soon as the boat is moving at a snails' pace in the river.  It was also about this time that Calvin discovered the "slow no wake" signs and also discovered how funny people thought he was when he read them as "sloooooooow     noooooooooo    waaaaaaaaaaaaake."  6pm  Arrive back at the cottage to enjoy a relaxing evening and sunset on the dock.

Tuesday, Aug 12:  7am  Cortney and Grandpa go out running but again opt out of the post rung plunge.  The day is even warmer, calmer, and sunnier than the day before even though the forecast called for incoming clouds and storms.  9am  Cortney "sights" said incoming storms and calls for everyone to get out and enjoy the day while they still can.  Most of the entourage grabs some coffee and heads for the dock while grandpa cooks  bacon for breakfast (yum).  11am  Still sunny and now much warmer, the whole entourage dons suits and grabs towels to take further advantage of the beautiful weather before the storms come in.  1pm  Still sunny, everyone, now including Lonnie, grabs margaritas, chips, guacamole, crackers, and pate for lunch out on the dock in order to take advantage of the weather that is still holding, believe it or not.  4pm  Not a cloud in sight so we all  decide that enough sun is enough sun and head in for some naps and Olympics.  6pm  Now refreshed we head back out for a relaxing dinner on the dock, followed by a sunset swim in the warm lake.  10pm  Back inside we watch the Olympics before bed.  What a wonderful (stormy?) day!

Wednesday, Aug 12:  7am  No running this morning, instead we get up to pack and enjoy one last walk out on the dock, one last swing in the  hammock, and one last vacation style breakfast.  9am  We spot two mink, possibly juveniles, running and playing on the dock.  One leaves, but the other stays to eat a crayfish.  He is not too worried about us and allows Cortney to get close enough to grab some good pictures, even giving her a quizzical and photogenic look from only five feet away on the boat lift when she ventures out to the dock end.  10am  The storms that never came yesterday  suddenly arrive with thunder and rain just as we are carrying things out to the cars.  11am  We hit the road, headed for lunch in Gaylord before making the rest of the trek home.  Again we say it has been a wonderful trip!  Thanks to Gram and Grandpa for the wonderful idea, for securing the cottage and the boat, and for all the wonderful food and drink.  Thanks to Aunt Patty and Uncle Curtis for taking the time to be there.  Thanks to Calvin for some pretty phenomenal behavior.

More than just tulips.

Tulips are in full bloom everywhere that they've been planted that the squirrels haven't found.  Though the bulbs we planted at our old house never really did us the favor of growing buds, our new garden surprised us with several different kinds and colors of tulips this spring.  But if we can see tulips anywhere, then why do we have a tradition of driving two hours to the city of Holland, Michigan, to attend the annual tulip time festival?  Well, there is the fact that there are few places closer to us where one can find so many tulips in one place.  And part of the answer has to be the annual offer of a free place to stay right on beautiful Lake Michigan, which makes for a great mini vacation.  But to get to the heart of the matter, you'd have to know that Calvin is about as Dutch as a little (over half) Dutch Boy can be.  Heritage, genealogy, tradition - all of these things are very important to us, and the Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan is more than just a celebration of those pretty flowers;  it is a celebration of the Dutch heritage that is still strong in the area.  On Monday we visited Dutch Village where we fed goats, tried on wooden shoes, watched a Klompen Dancing demonstration, then tried our own feat at it, and enjoyed a traditional Dutch meal.  Monday evening, after walking the beach, we spent in Centennial Park enjoying not only the beautiful flowers but also another Klompen Dancing performance, this one by high school dancers from the area who filled the streets surrounding the park.  Calvin loved the dancing, and we loved seeing so many young men and women involved in keeping this part of the heritage alive.  And today we spent in Windmill Island Park where we climbed to the top of and learned all about the country's oldest working authentic Dutch windmill, De Zwaan, tiptoed through rows and rows of beautiful tulips, ate another authentic Dutch meal, and listened to the street organ while playing on the wide lawns of a replica Dutch village.  The weather was fabulous, and the crowds low thanks to it being mid-week, all adding up to a great mini-vacation.  The only downside?  Our garden of tulips looked suddenly quite modest upon our return home.

A profusion of Tulip Time pictures can be found in that album. 

To Iowa and back...

A wedding is such a beautiful thing - the combining of two lives, two worlds, two hearts.  And it's so obvious when two people are truly meant for each other and they are surrounded by a beautiful glow whenever they are together.  We were very blessed and honored to have taken part in just such a beautiful ceremony this past weekend in Iowa, and because it was not only Calvin's first wedding, but also his first road trip out of state, we took a couple of extra days to make it like a family vacation.  The trip went something like this:

Wednesday 4/9  7am (EST): wake up, finish packing and preparing the house for the pet sitter, leave, forget camera cord, come back, leave again.  2pm (CST):  arrive in Chicago, miraculously find nearly free parking (cheaper than Ann Arbor's) on museum campus, enter Shedd Aquarium, spend more time climbing the steps in the amphitheater than watching the dolphins (to be fair, the dolphins only jumped once), have more fun getting a snack than watching the otters (to be fair the otters were sleeping), fall in love with the beluga whales (how many times CAN one two year old repeat the word beluga?), finally get interested in the sea creatures as we are LEAVING the aquarium.  5pm:  Leave the museum campus to pick up uncle Curtis and get dinner, get lost, twice, three times, get uncle Curtis, miraculously find free parking near his office, walk to dinner, QUICKLY order margaritas, walk back to uncle Curtis's apartment.  9pm:  settle Calvin down for the night (in the closet) and enjoy a couple hours of Rock Band before hitting the hay.

Thursday 4/10  8am:  Walk to breakfast, then back to apartment, then to car.  10am:  miraculously find nearly free parking on the museum campus again (to be fair, this might have had something to do with the pouring rain and long walk, but we're not complaining), run to Field Museum, have more fun eating crackers than seeing dinosaur bones, have more fun watching people than seeing stuffed animals (well, who can blame him?  He's used to the zoo), have more fun seeing dinosaur pictures than dinosaur bones (hey, bones don't look like the dinosaurs he's used to).  1pm:  drop uncle Curtis off at work, get on I88 withOUT getting lost, spend an hour traveling only 20 miles and wishing we HAD gotten lost.  6pm:  Arrive in Cedar Rapids Iowa (still CST), check in at the hotel, change clothes, unite with other arriving guests, book it over to Rachel's family's house, get there just before tornado sirens go off, book it to Rachel's family's house's basement, QUICKLY serve margaritas to whole group (tornado and all we had a great, great, great time).  10pm:  Back to hotel for night, tornadoes having been kept at bay, possibly by the constant siren usage.

Friday 4/11   8am: Get free breakfast in hotel restaurant, go swimming in hotel pool.  11am:  Cortney goes shopping with the girls and get to manicures, Jon goes with the guys to get tuxes and ride the escalators in the mall several times.  3pm:  Calvin stays at the hotel with his grandparents while his parents go to rehearsal at the church.  6pm:  Calvin enjoys a riotous dinner at Applebees with his grandparents and uncle while his parents enjoy a really fun rehearsal dinner with the rest of the wedding party.  10pm:  Bed for Calvin, pool party for a handful of wedding guests who don't know when to quit (Cortney and Jon included).

Saturday 4/12   7am:  Get not so free breakfast in hotel restaurant with whole family.  9am:  Calvin and Jon go swimming, Cortney goes with bride and bridesmaids for mimosas and breakfast.  10am:  Calvin and Jon are likely still swimming, girls go for hair and makeup.  12pm:  Girls return to house with plenty of time to fix any damage that has been done (this is a whole other story in itself, and a funny one at that).  2pm:  Calvin is napping at the hotel with Grandpa, everyone else is at the church getting ready.  3pm:  STEVE AND RACHEL GET MARRIED, lots of happy tears are shed, lots of tissues meet their end.  4pm:  The wedding party drives to an outside location and spends an hour with the photographers and no coats in the 35 degree weather.  6pm:  Everyone convenes at the reception site (Calvin had already been there for some time enjoying his own appetizers), dinner is fabulous, the live band is amazing, Calvin seems to enjoy the drummer the most, and we all dance the night away (well, Calvin and his grandparents go home around 8pm).  12am:  Jon and Cortney arrive back at the hotel in time to join the after party at the bar there.

Sunday 4/13  7am:  Calvin drags us all out of bed and down for a not so free breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  9am:  Pack the car, check out of hotel.  10am:  Get to eat again at a brunch with the bride and groom and their families, enjoying one last chance to celebrate with the happy couple!  12pm:  Still waiting for the video we took to finish transferring to Steve's computer (the digital age? Got love it).  1pm:  Pull out of Cedar Rapids, stop at Herbert Hoover's Birthplace National Park (or something like that), where we add a stamp to our National Park Passport, and Calvin gets a Junior Ranger pin, and we enjoy the beautiful, though still chilly, weather.  2pm:  Pull out of Westbranch, head for Illinois, not knowing yet where we will spend the night.  5pm:  Find a Holiday Inn, go in to ask about rates, while waiting for service stumble upon a magazine with an ad for a neat looking lodge inside a cool looking state park, call lodge and find out they are having a special and are cheaper than the hotel, immediately ditch the Holiday Inn and head for Starved Rock Lodge.  6pm:  check in at the lodge, go for a quick hike (oh so beautiful and including a wild turkey sighting), eat in the lodge restaurant (really fantastic food).  9pm:  put Calvin to bed, visit the hot tub, then visit the lodge bar.

Monday 4/14  8am:  Enjoy a fabulous free breakfast in the lodge restaurant, pack up and check out, then hit the trails for some fantastic hiking, see gorges, canyons, waterfalls, the river, and moss (Calvin's favorite thing to find while out walking these days), all while doubling our picture count for the entire weekend.  12pm:  Realize we took the long trail instead of the short trail and are at least an hour behind schedule, get lunch in the dining room, then hit the road for home.  The rest is history. 

Find a plethora of pictures in our Iowa Trip album. 

Vacationing in Ann Arbor.

A little over a year ago you might remember that we came home one day to find our ceiling leaking.  Even if you don't remember, we do, and the paint and drywall damage to our ceiling was a daily reminder that just would not let us forget.  So finally, with thoughts of trying to join the already flooded housing market this spring weighing on our minds, we got around to doing something about this eyesore.  We'd been toying with the idea of attempting to do the work ourselves, but that plan lasted all of the five minutes it took Jon to get the instructions for such an undertaking from a skillful friend in our choir who does this stuff for a living...and then we hired him.  So instead of spending several days bumbling our way through an extremely intricate process we spent the whole of last week, and a bit more, on what felt like a mini-vacation, staying in Cortney's childhood home thanks to the good graces of her parents (who were also staying there, as they do all of the time since they happen to live there).  We think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed the time.  Jon and Cortney certainly enjoyed being so much closer to all of their day to day activities and needs, and Calvin clearly capitalized on the constant doting attentions of his grandparents.  We moved back home today (to a much cleaner and brighter ceiling) feeling like we'd just been on a week-long vacation, and having the laundry to prove it.

More pictures - in the February 2008 album.