It Does What?

We are never at a loss for things to do when we are visiting Grandma Kathie and Grandpa Bill. Yesterday Bill's brother David came over to take us all on a boat ride on his pontoon boat. Even though the kids have been on a pontoon boat before they were too young to remember it, so they were thrilled to be on it for "the first time ever!!!". The boys took turns driving and everybody loved the ride. We even got to see the drawbridge go up to let a huge sailboat through. The kids apparently had no idea that the bridge that we drive over every time that we come into town was a drawbridge. "It does WHAT?" they said "It OPENS up?!?!?!" I guess that we never mentioned it before...


I don't think that I have ever been on the water when the drawbridge opened up either. I have always been on the road and its a totally different experience sitting in traffic waiting for the bridge to open and close than it is on the water side!

I haven't mentioned it yet, but our house sold last weekend! We were so excited and it turned out that John had come to Drummond for the weekend so we were together when we got the offer. It was great! In a perfect twist of fate that I like to call Divine Intervention, there was a house in Appleton that had just gone on the market the week before that we liked in pictures, so I followed John from Drummond to Appleton with all four boys to go to a showing. We loved the house and put an offer on it on Monday and now we have a house to move into before school starts! Yipee! The best feature: 1.65 acres of FLAT yard with a walk-out! Thank you Lord!

Wyatt's favorite feature: his bright pink bedroom! I can't wait to take pictures of him in it to blackmail him with someday! Watch out boy... Mommy's got a file on you!

Endless vacation

Our endless summer vacation is still in full swing. We drove back to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to switch gears and repack. I did about 8 loads of laundry on wednesday and thursday, cleaned out the van, gave the dog a bath, collected our accumulated mail from the post office, went to the bank, returned wyatt's rental violin, bought 4 new movies for the van and left again on Friday morning to go to grand haven for a week.

We got up bright and early this morning because the kiddos were ready to hit the town with grandma and grandpa. Grandpa took Samuel salmon fishing in Lake Michigan and grandma, Wyatt, Jonah, Shane and I hit the farmers market in town. We also got bike helmets for the kids and got Samuel a new bike. Then everybody napped and went swimming at Aunt Mari's pool. All of the kids went down the slide and jumped off the diving board this year.... even Shane. The kids loved the warm water and had so much fun together, but they were exhausted after dinner and went to bed early tonight. We are hoping that the kids will sleep in a little tomorrow so that they are fully rested, but somehow I have a feeling that tomorrow morning will come pretty early again!

Tubing Fun

We lost our internet access for a few days and it was like living in the dark ages again! I can't blog... OMG!

The water in our bay has heated up so much since we first got here in June (it seems like yesterday.......) and it is now 81 degrees! Everybody LOVES the water now! Wyatt and Jackie both tried water skiing, but didn't quite have it together to get up yet. They got lessons from some experts though.....


Tubing was also a big hit. I seriously don't know if Jackie or Shane liked it more! Jackie laughed so hard that you could hear her all the way from shore! She wanted to ride with me and kept giving the thumbs up sign (which is tube sign for faster)! I, on the other hand enjoyed a more lesiourly pace and tried to hold her hands down, but she managed to escape over and over again and so we went faster and faster until my butt was numb. It was worth it though to hear her having so much fun.


Shane has become a little fish. He wades into the water all the way up to his shoulders and puts his face in the water and blows bubbles. He also lays on his belly in the water and uses his hands to crawl around.... and if you were not looking closely you would think that he was swimming! I love that he is so comfortable in the water now!


We are heading home tomorrow. The kids are REALLY sad. We have spent our whole summer here so far and they don't want summer ever to end! And that's good because next week we head over to Grandma Kathie and Grandpa Bill's house for more summer excitement. Can you imagine how fun it would be to be a kid and spend your entire going from one vacation to another? Holy cow these kids are going to be spoiled! But they are building so many fun memories and living life to the fullest and I am happy to see them enjoy their family so much!

On My Own

I have been up here on Drummond Island with the kids by myself all week. My parents left last Wednesday and John left on Sunday to go start a new job in Appleton Wisconsin. I was supposed to go home on Sunday but I changed my mind. Our house has been for sale since May and it still has not sold. I decided that it was easier to stay here by myself than go home and keep the house nice and clean for showings.

Even with all of the entertainment opportunities here it was tough to keep the kids occupied and on schedule by myself all week. So we tried some new stuff.

Yesterday we checked out a new beach at the state park. It is on a shallow bay and the kids could walk out really far by themselves without being in water that was too deep. They walked around and checked out the boats that were moored there.


There was even a little island that they could walk out to and explore. It is fairly remote and we got to spend the morning there all by ourselves which was great because all three of my big kids had to poop as soon as we got there. So
I had to whip out the travel potty and dump it in the woods three times which I love to do especially when we had only left home 15 minutes ago!


I also packed up the kids bikes in the red truck a few times and drove over to a nearby church that has a huge paved parking lot so that the kids could practice bike riding without me having to yell "Car! Move over!" thousands of times. They really enjoyed that and I brought along a book and lounged!

Today Grandma and Grandpa came back up and they brought my sister and her kids along as well! It was fun watching all of the cousins run all over the place together and have a blast! Tomorrow's agenda includes raspberry picking and some beach time!

Swimming and Soo

John and I helped the kids get acclimated to swimming in the lake. We stopped the boat in the middle of the bay in front of our cabin and told them all that they had to swim home. There was some crabbing, but they all made it home safely. Now, they are much more comfortable playing in the water and swimming all over the place.



Jonah and Shane have traditionally been the most afraid of swimming, but they have improved 110%! Shane has learned to put his face in the water and blow bubbles. Jonah will jump off the rafts and go completly underwater and come up smiling instead of crying. It is so much fun to see them all enjoying the lake now!

Mission accomplished!

Yesterday I took the kids to Sault St Marie to do some grocery shopping since our grocery stores here leave much to be desired. We decided to check out the Soo Locks and the kids and I were lucky enough to watch two freighters get lowered in the locks! They were full of questions and were so excited to see some really big boats. It was a great morning activity and we all had a good time!


We are battling some serious heat and humidity and have been loving our ability to cool off in the lake in the blink of en eye. We are still in vacation mode and don't have any plans to switch off any time soon!

Love Letters

The kids love the big red truck. They ask to take a ride in it at least 900 times a day. It is super fun because it does not have any seat belts in it. I USED to love the big red truck too, until I had to ride in it with 4 boys who are not fastened into car seats. There is a reason that there are car seat law these days... and it isn't for safety reasons!


Shane loves corn. It is almost in the league of a fetish! He steals everyone's corn at the table to add to his corn stockpile. I am inclined to teach that boy how to use the potty if his corn obsession continues one more day!


Everyone loves the beach at Big Shoal. The kids call it the 'hot and cold beach" because there is a natural spring that feeds into the lake that is super cold. It is like mountain spring water almost as cold as ice. The sand is soft and the big rocks are perfect for building stuff. We could stay there all day with the boys and they would never get bored!



Sam loves catching Cisco. He caught the first Cisco yesterday and can't wait to get some more! We are looking forward to some fresh fish dinners this week!

Staying Busy

We drove the golfcart and tried out a new beach at the big resort down the road the other day. We got there at about 9:00 am and were the only ones there. We were there so early that they hadn't had time to grade the beach yet! The tractor pulling the grader turned out to be even more fun than the beach itself! The kids liked making tracks in the perfect new sand with their feet and trucks. It might become our new Friday tradition!


Sam and Jonah have both been introduced to leeches. Sam got done frog hunting the other day and walked up to me COVERED in leeches! I had to conceal my fear and repulsion and act really calm so that he didn't get scared, but I was FREAKING OUT! We got them all off him and I had to hold towels on his legs for at least 15 minutes to get the bleeding to stop! He had one HUGE fat leech right on the top of his foot feeding off that big vein that sticks up! It was so gross! But, Sam didn't care a bit. He wasn't worried or grossed out at all! He just kept saying "Mom, can I go back in the water now?"


We have been spending every afternoon after naps down at the water. We head down around 3pm and usually don't come up until 6pm. The water temperature has warmed up so much since we first got here and now the kids swim all over the place. They jump off their tubes and rafts and swim underwater like it is no big deal. Wyatt asked me why I didn't bring his goggles because he wants to see under the lake. Next year buddy! Even Shane has become really comfortable walking in the water all by himself!


We are still searching for the elusive Cisco fish. We have been out fishing almost every day with the boys. We keep finding packs of boats, but nobody seems to be catching them! Hopefully tomorrow!

DI Zoo

The boys are obsessed with catching "creatures". They catch at least 2 frogs and a turtle every day. We have designated frog and turtle buckets. The frog bucket has a little water in the bottom and a clear top on it so that the frogs cant jump out. The turtle bucket is a big dish pan with some water in the bottom and a rock for sunning. Then every morning we have to release our "creatures". I am not entirely convinced that we are not re-catching the same "creatures", but the kids are having so much fun so I haven't started a tagging system yet....

Keepin Busy

When it is nap time and you are just not tired it is hard to find things to do. But if you look hard enough something will always come to mind.....

Hitting the Water

We have been enjoying some nice warm weather the past few days. We have spent every afternoon down at the lake. We took turns riding the jet ski. Shane insisted in being in the rotation as well! He is obsessed with riding the jet ski... too funny!


John took the boys tubing behind the jet ski yesterday and got mixed reviews. Jonah and Sam wanted John to drive slower and Wyatt wanted John to drive faster! Big surprise huh?

Today Wyatt tried water skiing. He used the exact same water skis that I learned to water ski on years ago. My Dad rigged them up with a little rope between them so it is a little easier to get up. But Wyatt gave up after about 5 tries. He said that it was too hard because I was driving too fast and I didn't know what I was doing. Nice!


Anyways, he will try again tomorrow as long as the weather cooperates.

We are also going to practice some lake swimming. The kids are a little fearful about swimming when they can't see the bottom. So, we will make up some games to get them swimming and hopefully they will feel more comfortable. I still get grossed out if my legs rub up against weeds while I am swimming in the lake, so I know how they feel. But, John and I both think that it is important that they can swim in the lake just in case they ever fall in and need to swim to survive.


We are also hoping that the fishing picks up tomorrow. The Cisco are expected to make a run in the next few days and we are ready to do some fishing with the boys. We can't wait!

Future PETA Member?

Yesterday the kids spent almost all of their waking hours trying to catch turtles. The weather was warm and there were a few turtles sunning themselves in logs in the water right near the dock down by the lake. The boys used nets to try and scoop them up, but they were either too slow or too loud to get close to any turtles.

Finally John fashioned a net onto a really long pole and caught the boys a big turtle right in front of the house. Then they put it into a big bucket and the kids were fascinated watching it and talking to it for hours.

Later the kids saw a little tiny turtle sunning itself. It was about the size of a silver dollar coin and they wanted to see a "baby turtle". So, John worked at it until he finally caught the baby turtle too. But we decided that we should put the baby turtle into a separate bucket from the big turtle just in case they didn't get along.

The kids added water and rocks and sticks to the buckets and encouraged the turtles to test out their new living arrangements. We told the boys that they can keep anything that they catch for 24 hours and then we have to let them go. They were so excited to feed their turtles and play with them it was unreal.

Then we got out the jet ski and the kids all went on rides and were distracted with that excitement so the turtles took a backseat for a few hours (trust me the turtles were probably thrilled). While the jet ski excitement was happening I noticed that Shane was holding one of the rocks from the turtle buckets in his hand and was just about to throw it into the lake when I stopped him. I told him to put the rock back into the turtle bucket. The other boys came running over right about then and started screaming "where is the baby turtle? he's gone! where did he go?". Then we all looked at Shane and I said "Did you throw the baby turtle back into the lake?" and he smiled and said "yes!" Holy cow the other kids were so upset they cried and cried!

Shane walked around as proud as a peacock that he had caused such a scene! The adults couldn't stop laughing! And all that we heard for the rest of the day was "Shane, don't throw our turtle in the water again! That wasn't very nice!" And Shane replied with a yell and a near-miss swat anyone that told him that! Apparently that kid doesn't support turtles in captivity! Who knew!?!?!?