Petoskey Trip

We had a great family time in Petoskey, Michigan!! It was nice to have nothing planned and no time table to follow. This is a beautiful part of Michigan. We got to search for Petoskey Stones (the Michigan state stone) at Lake Michigan, spend a day at Thunder Falls, walk some really nice paths around the lake front, visit a fish hatchery and mini-golf at Pirates Coves. It was nice being able to spend the nights in a hotel! Yes, we found the deal of all deals...there is a DayInn there that has a 24 hour free cafe. So we ate all our meals except one lunch there. Ethen was in heaven with hotpockets unlimited. Tabetha consumed an amazing amount of deli dill pickles, just like the ones at the PA farm show:) I was hoping to take more pictures but we were have battery problems with the camera. I will post some pictures later of the famous Petoskey Stone...we brought home 200+, well not we but Tabetha.

Tabetha putting to use her snorkel and mask looking for stones. She would spend 10-15 min. like this and come up with a handful of small stones. Notice the depth of the water!

Ethen's method for searching for stones! He would bring a handful up on the beach and sort through. He used his mask for holding the stones he found!! Now this saved him from having to fight with the snorkel.

She really is way out there, about 3 feet!! She did this for about 2 hours and had a blast...she loves snorkeling!

So Jason finds this abandon little dingy boat on the shore. After dragging it in the lake he climbs in and starts paddling, hey Halsteads doesn't this remind you of the cabin, anyway it slowly starts sinking and Jason slowly starts laughing like only Jason can.

So he drags it on shore and drains it a few times until Ethen decides to join in on the fun. Now there are two dingies on one dingy!! It was so much fun to watch the two of them laugh while trying to stand on it, sink it, and flip it half full of water. At one point Ethen was on board and Jason was the outboard motor, they didn't get far!

Jason originally thought that it would stay somewhat floatable. Well, as you can see here he was finally successful at pretty much totally sinking it and standing on top! Shortly after this shot he decided to put it to use on the beach and dragged it to our stuff and used it as a chair!! Ethen then went back to stone searching for a few minutes and decided the dingy was more fun. He stole it from Jason and played for another hour on it!

Tuesday we headed further north. We were going to see Mackinaw Island but found Thunder Falls first! It was a really nice water park and we even lucked out with great weather. The weather was so great that by the time we left 7 hours later Ethen and I, Jenni, were burnt pretty bad.

Ok, that really is me coming down that slide! It was one of those slides you really want to make sure your legs are crossed the whole way down, a one piece swimsuit is another good idea!

Ethen did go down but we didn't have the camera handy and he wouldn't go down again for us. They had some really fun tube slides that we all did. It was great to double with Jason and have the weight of two adult people to get you really moving.

This is one of the several time Tabetha went down!

So we are back and starting to think about the ever so quickly approaching semester. It is hard to believe that this time next month and we will be in full swing here at NTBI.

Until the Petoskey Stone pictures.....

Two Men & A Posi Track

Here is the thing, the house next door has a garage that really is unsafe and needs to come down. Check out the pic...it really is pretty bad. Take notice that our garage is just about 1 foot behind this one.



COMING DOWN!!

Wow!! Our garage is still there and that is a good thing!

Some help with a sledge...make sure you watch the whole thing...the end is scary!!

Hope you all enjoyed watching what Jason and JP were up to today. Well, tomorrow we are headed to Petoskey, Michigan for a 5 day family vacation. We are going to snorkel for the famous petoskey stones. Since we have internet where we are staying I will try to blog at least once, if not you'll just have to wait until Friday when we get back!!
Until then....

ODDS & ENDS

Wow, it has been 10 days since I last blogged. Time has gotten away...I noticed just how fast the summer was going when I was at Walmart today and they have 95% of the school supplies out!! Oh, how the moans were coming from kids all around. Ok, so I am going to put up some funny odd and end pics and one video clip. Enjoy!!

Miss Megan comes for a visit!!!

Camera fun!!

The new pressure washer!!

EVERY man needs one!!!!!

My new favorite ice cream!!

Here is a clip just for Maddie and Ben!!!

Hope you guys like Aunt Jenn's dishwasher!!!!

Fireworks on the 3rd of July!!

Our annual Family Fireworks on the 3rd outing!



Hope you liked the show!! I thought I had a video of the finale but found out that I forgot to push the record button...duh! Here are a few picks of the fun leading up to the big bang.

Help!! I'm being abducted by an alien!!!

Drinking a 7up one drop at a time!! He just cracked the seal and drank 2/3 of the can this way.

Being safe!!

My new friend!!

The attack beetle!! (Not a friend)

Ok, there is a story behind this last picture! Imagine that you are watching a great fireworks show and then all the sudden you feel something on your leg. No, big deal you think, I'll just brush off the pesky thing. So you reach down and when you go to brush it off it attacks your hand. Well, this is what happened to Tabetha last night! All of the sudden she is screaming and jumping around. Of course it is pitch black and you can't see a thing but she "knows" something is out to get her. We found this with the help of the flash on the camera, and that things was scary!! It was funny, after that anything that would touch her would send her about 5 feet in the air.

Until the next abduction or attack!
Jenni, for all here in Jackson