Biker Babes...

We tried something new...we went for a bike ride and out for dinner. The Ladies from church gathered at 14 mile road and road to 10 mile rd. Some had newly purchased bikes, some had just gotten them down from the rafters....and some had gotten back from a little bike trip...San Francisco to Kentucky!!! I was one of the ones that had not ridden all season...but I thought I could push myself 4 miles if there was food at the end!

Here we are getting ready to take off....(this was not the whole group)

We got to our destination...Arnie's in Rockford..it's a beautiful town...very quaint! We had a bit of time before our reservation so we walked the boardwalk next to the river....

We snagged a innocent bystander to take our picture, here is about half of the group....

22 of us ate at Arnies....We had a great time laughing and getting to know some of the ladies I didn't know so well! Then we had to ride back to 14 mile road! Ummmmm...it was a slow incline upward! Which I realized as we were riding on our way there, that I was coasting a lot....Hmmmm....something tells me we are going to have to petal up hill to our cars! We did have to petal.....I'm proud to tell you that I made it without getting off! I wanted to..but I didn't.

I'm inherently lazy! I don't like to exercise, I don't like to run, jog or walk...I like to eat ice cream and visit around a picnic table. That's me~

Great Wolf--ing it!

The Place was Great Wolf Lodge.
The town was Traverse City.
The date was July 28-29.
The occasion was a Fire Chief Meeting.

Steve took us along on a business trip. Some how the kids endured the grueling time there!!!! It was rough! The show was a Wednesday & Thursday. Troy had been before but Trent had never been...needless to say, he was pumped!!Waiting for the bucket to dumpslides...TrentSlides...TroySlides...together!awwwwDAD'S HERE...
When Steve got done on Thursday, he came in to spend sometime with the kids.
This isn't the best shot..but you have to know how many shots I took of other families....lol...lol!!! They were all quite surprised when my flash went off!!!!A better shot...

slide fun....

Lilly Pads...Trent

Steve....this obviously was made for shorter people! BTW...the kids get so good, they can run across the floating pieces without stopping!!

Troy

In the room....

Water Fun.....

Last week we visited Dad & Linda. Troy had been out computer shopping and running errands with Grandpa Bill. Trent and I came over for dinner and to pick Troy up. We went for a pontoon boat ride and the kids went tubing. Here are some of the shots from the day...... The neighbors, Chuck & Linda, have kayak and let the kids (and G-pa) try them out. They really enjoyed paddling around in the cove!

Grandpa and Trent Michigan is blessed with water and beautiful un-salted beaches! Yeah for Michigan summers!

U.P.4.....

Fourth and final post....I know you are all sad!!!

This day was a Day of Dread...we rode to Grand Marais...which for the record was about an hour away by car! We set out in the rain for the day....with lunches packed & rain gear on..off we rode at 10am! After a few delays and a lot of riding we made it.....looked around....not a lot to see...ate lunch and back on for the ride home. That all sounded good till we tried to take a different route home...ummm....let's just say we didn't make it home till after 10pm!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, I was weary..and Kelly was weary...but the real accomplishment...Kristi was weary!!! That was a long, long day! 12 hours on a quad! I was on the back of Steve's quad saying very loudly..."I will have a good attitude"..."I will not be grumpy"..."I will not cry"..."I will have joy in the journey"...."I will rejoice in all my circumstances".....'The Quad Squad' kids at Grand Marais....On our long way home from GM....we stopped at Sable Falls....there were 174 steps down to see the falls. Couldn't they have built the viewing area at the bottom of the falls???? Makes sense to me!!!!And what about that crooked tree growing in the middle of the picture??? Couldn't someone cut that down.....so I can get a descent picture!!

Campground pictures....

With in walking distance of our campground was Biffy's Army Surplus....we ventured over there one day...a lot of un-useful items...but we did find a few gems! Trent and Dakota bought these dress hats and some pins to go on them. Some of the boys bought steel toed rubber boots and Craig bought some other boots.....we did a little damage at Biffy's. I not sure Biffy's has seem that many people at one time in awhile!

Nic, Trent & DakotaTyler doing a little dish washing...Steve doing a little egg frying...in our kitchen...lol!On our way home....we decided, at the last minute, to stop by Pictured Rock and Miners Castle. It was a beautiful day! Another year we plan to go on the boat cruise...but not this year! So, we had to view it from the shore.....Troy, Tyler and Steve looking over Lake Superior....Miners CastleCraig & Kristi....As we were sailing home, we blew a trailer tire....lucky for us we had our spare just inside the door....and the jack in the back of the truck...we literally were back on the road in 10 minutes...can you say pit crew! I'll leave you with one last story! About Tuesday we were on a trail when Steve stopped and said he had a bug in his ear. He jumped off and started running around the trail banging on the side of his head. He asked Daren to look in his ear and see if he could see the bug. (about this time we were all laughing at his antics) He was calling for a flash light..no one had one, so he was using the headlight on the front of Daren's quad...needless to say Daren couldn't see any bug. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, Steve put his helmet on and banged his head on the rack on his quad to try to get the bug out....I didn't get a picture (it all happened so fast!) of that! We thought it was pretty funny although Steve didn't seem to find the humor as much as we did!

Fun times, fun memories.....until next year!

U.P. 3...

More U.P. vacation.... You would think we were gone for a month!

I won't explain each picture as some are self explanatory!!

The kids on Facebook and playing computer games...the campground had wifi...and boy if it went down...we were all up in arms!

Brothers sharing a moment together! A 'Creme Curl' moment that is. Daren's still burned they didn't share one with him!

Campfire moments..... This is Wagner Falls. We ran over there one night at about 9:30...it was pretty dark out but with a night setting on my camera we were able to get a descent picture. It was about 5 minutes from our campground!

This is 'Ranger Daren'....when Steve got stuck out in the woods he quickly moved into action with his cape on. Ranger Daren to the rescue... These are some 'Mud Moments'....
The axle of Steve's quad Kelly stuck in the mud..getting a tow out.

Steve REALLY stuck in the mud...I bailed!! Nic & Troy's shoes.....nice!

Troy getting a tow out by Steve...backwards!A place we couldn't get through the trail. It doesn't look that bad..but we couldn't make it through...we had to forge our trail through the woods

and our new trail looked like this.....

On Friday we went on a mud trail....not to be confused with all the other mud. But this was an 'on purpose' day! So we got stuck many many times. It was a boys dream!

Tyler & Trent....

Ummm....this was not to good on his engine...mud was crusted in his radiator...the whole way home it over heated!

Steve & Joanne....

Kelly & Kelsey...

Troy stuck......

Kelly & Kelsey stuck.....

Needless to say that was a muddy day! The dad's had to load up their quads and take them into Munising to the carwash!