Surprise!!!!

A couple short weeks ago my Mother-in-Law turned 70!

Yeah, that's right 70!...

and boy was she surprised!

We all gathered at the Swan Inn and waited for her arrival!

Her immediate family went outside to be the "first" surprise 

As they pulled up....

Her 3 boys....Steve, Craig & Mike greeting her....

Steve & his mom 

overwhelmed with emotion 

the "second" surprise! 

the rest of the surprise waited in the basement... 

the Birthday Girl's crown & sash

The Birthday girl and her best man!

Ooops kind of blurry

one of the tables 

and another 

and another! 

Thank you all for coming!!

Family from near & far 

(Craig, Kristi, Florin & Nic drove 5+ hours that day and drove home the next morning...that's a lot of driving!)

Friends New & Old!

I know Bonnie appreciated each and everyone of you!!

 Thank you all of you coming and celebrating her special day with her!

A HUGE thanks to Karen (her sister) and Lynette (her niece) for doing all the behind the scenes work!

  The Academy Award goes to Uncle Jim & Aunt Karen for their stellar performance in the car prior to arriving!

Awesome night and fun memories!

School Days....

It's that time of year again...time for the kids to go back to school.

We have a Senior & a 5th grader!

Troy & Mr Crofoot, his Kindergarten teacher

Lets hear it now....Awww....he's so cute?!?!?

Troy as a Senior! 

is excited for the first day of his last year of High School! 

Trent starting his 5th grade year

He has Mrs. Freeland 

I pray for these boys often and hope we have a successful 2012-2013 school year!

AND Tyler is in his 2nd year at GRCC.  He will have to transfer (somewhere??) in the spring!

All Aboard....

::Groupon deal::

So I purchased this "deal" and we were running out of time to use it.

While the "guys" were still in the U.P. Trent and I took a ride on the Coopersville & Marne railway.

He had never taken a train ride before.

Trent as the conductor!

enjoying the view

Trent playing with my camera

me visiting with people on the train...I guess I thought I was the train hostess! Hahaha

I had to laugh (Trent & I are sooo alike!!) these people forgot their camera and Trent kept wanting me to take their picture...he was sure I should talk to them...take their picture and email it to them (most people would just sit back and look out the window!!!)  We can't wait to talk to people around us and "interview" them.....see where they are from, how many kids they have, what their ages are, did they buy this on Groupon??

back window....

We went to the bathroom ...it was in the other car...while Trent was walking between the cars we hit a bump!

The engine!

if you have a little train lover...this was a fun, not-too-long ride.

They also do a pumpkin train and Santa train.

Mommy & Me

If you know Trent like I know Trent, you would know how much he has wanted to visit the infamous Mystery Spot in St Ignace.  We have passed it often to & from our quading trips without time to stop at the tourist trap.  It's funny how his radar goes off when we are getting close to the location along Hwy 2!

 (Labor Day week-end) Steve & Troy were going on a Quading Trip to the U.P. with Daren, Darick & Dakota, so I thought it a perfect time for Trent and I to head North!

On Thur Trent & I headed North to Mackinac City to spend the night...and "See the Sights"  Thur we crossed the bridge, went to....

Trent in one of the rooms!

Just down the road a bit, we went to Deer Ranch

I think Trent's Daddy would like to "meat" up with this beauty!!

albino

 a little more north was Castle Rock& Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue OX

Castle Rock is a bit of a climb up the stairs but the long high ramp was about more than I could do! Did I mention how high it was????  I did conquer my fears and made my way out to the flag (without crawling!!)

By the flag..see the enjoyment on my face!

While we were in St Ignace we looked up the Elmblads...which will be my nieces future in-laws.  So, Trent & I made a surprise visit to Mark Elmblad's office (State Farm Agent) ....he wanted us to met his wife (Carol) and daughter (Nicole) so we drove out to their home on the shores of Lake Huron.  They were every gracious in meeting us.  They have a beautiful view of the bridge in their back yard!  Looks kind of like this picture only it would have the bridge over our left shoulder. Side note my nieces (from CA) is engaged to a guy that grew up in St Igance and graduated from Uof M and lives in CA...SMALL WORLD!!

After coming back to the M/City side we walked the beach by the bridge a bit

Trent held up the bridge for the vehicles

then we back to our hotel, which had a water park..it wasn't no Great Wolf but it was kinda fun for him!

Friday morning we jump on a Ferry and headed to the island!  Trent had never been to the Island.  I've been many times as Craig & Kristi use to live there so we went often.  They moved off shortly after Trent was born so he never made it.  

The Ferry we took goes under the bridge one time a day so we made sure to ride that ferry over!

We took a carriage ride

and went to Arch Rock

and to the Fort!

and walked downtown! 

Trent's words when we walked out to main street from the ferry.."Oh, I thought it would be more run down!!"

and we rode the ferry back to the mainland!

oh and we bought some fudge...duh!!!

Captain Trent!

We had a great time together! I think he will remember this trip for many years!

Lessons Learned

I was able to snap one quick picture of this month long project....but I could have gotten many many pictures if I would have been on my 'A' game!

BUT they would have all looked about the same!

With out going into more detail than you would want to know....I will post the idea behind this post.

We had  problems with the Lincoln...engine problems....like oil in the spark plugs problem..not good!

Short of sounding like a broken record... this was not a job Steve could do with ease.  Being on his foot and having it "down" was not easy, it basically would swell up like an elephant leg and throb like a toothache.  It was painful!    We SERIOUSLY considered having a garage do all the repairs but it was going to be a costly job!  One of the major jobs that needed to be done was to replace the cam cover gaskets...there were 2 and not easily gotten to (like with any car job!!) Steve jumped into the project with his willing and not-so-willing assistant Troy.   They spent many many hours together under that hood...some joyful, some not so joyful, some sweaty (as we were in the middle of July)...you get the idea!

Troy learned some life lessons under that hood.....how an engine works....which in and of itself is priceless!  Most men don't even begin to know how to do what his dad taught him on those long hot days in the garage!  He learned how to reach a dropped bolt, how to replace a gasket, how to remove spark plugs, what a coil pack is (and I know what it is too..well kind of!) and how to replace an air conditioning line!

He got his hands dirty, I mean really dirty! 

He worked shoulder to shoulder with his dad!  Our days are numbered with that boy...I mean, our days to teach him stuff like this.  He learned how to be a man & how to be an assistant (he would say it was.."get that Troy", "Troy hold this",  "Troy get that socket") but we know better.. someday, he will look back when he is under his hood knowing how to repair something....he will smile with a thankful heart!  

Steve did not necessarily set out to teach Troy these lessons.   Had he not had a messed up leg he probably would have proceeded with this repair with out Troy's help. BUT they both didn't have a choice! Not sure who was learning the life lesson's here..Troy or Steve...both have learned valuable lessons in the summer of 2012!

God puts "challenges" in our lives to teach us all lessons.  Most of the time it's multiple lessons learned by multiple people!  I would be lying if I stated Troy enjoyed it and was always willing and I would also be lying if I stated Steve was always a great teacher and never got frustrated but it still was a great summer of learning....despite our selfish human motives!

Quad Squad 2012

So this is looong over due!!!

Sometimes (maybe all the time!) when you have a lot of pictures to pick and choice to describe your vacation/event it takes awhile to "gear up" to get it done!  Well at least that's my excuse!  I could have by passed this event but years from now (or next week) when my memory is failing me, I can look back and remember what went on in my life...=)!!

This actually took place in July.  With Steve with a ruptured Achilles Tendon we were skeptical if we could take this trip....we attempted to reschedule it for later in the summer..but with 5 families schedules involved....wasn't going to happen.  So we decided to attempt the trip and see how it went with an injured rider.

First hurtle .....who's going to drive the Lincoln pulling a 20 ft trailer??  Steve-no  Joanne-maybe   Troy-possibility?  Troy was the lucky winner....Steve was very confident he could do it no problem....me, on the other hand, was a little unsure....I of course see Troy as a 10 year old boy.....not a 17 year old "almost" man!

We did think it would be adventitious to travel with the Wilson's, in case of a problem.  Here are the rigs as we stopped in Big Rapids for Wendy's.  Wilson's made a wise investment in a cargo trailer this year...I think they were pretty happy!

Troy's first time driving over the bridge...pulling a trailer, in the rain, with construction... 

Steve following Dr orders by keeping his leg elevated (pretty sure they meant in the living room on the couch!!!) 

Kristi with her new quad and matching attire! 

On of our favorite stops is Autrain Falls.  One of our difficulties with Steve's leg was we couldn't haul is crutches...so he made a stick crutch so he could hobble down to the falls. Remember at this point he was not "suppose" to be putting weight on his leg. 

Trent in the falls (& Derick) 

Steve with the camera 

Kelsey took our picture to prove we were here! 

and then there was Eddie...not just Eddie....Eddie Thomas.  Eddie has a great life! In Eddie's former life he was a CPR dummy.  He has retired to a life of quading.  Let me just explain a bit. Daren's friend has a razor 2 person side by side that he rides and they thought he looked lonely riding so they got Eddie to co-pilot with him.  So Daren brought Eddie along on our quad trip...he makes a lot of friends.  We would move him around our campsite...as to "freak" out other campers...it worked!  As a matter of fact, we had some cabins next to us and the girl that was staying there was always wondering where he was ..she was sure he would show up at their cabin in the night....they loved him.  One day they drug there daughter over to have a photo op with Eddie...She wasn't so impressed but we got a good laugh out of it. When they were leaving they had us bring Eddie over so they could get a family picture with him!!!  Tooo Funny!!!  Oh and then there was the maintenance man that really liked Eddie....he even gave Eddie a ride in the golf cart.  We think Eddie needs his own blog...wouldn't that be great, you could check into Eddie's where about! 

So Kelly, Dakota, Trent and myself took a couple days off of riding to do some hiking to see some of the near by falls.... 

one of my favorites! 

Dirty faced Troy ...lunch on the trail!!

in front of the Wandering Wheels sign.  I believe there was 15 of us...when we roll into town you know it!! 

We also do a t-shirt auction for fun. We end up with a shirt for that day of riding. 

here is grandma's shirt.....perfect for her??

Daren & Craig's shirts were a wee bit small...

Kristi is the owner of the trophy for the year and Troy is wearing her shirt! 

Look away if you are squeamish

Craig had to make a few modifications

I only had to pay him a $1 

It's so wrong!!!!

Proud moment for Kristi

Mike mods his too!

What you can't see is he tied 2 pieces in back...like a maternity shirt.

Autrain point or as the locals call it...Pair-o-dice

It is beautiful and so much fun to swim and play around!

even G-pa went swimming!

Taking Steve and G-ma for a walk around Autrain Point.

It was kind of a field trip for the aged and the crippled!

Steve was "icing" his foot in Lake Superior

the boys climbed up on a point

I believe it is David & Troy??

2 little mermaids washed up on a rock....

When we came back to leave we had a flat tire on one of the quads.. some nice gentleman had a air pump in the back of his van...which went flat again..he had a tire repair kit in his van and fixed the tire...totally a God thing!!!  Yes, that's Daren in a swimsuit and boots!

joanne cooking 2 lbs of bacon in her "kitchen".

Craig & Kristi  also invested in a cargo trailer.

"Quad Cribs"

The Wilson's Crib

Praying for safe travels

On another day Kelly, Dakota, Trent & Myself hiked some more waterfalls

Which we excited to get to till we realized we went there last year...Oops!  I guess we didn't know the name of the waterfall last year!  Well it was a fun hike anyway!

our lunch room!

or as I called it "Laughing Trout Falls"...well, I knew it was some kind of fish name!

It was kind of dried up...

after a long day we made a stop at DQ

Cooking mushrooms over the campfire

campfires are fun!!!

prayer for our journeys home

one thing I didn't get a picture of were the adults eating at the Dogpatch....I think Bonnie has a picture, I need to get it from her and add it to the blog!

Hope you enjoyed our vacation!!!