Our boys are in the newspapers :-)

 My boys are so gosh darn cute...

 And we go places...usually to cheap / free events... but like adventures...

And this month... We were in not one, but two local newspapers!

This is in the Vermilion Photo Journal, from the June Fish Festival.  We had entered, and won, the preschool division of the sand castle contest with our dragon attacking the castle.

 

This is from the Blues Festival in Huron on July 5th.  The boys were enjoying the live concert and dancing around.   So cute... and yes, Tamlin is sporting a striped shirt and plaid pants and fedora.  He is such a slave to fashion :-)

camping - day 2

We were up with the birds in the morning... one thing about tents is that there really isn't much sleeping in when the rest of the outside world is waking up.
  There were donuts for a quick breakfast, and of course, an early swim in the lake.  We slowly packed up our things and said goodbye to our little camp.b

We decided to be tourists for the day ... and hit up one of the local family attractions.  Our first stop was Perry's Cave.  According to our guides, this is where Captain Perry found drinking water for his men.
The cave tour was short but fun, mostly because it was Tamlin and Jude's first cave experience.  Lots of little stalagtite sodastraws hanging from the ceiling.   Do you see the lion sleeping here?
Jude wasn't too sure about it and insisted on being carried most of the time.  I think he didn't like the darken atmosphere and slippery trail.

Tamlin had fun.  And both boys liked it when they were allowed to touch an "eyeball" stalagmite.

After the cave, we went for a late brunch at the coffee shop/bagel shop/ chocolate store.
With bellies full, we headed back to fun times...
Like mini-golf!
What a hoot...but our boys certainly are not golf prodigies.

We just had fun with no score keeping, lots of ball swapping, and more than a few goofy shots.  Both boys got the concept of the game, but the means of hitting the ball with the club was a bit... interesting.  I'll just say that there may have been some shots taken using the club like a pool cue and other times where balls were "helped" along with a foot.

After mini-golf, we attempted a giant wooden maze. Man-oh-man it was a smidge more complicated than I had anticipated.  We had to wander through the maze and find four hole punches to complete the quest... it took us 30 minutes to finish it... and we were tired and hot by the end.  However, the kids did win prizes, which were Put-in-Bay bracelets.

We were hot, hot, hot and needed air-conditioning.  Our last attraction stop was the butterfly garden, which Jude loved.  He was fascinated by the butterflies emerging from the cocoons.

Both boys liked walking through the plants trying to find the different insects.  One even found a little refuge on my hat.  We left the gardens with a poster picturing all the different butterflies, which Jude clutched the entire ride home.

We did stop at the beach for one last romp in the lake before cleaning up and heading back home on the ferry.  Both boys slept well after our excursion in the fresh air.
Fun times.
Awesome.
Can't wait to drag out the tent again :-)

Here's our last photo... It's a find the Tamlin photo :-)

Camping at South Bass Island - Day one

We went on on first camping excursion of the summer season.

 I wanted something relatively close.  Brian wanted there to be hiking and a campfire for roasting dinner.  The boys just wanted to sleep in the tent.

I decided on an adventure to Put-in-Bay, specifically to South Bass Island Park.  Since this was on an island... we had to get there via the ferry, which the boys thought was awesome.  I too thought it was pretty cool to drive my car onto a boat and ride across the waters.  I knew little about the island, except that it wasn't too big and people go there to tool around in golf carts. (We didn't rent a golf cart this time).


I choose this camp because all the best sites were on the lake and ONLY for tent campers.  I opted to take my chances and not put in a reservation with its $8 charge.  The downside was that the campsites are very close to each other, but since we were there on a Sunday evening, it was quiet.

We got to the state park around noon...and, unfortunately, the ranger was on her lunch hour break.  We had to eat crappy pizza and wait while the boys played on the playground and the sky started turning grey. 

Then, the first site she gave us was too small for our tent.  We requested a second site, 103 I think.  As I went to change the site officially, it began to get windy, really windy.  Brian was trying to put the tent up, by himself, in the windstorm.  (What a trooper, but it was a fail).  I got back, we tried to turn the tent around so that the door was on the lee side of the wind...but then the rain started.  We gave up, put rocks on the on popped tent, and waited out the storm in the car.  I looked at Brian; he looked at me; we decided what the hey...camping is all about adventure...and third time is the charm with getting our tent up.

Success.  The rest of the night yielded no more rain, but some more high winds throughout the late night hours.




This was one of the best reasons we stayed.
We had our own little trail that wound down a little cliff to our own little beach on the Lake.
Awesome.
Really awesome.
The water was on the clear side for the Lake, with little algae, lots of rocks (no sand), shells, and sea glass.

The boys all had fun exploring and climbing over the rocks and swimming.

Our spoils of sea glass from our little beach...will make Christmas ornaments :-)

After the camp was set up, we headed out to explore the town and walk around.  My car was one of the few on the road between the golf carts and bikes.  The town's boardwalk housed many restaurants, many bars, many tourist shops, and a smatering of ice cream soda fountains.  We enjoyed wandering around and trying on different hats from different shops...which Brian did find an awesome hat.

We opted to go back to camp for dinner. Yummy bratwursts and asparagus roasted on the open fire.

And then, more swimming... and marshmallow roasting.

Look at these happy faces :-)
We watched the sunset. The stars started to appear so we set up the telescope to see the tiny twinkles of light.  I did get at least one star in focus, but had better luck watching the lights of the boats on the far side of the bay. After a little while, Jude goes up to Brian and tells him that he is tired and wants to go to sleep.  So cute.  We tucked the boys into their sleeping bags and spent a quiet evening together enjoying the fire and stars.  Very peaceful listening to the waves crash and the wind whistle.
I slept well, even when the wind picked up in the wee hours of the morning.

Garden Bounty

Lesson I have learned... Stagger the planting!

Our beans are being harvested, roasted, and gobbled up.
Our first zuchini has been harvested, with a bazillion more to go.
Our first few fingerling potatos have been pulled, cooked, and devoured.
The blueberries are slowly ripening and being popped into waiting mouths.
Tomatoes are ripening and peppers are starting.

 

Tamlin has been fairly fascinated with the garden and the idea that we grew our own food and get to eat it.  Jude is excited that food is right there to eat when he wants to try it...though he only nibbles than tries something else.

Brian's thoughts:
Harvesting continues; green beans, Italian rose beans, fingerling potatoes and our first zucchini all picked today.  We roasted potatoes, beans, zuke, and radishes together with a bit of Montreal steak seasoning and deliciousness followed :-)

Trip to see the family and Geneva on the Lake

 

 With the weekend off, I drove over to see some of the family... especially my pregnant sister :-)  (Isn't she glowing!)
The little ones had fun playing in the kiddie pool and we all had fun sitting in the shade and squirting them with water.  Later, we all headed down to Geneva on the Lake for a bit of nostalgia. All of us who grew up around here have fond memories of strolling the strip here.  Many places haven't changed at all over the years.  The fun house mirrors in Eddie's Arcade are still there...

 Woody's world arcade is still there...complete with some of the same old games from yesterday. Both boys had good times playing skeeball and winning prize tickets.  We came home with some awesomely annoying whistles and metal rings...

 Of course we all had to eat at Eddie's Grill.  Mom and Dale ate with us too...enjoying foot long fried hot dogs, greasy fries, and fresh squeezed lemonade.

Awwww....

The great days of summertime...

I love creating these memories with my family :-)