Smiling and Sweating

Jon and I don't have many pictures taken of just to two of us, but on this night we got all dressed up, and we had somewhere to go, so I thought it was a good opportunity.  And no, we didn't run a few miles before this picture.  We're at a wedding.  It was a really beautiful outdoor wedding of one of Jon's cousins.  It just happened to be wicked hot on this night too.  We were among lots of happy family and folks all dressed up, looking good, and sweating...lots of sweating. 

Congrats to Eric & Kristen!

Six Month Lil' Til'

Cottage-cation: Elk Edition

We went to an Amber Elk Ranch in Ludington again.  This time we waited until the weekend, and we took the whole family.  We knew what we were in for, but they didn't.  My parents were in the back of the tour wagon, and I could see right away they were kinda in shock when they saw the elk approach the wagon. 
After a couple stops, I thought they had the hang of it; we even fed some elk, but then we went to go see the mamas and their babies.  One of our tour guides stayed outside the gate because he had to do some watering, but then he didn't join us because "If you get between a mama and her baby she'll stomp you." 
Nice.  Well, not shortly after that an elk starts walking up the back steps of the wagon.  There was a large bucket of food by our feet.  My family FREAKED OUT.  We didn't simply because we had done this before, and the same thing happened on our last tour.  I heard a stressed voice from the back yell, "Mam!  Mam!  He's coming up here.  Mam!  Mam!"
Everyone panicked. I tried to push the elk back off the wagon, but then my family yelled at me because I was holding Tilden.
The young lady giving our tour calmly walked to the back of the wagon and gently touched the elk, and she backed off the wagon.
Oh.  Nice.  My dad says, "Well, I didn't realize it was that easy."
My mom then says, "We're sorry mam.  We're from the city."

Yup!  That's my family, and this is story I'll laugh at for many more years to come.

Cottage-cation: Sand and Water Edition

Lots of sand and water up north where we lake to play, and we took in lots of both. Tilden dipped her toes in Lake Michigan for the first time. Jon and Brighton went on Mac Woods Dune rides for the first time. I finally went in the dune buggy with the boys after a hiatus of many years. I sent Brighton and Jon in the lake with their clothes on one night because they were so sandy; I didn't even want them to come inside to change into their bathing suits.  We even gave Brighton a bath once in the lake...sudsy washcloth and all.  Even so, there was sand in all of our beds which in me brought out slight annoyance, but also the certainty that we were all playing hard and having a great time.