When these boys get together…
Strange things often happen…
Jun 29
Declan and Owen went to their first Cub Scout Fun Day last month. This is a day when Camp Munhacke is open to the Cubs and their families. There are lots of things for them to do. The usual shooting sports stations are open as well as crafts, sports, and Minute To Win It games!
The boys walking down the back road. Still early and a little chilly.
Owen’s already over and Declan is about to clear the hurdle on the obstacle course
They had to put their whole body through the hoops.
Climb the wall, and try to not fall down the other side!
They’re on their way to the next adventure. Can Dad keep up?
Their first try at archery using real bows and arrows. Neither of them were that impressed this time.
Owen enjoyed the BB Guns. He hit the pie plate target a couple of times!
Declan also hit the target a couple of times. A very successful first attempt!
Kieran and the other Boy Scouts from Troop 240 were running the Minute To Win It game station during fun day. We finally got there by mid-day. Stick the Landing involves tossing a half full plastic water bottle and trying to get it to land upright on the table.
This Minute To Win It game involved stacking five apples on top of each other. All in one minute. Without them falling.
Declan’s favorite station of the day was the wrist rockets. He shot a whole lot of dog food!
Owen is really pulling that slingshot back.
It was a very fun day. My compliments to the volunteers who made Cub Scout Fun Day happen. My boys and I really appreciate how much effort you put into making our day memorable.
Mar 26
Today was Declan and Owen’s first Pinewood Derby. It’s their first year as Cub Scouts and the Derby is one of the highlights of the year. They picked out their car designs from a book mom brought home from the library. It wasn’t much of a plan, just a shape. So we improvised the rest.
The cars from all the dens were raced in various heats. When it was all said and done only the scouts from a particular den competed against each other. There are eight other boys in the Tiger Den with Declan and Owen. In the end Owen took first place and Declan took second place! They were both incredibly excited.
Here are the boys and their cars and their winners trophies. They had to take a serious picture first.
After the serious picture it was time to get goofy!
Mar 12
Life goes by so very fast and leaves no time to blog. However, I wanted to share these pictures that the boys created for the Original Works program that their school is offering again this year.
Owen made a family portrait for his original work. Even the cats are included.
Declan's outer space scene. He's very proud of the alien turtle on the red planet.
Oct 24
Owen has a stuffed kitty named Candy Corn. He decided one day that it was soon to be Candy Corn’s birthday. When he mentioned that he needed a birthday present Linda suggested they could make some treats.
Out came the playdough! I think the results were very impressive. Owen was thrilled with the results as well as the time with mom.
Candy corn, and fishies for a kitty's treats. Plus a bowl to put them in.
Aug 09
Linda returned home on July 15th and noticed this turtle walking on our driveway. So the whole family had to check it out. After we all had a look we put him in a box and walked him over to the pond across the street. When we released him there he scurried into the water pretty quickly.
When most of us saw him he was partway under the car in the driveway.
He looks a little disgusted doesn't he?
May 27
Sometimes there are books that the twins really want Kieran to read to them. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind.
Kieran reads Power Rangers to Declan and Owen
May 26
On Easter while Linda had the boys in a photo taking mood and me with the camera she wanted pictures with each of them.
She almost couldn't convince Kieran to pose
Owen knows how to strike a pose
Declan's always ready for a picture
May 25
Easter was not a huge to do this year. Just a very nice meal enjoyed by a happy family. That’s enough isn’t it?
Owen appears to be very happy about the dinner Mom made for Easter
Here’s the centerpiece Linda created for the dining room.
Candles, flowers, and eggs - the colored and the peanut butter kind
It’s not often that all of us guys put on something that isn’t a t-shirt. So when it happens there must be a picture.
Family photo from Easter 2011
Thanks to this picture I finally replaced the old banner image for this site. This one is much better. Hope you had a nice Easter.
Oct 02
We took a little vacation to Ludington over the Labor Day weekend. Linda and I used to visit Ludington quite a bit. Even after Kieran was born we went a number of times. We even camped in the state park back then. However, we haven’t been back to Ludington for a stay since we became a family of five. It was nice to be back!
We surrounded our one night in Ludington with nights in Reed City. So we headed up to Reed City on Friday night. We had dinner at home and then hit the road. We thought maybe Declan and Owen would sleep in the car if we got a later start. That didn’t work all that well, but it was worth a try. Saturday we got ourselves over to Wrights Bake Shop for breakfast. We got enough to take with us for the next day too. It’s always great to visit Wrights!
We made the hour drive to Ludington and got there around lunch time. What to do for lunch?! Linda got a brilliant idea. She suggested we got to Bortell’s. If you ever go to Ludington during the Summer you must eat at Bortells. We were introduced to it by the proprietors of Bed and Breakfast at Ludington where we used to stay. It’s a little way out of town, but quite popular. They do seafood. You pick what you want from their display case, then they take it out and fry it up right in front of you. Oh it is good!
Bortells is on South Lakeshore Drive along Lake Michigan outside Ludington. There isn't much parking in the lot.
Because Bortells is so popular, there are usually cars parked along the road.
There is no inside seating at Bortells. If you want to sit down and eat, there are picnic tables outside.
We got two orders of whitefish, an order of shrimp, an order of fried mushrooms, and an order of fries. Yum!
Something's fishy
Since there are five of us these days, our favorite B&B isn’t as good an option any more. So we opted to rent a cottage for the night. The Lakeview Cottages owners were nice enough to rent to us for a single night at the last minute. It was the end of the season so they helped us out. Our cottage (#3) was nice. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it’s good. The kids weren’t sure about the lack of TV, but that’s just fine for Linda and I. It does have Wifi which works for the two of us.
Our cottage was actually the back portion of this corner building.
Here are the boys outside our cottage door.
After we got our stuff unloaded we walked a couple of blocks down to Stearns Park. That’s the city’s lakefront park. The wind was pretty strong, and it had been for a while. It had blown lots of sand off the beach across the parking lot into the grassy part of the park. It was also causing big waves that were crashing up over the north breakwater. We thought it was crazy that there were actually people out on the breakwater while those waves were present. Our common sense was right. On Monday, after we’d returned home, a tourist was out on the breakwater and a big wave swept him right off into the lake and he drowned. You should never underestimate the power of the lake!
The waves are crashing over the breakwater and common sense is apparently absent.
I thought the sky was amazing.
Just a small sample of the sand blown off the beach. The city spent the next week putting it back.
After we walked the length of the park we were at Ludington Avenue. So we headed up the street and checked out some of the shops. It didn’t take long for the kids to get bored with that. We had dinner at the Jamesport Brewing Company. A walk in the dark back to our cottage was fun. When the kids weren’t being raucous we could hear Lake Michigan a couple of blocks away.
Sunday was Big Sable Point day. We had the Wrights goodies that we brought with us for breakfast, picked up some lunch at Subway, and then drove out to Ludington State Park. We parked at the Lake Michigan beach and started our walk to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. To get to the light you either have to walk along the beach or a state park road. You cannot drive out to it. The walk along the beach is much more fun so we do that. On the way out there was much “I cannot walk one more step” heard from the children. It got better once we walked far enough for the top of the lighthouse to come into view.
Kieran and Mom had lots to talk about on the way to the lighthouse. You can just see the top of it over the grass.
A little further down the beach, now it looks like a lighthouse.
Now the color bands are more visible. The kids were getting more excited at this point.
The fog signal is visible on the left now.
Keepers quarters starting to rise out of the grass.
This view gives quite a different perspective. I didn't realize somebody was looking down at me until after I took the picture.
We paid the keepers and climbed those stairs to the top of the tower.
Hold on to your hats! It's windy up at the top of the lighthouse.
Looking toward the lake from the top of the lighthouse. The replica fog signal structure doesn't actually have a fog signal in it.
This is the view behind the lighthouse from up top.
Looking down at the Keepers Quarters from the top of the lighthouse.
This is the view back in the direction we came from.
Looking down the beach we walk to get to the lighthouse.
We sat down for lunch in the shadow of the tower, but the shadow moved.
From the shadow of the tower the sun cast a bright glow from behind the top of the tower.
There's no bathroom in the Keeper's Quarters, but there is a very fancy outhouse.
This huge tree stump is between the lighthouse and the outhouse
As we started to walk back from Big Sable Lighthouse I spotted this out on the lake.
On the way back from the lighthouse everybody eventually removed their shoes and walked close along the water.
Just can't resist the sand.
One of us was holding this kite for our walk out and back to the lighthouse. There's no better place to fly a kite.
It was a beautiful day to walk along the water. The sun was shining and it wasn’t too hot or cold.
We made it back to Reed City for dinner with Grandma and Grandpa who came up that day. After a nice evening with them the kids slept well. The fresh air and walking helps with that. Monday it was time to head home. It was a short vacation, but a great end to the Summer.
