Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all of our friends and family who have served us in the various branches of the military! I am so thankful for brave men and women who are willing to put their lives on the line for me and my family - especially our own heroes Joe Nichelson and Ron Widerberg.

We have been enjoying a relaxing weekend with our little family. On Saturday we took the girls to the beach (Sherman Park) here in town before heading to a graduation open house for one of Abby's babysitters (Kasi) who also happens to be the big sister of Abby's little girlfriend Autumn. She had tons of fun running around the open house with Autumn and came home nice and sweaty. She's also figured out that drawing on herself results in a bath. And since she loves baths we have caught her drawing on herself 3 times this weekend. She no longer has access to any markers and I think all the pens have been stored too. She is too smart for her own good.

Sunday after church we took a little drive over to Deer Park, Michigan to go to Lake Superior. We took a top secret two-track to get back to the section of beach where the Sucker River meets the big lake. Abby had so much fun playing in the river and digging up the sand. The pictures from our adventure got posted yesterday (see below). Even Olivia loved having her toes in the water. She kept stretching her legs to find the water when I was sitting on the riverbank holding her. Since it has been in the 80's here for almost two straight weeks the water in our lakes and rivers has been exceptionally warm. It's like August water in May. So weird. One sad thing about the unseasonably warm and dry weather we've had this year is how dry a lot of the lakes and rivers have become. We drove by Muskellunge Lake, which is on the way to our favorite campground, and it was down a lot. So much that some sections of the lake were totally dry.

Today Steve and I are celebrating our 7th anniversary. We aren't doing a very good job of doing anything too special. Just the basic weekend type hanging out. We had lunch out (at Taco Bell - Abby's favorite) and went to Wal-Mart for groceries and supplies for our road trip next weekend. And I've been working on laundry and trying to figure out what is going on with our basement and water. Every time I do a load of laundry we get about 2 gallons of water on the floor, but we can't for the life of us figure out where or how it gets there. I've even sat and watched the pipes for a whole load and can't find a leak anywhere. I'm beginning to think I need to call in an expert.