Beautiful Icy Place

We really do live in a beautiful place.

Someone else feels the same.  They sanded the beaten icy path down to the beach so everyone can enjoy what I did.

Family Weekend

My sister-in-law, niece and nephew came to visit for the weekend.  My nephew was checking out our town and the university here.  My husband is very excited at the thought of him coming to school here.  Since my sister-in-law regrets not going away to college, she is even more excited about the prospect of her son going away to school.  He seemed excited but did mention that he was concerned about the long trip here.

We always have fun when they come to town.  We laugh a lot and despite having a full house, it's pretty laid back.  My kind of company.

 

Painting Birch

So my friend, Cindi, sent me an email and told me of this painting class.  You get to paint a picture and do some wine tasting.  SOLD!  This particular week they were going to paint birch trees.  BONUS!  WIN, WIN!

It was so relaxing and fun.  I would do it again in a heat beat.  Step out that box and try something new.

My Church

I don't go to church.  Have an opinion about that if you want.  My church is a quiet moment in nature a lot of times.  Sunrises, sunsets, northern lights, the lake, a trail in the woods.  Seeing those things and being near them lifts my spirits, makes me thankful for life, and clears my mind.

On Friday morning this week, this sunrise was my church.  With the great weather, I had wanted to catch a sunrise all week.  I was crabby and busy and thinking about a decision I would have to make soon.   By the end of Thursday I felt so frustrated, I decided to take Friday off to decompress.  After I dropped my son off at school, I saw that orange ball of fire coming up off the lake and knew God was calling me.  "Come to Jesus, girl."  I needed to be reminded that my life doesn't suck and things always work out.

 

Bike Riding at Lunch Down Memory Lane

 We've been having super weather for this time of year.  It feels like summer.  I rode my bike to work the other day...cuz I can!  It really feels like a second cup of coffee for me sometimes.  Everything is still pretty quiet that time of morning.

At lunchtime, I thought I would ride my bike down to the lake and just soak in awesomeness for an hour.  I sat on a bench and closed my eyes for a while.  Then I strolled down the beach.  I felt pretty blessed.

That particular space has a lot of memories for my family.  We'd take our kids there all the time when they were tater tots and we didn't have our own backyard.  I got a little sad looking at the playground.  You know that feeling as a parent when it feels sad, nostalgic but warm?  That was the one.

I remember when each my kids ran across the tops of the green tires by themselves for the first time, starting on the little ones and then trying the big ones.  My daughter loved to pushed insanely high and fast on the tire swing.  My son always running towards the beach to throw rocks in the water.  Why do those memories always evoke tears?  Are they tears of sadness or happiness?  Sadness because those days are gone and happiness because you were lucky to have them?  That's my guess.

Beerfest 2014

Last year was the first time I went to the local Beerfest.  Afterwards I had the strangest buzz.  So strange that when my husband asked me if I wanted to go again this year, I was not real excited.  But my sister-in-law needed a weekend away from home and wanted to drink beer so I said okay.

This year I plotted out my choices, staying away from all the hyped barrel-aged stuff.  Well, I did have one but I also managed to drink slow and sip some water now and again.  It worked out much better and we had a lot of fun.  The weather was perfect.  We drank beer, made fun of some people, laughed at ourselves and my husband got an autographed beer sign from the guys of Dark Horse Nation.

And we're off.  Nice photo bombers in the back.

Cheers to the lightweights in the chairs...one hour in.

Autographed sign..made hubby's day

Beer guzzling bunny band

Fat man on an apple swing

Last two tokens, baby.

We Live Where People Vacation

Jussayin...

A Different Kind of Snow Day

It's Memorial Weekend.  Today it was almost 85 degrees and, yet, we share the water with icebergs. Amazing.  It was a hell of a winter and this weekend marks where winter finally or almost has ended and summer is trying to begin.

Michigan Tech Winter Carnival

Last weekend we ventured further up north to Houghton for winter carnival.  I used to live up there and remember going to see the ice sculptures as a kid.  My kids weren't as enthused as I was to be there but it was a rare occasion that all four of us spent the day together.  My son did like the theme (super heroes) and took more pictures than me.  We had a good time.

Eben Ice Caves

I can check a little something off my bucket list; visiting the Eben Ice Caves.  It was perfect weather for winter hiking on Saturday and the family was bored so I suggested going there.  It was a fairly easy but long hike in.  Seeing the ice was worth the journey though.  Pretty cool.

Turkey Jive

Ready to eat...

Check out my turkey art.  Apparently someone was just jealous or mean or both...

Truth be told, I'm having a hard time with holidays this year.  I've been thinking a lot of my grama who passed a year ago.  I'm also just bummed and mad that we can't afford to travel for the holidays to be with family and no one is coming to see us.  Despite how much I love living in the Yoop, I sometimes feel really lonely and isolated living where I do.   But life goes on and I have my little family who depends on me to bring a little festive into our home, so I managed to crawl out of the fetal position this weekend and make it happen.

Meteor Shower and Family Bonding

So I heard there was going to be a magnificent meteor shower on Saturday night.  I convinced my family to go out looking for it.  I enticed them with a beach fire and, for my husband and I, some of our favorite brew. After sitting around the fire for almost an hour, my snarky daughter said, "This is what happens when you believe a Facebook post on meteor showers, mom."  Rude.

I do believe we saw at least six shooting stars after that, two of which were seen by Miss Skeptical.  And in between we had some family bonding time which we needed.  It was fun!

Until the next morning when we realized the lighter fluid bottle wasn't closed all the way and had leaked in the trunk.  Brilliant as a meteor, I tell ya.

Beer and Cheese Tasting

We got some tickets for a beer and cheese tasting event at a local micro brew along with the local co-op.  It sounded interesting.  Usually it would be a wine and cheese event but they were free tickets given to us by a friend, we like beer, and we like cheese so what the heck...

The menu:

1. Belgian Wit and Donnay Dairy Organic Chevre (goat cheese)
2. Saison and Brie Couronne
3. Acer Rubrum (brown ale) and Old Amsterdam (Gouda)
4. Summit IPA and Carr Valley Applewood Smoked Cheddar
5. IPA and Roquefort

My Favorite Beer:  Belgian Wit, Saison, and Acer Rubrum
My Favorite Cheese:  Gouda, Smoked Cheddar, and Roquefort

I have to say the Roquefort is such an odd mix.  It smells like a cow patty or as my husband said, "It smells like back home."  But strangely enough I liked the strong taste.  I do like blue cheese but this stuff is over the top.

The brewery we went to is in an old building that used to be a car garage, many times over.  I feel a special connection to it because my grandpa worked there as a mechanic.  My grama worked at the candy shop up the street.  They met in that neighborhood.  She would walk by the garage while he was on his breaks.  Kind of romantic, I think.  The brewery that is there now incorporates some of that history.  Everything is recycled and reused.  Bar stools are made of wood and old pipe.  The bar has old tin roofing along the outside of it.  The booths were going to be thrown away by another local business and were reupholstered with old army blankets.  The list goes on and on.  Super cool place.

Tubing Time!

We went to our friends' camp on Saturday.  It was a beautiful and unusually warm February day for us here.  We went tubing and snowshoeing.  The kids would sit in the sauna and then go down the hill a couple times before getting cold again.  We also fed the chickadees right out of our hands!