Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend we were glad to be able to make it up to Traverse City for my brother Jon's wedding. The wedding ceremony took place at one of Tara's family members house on Lake Ann and it was a gorgeous day for a wedding with the lake in the background. The ceremony was very nice and Jon and Tara were so happy to have that day arrive:) The reception was a lot of fun. They created some great Pinterest ideas that really added a special touch to the atmosphere. Jon painted awesome signs to direct guests. Tara had a couple sections of the reception tent decorated with antique furniture and accessories for welcoming the guests, leaving cards and for displaying the cake. My favorite part was the giant frame Jon made and hung between a couple of trees to set up a photo guest book. They had little paper mustaches, hats, glasses, lips and ties on sticks that guest could use to had some fun to their picture. The guests could also write a message for Jon & Tara on small chalkboards that they held up when the picture was taken. I was glad to help take the pictures for this guest book. Many of the guests got into the fun spirit of the activity that I'm sure Jon & Tara will look many times over the years to come:) Here are some pictures of the shining couple and wonderful day.

Congratulations Jon & Tara!

While we were visiting we enjoyed time with family and spent a day out at the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes (one of my favorite places:) A handful of us made the trek to the top. Braden made it up and down the big hill a handful of times on his own, ha. I'm sure we didn't that once upon a time too! It was a perfect day out for climbing the dunes and then stopping at the beach to see Lake Michigan. These are some pictures from this awesome day at the dunes.

Camping Trip Day 1

Camping Trip: Day 1 Journal Entry 

Shadow Pic #1 A kiss by Little Bay

Yesterday was out first time further north than Port Washington on the E side of WI and it was also Josh's first time to the UP. It took us about 4 hours to get to our campsite for the night. We stayed at Little Bay park of the National Forest area. 

We set up our tent for the first time together as well. The tent is huge! We got a good deal for it online and hope to grow into it with our family in the future. But for now it seemed like a suite just for us:) We took a drive around the campground to find water to put out our fire later. Then we roasted hot dogs over the grill for our first meal. We were really grateful for grill grates on the bonfire pits and there was firewood on the side of the campsite road and also left at the campsite next to us so it was easy to find:)

We took a walk down a short path from our campsite to the water. It was a beautiful and very sunny day.   We followed the water along the shoreline to a park and a small hiking trail that went to the end of the campgrounds. It was a nice walk. We took shadow pictures at a small boat dock area we ended up at. (That was when I decided it would be fun to take a shadow picture each day...something different:) We made another fire before dark, I carved some sticks while Josh got the fire going. We made s'mores with a twist...we used fudge stripe cookies instead of graham crackers. 

We caught the sun just as it was setting down the short path to the water and saw our first wildlife...a frog:) We sat by the smoky fire until it was out and then called it an early night. Unfortunately I started getting a migraine that lasted thru the night, but thankfully it was gone by morning. Praise the Lord. I did not want to be stuck in the tent with a migraine during what is starting out to be a gorgeous day. This is he day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Camping Trip Day 2

Camping Trip: Day 2 Journal Entry

Shadow Pic #2 - Hiking the bike trail at Seney Wildlife Refuge

Woke up to sun shining and mostly quiet other than the train we heard through the night. Earplugs were essential:) Enjoyed some homemade granola and banana muffins for breakfast. Took down camp and headed out. On our way back to the highway we saw a family of deer. Buck with antlers, momma and twin fawns!

We headed to Germfask, MI to enjoy the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. On our way we stopped at the beach on Lake Michigan where there was a big red lighthouse. We walked out to the lighthouse and Josh was daring and walked across the crumbling ledge to the back side of the lighthouse. The sky was blue and the water was beautiful. Then we walked back to the car along the beach. 

We got back on the road and then stopped for lunch at a roadside park just before Seney. It was a peaceful lunch in the woods with egg salad sandwiches to eat. We went to the visitors center at the refuge and then took the marshland drive before setting up camp. We saw an osprey in it's nest and then some chipmunks and birds.

We set up camp at National Outfitters just amount a mile from the refuge. We had a spot back in on our own with no neighbors. We ended up next to the highway bit it was not bad for sleeping. We went for a hike down one of the county roads that are for biking. We hiked a little over 2 miles. We saw a swan and a muskrat and also 2 Sandhill cranes that began making a very loud call.  When we got back to camp we got a coal fire and wood fire burning for BBQ chicken and toasted potatoes. It was a yummy and filling meal.

Before dark we drove the route thru the refuge again. We saw a deer at the very entrance to the park. Much more active animals at this time of day. We first saw two otter swimming and playing together. We saw a lot of muskrats after that. The best was when we spotted the bald eagle perched on top of a

small tree in one of the pools! That was awesome.

The Bald Eagle is on the top of a tree to the right side of the little island above, we could see his white head and then of course confirmed it with the binoculars:)

Camping Trip Day 3

Camping Trip: Day 3 Journal Entry

Shadow Pic #3 Hiking the bike trails again at Seney, hiked about 6 miles

 We spent today at Seney again. It was nice to not have to pack everything up in the morning. We ate breakfast and headed out to the Pine Nature trail at the refuge. The trail went around one of the pools, across some marshland boardwalk and thru the woods. We saw lots of marshland plants and picked some blackberries to snack on as we walked. We took our own route off the trail following a deer trail but did not see any deer. 

After trying to track deer on their own trail for awhile we turned around and found a bench along the original trail to take a rest.  The bend was under some large trees looking out at one of the pools.  There were a lot of sticks and pine cones down in this area so I decided to make some word art and Josh helped<3 div="div">

We finished our hike of the Pine Nature trail and headed back to our campsite for lunch.  We at lunch and then got in a quick game of horseshoes before it started to rain. We ended up in the tent for a little while while a storm rolled in. The pics below is my viewpoint from laying on the air mattress looking up in the tent while the rain was coming down.

After the rain stopped we at an early dinner just in case it rained again and so that we could take an early evening hike of the trails and maybe see more wildlife since it would be closer to sundown.  We hiked about 6 miles in the sun and rain and a few times questions if we should turn around because it was thundering and lighting. But the storm looked like it was moving past us or to the south of us so we kept hiking. I'm glad we did because it was a great hike and ended with a beaver, a rainbow and a family of deer!

Josh spotting the family of 4 deer with the binoculars

We returned to our campsite and settled in for an early night after a long day of hiking, horseshoes, keeping rain out of the tent and driving the marshland drive a few times.  We'll be headed to Pictured Rocks tomorrow!