Summer Magic

I've had many magical nights this summer. Some I've told you about, some are too personal to write about, and one I will tell you about right now.

As I mentioned in my previous post, for one night while I was in Ludington, some friends came up to visit. These friends had never been there before so even though they arrived after dark, I took them to Lake Michigan to see the beach.

We waded into the water, gasped at its coldness and dug our feet into the soft sand. Since we were near the lighthouse, my friends suggested we walk out to it. I protested because it's a half mile walk out into Lake Michigan, and walking out there in the dark made me nervous. They insisted though and I caved.

And I'm so glad I did. It was magical out there. When we got out to the lighthouse we saw that there were only a couple other people there - some fishermen. We leaned against the lighthouse and looked at the stars. The stars were so bright out there, with no man made light to take away from them (the lighthouse only has a pale green light shining). I didn't have my camera with me, and couldn't have captured it anyway, but I suppose it looked something like this:

                       

As we leaned back and looked up, we talked about the constellations for awhile, but the conversation slowed as we got caught up in just looking. And when we were talking, conversations were interrupted frequently with gasps as we repeatedly saw shooting stars. I can't remember the last time I saw a shooting star but I saw three that night. Unfortunately I forgot to make wishes on the second two, which I regretted because if I had remembered I would have wished for more shooting stars.

I bet you're wondering what my first wish was, but I can't tell you because then it won't come true. The rules of wishing are very stringent and I must obey.

But I digress. A warm night, a bright starry sky, great friends, listening to the waves rolling past, while looking at shooting stars? Summer magic at its finest. 

Updates!

There's so much to talk about! Where do I even begin? I mean, today is Harry Potter's birthday, it's the beginning of Shark Week (which I'm too scared to watch), and I'm back from my vacation. Plus, someone won a Hell hat! Where to begin?

I'll start out with the winner of the Hell hat giveaway! And that person is...... Vaughn! I'm so sorry to all of you who really wanted one and didn't win. Next time I'm in Hell, I'll pick up a couple more hats and do another giveaway.

I'm back from vacation, and it's bitter sweet. It's always hard to end a vacation. Today I looked at the backseat of my car and saw the remnants of a good time - beach towels, a road map of Michigan, a frisbee, and sand. 

Not only was it wonderful family bonding time (and it was), but for the last day, a few friends came up to enjoy the beauty of Ludington with my sister and me.  They scared everyone on the beach by doing the dead man's float all the way down the river that feeds into Lake Michigan. Or at least, they tried to scare everyone but people are too desensitized these days to be upset by dead bodies floating past them.

People don't even care.

Anyway, like I said, I'm back from my trip. I'm much tanner than I was before the trip, but no one seems to notice that. However, about ten people asked me today about the bruises on my upper arm, as pictured below (the flash made them look lighter than they are).

Smiling through the pain

Here's what happened. On Monday, my aunt, uncle, sister, and I floated down the river leading out to Lake Michigan. The current was really slow that day and the wind was practically pushing us backwards. At one point, when the river was really shallow, my uncle and I got off our rafts and started pulling the others down the river (all the rafts were tied together). Then, unexpectedly, the river got a lot deeper and was THICK with seaweed. Really really really gross seaweed - it looked and felt like snakes. I started screaming and threw myself on my sister because her raft was closest. It wasn't easy to get on her raft because of the depth of the water so I guess in my thrashing about I bumped my arm and got marked up.

Wow that story is lame.

Here's what really happened. A cougar was chasing me through the woods and I used a snake hanging from a tree to pull myself up and to safety. Unfortunately I bumped my arm on the way up. Yeah, that's what really happened.

As much as I'm sad about vacation being over, and July in general (which was a really fun month for me), I take comfort in knowing there's still another month of summer left. Lots more time to swim, play frisbee, deepen my sunburn, and enjoy summer magic. What are your plans for the last month of summer?

I'll leave you with one more picture from my trip (more to come later). A melted Reeses peanut butter cup that I cooled off in my vent till it took a somewhat more edible form. Ahhhh...summer.

How I roll.

Wednesday Thoughts

Historically speaking, my vacation posts aren't my most popular posts. I guess it's because my Ludington vacations are ah-mazing and there's really not much to say about that. It's pretty much happy happy joy joy all the time. For the most part. Here are the hardships I've had to face this week:

1. I lost in the race against time with an ice cream cone today.
2. I got for-real scared during campfire stories tonight and then was afraid when I had to pick up a pizza by myself and the restaurant was across the street from the graveyard. I'm not making this up.
3. I lost at a card game against my sisters. And I wasn't a gracious loser.
4. I got sun burnt while floating lazily down the river yesterday.
5. I went down the water slide at the pool and later my 5 year old nephew told me that my butt is too big for the slide and that it's meant for little butts. Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!

You guys, vacation's hard. I've suffered a lot. But besides the late night pizza runs, the scary stories, and the devasting card game losses, the week has been great so far. Beautiful sunsets, daily bike rides to the beach, creative smores, and so on. Instead of making another list, I'll just show you in pictures:

Reeses peanut butter cup smore!

Swimming in the "lagoon."

A failed attempt at a group shot.

I lost this battle.

The view on my daily bike ride to the beach at Lake Michigan.

I tried ribs for the first time!

The aforementioned slide. My butt's totally not too big. For the record.

Not bad.

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesday Thoughts

You know what really puts a damper on your summer vacation? The possibility of finding a body in the water. On Friday night, a plane crashed just a few miles off the shore of the beach on Lake Michigan where we do the majority of our swimming. With the exception of one passenger, the rest have still not been recovered from the lake.

It's very tragic, and I don't mean to make light of it. But it's definitely made swimming a tiny bit creepier. When you can see huge coast guard boats not too far off the shore, it sort of changes the tone of the water frolicking, if you catch my drift.

But other than that, we've been having a great trip. Being around the family inevitably leads to hilarity. My 13 year old cousin said she's never laughed harder in her life than she has on this trip. I'm grateful I have a family I get along with so well. Here's a funny exchange between my 13 year old cousin, Katie, and my nephew James, who's 11:

Katie: "They said if I ask one more stupid question, they're going to throw me off the boat."
James: "If I were you, I'd stop talking."

Tonight a bunch of us went on a guided tour through some smaller inland lakes. We'd stop along the way and the DNR guide would tell us about the area, and answer questions. Usually I love that kind of thing, but these questions were becoming increasingly tedious. At one point, my nephew turned around on the canoe and whispered to me, "as soon as these questions are done, we are out of here. This is getting ridiculous." It only got good when at the end someone raised their hand and asked, "Has anyone ever seen Bigfoot here?" The guide didn't seem to think it was funny, which made it that much funnier.

Ok, I have to wrap this up now. I have a game of Sorry to get back to. I hope you had a good Wednesday!

Quick Update

Hey guys! Have you missed me? I've missed you. I'm on vacation on Lake Michigan.

It's been a fun trip so far. This picture is of my nephew responding to something my sister Katherine was saying. He had probably just gotten done accusing me of cheating at Battleship. If I cheated, how come I lost!?

By the way, for those of you who were interested, I did end up getting an iPhone. I feel really clunky using it - like Stanley in the Office when he was trying to get used to his new phone. My thumbs seem too big for this thing (and my thumbs are not big)! But I'm getting used to it. The guy at the store said that Apple offers classes on how to use it. I feel like if you need to take a class to figure out how to use your phone, it might be too complicated. Next thing you know colleges are going to start offering classes on it, then degrees. It's too much. But I bought it anyway. And so far I'm really liking it. Thanks for feedback and ideas you all gave me on my other post.

Anyway, I'll be back with some Wednesday Thoughts tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'll just be here getting more and more freckly and sunburnt by the minute.

Wednesday Thoughts

It's only July 7th, and I'm already tired of yelling "woohoo." Summer is the season of woohoo, I've decided. I've been forced to yell it at baseball games, concerts, summer festivals, and fireworks so far and there's more to come. I can't yell "woohoo" without feeling self conscious. I just feel silly. It seems that once you get on this side of 30 you should be allowed to simply clap. But that's never enough - you feel like a dud if you only clap. And everyone thinks you don't really care about baseball or you don't really support the Tigers if you don't cheer. "Make some noise," they say. So I cave. I don't want people to think I don't care. I've decided that a simple "woo" is less embarrassing than woohoo, but I still feel ridiculous. Am I alone in this? I can't be.

Ok, moving on. How was your 4th of July? Mine was fabulous. I went out of my way to try to be patriotic over the weekend. To start, I ate the most deliciously patriotic ice cream sundae ever. But if that's not patriotic enough, I wore the flag that came in the sundae in my hair on Sunday night while watching fireworks. Oh, and I bought an apple pie (which I did not end up eating, but that's neither here nor there). Top that.


I also got a very nice deep sunburn which I was going to post a picture of but won't. I showed Justin the picture yesterday, which is of the area just below my shoulder - showing the whiteness of where my bathing suit strap was and the redness around it. I asked him if the picture was appropriate to post and his expression told me it was not. Then his words confirmed what his expression told me. So no shoulder shot for you. I won't scandalize you like I did Justin, who by the way will no longer make eye contact with me. (I'm exaggerating, of course. He's over it - I'm the one who hasn't moved on.)

Anyway, I had a great weekend. I swam in the waves (one wave was so tough it yanked my pony tail holder, which was triple wrapped, right out of my hair!), I walked along the beach, I hiked the trails, floated down the river, watched fireworks on the beach, tested different kinds of smores, and bonded with friends. I hope you all had a wonderful 4th as well. I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Wednesday.

Wednesday Thoughts

I am so excited about this weekend. I love the Fourth of July! Partly for patriotic reasons and partly because of fireworks, bbqs, days off of work, and the three day weekend we have coming up. And plus, I mean, I love America and stuff.

I have plans to see two firework shows this weekend - one over Lake Michigan, one over another lake. I can't wait. But to be honest, I sort of have mixed emotions about seeing fireworks. The nice part is you get to lay on a blanket outside at night with friends, watching the sky light up in beautiful patterns. The downside is the traffic, shrapnel falling from the sky, and mosquitoes.

Just this past weekend I went to a fireworks show and the mosquitoes almost took me down. I combated them by putting on some socks I had in my car and this was the result:


So not hot. Luckily it was so dark no one could see my (un)sexy footwear. I'll be better prepared this weekend.

Ok, here's a little 4th of July question for you. In the spirit of the summer's biggest weekend for bbq's, which do you like better: mustard or ketchup? I asked this question of my family when we were together for Father's Day and all the men preferred ketchup while all the women preferred mustard. Heather wasn't there to break the tie so it left me thinking that condiment preference might be gender related. Weigh in!

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesday Thoughts

Happy Wednesday! I love four day work weeks - today feels like Tuesday. But there's only three more days of work. I love it.

Plus, I had a great Memorial Day weekend. Here's a quick run-down of some of the joys I experienced this weekend:

*Northern Michigan (gorgeous)
*Fluffernutters and pies cooked over the campfire in a pie iron (heavenly)
*Hikes along the trails at the Ludington state park (glorious)
*Falling asleep on the beach and getting sunburnt (worth it)
*Long walk along Lake Michigan (there are no words)
*Twilight boat ride (amazing)
*Free to wear white again, now that summer's here (woohoo!)

You were expecting me to end one of those with "priceless" weren't you? That's because you watch too much t.v. (and by you, I mean I).

What did you do over the weekend? Where is your favorite place to get away for the weekend?

I can't even tell you how happy I am that the warm/hot months are upon us. Fireflies, summer romances, bbq's, bike rides....summer in Michigan is the best. (If you can ignore the humidity...)

Here's a question for you: does every state joke that their state bird is the mosquito? I'm sure Michigan can't be unique in this.

Happy Wednesday.

Back To Reality

This weekend I lived the Pure Michigan commercials. It was kind of inconvenient to have Tim Allen narrating my every move, but I got used to it.

Here's what I did this weekend:

*went to the DIA with friends
*looked out over Detroit from the rooftop lounge of my friend Christi's apartment building
*went up to northern Michigan
*took 3 naps in one day
* went on an evening boat ride
* hiked high up in the woods (the stair trails)
* put my toes in the freezing waters of Lake Michigan
* walked out to the Ludington lighthouse
* bonded with my nieces and nephews
* read
* made smores
* celebrated my heritage
* ate a meat pie
* ate two ice cream cones (yeah, the diet was a bit of a bust this weekend)
* watched two sunsets on the lake

Now I'm back...and not sure I'm ready face reality!

But instead of ending on that negative note, here are some funny quotes from Ethan, my three year old nephew. On Saturday, we all went up to a town called Alma, where there is a Scottish festival every year. For some reason, Ethan thought Alma was a person, not a place. We could not convince him otherwise.

Me: Ethan, did you like Alma?
Ethan: No. (pause) I loved her.

Me: Alma isn't a person, it's a whole town.
Ethan: Alma's a hotel!?

Tuesday Thoughts

I know I normally write "Wednesday Thoughts" but I'm going on vacation tomorrow so I won't be blogging. Plus, I'm feeling kind of Wednesdayish today so I thought I'd post some thoughts.

I saw this picture from Starwars yesterday when I was out on a walk (it was spray painted on the side of a wall) and it made me laugh. Another piece of street art I saw that made me laugh but also grimace is this one:

Aren't you glad the stuff with Kwame is moving into the past!? I know I am. I'm sure he is too.

I was thinking about seeing a movie sometime this week (maybe even later today). Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm debating between Marley and Me, The Curious Case of B.B., and Valkyrie, but I'd be open to other options.

My sister Katherine and I decided to do something different for New Year's this year so we are going to take part in a murder mystery at a Bed and Breakfast tomorrow night! The B & B is in northern Michigan on Lake Michigan, and we're really looking forward to it. My question is, how into the murder mystery should we get? I'm not sure which role I want - I'm not even sure what the options are yet - but I'm secretly hoping to be either Ms. Scarlett, Ms. Marple, or the murder victim. I figure if I'm the murder victim, I can just do a really big dying scene, then hang back and eat hors devours the rest of the night while I plot my revenge on whoever did it. I mean, whodunit.

On Thursday I'm starting a new blog (in addition to this one - does the vanity ever stop!?) called "picture a day." No pressure to check it out, but it might come in handy when you're trying to procrastinate doing something important and need a distraction. I'm here to help.

I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year's Eve! Do you have any fun plans?