I just spent the most wonderful weekend of my life with 4 of my favorite people in the whole wide world. And I lived to tell about it. That sounds a lot more dramatic than it actually is but for any one out there who is a grand parent I am sure you can relate.
My daughter and her family live about 2 miles away from me in Florida. I LOVE that ! And from what they tell me all the time, they love it also. We see each other often enough and easily enough to enjoy each others company without disrupting each others lives or becoming a "burden". My amazing daughter is third generation "stay at home mom" and she blows her grandmother and me out of the water with how well she manages her life. Like my mom and I Keri does it all . . . a balance of wife, mother, home maker, church, school and Girl Scout volunteer, chauffeur, cook and cleaning lady. She does it all and still manages to look awesome. I am super proud of her !! I LOVE spending time with her and her husband and best of all my two amazing and fun grand kids. These 2 kids are being raised by 2 amazing parents who set a great example for their children. They give me hope that our world is not headed for destruction.
ANY WAY . . . .. For the past 4 summers Keri and family have flown to a city some place in the USA where they rented an RV for a couple of weeks. The first summer they toured the area in and around Mount Rushmore. HAD A BLAST ! The second year they spent touring Yellowstone NP and surrounding areas.HAD A BLAST ! Last year they did the Great Smokey Mountains and Nashville where they HAD A BLAST and this year they came to the most exciting place the USA has to offer . . . . The UP of Michigan which has blown all previous destinations OUT OF THE WATER !!!!!
The fact that we can now be considered one of the greatest tourist destinations in America is quite an accomplishment ! The Man and I were told that this was the BEST camp ground the family has ever stayed at !!! And I must say I agree. Even though the weekend almost killed me and The Man.
Our weekend guests left Florida about 2 weeks ago and flew to Chicago where they picked up their rented RV, (a MASSIVE monster that I do not think should be considered camping. This thing was bigger than my first home! My kids grew up camping across the United States in a pop up trailer so a 33 foot motor home should not be classified as "camping". I'm just saying . . . ). My daughter and family left Chicago and headed North West to Wisconsin Dells for the 4th of July weekend. Then further North to spend a couple of days with friends of theirs who have a home on a small lake some where just south of Lake Superior. From the small lake they continued North to the Apostle Islands off the shore of Lake Superior and then they turned East onto the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and headed toward scenic Gladstone, MI on the shore of Lake Michigan to spend the weekend with me and The Man.
I was so excited to bring them here so I could show them where I spend my summer. (The only person more excited than me was Finn, my 10 year old grandson.) Finn and family arrived here just before 11:00 PM on Thursday evening. Because we are so far north and almost in Central Time Zone it was actually still light enough to get them parked out in the yard and set up for the night without stumbling around in the pitch black that you can only find way out here in the country. Everyone was tired so we all crashed for the night with promises of seeing it all the next morning. I woke up at 8:30 AM fully expecting Finn to be sitting at the foot of my bed waiting for me to get up but I think I actually woke up before him. (Finn is our early bird who is ALWAYS up by 7:00 AM but on Friday morning he slept until 9:00 !!!!!! Around 8:45 I went out to sit in the yard so anyone who woke up early would know grandma was awake. Sure enough I wasn't out there more than 20 minutes when Finn came bouncing out of the RV, running across the lawn, to give me the HUGEST hug I have ever gotten. (I think we missed each other something awful. It has been over 2 months since we saw each other.) And that was the beginning of 3 awesome days!
We were up "early", (by my standards), all 3 days. BIG country breakfast in the house each morning with home made pancakes dripping in maple syrup that came from the maple trees growing across the road. The bacon came from a pig that was butchered next door. Finn and Kae, (Finn's 13 year old sister who I adore), got into country living like they were born here. They spend 2 full days running around the "farm" helping feed the deer, mow the grass, gather firewood for out bonfires each night. Gus, our neighbor boy, came over on his four wheeler and took Finn and Kae for rides around the property, even letting them drive. (Thankfully no one drove into the pond!) On Friday night we invited 2 of The Man's brothers and their wives over for a BBQ of tenderloin steaks that were also butchered fresh by one of the neighbors. (OMG is all I can say about that ! The only steaks that were better than those were Moose steaks that we had in Alaska straight off a moose that The Man's son had just shot.)
We took a break on Friday to drive 5 minutes into Gladstone where we played on the amazing playground that is right there on the shore of the lake. We had a picnic lunch and "swam" in Lake Michigan until every one turned blue from the COLD water. (We are Florida people who are used to warm ocean water. This lake water needs to be heated up about 40 degrees!) On the way home we took three seconds to drive down Main Street Gladstone where everyone was told not to blink or they would miss it.
On Saturday we took a really BIG trip into neighboring Escanaba, 8 miles away. Keri wanted to do some grocery shopping to restock their RV and Kae and Finn wanted to go to the candy store where I always buy them chocolate to send or bring home to them. We took thirty seconds to drive down Main Street Escanaba to the lake front to see the light house and park that is down there. Then it was back home to more discovery of the farm.
Both Friday and Saturday nights we stayed up until after 11:00 sitting around the fire trying to get warm. It got COLD all three nights, temperatures in the 40's so the fire was a wonderful idea. As soon as it got dark both nights we shot off fireworks over the back field. (When you live in the country you can shoot off fireworks any time you want and no one cares. In fact we even had one of the neighbors drive into the field next to ours so they could sit on the hood of their car and watch our show.)
Bottom line . . . we had a FABULOUS, AMAZING, WONDERFUL time together and I kept up with it all. When we were on the playground on Friday I was riding up and down with Finn on the see saw. (Bet you haven't seen one of those in ages!) Grand daughter, Kaelin came walking over and stood there staring at me and Finn. After a minute or two she said to me, "It's times like this that I can't believe you, (meaning me), are 5 years OLDER than Grannie". (Grannie is my son-in-law's mother who lives in NC) Kae they proceeded to tell me how when they visited Grannie last December Grannie did nothing but sit in her chair all day. I took this to be the best compliment I could EVER get !
Thankfully my wonderful family left yesterday afternoon so they did not see me literally crawl into bed at EIGHT O'CLOCK last night only to collapse on top of the heating pad in a whimpering ball of Ben Gay. I was asleep by 10:00 PM and never moved all night.
I think I am alive today but I expect I will be taking a long nap in about an hour.
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