2009 Vacation--Up "Nort"
Warning: I know this is a long post. Want the condensed version? Scroll to the bottom and click on the link to see the pictures. :)
Money is obviously a little tight for us right now...or rather, I should say it will be as soon as every last penny we've been saving for the last year gets to be given away in ONE WEEK as we close on our new house. We couldn't afford to take a lavish summer vacation by ourselves, so we were eternally grateful that Jon's great aunt and uncle allowed us and Jon's parents to use their cabin in (way) northern Wisconsin (Mercer, if you're curious) AND their boat! What a treat!
After Doc and Chris' wedding on July 11, Evan went to stay with his Grandma and Grandpa Palmer for the week between the wedding and our vacation. So at least we only had to make the full 11 hour trip with one kid. Which was good because right before we left for our vacation, our van engine went out. Bad news. We're still not done paying for the van. It's a 2003. Only 6 years old. We've had it for less than 2 years. We don't understand why a 6 year old engine would go. But it did. Thankfully, God provided for us. A couple from church owns a dealership in town. I won't go into detail, but they made it possible for us to replace the engine with one that only had 60,000 miles on it without having to choose to save our van or buy the house. We didn't get the van back in time for our vacation, but I do have it back now...Thank you, God, and thank you you-know-who-you-are! So for our vacation, we borrowed my parents' Taurus, which at least had a little more leg room than our small Grand Am.
Haven just doesn't travel as well as Evan did. She's a lot more fussy as a baby...And to make it even better, she started teething just in time for our vacation. Joy. (Someone was really trying hard to make us miss our vacation, but we didn't let him have his way!...)
After church all morning and a long 11 hours (thank you, Jon, for driving the WHOLE way...you're my hero!), we finally made it. Evan was in bed already, but he managed to sleep walk out to us and tell us that he wanted us to see the BIG LOON. I didn't even know that he knew how to differentiate between a loon and a duck, let alone say "loon." Wow. And he was speaking using more sentences. I think we're going to send him away to Grandma and Grandpa more often! :)
There was a lot of rain predicted for the week, so we had to plan our activities wisely. Here are the highlights from our trip:
Monday we drove about 2 hours north and west to hike to the Copper Falls. Ever since Jon and I have been together he has been telling me about their family trip here where it started raining 1/2 way through their hike, but they stuck it out and finished...drenched. So we were very excited to make some of our own family memories there. It was a beautiful state park...with beautiful waterfalls. Evan loved having a little freedom to run ahead of us then stop to wait for us. He also enjoyed leaning over the bridges and fences (a little more than made me comfortable)...and throwing rocks into the river. Haven just got to come along for the ride in my sling. Good thing she likes it there. :) We finished up the day with a picnic supper on the boat where Evan caught his first fish with his new pole, we saw some loons and eagles, and where we could all just relax until it got too cold (yes. cold. in July.) and too dark to be out anymore.
Tuesday was another nice day. Evan helped Papa make some oatmeal for breakfast to help fight off the cold of the morning before we went out on the boat again. Renting a boat is not something we would have been able to afford for ourselves, so it was such a treat to be able to use their boat! This time out, Evan and Papa won the awards for the most fish caught, and Evan and Daddy got to take their turns at driving.
Wednesday rain was in the forecast. So we headed down south 30 miles to have breakfast with the Big Guy...Paul Bunyan, that is. :) (No, not at the Dells location...we were MUCH farther north than that!) Evan is the one who called him the Big Guy...and it just kind of stuck. :) Breakfast was delicious...and filling. Afterwards, Tom and Connie took BOTH of the kids and Jon and I had our first date post-Haven: we went to see the new Harry Potter movie, which was ironically also the first date we had after having Evan too. :) It was a good movie! And my hubby even treated me to some ice cream too! Delish!
Thursday was another nice day. We headed north to visit another Big Guy--this time in the UP (upper peninsula) of Michigan. It was my first trip to Michigan...so exciting! :) And this time the Big Guy was Hiawatha...a big statue in Ironwood, MI. We had a picnic lunch at this Big Guy's place, then headed out to an old ski jump at Copper Peak where Jon and I boldly and bravely made the trip to the top. By far the scariest thing I've ever done. Scarier than going up in the arch. Scarier than climbing the Great Wall of China. Wow. I'm guessing my shaky legs were at least partly to blame on my lingering preggo hormones since I'm still breastfeeding Haven. Man, I never really fully realized their strength until this! It was a breathtaking sight. We could see into Wisconsin, Lake Superior, and even Canada. (Ok, we could have..except there was fog over the Lake...bummer!) Jon and I went up the ski lift, climbed the hill, up the 18 story elevator, and then climbed to top of the ski jump platform. That's as far as I went. Because after that, it was a clear shot under your feet...and the wind was making the entire jump sway worse than I've ever felt the arch move...So Jon boldly took the camera and climbed higher. I don't regret not going any further. I think that would have only made my hormones go even more berserk... But it was a nice mini date for both of us as Tom and Connie (who had been up a few years ago) stayed back with the kids. :) Then, since we were so close already, we made the trip to a "beach" of Lake Superior. I say "beach" because there wasn't sand--just nice big rocks like you'd find in someone's landscaping. And, you guessed it, Evan was in 7th heaven throwing rocks into the Lake. He could have thrown rocks all day long! :)
Friday was our last day, so we took it to just chill out and relax. That was the best part about this vacation--we were truly relaxing, being slave to no schedule. It was wonderful! :) We got to cook (which we all enjoy doing, but that the boys especially enjoy doing over the open fire...), roast marshmallows, fish, feed the deer, and enjoy each other's company.
Saturday morning we loaded up and drove to Racine (where Jon's parents live). We were excited to see all of the progress on their house--they're finishing their basement and they've remodeled their guest bathroom. We can't wait to see it when it's all done! And thank you very much for helping us get our laundry done before heading back to Red Bud. It was a blessing not to have to come home to mounds of laundry! :)
And once we returned from our vacation, we wait a mere two weeks until we're in our new house. And since it took me nearly a week to go through and edit the nearly 1500 pictures I took on vacation, the count is down to one week from today! Praise the Lord!
Congratulations for reading all the way. If you're still interested, here's our story in pictures. Enjoy! :)
album one-days 1-3
album two-days 3-6
