Away From Home

During our three weeks in Michigan, we went visiting a number of times. Several times, I took the boys to my brother’s house to play in his lovely pond. They went round and round with the paddleboat, and the three oldest swam from end to end over and over. I hadn’t realized what strong swimmers they’ve become! They had so much fun in that pond.

We went to church one Sunday at the meetinghouse where I grew up. It still looks pretty much the same!

We enjoyed seeing the deer beside the road, although we were a bit nervous when they were too close to the edge. This doe and fawn and two turkeys were in a clearing near Reed City, where we went to visit some friends. We actually turned around and went back to get this picture, and they had moved a bit by the time we got back to them.

Daises were in bloom everywhere—one of my favorite wildflowers.

The boys enjoyed playing at a park and along a river with their friends near Reed City.

That evening my children were introduced to volleyball for the first time.

Another day we went to visit some old friends who build log homes. Gayle and the children toured the log yard and saw how the houses are built.

This oriole and bluebird were right outside my brother’s window.

I’ve seen sandhill cranes a number of times, but never babies!

Deer are abundant in Michigan!

This is what you really don’t want to see—at least it was far enough ahead of us that we were safe this time.

We drove past our old farm a few times, and Gayle stopped in one day to talk to the people who bought it from us.

One of the days my family were together in Michigan, we went to a local county park, Gale’s Pond. Our children used to think—and one of the younger ones asked this time—if it’s Daddy’s Pond! No, sorry; it’s named after a local family, and spelled differently.

There were a lot of redwinged blackbirds at the pond, but this was the only one I could get even a halfway good picture of. I love their song!

I learned something about cattails! Apparently, I never saw them at this stage before. The lower part is the female part of the flower, and develops into the sausage-like thing you see later in the year. The top part is the male part; it’s very spongy, and if you rub your hand over it you get a lot of pollen on your hand. The boys were getting it on their faces!

We took a family picture on this bench many years ago when we had, maybe, four children, so decided to take another. What a circus getting everyone to pose! And then, the light and shadows were too harsh, so it didn’t turn out well. Good memories, anyway!

Of course, my Mr. Intellectual had to show off how well he can shimmy up a tree with no branches.

“Take a picture of me!”

I’ve always loved standing on the road over the dam here.

These two found fishing hooks and bobbers caught on the trees and worked to untangle them.

We had fun finding Monarch butterfly caterpillars. We took five large ones home to watch them change, and found a tiny one on one of our leaves. We also found some eggs on the undersides of a few leaves—I’d never seen that before!

And then—our boys started seeing garter snakes! Some of them had been really hoping to see a snake in the wild in America, since we have no snakes in New Zealand. They thanked God that night for letting them see snakes, but now at least one of the boys is saying he doesn’t like snakes!

Within a couple of days, the caterpillars had all turned into chrysalises. We brought them with us to Ohio, so we’ll see after awhile if they survived the bumping around enroute.

One of the days that my family were together in Michigan, we went to Silver Lake, to play in Lake Michigan at the Little Sable Point lighthouse. Here are the world-famous Silver Lake sand dunes, viewed from across Silver Lake—the closest we got to them.

I find this lighthouse particularly interesting, since I once read a diary written by the lighthouse keeper’s family well over a hundred years ago. They were very isolated, and the children had to move to town in the winter, with their grandparents, to go to school.

The beach, looking south. I had forgotten how fine and soft Lake Michigan sand is! So different from our coarse sand. The lack of tides is quite different for us, too, as well as the fresh water. Salt water makes the sand really stick, even when it dries!

The children had great fun playing in the sand, and we had fun watching them and chatting.

My boys all went in swimming, and a few of their cousins. The water was too cold for them to be in very long, although it was much warmer than the waters of the South Pacific which we’re used to!

My three oldest boys are good at water fights, and they also had a sand fight. They would scoop up handfuls of sand from under the water and fling them at each other, trying to duck under before they got hit. It was pretty funny to watch.

The older children were making dribble castles, and Little Miss tried her hand at it, too.

Mr. Sweetie became quite the expert!

The lighthouse was open for climbing, so some of us bought tickets and climbed to the top. What a view!

You can just see the sand dunes above the trees in the center of this picture.

Our reason for traveling to America was to help celebrate my mother’s 70th birthday. We had been thinking about this for a year already; at first, I was hoping to be able to come with just a few children. When we were given a lot of money after Seth died, however, we started thinking it would be possible to all come, and we’re so glad we were able to. All eight of my mother’s children and their spouses, and 22 of the living grandchildren (one step-grandchild was missing) were there, for a total of 38 people. What fun! We spent about 4 1/2 days together, getting to know each other again and enjoying watching the children play. Most of the time, we were at my one brother’s house; it’s a large house with a huge lawn and a pond that the children played in part of the time. Here is Mr. Sweetie helping Little Miss ride the toy fire truck on the deck. I’m just putting in a few of the many pictures we took, mainly of my children, because I didn’t get permission from the other parents.

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination playing with a cousin.

Decorating Grandma’s cake.

The matriarch with all her gifts.

Gayle catching up on some emails.

Remarkably, it didn’t take too much time to feed so many people; we didn’t really do any planning ahead for meals, but things fell into place and every had plenty to eat, on time, every time.

Two of my brothers and a brother-in-law getting the evening fire going.

Little Miss and a baby cousin.

My boys with some uncles, an aunt, and one of my cousins.

Ready to leave for church at my brother’s, the same place we had the family gathering. See Little Miss’s hair? She leaves it that way for a few minutes at a time!

The day after most of the family left, a few of us went canoeing. Included were our family, my sister, and one of my cousins who had come to see the family. The river was billed as quiet and calm, very safe for little children. Well, it had been raining, and was in flood, and we didn’t realize till we started out how fast and strong the current was, or how many trees were fallen down across it. It was not easy, and not safe. We all made it safely to the other end, though, thankful for God’s protection and that we all wore life jackets—and I was very glad I didn’t take my camera along! This was as we were getting ready to start out, when everything and everyone were still clean and dry and excited about the trip.

If you want to see more pictures from our time in Michigan, please visit Esther’s blog. She has some nice posts up.

During the three weeks we were in Michigan, we stayed at my mom’s house. Gayle and the boys did several jobs she wanted done, and spiffed the place up a bit. Here, Mr. Inventor is mowing areas that the lawn mower can’t reach.

They cut up a lot of logs and split the firewood, and stacked it neatly in a couple of woodsheds.

Mr. Diligence contemplating his next move.

Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence in Grandma’s kitchen.

Storytime!

My mom bakes for a number of people each week. This was what she baked one day.

“See my airplane?”

My mom wanted a tree to be cut down, but it was so close to the house that they wanted to tie a rope to it to pull it in the right direction. She didn’t have a rope, so Mr. Intellectual set to work to make one with the old rope machine my dad made some 40 years ago. He had a bit of trouble getting started, but once his dad and Mr. Inventor joined him, they were able to make several 15-metre ropes without too much trouble.

Grandma and Mr. Inventor gave a rope-making demonstration to my brother and his family.

My little people got to see their first toad.

One Sunday afternoon, while the big children were at the state park with their aunt, we gave Mr. Imagination and Little Miss a wading pool. They had fun—until, “She got me wet!” “He got me wet!” And just what is a wading pool for, pray tell?

I took a walk with my mom, and Mr. Imagination and Little Miss, that evening as well. We walked back a lane just south of her house, between orchards and woods.

This groundhog was pretty intent on watching us.