Here I sit on my deck, under my infrared heater and cafe lights, with Jimmy Buffett softly playing in the background and the sound of the high school football game in the distance. Rick & Carson are at the game, Mallory is still at camp (two more sleeps!) and I am enjoying a brief “silent retreat” :-)
We had a crazy busy summer (and spring!) full of baseball and softball. I counted up the games – 123 games played by the kids on their combined six teams (two travel, two spring Little League, one summer Little League and one summer All-Star) over the past 11 months. I scorekept almost all of them and loved every minute of it (well most of it – the cold outdoor games in April & May weren’t so great…).
(I hear cheering from the football field!! Wonder if Dexter scored!!!)
Anyway – it was a crazy busy summer and then we finally got to go on vacation! Carson thought we never go on vacation because of baseball and softball and because Mallory was doing All-Stars it was ruining our whole summer (he must have forgotten the part where he was playing baseball all summer too…). He did, however, say that if Mallory’s team went to States (or won States?) it would like a world record so it would be worth not being able to do vacation.
So for vacation we were headed to the upper peninsula by way of Chicago. There were some former Michigan softball players who play pro softball and had a game that Saturday night, so even though it added like seven hours to our trip, we took the detour.
Haylie & Abby play for the Chicago Bandits, and Romo plays for the USSSA Pride. We weren’t really sure for whom to root but it was still fun to watch the game. And they serve BEER!
Haylie – Romo – Abby
Carson – Mallory
Carson & Romo – 2013 & 2017 – Romo was Carson’s “best home runner” girlfriend for a really long time.
And I got to see Jules!!!
After the game we started north a little and stopped, so we could continue the drive the next day. We made another detour into Milwaukee…there was Schlitz in cans to be hunted for. SUCCESS!
We made it to the UP, eh and settled in for a week with my dad. He had enough non-Schlitz beer to last himself a week (the Schlitz was to be rationed out during football season) and I had stocked up on some new Wisconsin beers to try.
I’m finishing this post on October 30 so I’m going to wrap this up pretty quick. We spent the week drinking and boating and eating and playing cards. The weather was nice but not super warm, but it didn’t keep the kids (and grandpa) out of the water. Rick did a lot of fishing, and I did a lot of knitting.
One day it rained and rained all day and we had a Sets and Runs marathon (grandpa even had the patience to learn how to play!!) and we also did a day trip (afternoon?) trip to Tahquamenon Falls. August seems like it is the best time to experience northern Michigan. It isn’t as packed as it is earlier in the summer and normally the weather is way better.
A couple of days we went swimming in Lake Michigan (well, the kids and grandpa did…I sat in the sand and drank and knitted). It was nice to just semi-unplug and have fun.
The biggest news of the week was that Mallory & Lauren headed to Camp Al-Gon-Quain for the week after our week in the UP. It’s the same camp I went to for THREE WEEKS AT A TIME when I was little. My dad promises he didn’t hate me but that maybe my mom did and that’s why I was sent away for three weeks. Mallory only went for one week and while it was nice to have some fight-free time at home, we missed her terribly. I sent her a couple of letters and care packages, and we could send her emails that she’d get the next day. We got a few letters from her (some arrived after she got home). Grandpa & I picked the girls up at the end of the week and they were dirty and TIRED. It was so good to see my sweet girl and she is already looking forward to next year!