White Lake Pier and Duck Lake

If you know me at all, you probably know that there is no place I'm happier than by the water. One of the biggest things I love about living in Whitehall is that I can go to the water whenever I want because we're right on Lake Michigan.

Rick has been working 7 days a week lately, so we've been trying to do stuff with the kids in the evenings after dinner when he gets home. Last week we went and played mini golf, this week, I wanted to go to the White Lake Pier. It was a little on the chilly side, but jeans and sweatshirts were perfect and we had a really great time.

Here is Logan being cute on the way:


And Joshua's cute face:


The boys on the rocks:


At the end of the pier with Lake Michigan behind them (the sun was kind of in Joshua's eyes, lol):


And the channel leading into White Lake in the background:


At the end of the pier, there were some fisherman bringing in some King Salmon. We got to see them reel one in that had to have been 24 inches long! Josh and Logan were very impressed - as was I, since it took the guy 28 minutes to reel him in!!!

On the way back, we saw a caterpillar sitting on a plant. Joshua swears it was a monarch caterpillar! We tried to get a picture, but it didn't turn out too well:


When we were done at the pier, we decided to head out to Duck Lake and climb on the big sand dune over there. I figured it would wear the kids out so they would sleep extra well :)

Here they are at the top of the dune, with Lake Michigan in the background:


Joshua and I got our picture taken - he was being "cute" again, lol:


And then Joshua and Rick:


And then Logan had to get in on that one, lol:


We had such a great time! There was minimal whining when it was time to leave, which was nice. I get really frustrated when there are major meltdowns whenever it's time to leave someplace fun. Joshua has been working on that lately. I keep reminding him that if he whines and cries, I'm going to stop taking them fun places, lol.

I'm taking the boys camping with some friends this week. That should be fun. We've never gone without Rick before, so I'm hoping we have a good time and nothing majorly catastrophic happens over those two days, lol! We're going to Hoffmaster State Park, which is great because they have a nature center and hiking there. I'm really looking forward to it :)

A little bit of a change :)

Since we moved in, I've been planning on re-doing the bathroom. It's one of the two only rooms that weren't recently updated when we bought this house. The other one is the Master Bedroom, but that seemed more daunting, so I decided to start with the bathroom first.

My "vision" for the bathroom was pale yellow walls with white trim and doors. So, I went to Menards to get some paint. Chose the color, got it home, patched and sanded some holes from hardware, and I waited. I wanted to make sure it was the "right" color. I decided this weekend that the yellow was too dark. So, back to Menards for a re-tint. I had them lighten it a couple of shades and that was it.

I also ended up buying a new light fixture to replace the very dated one that was in there. I want to replace the medicine cabinet too, but in the interest of not spending all the money in the checking account, that will have to wait, lol.

So, Monday night after I cleaned the toy room, I got everything taped off to do the walls. It took WAY longer than I was anticipating.... But, I got it done and was ready to paint on Tuesday.

My brother was my "helper", and we're both pretty picky perfectionists, so it worked out ok. We decided to take the tank off the toilet, remove the old light fixture and take down the medicine cabinet. Talk about more of a job than we were planning on. I think it was like 1pm before we even got the primer on the walls.... and it was midnight before the second coat of paint was dry enough to put the toilet tank on!! Oh, and you can imagine how fun it was to not have a working toilet all day long with 2 kids... luckily they are boys and they can pee in the backyard, LOL!

This morning, we got the shower curtain back up, the light fixture installed and the medicine cabinet back up. In a couple of weeks I'll do the trim, doors, ceiling and cabinet. I don't want to put tape on the new walls until it's had more than enough time to dry. So, for now, the walls are painted, the light is in, the medicine cabinet is up and 1 towel rack in back on the wall. Everything else will have to wait a couple more days :)

I LOVE the color on the walls. It's still a little darker than I had envisioned, but it really brightens up the space. I can't wait to see it paired with fresh white ceilings, trim, doors and cabinets! Here's a picture of the before and after - with blue painters tape still up and everything, lol. I'll take the tape off probably later tonight after the cold front comes through and drops the humidity a bit.

Before:


After:




New Light:


Lemme know what you think!!

Relay for Life TOMORROW!

Relay for Life is tomorrow! Eek! Despite my best efforts, I'm not ready... I'll feel better later tonight after we've set up some stuff in Allendale.

Hopefully the weather holds... there is a chance of thunderstorms on Friday night. That would put a monkey wrench in the Relay plans...

Prayers would be good.... I'm stressing out about this a little bit.

Donations can still be made at our website: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/teamjoshua

Breaks my heart....

Have you seen this YouTube video? It's been floating around blogs and Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ese3zYZ-NA4

I can't even watch all the way to the end. It's just too close to home. I remember feeling like that. Like you can't breathe. Like you're looking at the world from underwater and everything is distorted and this can't actually be happening. I've joined the CaringBridge page... it's how I keep track of all the people I know that are going through this. Honestly, though, I feel like I know too many families who are walking this road. And it's just not fair. But, I just remember that the reason we were chosen for this journey is so we can hold the hands of other families who will have to face this down. It's the only reason this makes any kind of sense to me....

Anyhow, prayers for another Brain Tumor Warrior. She has a long road ahead of her, and her parent's will need more support than you can IMAGINE. That's from personal experience...

Speaking of cancer, it's the last week for us to collect donations for the Relay for Life. The event starts Friday! If you want to make a donation, go here: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/teamjoshua

Donations are way down this year, which sucks. Please consider making a donation to help us fund research to put an end to the number of families that have cancer as part of their lives.