Livin' Life: Week 1 Michigan Adventures

John and I moved into our room at Timber Wolf Lake on Saturday, which I was really impressed with! It has a Pottery Barn feel and it is very updated (unlike our Rockbridge Assignment last summer). I'll post another entry later on the layout and look here at camp. Anyways, right after I moved all of our stuff in, I repacked a few things and hopped in the car with Laura, Ted (5) and Sophie (3) Tuel to head up to the Santen's lake house, which was about an hour and a half north on Crooked Lake. Stacy and her kids were spending a week there and invited us to join! It's a couple minutes from Lake Michigan, and about a half hour from the infamous Mackinaw Island (if you're familiar with that). Whew, was it a crazy couple of days! Stacy Santen was my cabin leader during my first trip to Young Life camp my freshman year of high school. She is the pastor's wife at River Ridge Church in Charleston and they have 4 kids (Ben-6, Will-8, Riley-12, Emily-14...I think these are the correct ages, if not, they are pretty darn close!) If you're wondering if I spent a few days with 6 kids at this lake house...you are wrong...there were 7! Emily brought a friend named Cassidy.

Ok first off a little background info...Laura's husband, Ben, married John and I, he was also our Young Life leader in high school. He is on staff with Young Life in Morgantown, WV and they have really become our great friends. Ben is doing Program (the funny stuff) at Timber Wolf this month, so we're excited they are here!

So anyways, I was VERY excited about this trip with Laura, Stacy and the kids. Laura and Stacy totally invested in my group of friends and me all throughout high school. We met for early morning bible studies and they really just taught us how to have a relationship with Jesus. Trust me this was NOT an easy job....they will, to this day, tell me how we gave them the run around and caused them many tears! We were a wild bunch! We have come a long way! So it was very special to be able to spend some great quality time with them and their children. I love listening to their wisdom and truths on marriage and parenting (not that I'm looking to be a parent anytime soon! Especially after having kid overload this week! Stacy joked a few times about how this trip would be a wonderful birth control method for me!!) But in all seriousness, these kids are great. I was surprised that I did not retreat more to my bedroom by myself to get away. They are a hoot!

When we got there Saturday, we went out on the boat for some tubing, ate dinner, laid around and went to bed. I started a new book The Help by Kathryn Stockett, while I was there. Many people suggested this book to me, and I'm very happy with it! (Thanks everyone!) I spent lots of time reading on the boat, in the hammock, on the dock, at the beach...it was very relaxing!

On Sunday, we woke up (which by the way is early when you have young children, for those of you that didn't know) went to a church that met outside in a park right on Lake Michigan! Very cool! According to Sophie, the coolest part was having "no classrooms!!" She was very happy to be able to sit with everyone during the service.

On the Fourth of July, Stacy volunteered to watch ALL of the kids and let Laura and I venture out to Mackinaw Island...what a treat! This place was amazing. You have to take a ferry to get to it, which by the way costs 22 bucks! AND THEN you have to rent a bike (5 bucks per hour) or bring your own (8 bucks total) if you want to get around the island because there are no cars! When Laura and I got off the ferry and looked around we both thought the town looked like a creepy, picture perfect town, like Pleasantville or somewhere the Stepford Wives live. We took an 8 mile bike trip around the entire island and it was wonderful! They have horses and buggies to cart people around, so if you are a bike rider you had to watch out for the poop! The lake was gorgeous and huge! It really just looks like an ocean. After our bike trip, we ate lunch at Hotel Iroquois which was a cute, boutique hotel right on the harbor. The food was delicious! On the lawn next to the hotel there was an annual Rock Skipping Contest going on. The Guinness Book of World Record holder was actually there making a special "guest appearance"...55 skips!! You know you live on a small island when a huge crowd gathers for a person skipping rocks...wow. So we learned that basically the island is open to tourists from May to October, after that the ferry stops and people who live on the island have to cross the frozen lake by snow mobiles! Crazy! So anyways, if you are looking for a weekend getaway..go to Mackinaw Island!

On Tuesday we packed up the boat and drove through a series of lakes and rivers until we arrived at Burt Lake. We found a beach, anchored in and ate lunch. Life on the lake is so cool. I really enjoyed it. I still can't decide if I would rather have a lake house or a beach house (not that we can ever afford either, but I can dream). We hung out for a while, ate dinner and then left to head back to Timber Wolf (camp). You know when you leave a vacation, you get sad to go back to "reality"? Well I didn't have this feeling...I'm basically going from vacation to vacation this month so leaving was easy! (Plus I kind of missed John.) So the trip was a definite success, so much fun and such a blessing. Those two women are amazing. I'm so blessed to be able to maintain a friendship with them after so many years! I'm looking forward to many more!

Tomorrow, John and I are driving NINE hours back to Charleston for Sam and Whitney's wedding. John is a groomsmen. Then driving NINE hours back to Michigan on Saturday. According to John, I'm a terrible car-rider which makes sense because I HATE riding in the car! Pray for safe travels for us! This should be interesting...more to follow later!

Enjoy the pictures!