Our End of the Summer

So I have been meaning to write this post for awhile. We had such a busy last couple weeks of summer, I thought I would share the highlights. The rest of our summer before was fantastic as well filled with beach visits, camping, family, and friends. But these last few weeks were a great way to end our summer!

To start off our end of summer journey, my son, at the ripe old age of 5, took his First Communion. he had been crying nearly everytime he went up to Communion with my husband (I am always singing with the Praise Band) because he wanted to take it too. When we got a new Pastor at church we thought we could have the Pastor explain that First Communion happens at a defined age (I want to say 3rd grade, but I could be off on that)...instead the Pastor says if he is Baptized and wants to accept the gift of Communion, he is welcome to. Well that one threw us...not the way my church did it as a kid. I think the ELCA Lutheran church may have a different view than the Missouri Synod Lutheran church I grew up in...that or the Pastor has a differnt view. Either way, the Pastor was ok with it. We had my son talk with the Pastor one more time (just to make sure he knew what he was asking for) and we required him to learn the lord's Prayer prior to taking it. SUre enough the little guy learned the prayer in a month. So we got family together and celebrated him taking his First Communion!

Then we headed over to the West side of Michigan to visit a place south of Saint Joseph right on Lake Michigan. My entire family gets together for a trip once a year (beyond the various Holidays throughout the year) and I picked a place called Chalet on the Lake. It was wonderful! Right on beautiful Lake Michigan and a park filled with plenty to do. I gotta tell you...sunsets on Lake Michigan rival anywhere else I have been!

Then when we got back from our trip...I came home to a wonderful package! Since there recently was a big change in teh Paper Makeyp Stamps design team (which is when I was added), we decided to have a Secret Sister swap amongst as many of the team that could participate. This is what I recieved from my Big Sis, Tina Hale! Wasn't she just the sweetest?! Her cards were stunning and I loved the notepad. Then she was generous enough to get me a pad of Basic Grey paper and some beautful ribbon and twine. So sweet! Thank you again Tina!

The final trip of the summer was back to the West side of Michigan again up at Silver Lake. This area has so much to do as well...unfortunately the weather did not make things easy on us, but we tried not to let it stop us! We made it to Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park and had fun through torrential downpours...yeah we were pretty tired of being wet after that day, but we did manage to get about 3 hours at the end of the day without any rain. My husband enjoyed a morning riding his dirt bike on the dunes (only spot in Michigan that allows vehicles on the dunes) while the rest of us braved the major wind that day to see Little Sable Lighthouse. The next day was extremely chilly (especially when we packed more for summer), but we managed some dune jumping and a visit to a nearby petting farm...check out the picture that has a goat, zebra, and a camel all together! They also had a corn maze there in which we let the kids guide us...well not really but we tried to let them think they were guiding us! Then we finishe dthe trip to the Ludington North Breakwater Light in which Adi was allowed to climb to the top...she wasn't allowed to climb Little Sable, so she was super excited to be able to do this lighthouse!

Then we came back and had to get ready for my son's first day of Kindergarten! He was so excited to ride the school bus and had a great first day and week! My daughter was pretty impressed by the bus too because that is all she could talk about too..."Ewijah rode da bus", but she missed him too...always asking where he was. Cutest part was seeing how happy they were to see each other!

So that was my last few weeks of summer. Full of fun! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering...or travel!