salty

We had a great time with my family at Salt Fork State Park last weekend.  I would highly recommend it as a vacation destination!  Way back when my family was together for Christmas, we blocked out a weekend on the calendar that we would all get together in celebration of my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.  The search began for a place for us to all meet up, and my brother found Salt Fork State Park.  It's beautiful!  My parents rented four cabins, borrowed a boat, and we just had a fun time boating, tubing, skiing, swimming, hiking, eating, having a scavenger hunt and a donut eating contest, and just hanging out.  I told my parents I want to do this again when I don't have a todder.  :)  He napped great, for which I am so thankful, and at times it certainly helped to have extra hands around to keep track of him, but, wow.  He has an idea of what he wants to do, and if you thwart his plans at all, he will let you know.  Loudly.  It was about a 7 hour drive, and our big three did great.  J on the other hand...  He wasn't TERRIBLE, but he didn't do all that great either.  Let's just say I have no desire for another road trip anytime soon.

We returned from Ohio Tuesday evening, and then right away Wednesday morning I got Caleb and Logan off to Vacation Bible School at our church.  They were definitely tired when I picked them up again, and it was a little hard for them to jump in midweek, but they had a great time the rest of the week.  They were able to join in on the red team, and be with a couple of their friends from school.

In the midst of our Ohio trip, Mike's brother, sister-in-law, and their boys came to Michigan from Kenya for their summer visit.  So, Wednesday night we were able to finally see them!  It was great to see them again, and of course all the boys had no problem just jumping right in and playing together.

Friday night we went to Eric and Lea Anne's for tacos and to get some more family time - my sister came back to Michigan with my parents after the Ohio trip.

Saturday morning first thing Mike and I went with my parents to the attorney's office to sign papers and officially become an LLC for the beef business!  We've been operating this year as if we're in business together, but now it's officially official.  We are now S & K Farms, LLC.

After finishing with that we headed up to the cottage.  (With a quick stop on the way to see if we could catch part of Mike's nephew's baseball game - semi finals or something - but they had JUST lost when we pulled in.)  It was a nice enough day at the cottage; cool, but at least we had sun here and there.  :)  Doesn't stop the kids, they play in the water no matter what!  Logan fell off the tube behind the boat for the first time, just hit a wave wrong, I guess.  From what I heard, I think maybe he was a little shocked at first, but took it like a champ, and got back in the tube for more!

Mike started celery harvest this past week.  How can it be???  It's nice that he does a slow ramp-up on the craziness.  He started with some people on Thursday, some more will start tomorrow, then everybody on Wednesday.  They have several more acres of celery planted this year than they did last year, and I know how many hours he worked last year, so I'm not entirely sure how this is all going to get done, but he's trying to assure me that it's all going to be okay.  :)

Jackson has gotten REALLY good at saying "bye".  He loves to say it: loudly, repeatedly, and while waving.  It's pretty stinkin' cute.  I get lots of looks and smiles at the grocery store, as people can hear him coming from aisles away, and then he says "bye" as we pass their cart.  He was saying "bye" at the cottage last night, at church today, and when our friend Jose was leaving after dropping off some tamales (yum!).  It was funny, at church tonight Mike was holding him and he was crying about going into nursery.  He looked at the lady behind the counter, and very tearfully said, "bye!" Mike, of course, was eating it up.  :)