Adam and Emily arrive

Adam and Emily arrived Sunday, late afternoon, after attending Emily's friend Brooke's wedding in Glen Arbor Saturday. Emily was a bridesmaid, and the wedding was a swanky affair including three meals (rehearsal dinner, wedding dinner, and Sunday brunch) for all of the wedding attendees. Despite Saturday's all day rain, the wedding was beautiful and went off without a hitch.

The photo above catches Emily and Adam in a game of Lasso Golf. Emily lost the round I watched, but demonstrated elegance and graceful good form.

Fire and Rain

Move over, James Taylor. Ken and I had our own day of fire and rain on Saturday. The rain came down all day, varying in intensity but showing (and delivering) no sign of let up. Ken came in first thing with a bundle of firewood and in true caveman style, kept the fire going all day with wood he split himself. This transformed the day from a cool, damp disappointment into a memorable, cozy snuggle-fest. We got a lot of reading done and a fair amount of reflecting on the beauty of both the fire and the day.

Kicking off Labor Day week 2009

Kenny and I drove up together on Friday, August 28 - a bit unusual with our differing schedules but fun. We drove in via Onaway, where we lunched at the Wood Winds. I had the soup and salad bar; Ken had the hot ROAST BEAST sandwich. And as we know from past experience with the Wood Winds, when it comes to pot roast, they mean business. How do you spell "pot roast"? R-O-L-A-I-D-S.

Life of Riley

This picture is unusual in two ways: First, in this photo Pa is asleep laying down. (More often you will find him asleep sitting up. ) Second, he is wearing a Hawaiian shirt (borrowed from Ken due to the high temps that weekend). Note the pants are still the ones from the green sweatsuit set. Quite a fashion statement.

Getting up from the hammock can be challenging, so I told him we would rig the boat lift winch so it can also pull him out of the hammock after a nap.

Grandpa's August visit

What a phenomenal visit to the cottage. We had dinner at John Schneider and Sharon Emery's cottage on Lake Huron, and got to visit with Meegan Holland, too. Sharon made fabulous Mojitos and a smoked salmon appetizer (made with John's Lake Huron-caught Chinook). We had a nice stroll down to the lake and sat in awe of the rocky beauty of the Lake Huron shore. Pa heard the story of John's fishing on the lake, and was appropriately impressed and enthused about the salmon we ate, which was caught by John at 100 feet in depth. Pa got to tell a few stories of his own, too.

The lovely Sharon with her buddy Ken.

Pa looked over the collection of fishing lures (many made in Michigan at a factory Pa was familiar with) that John had framed over his fireplace. Most of the lures were from the garage at our cottage on Black Lake. They have a good home.

The moon through the spotting scope

Josh took the spotting scope outside and took digital photos of the moon. Quite well done, I would say, for a cobbled-together technology. Josh is very inventive.

At the Bluffs with Zack, Rachel, and Josh!

The fabulous Theis family arrived today for a visit. We made quite a scene at the Bluffs - which didn't speed up the service but made it more fun for us! This is something we've looked forward to for a long time - another chance to spend time with these wonderful kids (and yes, that includes Ken and Mary Jo).