The rest of vacation

Because our last adventure with Jill's cousins went so well, we decided to bring even more family along for this year's Northern Michigan vacation.  Beth arranged a gigantic vrbo cabin near the top of the Boyne Mountain ski resort (the hill fascinated me.  It's a giant sand dune.  As in, you cannot find a rock bigger than your hand anywhere on the hill.  Sand, sand, and more sand.).  We filled all 8 rooms of the place, including the master bedroom with the taxidermed wolf.

By the way, I'm still struggling to take enough pictures.  Below is a shot of the flower girls from Calvin and Kim's wedding in July.  We had a great time, and the kids just loved being flower girls.

 There is a small lake at the bottom of the hill with a nice beach.  The lake floor is very flat near the beach, so all the kids could walk into it as far as they dared and splash around.  We spent a lot less time here than I thought we would because there were a couple of rather chilly days during the week.  On perhaps the nicest day, we visited Petoskey State Park on Lake Michigan.  The water was frightfully cold.  I could only take short, force breaths for the first minute and a half after wading in.  Eventually, I felt fine enough to stay in the water for about 15 minutes.  Then back to the towel.  We looked for Petoskey stones in the sand, but didnt' find any stellar examples.

 We thank Uncle David for encouraging Janny to eat some food at nearly every meal.  Perhaps as a result of this, her hair is growing faster now.  She might have even gained an ounce or two.  Playing with Ricky and Enoch wore the kids out every day.  Below, Beth was supposed to rear the whole Wizard of Oz story to Janny.  Janny stayed awake for the first 70 pages.

Thanks to the presence of grandparents and other givers, our generation got to have some fun adventures without the kids on the vacation.  On several mornings, coach Brent led us through some tennis drills, and then we played a set or so.  Jill and I really enjoyed this, so the tennis rackets might get dusted off a few times before winter sets in.  

The biking around Boyne was just great.  The Boyne ski hill is about 500 feet tall, and the road to our cabin wound around and up and down it.  I also rode back from Harbor Spings to our cabin along some nice dirt roads.  And I rode a good bit more than I could handle of the single track mtb trails at the resort.  There are lots of jarring roots and some very steep short climbs that weren't suitable for either my bike or skills.

Finally, the TCBC softball came to an abrupt end.  Because of numerous rainouts early in the season, the semifinal game happened while I was in Michigan (as was Matt, our left fielder).  Apparently, the team staged a comeback from an 8-0 deficit, only to lose at the end.  I was a bit sad to miss the game, but had too much fun on vacation to regret it.  We'll try again next year, and plan the vacation during the regular season.