Our Family

Near the house in Grand Haven is a nice park that we've gone to the last couple years.  It has a nice fun zone as well as a field where we played football last year and this year played ultimate football.  This year we also discovered a steep, sandy hill in the woods nearby that the boys enjoyed climbing.  Here are some photos:

We spent last weekend with Lisa's family in Grand Haven.  It was the third time that we've rented this house.  One of its key features is the pool in the back yard.  At some point in school Elliot had to identify his favorite place on earth, and this was it.  He planned to get in the pool as soon as we arrived.  Finn likes the pool too but was especially excited to sit in the Tiki Hut again, a bar area with a tv right next to the pool.

On Saturday morning of our Petoskey camping trip, I did my 8-mile run (to Bob-In Again, didn't stop for frozen custard this time) while everyone else went to the beach.  Shortly after I got back from the run there was another major thunderstorm.  By that point, we were all considering packing up camp and heading home to get out of the rain.  The Moore and Wanous families decided to take refuge at a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  Afterwards the weather had improved enough that we reconsidered our plans to head home.  The Somasi were done, though, and headed home...but not before joining us for a round of miniature golf.  Later in the afternoon we headed back to the beach to enjoy another period of sunny weather.

Here's a blast from the past video of several of us playing basketball (presumably in Nashville) in late May 1997.  It features Jayson Rawley, James Lashlee, Bill Alderson, David Wade, Peyton Crump, Prentice Cotham, Amy Queen, and me playing ball.  Laura and Matt Sullivan and Scott Allen also appear.  Lisa is the cameragal.  I can't remember why all those folks were in Nashville at the same time (this was several weeks after Laura's graduation).

The weekend before last we went camping in Petoskey with the Wanous and Somasi families.  We left home later than planned on Thursday, so we arrived at the campground around 9 PM and put up the tent in the dark.  The Wanouskis arrived around 11:30 PM, and we listened to them do the same...finishing around 1 AM.

Friday morning the Moores took a bike ride from the campground to downtown Petoskey (about 5 miles).  We attended part of a concert in the park and then met the Wanous family at Julienne Tomatoes Deli and Bakery (Lisa's choice).

at a lunchtime concert in downtown Petoskey on Friday

the kids having lunch at Julienne Tomatoes

After lunch we (traveling by bike) and the Wanouskis (traveling by van) planned to meet again at a park by the waterfront.  However, a major thunderstorm intervened.  We took refuge in The Little Traverse History Museum while the Wanous family waited in out in the van.  Afterwards, we spent a little time at the park before heading home pretty quickly because we were worried about prospects of another thunderstorm and also wondering what the first storm did to our campsite (which, though not the lowest place in the campground, was next to a bit of a hill). 

Our desire to get back to the camp site was not so urgent to prevent us stopping at Bob-In Again along the bike path for frozen custard.

It turned out that since the floor of our tent isn't water proof, the water just ran between the tarp on the ground and the tent and soaked the floor.  Next time the tarp will go inside the tent.

trying to dry out the tent floor a bit