Family Time On The Lake- Summer 2017

                                                               August 5, 2017

I'm doing dishes and looking out my window, and I see this scene. Mom is talking to Joe with this napkin over her eyes. Anyone who knows my mom, knows she wears a visor a lot. I guess she didn't what to interrupt their conversation and get up to go inside to get it, so she just improvised.

Tiffany and family left Gulf Shores, AL. around 6 pm the 4th of August and stopped at Bowling Green, KY for the night.

Dinner at Culver's was a favorite for Lennox..

Tiffany, Blake and Lennox (our grandson) arrived the next day early. They drove from Gulf Shores, AL. to our place in about 19 hours with the one night stay in a hotel. When Joe and I make the trip, we stay in a hotel for 3 nights.

Joe gets all the waters toys blown up for the week.

                                                                   August 6, 2017

Tiffany and her family enjoying the lake, water toys, and our new kayaks while waiting for the rest of the family.

The weather this summer was a much cooler, making the water temps a little cooler too. Last summer the water temps reached 79 degrees.This year only 74 degrees.

Most of the days the family was here, we had sun and mid to high 70's.

Ideal weather to be on and in the water is mid 80's. Lennnox fishes while waiting for his cousin's to arrive.

We set up our orange cone's to let the crazy drivers know we had company this week. We had seen other neighbors do the same thing. A few days later, we had the sheriff stop and tell us he had complaints about the cones. He told me he didn't care, but if someone hit them, they could take us to court and we would be liable for damages. He told us we needed to move the  cones off the road, onto the grass, to avoid complainer and being taken to court. He agreed that he gets calls all the time of speeders on our road and understood our concern. About 5 minutes later we saw him give a person a ticket for speeding. It was his way of showing us he understood our blight.

Early afternoon, our other daughter arrived with her family.

Our new dock and patio became a big hit. And the corner piece and other ladder were used all the time. Joe had asked the sales person what purpose the corner pieces served. He told us it enlarge the patio and kept kids from jumping from dock to dock. Yep, glad I got it, even though a bit pricey!

This was the first time our oldest granddaughter Hayleah, made it to our lake home. With her being in collage and working in the summer, it is hard for her to get time off. The time she does get off, she needs to see her dad in Minnesota.

Of course, boys will be boys, and there was a lot of shoving each other in the water.

Our little fish, Madalena, was a bit reluctant at first this year. Last year she was in the water right away. I think she forgot about being here the year before.

The island pod is always fun, but the adults seemed to favor the patio more. Probably because the water was a bit cooler.

But Jamie (Alisha's husband) seemed to enjoy the water. This was  Jamie's first time to the family lake home too. Last summer he couldn't get away because of his job.

Alisha and my mom. Most the time mom had a jacket or a sweatshirt on. And of course she had her visor on too!

Noah doing a flip. I don't think he had ever done this before. I think he just decided to give it a try. Great flip for the first time.

We drug out chairs from the shed onto the patio everyday.

 I though for sure mom would not feel safe in a non anchored down chair and would prefer the bench, but she did just fine with the chairs.

My mom  gets smaller and smaller every time I see her.

I stayed home to make some potato salad as some of the family went for a sunset cruise. Oh look mom has a new visor I've never seen before.

We can only fit 8 on our boat and there were 11 of us, so some have to stay at home!

The family shared picture with me and when I saw these, I thought why don't the kids have their other life jackets on?

Alisha and her son Noah.

I decided someone forgot to tell the kids to get their life jackets out of the shed, so they had to use the reserved jackets kept in the boat instead.

I guess Lennox liked the ride!

The  next morning at the breakfast table.

The kids had been bugging us the day before to go tubing, but because they arrived in the afternoon their parents just wanted to chill for a day.

 But right after lunch, it was time to tube, the kids had waited long enough. Hayleah and Maddie ready to rock and roll!

                                                                         

They went tubing in the afternoon and again early evening.

Hayleah with the boys.

If they had it their way, they would tube all day every day. Love Lennox's boating hair!

Our beautiful daughter's Tiffany and Alisha.

Alisha photo bombing Hayleah. Also a great picture to show the water clarity of up north lake waters.

Tiff's husband, Blake enjoying the tubing couch on the dock. Blake couldn't come last summer because of work. Since then he has became a realtor and can call his own hours.

A Bloody Mary Alisha made. Some how I wasn't offered one!

                                          TO BE CONTINUED.........................................................................

July Is Here!

                                                   July 15, 2017

It had been a cooler and rainy spring and so far summer in Northern Michigan.

The Farmers Almanac had predicted a cooler and wet spring/summer for us and they were right on. When we put our dock in, I was complaining that it was way too high up. (Felt like 1 1/2 to 2 feet above the water). But I was so glad they did because by mid July we were inches from the water. During the prior week, during the Boyne Thunder boat races, we watched the large waves produced by the boats, shoot through the slates from end of the dock to the shore section. The waves pushed up a few end slats at the post. Joe had to jump on the dock to get them back in place.

Just a picture of my youngest granddaughter Madalena. Her Aunt Tiffany had taken her, and Noah (Maddie's brother), and Lennox (Tiffany's son) to Fat Daddy's, an arcade place. Maddie is showing off her wins from the claw machine. She is the Queen of the claw machine. She got, I believe Tiffany said, 8 stuffed animals that day!

One of the many projects I had been working on this summer, was making a sign for our home. Joe found an old board for me, after painting it white, I stenciled the letters on it. I'll show the finished project later.

My neighbor who comes from down state every 2 weeks, asked me if I could take a picture of a flower that she had not seen in years. She didn't even remember the color. It seemed to always bloom while she was gone. I texted it to her as well as a couple more.

Oh my gosh, where is our dock? Did the waves take it out during the night?

Just kidding! I decided to get a new dock and here it came. In the previous picture, the old dock had just been pulled out.

I had been wanting a new ladder and kayak racks for our old dock, so we visited the local dock/ boat lift business in town, Bullmann's Docks.

The kayak and ladders would not attach to our old dock because their docks have channels on the sides that attach these add on's.  Unfortunately I didn't get the kayak racks because Joe convinced me the water was too high and we would have to just drag the kayaks over to where the row boat is that has a boat launch area. So instead he but the kayaks on saw horses next to the boat launch area.

We had been using a regular ladder, as seen in a 2015 picture down below.

We called this our "Red Neck" ladder. Joe was content with the dock and ladder. While looking at the new docks and realizing I could not really add on to our exiting dock, I said to the salesman, "Maybe I  need to buy a new dock then". He gave me a quote on a new dock, and I decided if I wanted a new dock, I would never get one from Joe. So I said yes to the new dock, and paid for it with my savings.

Now that's what I call a beautiful ladder! With 4 people in my family with handicaps with getting into water, I wanted something that made it easy for them. I have a double amputee sister (who has never got in the water yet), a mother who has two knee replacements, a daughter who had a ACL, MCL, and Meniscus injury all at once (also called the Unhappy Triad in the medical world), and a son in law who had a bilateral patella tendon repair. Actually this is not called a ladder but a staircase. Our new dock is four foot wide instead of 3 foot compared to the old dock.

And it looks prettier than the old brown dock.

Temperature on July 18, not a big deal but when you have had a cooler summer, it's something to shout about!
Another reason I got a new dock was because I wanted one I could add on to in the future. After a week of the new dock, I thought, why wait a year for the patio I plan to get. I called our sales guy, told him I wanted the 6 foot x 10 foot patio now instead of next year. Once added it looked to small. So once again, I called Jeff and said I want another 6 foot x 10 foot section added to the patio, and while he was at it, please add a ladder and the triangle piece on the corner. I wanted a ladder for the other side of the dock. I think he was losing patience with me, as we kept asking for the discount he gave us on the first order.

I am sure you know, nothing is 100 percent perfect. Joe had told me, my white dock was going to look dirty when it rains, compared to our old brown dock, and it does. The dirty dock is still worth it to me!

Love the staircase! As a side note, Joe and I have enjoyed many rides on the wave running in July and into August, when we finally got some heat. It was a great way to cool off. I always rode behind him. I haven't got my nerve up to drive the thing yet. Maybe next summer.

So now I have a dock with a 12 foot x 10 foot patio with a ladder on the other side of the dock. Joe payed for the umbrella pole attachment. He sweats a lot!

During July we decided to try out a new restaurant in Boyne City that opened last summer, but never got to it yet. It's called, "The Tap Room" Note the list of beers on the menu sign above the bar.

Joe got the smoked brisket sandwich.

And I got the fish tacos, and yes I would definitely order them again.

Good Morning!

Just another early morning sunrise picture on the lake.

Our neighbors house being built is moving at a snails pace!The large mound of dirt is where they put in a new $35,000.00 septic field.

Our side-(front to us) door.

Here is the sign I made this summer. I knew I would never find a sign that said this, so I had to make it myself.

Another hot day. Time to get on the wave runner!

I was trying to keep it a secret from the girls about the dock. Tiffany had been bugging me last summer about when we were going to get a better ladder so it would be safer for her to get into the water. I had been bragging how beautiful the lake looked this day and sent this picture to the girls by text and than realized part of the white on the new dock showed. I prayed they wouldn't noticed. They didn't! Whew!

After having the patio put in, I decide once again to have a bench attached to the dock. Our salesman definitely was not the friendly guy he was when we put in our order the first time. He was thinking I am sure, " Lady you could have saved us 3 trips if you had just put all this in on the first order"! Hey it took me awhile to ease into spending this much money at once. Docks are not cheap! We already had the umbrella in our garage from our days in Cedar Rapids, Ia., so Joe just drug it out from the garage and dropped it into the add on umbrella holder.

We have not had a lot of time to do our boat buying education this summer, but we had to go to Traverse City to pick up my mom, so Joe made a couple of appointments set up to see 3 boats on our way there. We saw 2 of the boats in the same marina in Elk Rapids. This boat was is 1986 Chris Craft for $9000.

The other boat was right next to it and it was a 1987 Carver for $17,000. I like this one because the the fly bridge was very large.

This is the Carvers inside cabin.

Most fly bridges have room for 2 persons at best.

This fly bridge had room for numerous people. The owners are selling because they used this boat for a weekend get away, but also have a home on a small lake. Recently they inherited another lake home making the need to let go of something because the 3 places were too much for them at their age.

The 1986 Chris craft is in view from the Carver fly bridge.

This marina is located on Grand Traverse Bay.

There is at least 200 slips in this marina.

View of the Carver from the Chris Craft.

The Carver is a 28 foot, but by the time you add the sun platform it is about 30 foot. Both boats are about 11 foot wide.

Next we stop and saw a boat that was not in the water. It was a newer boat, but the boat was much smaller as far as room for number of people. We both liked the Carver, but we just don't like buying a boat as old as it is. The boat shopping education continues......but first we need to get to the airport!

And here comes my little mom.

An interesting looking bug I have never seen on our deck railing. And it flies, not what I expected. I guess kind of like my mom, June Bug, that flies too. Until next time..........