He's coming home in a body bag!

I've had a very interesting and busy 48 hours. Sunday, Anna needed to go to the hospital for some more tests. Chris and I drove her over to Ann Arbor and waited and waited and waited and waited in the stupid emergency room. Chris finally went home at 3:00 AM because he had appointments in Ohio the next day and needed to get some sleep. I stayed and kept waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. I slept in a chair with the curtain wadded up behind my head for a few minutes. Then my legs start to get restless. It is the worst! I couldn't sit or stand so guess what I did? The most disgusting, revolting, horrible thing I could have possibly done. I laid down on the HOSPITAL FLOOR with a blanket as a pillow. I could almost feel the germs hopping on and having a party on me. It was sweet relief for my legs though! Anna was discharged around 7:30AM with some new drugs and the prospect of less pain. I was glad for her. She has really been through a lot lately.

I got home and took a shower with lye and burned the clothes I was wearing and then laid down to go to sleep. Chris called and thought it would be fun for us to go to his appointment with him and had it been to any other location, I probably would have passed as I was completely exhausted. However, it was to one of my favorite spots on earth and he promised I could catch some sleep in the car. So everyone loaded up and headed out on gas from the Marygrove gas card to Kelley's Island, Ohio. It was lauded to the children as our one day summer vacation.

Kelley's Island is located off the coast of Marblehead, Ohio, in Lake Erie. I was first acquainted with the charms of KI by a high school friend who invited me to stay at her family's cottage there for a week. It was such a fun and relaxing place to visit. There is really nothing "exciting" there. There's a beach, a campground, trails, forests, shops, mini-golf, restaurants(but no chains) and a state park. It's a great place to take a walk, to read a book for a day, to play on the beach, to rent bikes and ride around, to have a fire and roast marshmallows. I remember the times spent there with my friend and her family as quiet, relaxing and so fun. My senior year, that same friend and several other friends and I stayed at the cottage by ourselves. I thought it was so cool to be on our own...no supervision...for the whole time. We did the same relaxing stuff and had a blast. I took Chris there for a little mini-vacation several years ago and we stayed in a quaint bed and breakfast on the island and had such a fun time. There is an airport on the island that Chris especially enjoyed.

So, when Chris said he had a sales call on Kelley's Island, even though I was exhausted, I was excited to go. We drove to Marblehead and took the ferry over to the island. It is a car ferry and the kids were sure our van was going to sink it. Much to their relief, we made it across. Chris started at his appointment and I took the kids to find the quarry that is in the middle of the island. I knew it was a little hike and there was a trail however, after we were going for a while, the trail ended. We traversed what appeared to be the bottom of another old quarry. It was really rocky and there were large pools of water in some areas. We found the other quarry full of water and then had to climb about 12 feet up some rocks. In crocs. With a 2 year old. Not my finest parenting decision-making moment. Everyone made it up but then we were faced with woods and no trail. So we headed through. I am glad to be blessed with a really good sense of direction because I knew we were headed toward our car even though the kids didn't think so and Emily was sure she was getting Lyme Disease and Cameron (bless his heart) was getting quite scrapped up from being dragged through the forest by all of us. We made it to the end of the forest with our pockets full of shells, rocks and more rocks. By this time Chris had called and was done with his appointment so we picked him up. We took the kids to walk on the beach. The water was too cold for swimming. We took them to the glacial grooves. We drove around the island, saw the airport, Emily got herself a souvenir and then we were back on the ferry towards Marblehead. We stopped and ate on the way home at our favorite Toledo restaurant, Tony Packo's. We figured we were allowed a bit of a splurge since we hadn't had to pay for gas and, after all, this was our vacation.

On the way home, Spencer declared that this was the best day of his life. All the children agreed that this was a really great vacation. Chris and I could not be more proud of our children who don't need to go to Disney World (no matter how much I really want to take them) or anything spectacular to gave a great day on vacation. They were so excited to be together and doing something as a family. I reflected on the words from church leaders at the recent Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting and was pleased that we are making special moments, even if they are small and simple, for our children to feel close as a family and remember forever.

Kids on the beach

Cam wanted to get in a swim so badly.