South Haven

On Thursday after Reubmommy’s funeral we decided to take the boys somewhere and took a quick vote. The beach won over the zoo and the boys were excited to make the short trip. I looked up our options and we found a nice little park and playground near the public beach at South Haven. We went to the park first and enjoyed the shade and the view for a while before pulling out our little picnic lunch.

There were a couple of black squirrels at the park running around. I didn’t have the good camera out but my little shooter did a pretty good job of capturing the little guys. I’ve never seen black squirrels anywhere outside of MI. Growing up seeing them as common I didn’t realize that they only live in certain regions, so I thought I’d share them with some of you who possibly have never seen one.

The picture above is a view from the park toward the beach. The water fountain just seemed so small a thing at the forefront of such a large body of water.

Grandpa made sure to give Ivan a good view of a bug hanging around on the pier.

The water was so clear. We answered a lot of questions about what the boys were looking at in the water.

I have always liked this church overlooking the beach.

I took a lot more pictures but I’m tired of resizing and optimizing them now. You’ll just have to trust that we had an enjoyable view everywhere we turned.

It was a beautiful day and the boys enjoyed the sand and the sunshine. Ivan, who has been the biggest proponent of a beach trip, was afraid to put his feet in the water. I think the waves moving in and out were somewhat intimidating to him and he was content to just enjoy the sand between his toes.

Of course I had to deal with my sand issues and I smiled and tried to just not think about the gritty feeling between my feet and my shoes. I washed, brushed and shook as much as I could but sand in my shoes is just inevitable. The boys didn’t seem to mind and Kris didn’t complain out loud, but I could tell he was as irritated as I was about the little sand piles under their feet in the van floor. Needless to say…we got over it.

After the beach we took a slightly different route home so that we could make a stop at our favorite ice cream place. The Sand Lake Party Store was just the thing for our tired little bunch. We called the Bowens, who were unable to join us at the beach, and invited them to join us for ice cream. They were staying with my cousin Roxanne just down the road from the party store and pulled in just as we did.

Little Faith Bowen, who is just a couple months younger than her cousin Ivan, but much more grown up in her mannerisms and conversation, was quick to correct me when I took a bite out of my ice cream cone.

“No, don’t bite it Mary…you’re supposed to lick it!” I thought it was funny. She’s an expert on a lot of different subjects.

We drove over to Roxanne’s to take dad to his car. He was headed over to Reubmommy’s house to meet up with his brothers and sisters to read the will. While we were still at Roxanne’s, her mom, my aunt Esther, called and invited all of us to their house for dinner. We headed home, bathed the boys and refreshed ourselves a bit before getting back in the van to go to Esther and Larry’s.

It was a lovely evening, hanging out with the cousins and watching the kids enjoy the rope swing in the back yard. The weather was beautiful and the conversation was warm and humorous.

All in all it was a very full day. It’s good for me I think. So often I don’t want to pack my day nearly as full as that one. The memories are so refreshing though because the tiredness is not what comes to mind first.

We traveled back home the next day, making sure to contact Mark and Keri Kornelsen and see if they would be interested in meeting us for lunch. They were able to meet up with us and we were excited to learn that Keri is expecting baby number three in January. We also got to tour their new home and enjoyed hearing of all the good stuff going on with their family.

It was a good trip and it was nice to get home before having several days of weekend and holiday left to enjoy here. Owen had Tuesday off of school (some sort of teacher training) as well as Labor Day Monday. Monday we enjoyed free sandwiches at Chick-Fil-a. They do a promotion every Labor Day offering free sandwiches if you wear a team logo of some kind. We all threw on our Titan’s t-shirts and had a nice lunch. That evening we got together a few houses down for brisket and grilled chicken with the neighbors. Knowing the rest of the world was back to business and school the next day we decided to take the boys to the zoo. We were rewarded with a pretty quiet morning with the animals and the boys had a great time.

It’s been a good week since then. Getting back into the swing of things is always an adjustment but it’s been fruitful for all of us.