Rasberry Picking

Our successful blueberry -picking trip encouraged us to go out once more and pick some local produce.

This time it was raspberries.

We brought along our berry picking partner, Benjamin.

I  liked when he spotted Nathan across the row of berries he was picking and said:

"Oh there is uncle Nathan" the kid is super cute and how he expresses himself is too adorable.

 There were a lot of bees, but they seemed quite content to just buzz around the plants and leave us alone the entire time. We managed to gather around  six pounds. I also bought some rhubarb in the store at the front of the farm.

This isn't going to win any food photo contest, but it did taste pretty good.  Not only did it include the raspberries but also some of the blueberries from our last trip and the rhubarb I bought at the farm.  

Camping with Friends

In both our busy summer schedules we managed to find an opening for a camping trip with our friends, the Potrafka's.  Nichols Lake is located near Baldwin. Nathan had discovered it on one of his overnight biking/ camp trips.
It has been an unusually warm summer here in Michigan with temperatures in high 90's and even 100's. This has meant for warmer nights.  The forecast had called for  an overnight low in the 50's on the day we headed out. I am preparing myself for the cold temperatures yet to come, so although I was glad the forecast wasn't going to be scorching hot, I was apprehensive about that cold night.

This was our first official overnight camping trip as a family. Our tent and air mattresses were fresh out of the box. We own a Coleman instant tent and it really took Nathan only about two minutes to put it  up.

The Potrafkas live in Traverse City so we don't get to see them very often. Terrie-who is not pictured at her request of it being her second day of "roughing" it.  Went to High School with my brother-n-law Shane. She was explaining how she has been friends with all the Sweeneys at some point. First Shane, then the girls (my two sister-n-laws) and now she sees me and Nathan the most.
When I first met Josh and Terrie at church, they were just engaged to be married.

One of Terrie's funny stories was about her dentist trying to convince of teeth whitening.
He was explaining all the benefits and what a difference it makes. He even said - well if you were my wife. I would want it done.  Her reply- my husband is a plumber.
Then the dentist proceeded to say he likes showing everyone the difference. He had whitened the top teeth and not the bottom.

Their first born is Aaron he is 10. Elliot likes hanging out with older boys, so it was really nice Aaron included him in all his critter and bug finding excursions.
Elaina was born in October 2009 so she is just shy of one month younger than Jane.  They were like peas in a pod.

The girls were so proud of their new found frog. They were telling us how it didn't jump off the bike as they rode around the campground.  Nathan witnessed it falling off and lying flat on its back motionless.  The kids called it Likesee the parents nicknamed it deadsee.
It was eventually released back into the wild, we hope it revived.

Lots of toads were found during the trip, so were salamanders, a  praying mantis and its lunch a dead spider.

The lake was pretty and quiet. It would have been fun to take a kayak or a boat out.

What did I learn from my first camping trip?  Nathan's sleeping bag is really warm, that 50 degree weather didn't even bother me.  The downside was that it was so warm, I didn't want to crawl out of it in the morning.

What to bring was my biggest issue.  According to Nathan I must not have stressed out, because I packed everything.
We had three backpacks, I hardly call that everything.
I did however over pack food. Terrie ended up cooking a great dinner and breakfast so we didn't need as much, but I think next time even if we go by ourselves I will keep it simpler.

Camping might be more fun with other people around. I don't think the kids would have enjoyed themselves as much with just mom and dad.

The experience was pleasant enough for me to honestly say I look forward to doing it again next summer.

Rodeo and The Reds

The Sweeney brothers had a reunion in Tennessee.
Left to Right: Greg and Linda, (with Aaron in the middle) Garrett and Lavona, Grant and Gloria, Glen and Elaine, and Graham came with his son Loren. 

The kids had fun with a pool around. Uncle Aaron is having a good time splashing his niece. 

We went to a rodeo in Rutherford. It is a fundraiser for the  fire department.
Gloria showing Jane some dance moves.

Elliot and Loren thumb wrestling.
Elliot loved the attention of his older cousin.
It was nice getting to know Loren and we invited him to visit us in Grand Rapids.

The calf scramble ( I think they call it that) All kids 12 and under compete to pull the tags off three of them. Once you pulled a tag you were to return to the middle and give it to the rodeo clown.
Elliot had pulled a tag, but dropped it a bigger kid grabbed it off the ground and ran up to claim the prize. The clown had noticed what happened and told Elliot to come up and get a prize too. The prize was a five dollar bill.

Congratulations.

This was the kids first rodeo. They immediately began asking for boots and cowboy hats.
We left the kids with their grandparents for four days and met up in Cincinnati over the next weekend.

The highlight was the baseball game.

Hoping to catch a practice ball.

The infamous Charlie Sheen was there. They had him play a game during one of the innings. 

We purchased Reds shirts at Old Navy and came ready to root root for the home team.

Johnny Cueto bobble-heads for the first 20,000 people.
Jane sold hers after the game for $5.00 to a couple of guys who were buying them.

The T.V announcer was drowned out by the cheering fans.
The Reds were number one in their division and were on quite the winning streak. Watching the last inning was very exciting. The Reds closer had 100 MPH fast balls, the Pirates didn't score any runs and another victory was added to Cincinnati. 

  My favorite part of this video is hearing grandma, start clapping and cheering while Elliot is awarded his $5

Blueberry Picking

Our summer has been full of spending time with friends and fitting in all the activities we can before the cold weather hits.

Blueberry season arrived and we decided to take the opportunity to pick some.  The cost of berries in the store can be quite pricey.  We found this farm offering to pick a pound at $1.10. 

Benjamin and Carissa joined us for this excursion. 

Carissa instructing Benjamin not to pick the red ones.

 What did we do with our berries?

Some went into our mouths, some went into the freezer and I baked some into these muffins.

Oughta see Odyssey

In 1987 James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family came up with the idea of a radio drama. It was to provide a unique way to minister and reach people about issues concerning the family.

That drama eventually became Adventures in Odyssey and has been on the air for 25 years.

Radio drama was something Nathan was familiar with as he grew up listening to Children's Bible Hour with Uncle Charlie.  

Nathan and I were dating when he started listening to Odyssey.  The first epidsode I heard, involved a character on the show becoming a Christian. I didn't know the back story, had no idea who these characters were, but the writing and acting were so well done, I cried.

In 2007 we took a trip to Colorado Springs. This was for Odyssey's 20th Anniversary.

The kids were ages three and two and it was our first time away from them.  We drove 10 hours to Nathan's parents  house in Tennesse to drop them off. then we drove another three hours to Nashville, and caught a plane to Denver.

Waiting outside the Focus chapel for the doors to open. Nathan looking at our newly purchased complete guide to AIO. 

Paul Mckusker is a writer and director of the show. His talent is tremendous and goes beyond Odyssey. He wrote and produced a radio drama for all the Chronicles of Narnia. His work is the best there is in the business.

David Griffin plays a character called Jimmy Barclay, one of my favorite.  He started when he was 10 and played the character into his teen years. 

Dave Madden played a character called Bernard Walton. You might also remember him as Reuben Kincaid from The Partridge family.

 On AIO he played this grumpy character, and has all these great one-liners.
 One of my favorite "I would have to die to get better"

 Alan Young did not make it to the anniversary show, but he played a character called Jack Allen. Alan Young is Wilbur from Mr. Ed and also voiced Scrooge Mcduck.

Genesis and David Long. These two were kids on the show and later got married in real life. They have kids the same age as ours.

The target age for Odyssey is 8 to 12 years old.  Of course with parents who are avid listeners our kids were hearing episodes as infants and toddlers and probably would not be able to tell you when they first heard it.  They are now big fans. 

Elliot is often found with one of our ipods in his hands walking around the house listening to an episode.

When we heard Odyssey was doing a 25th anniversary show in Dallas, we knew it couldn't just be the parents going this time.  We had frequent flyer miles, it was summer, we had relatives living in Texas. All good reasons to say yes to the trip.

This is Chris Anthony she introduces the episodes of Odyssey. She has also been the voice of Barbie.

We were able to join the cast and crew for a special dinner the night before the performance.
This allowed for easy pictures and signatures. 
Nathan and I waited in line for two hours at the 20th Anniversary show for autographs and photos.

It is here I would like to make a side comment. Nathan and I have only flown twice together within the US and both times involved Adventures in Odyssey.  

Jesse Flora he works for Focus and is involved behind the scenes.

We were able to have Will Ryan sit at our table during dinner.  Will told a story of being at the rehearsal for  The Little Mermaid and listening to Alan Menken play piano and the singer  perform Under the Sea. Will voiced the seahorse in the movie. He has done several voices for Disney and cartoons. It was great to hear him do the voices of some of the characters. It was his  Odyssey character Eugene that became a Christian in the first episode I have ever heard.

Chuck Bolte plays George Barclay and was a producer of the show. He grabbed Nathan and had him stand next to Dave Arnold, a writer and sound designer. His comment was that they could be brothers. Dave was very apologetic about that. It was a great photo opportunity.

After dinner we were able to watch them rehearse.  Many people would love to meet famous movie stars/directors up close and personal.  Having Will Ryan sit at our table couldn't have been any less exciting for someone else to meet Brad Pitt. 
  I will take shaking hands with Paul Mckusker over Spielberg any day.  

Many of these people are famous voice actors.
 Katie Lee (Connie Kendall):  Muppet Babies and Gummi Bears.  Katie is also Christian. She is nice to talk to and hearing her stories are always fun. Not all the actors on the show are Christian.
Andre Stoyka, he is the third person to play John Whittaker:
He has voiced Winnie the Pooh and Owl and the Keebler Elves. 
Jess Harnell (Wooton):  Voices a transformer in all the movies. Animaniacs, Pixar's UP,  Finding Nemo, The sea gulls that say "mine, mine" was him and one other guy. 
 I was excited to meet Townsend Coleman who was not at the last anniversary. He has done work on Fraggle Rock and was the voice announcer for NBC for 15 years.
Kimmie Robertson is a new character on Odyssey. She was Lucy Moran in Twin Peaks and did the voice of the feather duster (maid) in Beauty and the Beast.

Brock Eastman works for Focus, he does media for AIO and is also a writer.  He took time to talk to us and gave us an autograph poster featuring one of his books. 

The host of the birthday bash was Irving Bible Church.
 Inside the church is this playground called the tubes. It is open daily from 9-10pm. 

A giant birthday card. Jane's signature including her Chinese name.

Brock took the photo of us next to the cutouts of the characters.

Visiting family and getting to see Odyssey up close made a perfect combination for a vacation.