Camping in Michigan - The Tent

On Thursday night, July 2nd, Jon flew up to Michigan.

On Friday, July 3rd, Jon, Justin Pouch and Tony Nagle loaded an ABF freight truck with lots of stuff from Dad's house. Jon still can't believe that piano didn't roll back and crush him.

On Saturday morning, July 4th, the Caruvana clan packed the minivan and drove north to Harrisville State Park, where we set up camp.

Syndi had spent the week at camp Barakel, and we would need to pick her up on Tuesday. The rest of us tented for a few days on the shores of Lake Huron. Saturday night we went down to the shore of the lake and watched the fireworks displays. The closest fireworks were from the Harrisville celebration, which we watched as we stood a few feet from the lapping waves and looked to the north. Two other displays could be seen to the south, probably the Oscada/Au Sable and the Tawas Point fireworks. It was pretty cool.
We had fun in the tent.
As you can see, we had a nice view of the neighbor's campground. We could hear the waves lapping on the shores of Lake Huron throughout the night. It was a soothing sound.

After we picked Syndi up on Tuesday, Junior, Stephen and Syndi sqeezed into their sleeping bags on one side of the tent. Julia slept nearby in her pack-n-play. Syl and I slept in our sleeping bags on the other side of the tent.

Next we'll post some pictures of our visits to the beach.

Junior's 6th Birthday

While Sylvia and the kids were in Michigan, they celebrated Junior's 6th birthday!
Junior loved hunting down clues to find his gifts.
Apparently clue #1 (first picture) led to the utensil drawer in the kitchen (second picture)...

...and one clue led him to be reaching behind a TV...

...but he eventually found some gifts...

...which he eagerly opened!

A new game!

Money!!

A card from Daddy, who was still in Georgia!!!

And, of course, cake!!!!

Junior enjoyed his birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday, Junior!

Congratulations on turning 6 years old!

Visiting Michigan

At the end of June, Sylvia and the kids went to Michigan.

Sylvia worked on getting the house ready for Dad to sell.
The kids loved visiting with Grandpa,
and spending time with the Pouches.

Syndi loved holding Hazel.

Sylvia did a lot of work, but the kids got some time to play. They celebrated Junior's birthday at the end of June, and Jon came up to Michigan several days later (in early July). We'll have pictures from those in the next posts to the blog. :-)

Junior's Butterflies

Junior recently got a butterfly cage. The cage came with an offer to buy some Painted Lady butterfly larvae, so we took the plunge. In June, we went through a several week process of feeding the larvae, waiting for them to cocoon, pinning them up in the cage, watching them hatch, feeding them and...
...at the end, letting them go. Here Junior is about to open his cage and set his butterflies free.

We received 5 larvae, and 4 survived - amazingly enough - to hatch in the cage. We thought we'd lost a couple along the way, but left them in the cage, and they actually survived.

The reality of losing his butterflies was hard on Junior. Upon hatching, they only have a two-week life span. They were in our house for a week-and-a-half, and we were about to leave for Michigan, so knew it was time to let them go.

Junior and Syndi were fascinated and sad in alternating fashion.

Sylvia? Well, she was a little iffy on the butterflies flying out at her.

After all, Painted ladies are very aggressive ~ riiiiight!

Our last escapee flew right over to the gutter at the corner of the house, where we all gazed upon it in fascination. They are beautiful butterflies.

Junior was overcome with grief at the thought of losing his last butterfly. Poor guy.

He said his final goodbye.

Julia, however, wanted to hold the butterfly.

Syndi sadly watched also, and a few minutes later, we watched the last of Junior's Painted Ladies fly off into the sunset. It was a good experience for Junior, who loves the outdoors and animals and critters. Perhaps we shall try this again next year.

Garden 2009

We planted a garden again this year, and this is the bounty we harvested earlier this week.

We picked tomatoes, mint, basil, stevia, lemon balm

and - yes - pumpkins!

Oh, I love the colors!

Junior has been a major help, doing almost all of the garden harvesting. He loves the garden!

Earlier in June we harvested some zucchini and yellow squash. Unfortunately the squash bugs got to our squash plants, and they are no more (even in spite of us trying to intermix the squash and tomato plants, which was supposed to help ~ if you have ideas for us for next year on keeping squash bugs away, please let us know!).

Syndi Gets Glasses

Early in June, Syndi got her new glasses.

She had been complaining about difficulty reading from a distance, and it turned out she needed glasses.

Her new glasses are rose-colored and look pretty cool.
She even worked on her "old grandmother" look!

Syndi was excited about her new glasses, and was even happier to be able to see well again.

Chey & Victoria

On the very last night of May the first morning of June, we had some wonderful visitors...sisters Chey and Victoria. Chey and Victoria were part of a youth choir from a sister church in Alabama, and several families from Pleasant Valley North hosted the youth overnight in their homes.
We were one of those host families, and we had a fun evening with the girls, playing Pictionary and talking. It was a great time, and a new experience for Chey and Victoria, whom we returned to PVN in the morning for their return trip to Alabama.