Summer = over?!

Whew, I cannot believe that a week from today, the kids will start school! This summer has blown by! In fact, I believe my sister, a teacher, started working THIS week, and I know that there are others out there that started even earlier. Man, where did the time go? I guess it raced by in a rush of vacations, visitors, and fun activities!

On that note, on to last weekend's adventure which would fall into the "fun activities" category I think (what with it only lasting for 2.5 days, thereby not qualifying as a "vacation").

We left around noon on Friday for the UP ... that's Michigan's Upper Pennisula for those of you who don't speak Upper Midwest. We were visiting our friend Ryan Cordell, a buddy from California dorm days at JBU. The kids did great on the trip up and back ... 6 hours each direction. Cyndie and I have officially decided that we can now handle road trips. They kids are old enough to understand waiting and are sufficiently entertained by movies.*

*I cannot imagine better invention for road trips than the portable DVD player ... that little booger is a life saver! Coming in a close second are books on tape/CD to entertain the adults!

So we were visiting Ryan on the Cordell family's island. Yes, that's right, the Cordells have an island of their own on a lake in the UP. After a couple of wrong turns, we got there and Ryan picked us up on the boat to ferry us over to the island. Let me just say that the lake (Cheif Lake near Republic, MI) was AWESOME! It was everything I dream to one day have in a lake/lake home. The lake was probably a bit bigger than Lake Arrowhead, plus it had another lake (Little Chief Lake) attached to it. It had maybe 30 houses on it total, so was very wild and beautiful. It's spring fed, and very clear (and pretty cool). The island was cool too: 2.5 acres, with trees and meadow and a great cabin (plus two other "auxillery" cabins for over flow).

It was great fun. We fished (I caught probably 10 or so fish, but threw them all back), played, had a bonfire, took scenic boat rides, swam (but not too much as it was pretty cool Friday/Saturday), and generally enjoyed the beautiful outdoors.

All too soon, it was Sunday night and we were packing up for our drive home on Monday. All in all, it was a great trip, and one we hope to make again before too long!