It has been about 5 years since we saw my 2nd cousin, Joni Martin and her husband. They live near Boulder, Colorado. Charlene, my Mom and I went to visit with them at their campsite at the Holland State Park. We had a nice conversation about the old days. Joni's mother was a sister of my Grandma Thomas. My Grandma's family moved from New Jersey out to California in the 30's. Joni met her husband while living in Santa Barbara. They transferred to Ohio, where he taught school. They also lived in Italy and Germany for 3 years. They settled down near Boulder, Colorado, where they have lived ever since. Their daughter died when she was around 30 of brain cancer. They also have a son who married a German gal and they have 2 children.
I'm going to have to sit down with my mom to go over my Grandma's family history and update this post.
It was very nice to visit them and have a nice steak dinner.
Today was the Thomas family reunion at Larry and Pam's house in Zeeland. I wasn't sure if I was going to go this year, as I still had bad feelings about the incident at the reunion in 2010. I am not sure I will be over that. Larry wrote me a nice email expressing his desire to see us at the reunion and that we are family and should be there. He and Pam believed in me and thought the accusation was a load of crap. To this day, I have no desire to see Diann or Mike.
So, I was a little nervous about attending the reunion, but we did go. Everyone was very nice to us which made me feel very happy. I enjoyed my conversations with my cousin Kelsey, Pam, Linda, Staci, Charlene, etc.
We had a wonderful lunch. Then, we played toss the water filled balloons, watermelon seed spitting contest, and kick ball. I'm not very good at spitting out watermelon seeds. In fact, I think mine went straight down in front of me.
Maggie was invited to come, so she came along. Athena and Jasmine loved walking Maggie all over. I think they tired her out, too.
We were able to ride Larry's golf cart around which was fun. I think this was the first time Maggie has had a ride on the golf cart.
I am glad we came to the reunion, as it was not easy for me to miss it, as I love my family.
I am still in shock that I turned 39 today. Honestly, I don't feel like a day over 27. It is probably because I am not married nor have children, so I don't have those responsibilities.. There are days I would like to be married, but the older I get, the less I feel that way. I enjoy being single and doing whatever I please. Turning 29 was a hard year for me, as I knew 30 was on the way and all of my relatives and friends were married and having children. It's funny how your perspective changes over the years.
Anyway, my Mom and I went for a nice breakfast at IHOP in Grandville. I used my free breakfast coupon and we split the bill. The bill was completely free. When you are broke, you find ways to save money.
Then, we went to the mall so we could use our $10 off $10 or more at Younkers. Do you think I could find anything? Nope. I couldn't use the coupon on Bonus Buys or Yellow Dots, which didn't leave much left in the store. I spent close to an hour wandering around the store, but finally gave up.
We went to the Titanic exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in downtown Grand Rapids. I had wanted to see it, but kept putting it off, due to other obligations. I thought they did a nice job with the exhibit. It was more organized than the one I saw in Chicago when I was living there.
There were only about 1/3 of the passengers who survived the Titanic disaster. We were each given a passenger ticket and could look up our name on the list of survivors. Our passenger names survived the disaster.
We went shopping at the Woodland Mall and then for dinner at the Melting Pot Restaurant. My friend Becky Ruger met us at the restaurant. She brought me a nice birthday gift. I love hanging out with her. We met through Molly (Piersema) King last summer and have been friends every since.
We all enjoyed the cheese and chocolate fondues. The main course was not worth the money. We each received a plate with raw meat and vegetables and had to cook it ourselves in the pot on our table. I felt that was too much work when dining out. Each meal was $32 which I thought was a bit pricey. However, we all had a good time at the restaurant.
I am truly blessed to have wonderful friends and family.
It is always sad to see everyone pack up for home, but that's how it goes. Wendy and Todd were the first to leave. We all gave our goodbye hugs. I gave Katie my mind game toy to try and solve, as none of us were able to solve it last night.
George and Marianne were the last ones to pack up. There is quite a science to setting up and tearing down a campsite. We had to be out of the campsite by 1 p.m.
It sounds like George and Marianne are going to sell this 5th wheel as it has caused them a lot of problems over the past 15 years. When George went to Evart earlier this summer, he got a flat tire on the trailer, which busted the septic system, as well as this panel. George is bringing it in this week in order to get it fixed.
We stopped at the Costco in Brighton and had a pizza.
I had another 2 1/2 hours to get home. I always enjoy driving the highway and singing to my favorite songs.
I am truly thankful for the wonderful camping trips I have had with these 3 families.
I debated on whether I could get up to see the sunrise over Lake Huron, but figured this might be my only chance to see it. I have seen a sunset over Lake Michigan many times, but not a sunrise over a Great Lake. Sunrise was at 6:38 a.m. I set my alarm for 6:15, as I didn't want to miss it. Dawn and Jerry were already at the beach waiting for it. Joy and Harold came down a little after I came.
Then, I went back to bed for a little while.
Skip and Jo brought Joy and I on a ride up north to the city of Lexington. We spent around an hour there looking at the shops. There was a nice Irish store that carried beautiful Irish sweaters. I wish I could afford one of those. Each one was about $175.
Skip treated us to cheeseburgers and fries at Wimpy Burger, which was very nice of him to do. Then, we went up north to another city to see the lighthouse, which was built in 1886. I have always enjoyed the Lawvers.
I asked Jo where she met Skip. She said she met him at a bonfire at Eastern Michigan (I think). She said after a couple of dates, she knew she was going to marry him.
Chad and Kristi drove out to Estes Park, Colorado, so they were not able to come camping. They stay at the lodge that Kristi used to work at when she was younger.
Adam had a big landscaping project to work on at Michigan State University. Jase and his family had just come back from New Jersey, so they couldn't come camping.
At 11 a.m., Dawn and Jerry left for their concert at Ford Field in Detroit. They were going to see Kenny Chesney perform. They were coming back to the campsite after the concert.
By the time we got back, Heather and her kids had arrived. We went down to the beach and all of the kids were having fun in either the water or the sand. Heather constantly had to watch her 4 kids. Julian is almost 12 and he is a handful. It was nice to see everyone.
We came back to the campsite and had some snacks and hung out. Then, we had dinner.
Heather said she gave Julian $3 for an allowance this week and wanted to teach him the value of the dollar. He decided he wanted to buy some silly string at the park store. He sprayed it all over the road. It was gone in about 5 minutes, but he said it was so worth his $2.
The kids wanted to go to the playground, so we all went down there. Heather had to keep a constant eye on her 4 kids. The kids are all cute, though.
We sat around the camp fire. I was playing with my Iphone and opened up the Fatify and Old Age applications. The kids had fun taking their pictures and making themselves look fat or really old.
It was getting late, so Heather and the kids left to go back to Ann Arbor. Diego couldn't come, as he had flown out to California to visit his relatives.
It got dark around 9 p.m. Some people on the beach let off some Chinese lanterns, which was pretty cool. They flew in the sky for miles. There was almost a full moon outside which was beautiful, too.
Todd made the mistake of saying to Jo 'You are only 65'. He didn't mean it that way, but Jo threw her cup of water on him. We all died laughing.
Skip made his new wood cutouts with the sayings 'I Don't Care' and 'It's Not My Problem'. Those phrases could be used in many circumstances. I love them. They are so funny.
We woke up fairly early today. Of course, the first thing we do besides using the restroom is get our cup of coffee. That is a must every morning. Wendy and Todd brought their Keurig machine. How cool is that!
Joy and I went with Cheryl to Walmart to get cupcakes for Justin's birthday.
I walked down to the park store to see what they had in it. They had sweatshirts, t-shirts, ice cream, toys, gag gifts, toiletries, food, etc. If you forgot something, you pretty much could find it in this little store. I saw the toy section which had the coolest things. I told the kids about it, so they wanted to come back to the store.
I told them they could each pick out one item and I would buy it as they were only a couple of bucks. Nate and I got the magnetic balls; Cameron got this stuff that blows up bubbles; Katie got this nail through the gauze thing; Evan and Justin got glow sticks; and I got glow glasses. I also bought Rayna fart powder and this ice cube with a fake bug inside. Rylee picked out trick candles for her sister's birthday cake. I enjoy doing things like that, as I know kids love that stuff.
In the afternoon, the kids showed me this neat tree stump they found in the woods. It had nice big branches so you could sit on the tree and lean back on the branch.
We went down to the beach and the kids went swimming. I just put my feet in the water. Rayna, Rylee, and I buried Cameron in the sand which was funny.
Dawn and her new husband, Jerry, came with her 2 boys today. I have never hung out much with her boys, but they were a lot of fun. The youngest, Justin, turned 7 today. They had cupcakes for him at lunch and gave him birthday gifts.
Skip and Jo were the last to arrive. We all set up chairs and watched them set up their tent. That was hilarious!
We had meat and vegetables for dinner. Todd did most of the grilling. Wendy took care of making the alcoholic drinks.
After dinner, Dawn and Jerry filled our plastic champagne glasses with champagne to toast their wedding, along with birthdays, Harold and Cheryl's 44th Anniversary, as well as the blue sky. My first glass was cracked, so of course, I drank that up very quickly. I'm not sure how many glasses I had, but I felt pretty toasty by the end of the evening. All of us went through about 10 bottles of champagne, along with other liquor. I think we were all pretty toasty.
Marianne made a checkered cake for Rayna's 12th birthday. Her birthday is August 18th.
At 9 p.m., I went with the kids, Dawn, and Cheryl to the park store for the night hike. We were told to have a partner, so Cameron was mine. Cameron was quite the character. He had me laughing. It was quite interesting being tipsy and trying to walk through the woods in the dark. I love to laugh and have a good time. Dawn had to tell us to be quiet. It's pretty funny to have an adult my age having to tell me and the kids to be quiet.
Cameron leaned on a narrow tree and it fell over. I was afraid he got hurt, but he was fine and started laughing. Katie was walking behind me. I called them my 'adopted kids'.
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