We had been to Mt. Rushmore before, but not with all of the new children. We had a blast!

The bridge on the way to Mt. Rushmore.

This was a really neat bus we saw in the parking lot that had sleeping quarters in the back.

You can tell everyone was tired from riding all night. I used those energy shots to stay awake and just after this picture was taken, we had to hike up a bunch of steps to get back to the parking lot. As I got to the top steps, my heart started pounding and I started to sweat and not feel very well. I felt like I just couldn’t catch my breath. So, I sat down and tried to breath slowly. Steve was becoming quite concerned because I started to get pale and continued to sweat a lot. After a few minutes, I felt well enough to walk to the van. Once I got some water, I felt better, but I was SO tired.

We slept very well that night after we swam in the pool, but some of the kids were coming down with a cold. The next morning, Luc was really sick with a horrible cough and runny nose. It wasn’t long before most everyone else had it too.

Some of the sights on the ride home.

Beautiful Wyoming

Awesome Utah sunset!

We got home around 10 that night and unloaded just what we needed to be into p.j.’s and bed. It felt SO good to sleep in our own beds and we slept in as much as we could. The next morning after the trailer had been unloaded, this was what my laundry room looked like after two loads of laundry had already been done.

We had a great vacation with a few rough spots….but we learned from them and know what we will do differently next time. Although with the economy the way it is now, it will be a few years before we embark on the next great adventure!

Since we decided not to go to the zoo on Monday, we had time to help my Mom clean out her garage. Something she has wanted done for a while, but never had anyone who could help her. Besides, a lot of the stuff in there was my stuff from when I lived at home.

We had a blast going through my old stuff. I even found my old Barbie and Midge dolls that I played with as a girl. There were boxes of my college books and a huge painted picture of me when I was about 10. We didn’t get to go through everything because we ran out of time, but we were able to help get rid of some of the stuff in there.

After that, we decided to go to the waterfront and walk to the pier. However, it was so cold and windy and we didn’t think to bring sweatshirts, so all we got was this one picture on Five Mile Hill.

We decided that we would leave as scheduled even though it would mean driving all night on Wednesday in order to get Stefani back in time to start her new job. We also wanted one last swim at the lake. It was kind of cold, so we didn’t stay long.

Becca

Nic and John...I have no idea what they are doing...maybe waiting for the tide to come in?

Marie

Matthew

Rachel

Playing with the raft that came with the rental house.

We invited some of the older kids to come down for a spaghetti supper that Steve made. It was SO good. Then, the kids started to watch T.V. and just moments before some other friends came by to visit, there was a physical disagreement over the remote between the same two children who had the knock down drag out bloody nose fight the day before. Literally moments before our friends walked in the door!! We managed to have a nice visit with them anyway and we were so glad to see their daughter and her husband who are expecting twin girls any time now.

Before they left, they invited us for lunch the following day, which would be our last day in Michigan. Time seemed to be going by at break neck speed and I didn’t want to think about leaving so soon.

Sunday morning we went to a church that some good friends of ours are a part of. Three years ago, the children sang at this church….but we had not planned for them to sing this time. We happened to sit right in front of my old high school principal!! What a blast from the past! Our friends also got us a nice anniversary balloon…which I was thought was SO sweet.

After church, the children sang for my principal and some others that were milling around after church. They did a great job, thanks to Steve, who has taught them SO much in the past year.

We got some lunch and then headed to Wal-Mart to pick up the birthday cakes we ordered for Andrea’s two children, Jessica and Bret. Since we never get to see them on their special days, I wanted to have a party while they were here. I told Andrea she could invite anyone she wanted and it turned out that everyone showed up. I was inside taking pictures, taking care of cake, and gifts. Most of the children were outside playing and some of the adults were outside as well.

Jessica!

Bret!

Bret enjoyed his cake!!

Suddenly, one of the children came running into the house screaming “MOM!! The kids are fighting and one of them is bleeding!” I ran outside to see one of my older children on top of one of my younger children and blood coming out of the older one’s face. They were both very angry and I ran to them and told the older one to get off of his brother. He yelled that he didn’t do anything to him and immediately left. I took my younger son into the house and we talked to him and calmed him down to try and find out what happened. Thankfully, my daughter in law saw the whole thing and indicated that it started out in fun, but both of them got angry and things went downhill from there. I think the bloody nose was an on purpose accident since my younger son had had enough rough play. If the older one had wanted to play catch with the football, I guess he should have just asked instead of intercepting the pass and not giving the ball back. At any rate, almost everyone left shortly after that and after everyone had calmed down,  Steve and I walked our son up to apologize to his brother for giving him a bloody nose while our daughter and her husband kept an eye on the other kids. However, he wasn’t able to apologize right then and we came back to the house.

Our older child did come to our house later to talk to Steve and did allow his brother to apologize then, but by then, the damage had already been done. I am so thankful that our daughter in law saw the whole thing because as the story got told and re-told, it changed and the blame for the whole thing was put on my 13 year old son.

Since it was the last night that my daughter was going to be in town, we decided to get some pizza and go to my Mom’s to eat it. The kids had a blast drawing with sidewalk chalk all over Grandma’s driveway.

Pizza Party!

Bret wanted to try the swords!

Grandma loved having everyone over!

Isaac

Decorating Grandma's driveway

Jessica

The horse Nicolas drew!

Matthew and Jessica were buddies!!

Abby and Ashley were buddies!!

It was hard saying goodbye to my daughter and her family not knowing when we would see each other again. The day was full of emotions and we started to talk seriously about leaving early to go home. We had planned to go to the zoo in Grand Rapids on Monday, but decided we would just stay around the house and relax.

Thankfully, when Monday came it was a pretty calm day….