Snapshots from My Year . . .

January:  Addison turns 3!

February:  David Paul Arrives

March/April:  Visited Costa Rica

March/April: Rode a horse for the first time in 20 ish years in Costa Rica

April:  David Paul is baptized

May:  Memorial Day at the Botanical Gardens with my friend Matt

 

May:  Flower Day at the Detroit Eastern Market

 

June:  Alaina turns 5

July:  Visit to Ishpeming

 

 

 

July:  Family Time at Seul Choix

 

July:  More fun at the Eastern Market

July:  All day adeventure to the Detroit Institute of Arts

Oh the Tangled Web We Weave

This past week I went camping with some very dear friends to PJ Hoffmaster State Park. PJ Hoffmaster is considered to be the founder of the Michigan State Park System. My friend Mark spotted the arachnid in the top photo and we both tried grabbing the shot. Mine was a bit blurry. The next morning I was about to place my foot into my favorite pair of crocs when I noticed that another arachnid had taken up residence. I pulled out my camera and spent about 15 minutes trying to capture the web. It amazes me how well constructed these webs are. Do you know that spiders trap their prey in the web, spin more silk around their capture and then inject an enzyme that digests the insides so they can suck out the nutrients? ewwhhhhh! Yuck. My tent had about 30 daddy long legs on the outside. I just kept hoping they weren't planning a coordinated attack on me!!

Family Camping

It was good to see a lot of us at family camping.

Welcome To the Double Digits!

We had fun at family camping. It was a great time also for Adam to celebrate his first double digit birthday. Most of the rest of us have been in double digits for some time.

Adam and Isaac were checking out the greenbacks in his birthday card.

Orange You Beautiful?

I thought that Lake Michigamme was a really beautiful lake. The water temperature was cool and refreshing but not so cold that I didn't want to hop in. The sandy bottom was fantastic and I loved how it remained shallow for a significant distance. The color of the water was really stunning and I had to do a little research to find out if my suspicion about where it came from was correct. It took a while but I finally confirmed my suspicion with the Field Guide to Aquatic Phenomena. It is a really interesting website published by The University of Maine. The answer is that the iron ore from the ground makes it way into the lake and therefore causes it to reflect an orange color!

During my research I found that according to this site, Lake Michigamme is one of Michigan's largest lakes (although much smaller than the Great Lakes.) It reaches a depth of over 70 feet. Its rocky 95-mile shoreline and underwater structure make it good, if challenging, for fishing especially for muskies and small mouth bass.

Family camping 2010

Just a few fun pictures from Family camping!!!!