Memorial Day Weekend

Whew, I'm pooped out and a bit sore after a 3 day weekend. Still haven't learned how to pace myself I guess.
I had dropped the bike off at Metric Motorsports Wednesday to have it gone over and didn't figure on getting it back until this week but they called late Thursday and said it was done so I hung around the house until 9am Friday morning and had Jen and the kids drive me up there to piok it up. The bill was a bit more than what was quoted cuz they put new rear brake pads on her, tightened up the seat, changed the oil and made sure everything else was copasetic. The idle is set a bit too high for my tastes so I'm gonna have to run it back up there for an adjustment.
Anyhow, got to work late and was headed home for the day right at lunchtime. Nice short day. I packed up the truck with the stuff we needed for the weekend at the castle and hung around until Chris showed up. We headed up North a bit before 3, but didn't get to camp until almost 5 because of a protracted visit to the grocery store in Hart.
Once we got there I started in by mowing the side yard stacking firewood we'd cut up last time there. About 7 we called it quits and I started cooking hamburgers. By the time we got done chowing on them it was almost 8pm so we headed up to the lodge to see if there was anybody there making ice cream treats. Sure enough there was so we got our usuals and took a cruise around the campground to see who all was up for the weekend.
I made it up till about 1am and then the bed sounded like too good an idea to ignore.

Saturday morning, after I got done sleeping in instead of taking the dogs for our morning stroll, I made breakfast and then we got busy doing some raking until the whole crew showed up about 10:30am. In retrospect I guess I was expecting too much outa the little critters cuz the whole camping thing and being in the woods was just too much new input I guess. After a couple hours of trying to get them to calm down and take a nap for awhile Jennette got fustrated with the situation and loaded them back up in the van and by 1:00pm they were all headed back to Grand Haven. Well, that didn't work out too well....

Me and Chris decided to stay over Saturday night instead of going home so we spent the rest of the afternoon working on little projects until about 4:00 when we got cleaned up a bit and headed up to the lodge, at Adam's invite, for the potluck and party going on that night. When we all finally sat down to eat about 6 it was quite the affair. A varitable cornocopia of smells and tastes. Sliced beef was the main course and along with that were several dozens options. I was starving so I took a bit of lots of different things and filled my plate twice before calling it quits. It was quite the meal.

After dinner there was a disc jockey playing music for the rest of the evening. I hung around for a bit and then went back to camp to ge things ready for dark. After that task was completed I headed back up to the lodge and was surprised to find it full of folks dancing to the music. Again I hung around for awhile, watching the festivities until about 10 when I decided to go back to camp. Chris wanted to stay so I asked Adam to drop him off when they were ready to call it a day. I went back and me and the dogs hung around the campfire, listening to tunes and night sounds until about 1am when the boys showed up. We didn't stay up too much longer after that......

Sunday the original plan was to head back home after breakfast but it was a beautiful day and Chris had met a girl the night before so while I mowed most of the morning and afternoon he was out and about hanging out. We had gone up to the lodge for breakfast....pancakes, all you can eat for a buck and a half is too much of a deal to pass up, especially when I don't have dirty dishes to wash after I'm done eating. By the time 5 oclock rolled around I had finished mowing the area on the west side that I wanted tamed and managed to do a big swath of the east side lowland too. Once I get that all done the plan is to get a porch swing and hang it down there from one of the giant limbs.
Anyhow, it was about 6 by the time we were rolling outa camp and heading home. It was after 8 before I got a hot shower and got cleaned up. After that the only thing to do was kick back and take it easy.
Monday morning we were up early to hit the Memorial day parades. First, the Grand Haven one at 9:30, then the Spring Lake one at 10:30. I believe this was the first time the kids had seen parades and they weren't real sure what to make of all the commotion and the candy that people kept throwing at them.....After that we went back home to regroup and then me and Jennette and the two oldest boys headed for Fruitport to catch some of the parade there. As luck would

have it we had to park a ways away from the carnival area and just as we were going down the hill to where the parade route finished here came the leading cop car. So, we decided to stop at a nice grassy spot and watch the whole parade go by. Ri and Adam caught up with us midway thru the parade and after it was over and gone we all headed down to the carnvial. We didn't spend much time there...just long enough for Jen and Ri to ride the Zipper and Gravitron and then we tried to get the boys on the kiddie train for a ride but Jason wasn't impressed a bit and wailed the whole time he was riding. Ryan took it a bit more instride but after that we all decided to head out and go home for dinner that the wife had made before she took off

for the bingo deal. After dinner and a nap me and Jen took the boys down to the beach and walked 'em all thru the sand and let 'em get their feet wet for awhile. The water was cold of course so they didn't stay by the shore for long, they decided it'd be more fun to chase the Sea gulls. after some of that we loaded 'em back up in the car and headed back home. Baths were in order and after them it started to get quiet again.

We're down to the last several days now...Jen is heading down to the relatives house for some quality time this coming Saturday morning.

That's about it for now, it was a good weekend and a fun time for the most part.....I've got no complaints.