Summer Highlights, In Photos

I've been a bad blogger again...I could tell you a whole lot about the summer, but instead I'll just give you some pics of the highlights!

At the Battle Creek Air Show--so cool!

Our first chicken...yum.

My birthday present:-)  Isn't it so pretty?

Some dune jumping at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.

Sleeping Bear Nat'l Lakeshore.  This place was voted "The Most Beautiful Place in America", and for good reason.  Who  would ever want salty sticky oceans over this has got to be out of their mind.

The kids preparing for our group photo on our annual family camping trip--quite a crew!  Hoffmaster State Park, right on Lake Michigan, is one of our favorites.

Ezra got to celebrate his 8th birthday at the campground!!

Our first GORGEOUS tomato from the garden...a Bonnie's Best weighing in at almost 1 pound!

The monarch caterpillar...we got to watch it make its chrysalis!  Still waiting on the butterfly!

Off to the INCH Convention!

This weekend is finally here...Dan and I get a weekend away all to ourselves!  Well, sort of.  We're going to the INCH Convention, Michigan's annual homeschool conference.  We've been to it a couple times before, but it's been a few years and I could use a little shot of excitement in my veins!  And it seemed like a good reason for the two of us to get away...Hard to believe that our "baby" Percival is big enough to go without me for a night though.  How the time does fly!  Only a month ago he was still waking up to nurse at night, and then all of a sudden, he just stopped.  A little sad for me...but not much:)


I'm eager to hear this year's keynote speaker, Voddie Baucham.  For one thing, I want to hear from his own mouth how you actually pronounce his name.  Voe-dee?  Vod-ee?  Bowcham?  Bawcham?  Never really quite sure...And while I probably don't agree with absolutely 100% of what he has to say, I really have enjoyed what I have heard from him before.  After all, his primary ministry is to restore Christian families to impact the world, which is pretty much what we're all about too:)


Finally, for anyone who is interested, here is my "shopping list" for the exhibit hall.  We'll find out after the conference if I'm able to stick to it:)

Latina Christiana I (elementary Latin)

Ludere Latine (Latin language games)

Memoria Press 2nd Grade Literature Guide

Saxon Math 54

Mystery of History Volume 2: Resurrection thru the Middle Ages

History Through the Ages Historical Figures Timeline set

Art ideas?

Preschool hands-on stuff

Kentucky Vacation Recap (with lots of pictures!)

Good beer, good friends, the Creation Museum, Mammoth Caves and Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home made up the last few days of our Kentucky tour!  Yes, I know, many would consider a few of those items a contradiction...maybe one day I will write a nice, deep, theological post about why we believe it's biblical to enjoy a few brewskies now and then.  But that's another whole story, so for now you're just gonna have to wait.

Thursday afternoon we went on the Mammoth Passage Tour at the caves.  It wasn't as long as I would have liked, but Percival and Gawain were not about to put up with anything longer than an hour.  Friday we spent a good few hours at Lincoln's birthplace and his boyhood home nearby.  We weren't planning on being there that long, but it was well worth the visit.  From there we drove up to Cincinnati to visit some good high school friends and their adorable daughter.  Greg treated us to a fantastic evening at The Hofbrauhaus and we spent a fun night with them at their home.  Saturday we headed to the Creation Museum nearby.  We only had about half a day to take it in, which definitely was NOT enough time to really see it all.  The museum is great--everything is of very high quality.  I highly recommend it!  I'm hoping we can go back sometime and see it in more depth.  If you decide to go, try to plan on getting a 2-day pass or at least having a good full day.

OK, on to the fun part...some pics!

Gawain high-tailing out of Hidden River Cave.

Entrance to Hidden River Cave with our personal tour guide!

There she is, Athena with all her 8 lbs. of gold gilding...

Down the stairs into Mammoth Cave

View from a hiking trail "above ground" at Mammoth Cave N.P.

Monument at Lincoln's birthplace.  The house they *think* he was born in is inside.

Isaiah, Moses, and David at the Creation Museum.  I can't tell you how many times Gawain had to ask if all these guys were real.

Dan with the lizard guy.  Isn't he cute?  (My husband, that is?!)

Our American Cave Museum Experience

Courser family vacation Day 2 included a trip for the kids and I to the American Cave Museum in Horse Cave, KY while Dan was at work.  I was pleasantly surprised by the museum.  So many of the things to do around here are so "tourist-y" that I wasn't sure just what we were going to get, but this museum is very nice and professional.  There were several hands-on type exhibits that the kids enjoyed, ranging from the history of cave exploration to cave animal life and ground water conservation.  Many of the exhibits, however, required lots of reading, so we made our way through the museum pretty quickly.  The highlight, of course, is the tour of Hidden River cave.  Our tour was quite a bit shorter than usual since the river is flooded right now...but this turned out to be great for us because the kids were all pretty nervous about being "underground".  (Look for pics coming after we get home...I got a good number of shots of their backs as they high-tailed it OUT!)  We had our own personal tour guide since we were the only people in the museum!  She seemed quite knowledgeable and tailored the tour to my kids' interests.  (Most of their questions were things like, "Do caves ever collapse on people?  What if you got stuck inside?  Will we fall in the river?"  Things of that nature...) 

Sorry for the lack of pictures so far...I didn't pack lots of computer gear, so photos will have to come after we get home.  I must admit, Kentucky is absolutely beautiful this time of year...so lush and green!  I could see myself living here, if I could pack up all my family and bring them here too!  I'm sure I would miss the winter Michigan snow, the Great Lakes, corn and wheat and brilliant shades of fall.  But in a year where the snow didn't all melt until mid-April, a week of balmy spring is a welcome change of pace:)

Kentucky Family Vacation, Day 1!

We made it!  A full day of driving and we are happily settled into our lovely 2-bedroom cabin at Jellystone Park.  I'm too whipped to write much, but here's the highlights from the day...

Sir Percival keeps taking more steps!
My husband is an expert packer.  All our stuff stayed dry in an open trailer through hours of rain thanks to plastic storage bins and ratchet straps.
When traveling with a one-year-old, pack suckers.
"Ice Age 2, The Meltdown" is cute the first time.  The second time is really annoying.
Our kids are so amazing...they did so well during the LONG drive!  We're so proud of them and blessed by them!

More to come tomorrow...The American Cave Museum is on the agenda.  Good night everyone!

We're almost on our way to Kentucky!

This coming week our family will be taking a bit of a "surprise" vacation to the Mammoth Caves area of Kentucky (thanks to Dan's employer who is sending him there to work in their plant for a few days!)  We'll be driving down tomorrow and staying in a lovely two-bedroom cabin at Jellystone Park:)  So stay tuned throughout the week for "live blogging" from the Courser family vacation...hopefully not bearing too much resemblance to a Griswold family vacation...haha!  On the tour agenda: the American Cave Museum, a day trip down to Nashville to visit the Parthenon, the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, and of course a cave tour of the Mammoth itself.  This will also be my first attempt at cloth diapering on vacation.  Jellystone has its own laundromat...we'll see.  I may end up making a run to WalMart.  We're looking forward to sharing our little time away with all of you!