Elena 
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1. We had to miss my annual family reunion this year. Rosie is starting on her high school cross country team and they were having camp in the wilds of Pennsylvania. It just seemed like a lot to drive 8 hours to spend two hours at the reunion and then drive home 8 hours only to drive another 1 1/2 hours to PA. Maybe we’ll try something a little different next year but this year since she’s a freshman, running top 5, and a homeschooler, it seemed best not to rock the boat.
So instead, we took a trip to the Lake Huron side of Michigan, where Mr. Pete used to go when he was a little boy.
When my family was still young, I was outnumbered 5 to 1 as the only woman with a husband and four little boys. That started to turn around after Izzy was born, and this year we completely flipped it over – Mr. Pete went camping with me, his two daughters, and his granddaughter!
We had a blast too. Miss C. had read about lighthouses in co-op last year, and we recently read a library book about living in a lighthouse. On this trip, she had the opportunity to visit TWO lighthouses.
Also as luck would have it, the first lighthouse we visited was celebrating its 150th birthday with cake!! The fam was pleased!
The Sturgeon Point Light House has 84 steps going up. It can only handle about 4 or 5 people at the top at one time. Miss C was just shy of the 48-inch height requirement to climb, but she managed it anyway and got a great view of the little bay and the blue waters of Lake Huron.
Then we just spent some time relaxing and enjoying the beautiful beaches of Lake Huron.
2. At the second lighthouse, we were able to take a guided tour. This house also had 84 steps to the top. Turns out, both lighthouses were made by the same builder, which would explain the similarities.
This guide told us the story of the people that lived in the lighthouse. A family lived there in the early 20th century and they had one of the rooms decorated for a little girl. Unfortunately, the child caught the Spanish flu that was endemic during that time and she passed away.
That night on the phone to her Daddy, Miss C said, “Hi Daddy. We went to another lighthouse today. I climbed all of the stairs but a little girl died.”
I had to quickly grab the phone to explain what she was trying to say before her Dad got the wrong idea. He told me, he figured there were some gaps in her story!
3. Oh yeah – and during that trip, Mr. Pete and I quietly celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.
4. We also attended mass at this beautiful church, Sacred Heart in Tawas. The wall behind the altar is pure glass with a view of the beautiful lake. I wonder how spectacular that must look in the winter or during a storm!
5. So now we’re back in the real world. Rosie is running every day, Izzy went back to work, and Noah had his last day on his summer job. I’ve been spending hours on our co-op registration, getting ready to give a talk on homeschool high school, and just getting my house ready for fall.
6. I think we might try the Bravewriter Writing Blitz next week to kind of celebrate back to school and get some of the educational vibe going again. This is something that I think could be fun for my high school student as well as my first grader, especially the part about graffiti!
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