Another Reason Why Drugs Are Bad

Let me begin by saying that this post has nothing to do with this picture.  It's just one I took the other day with my phone.  It scares me a little because I see a flash of Sera in 12 years.  She's growing up so quickly.

During Easter week, we took our annual spring break trip to Gulf Shores. Unfortunately, I had a minor medical issue that came up at the beginning of our week that ended up requiring a small in-office surgical procedure.  Life got much better post-surgery because the pain was greatly reduced and the Vicodin was doing a fine job of taking care of what was left.

Because I was taking this pain relieving drug, Jim did all the driving home.  I kept insisting that I felt fine, but smart man refused to let me drive.  We got home very late and just collapsed.  The next day we woke up and  unloaded the car.  Since the next day was a work day, I was pretty focused on getting us unpacked and laundry done to start the work week.  If you'd asked me, I would have insisted I was right on top of things, and I was.  Unfortunately, I have very little memory of the details of the day.  What does this mean? 

In my haste to get unpacked and things put away, I put away Sera's birthday presents right away.  Most we found because I'd put them away in the drawers we use to store Sera's toys in the living room.  We searched and couldn't find two of her gifts though.  Not only couldn't we find them, I had absolutely no memory of ever seeing them.  We were sure we didn't leave them behind in the condo because we triple-checked the condo.  We've left things behind on more than one occasion.  Where could they be?

One was a dvd my mother had given Sera. She had watched it over and over in the condo and loved it.  The other was a coloring set my dad and step-mother had given her.

About two weeks ago, I found the dvd.  It was actually in the dvd cabinet, but just not in the right place.  Yesterday, the coloring set showed up.  I have no idea where it was.  I just noticed that Sera had it out and was coloring with it. 

It's more than two months later, but she finally has all her birthday presents.

Remember, drugs are bad...if you need to remember what you were doing while you took them.

Miracle at Sunset Point

I didn't realize until yesterday how few pictures we took on this trip. Bret used Jim's camera to take pictures from the moment we left until the moment we returned. While in Utah, we downloaded the camera to a cd and gave it to him, so we don't have copies of those pictures. While we were in Bryce Canyon, I didn't use my camera because I was acting as chauffeur. To be honest, we got all those pictures last summer. I don't currently have access though because I can't get to the external hard drive on the network right now. Instead, I'm posting pictures from recent weeks when Sera and I rejoined the local weekly playgroup. That's one of the best perks of summer. Yesterday's pictures was taken at a small man-made beach on a nearby lake the week before we left for Utah. Today's picture is riding the pony at the zoo from early June.

As I've previously mentioned, I took all the kids to Bryce Canyon every day to give Jim, Jeff, and Dee some privacy and quiet as they went through John's affairs. On Wednesday, I decided we'd picnic while there. I packed up chips, plates, napkins, juice boxes, and soft drinks. All the food we had with us would require heating, so we stopped at the store and picked up some luncheon meat and bread. When we dropped the guys off at Dee's house, she added cookies and apples to our stash.

We got to Bryce Canyon and headed to Sunset Point for our picnic. This area had picnic tables and restrooms, plus it was the site for a geology talk. Two of the boys had expressed an interest in this. In fact, they bonded discussing rocks. My thoughts were that Wendy would take the boys over to the geology talk while I took Sera back to the car and encouraged her to nap.

Two o'clock arrived and I sent the rest of the gang off while I walked an unhappy Sera to the car. She was in desperate need of her nap, but didn't want to leave the others. I was struggling to get her in her carseat when Wendy's son came back to the car. He was looking for her bag. I opened the passenger door and told him to come around as her bag was where she had been sitting, not on the other side of the car. When I leaned back in to finish buckling Sera, I must have grabbed the door frame because the next thing I knew the door had swung shut on my hand. The door was fully shut, and my hand was stuck. The pain was one of the most intense pains I've ever experienced. I started screaming for Kayson to come around the car and open the door. I was trying, but I could not open the door with my left hand. I was sure my hand was crushed. In what felt like hours, but was probably really seconds, he came around and opened the door for me. I painfully moved my fingers to make sure they weren't broken and sent him back to the others. I got Sera buckled and drove the car around to where the talk was taking place. You could see the mark angling across my fingers between the first and second knuckles on all four fingers. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as before, but I felt jittery and nauseous. Sera didn't fall asleep, but the 30-40 minutes we waited for the talk to end was enough for me to settle down. My fingers stiffened up and felt like they were swelling, but it didn't really look bad. I iced my hand immediately and again that evening. When I woke up on Thursday, my hand wasn't even sore.

When that door first closed, I was convinced that we would be visiting the local ER and that I'd seriously damaged my hand. I still can't believe that my hand was perfectly fine. I must have found a sweet spot between the door frame and door that protected my hand.

When everyone returned to the car, I drove us up to the highest point and started down stopping at the different view points. Sera had finally fallen asleep, and I wanted her to nap for at least an hour. Bret got out every time I stopped to take pictures. James got out a few times, and Kayson stayed in the car playing with his video game. Wendy also got out to take some pictures. When we got to the Natural Bridge, I made them all get out to see it. It's my favorite spot there.

My plan was to stop at the Visitors' Center to let the boys souvenir shop, and then stop at Old Bryce Town, another souvenir store, to let the kids look at all the pretty rocks. Sera woke up just as we pulled into the Visitors' Center. Close enough. We got to the rock store, as they named it, and I gave the boys a time to meet while Sera and I wandered. Wendy had a headache and decided to lie down in the car. I took Sera to this big bin of different rocks, mainly lots of quartz. You could fill a small bag for $2.49. Sera meticulously picked every single rock before adding it to her bag. That was the best $2.49 souvenir I've ever bought. After an ice cream cone treat, we all piled back in to meet up with the guys and head back to Dee's for dinner.

This evening ended like every other, with all of us sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows long after anyone wanted to eat any more of them. And that is just how it should be.

Tired

I am so tired, so very tired. The summer of '09 is turning out to be quite exhausting. It all started on June 8th. That's the day I started cooking for our big cookout. We had friends visiting from out of town, and we wanted to host a BBQ for anyone who was available on the following Sunday to see them. They had moved away in 2002. Jim has an aversion to covered dish parties. He thinks it's rude to ask people to bring food to our house if we're having a party. I love cooking for parties, so I don't have a problem with this at all. I started cooking on the Monday before and freezing what I could.

Our friends arrived on Saturday afternoon. From that day until Thursday, we had guests at our home every evening. We had dinners and campfires in the yard every day. It was tons of fun, but lots of work, too.

During our party that Sunday, Jim received the phone call from his father that changed everything. That was when his partner, Dee, took the phone from John and let Jim know how sick he really was. He died the following Sunday.

That week was filled with getting ready to go to Utah. This was not a scheduled, nor a budgeted trip, so we planned to camp. I started cooking and freezing again. I planned out all our meals and brought everything as cooked or prepped as I could to avoid eating out as much as possible.

On Saturday morning, Jim, Sera, my nephew, Bret, and I set out for Utah. Over the next 48 hours, we spent 31.5 hours in the car. The week in Utah was very busy. There were some really enjoyable times, but it was also on the stressful side. We decided that we couldn't do that drive over two days again, so we took three to get home. Saturday and Sunday were not bad drives, but Friday was one of the worst and most stressful travel days I've had. As I started to type the other day and lost on the Blackberry, we got off to a late start. Tearing down the campsite always takes a little time, but most of the time was lost trying to get everything in the car. We were expecting a couple of boxes of family photoes. There were more like seven boxes. I'm still in shock that it all made it inside the car.

We finally hit the road around 11 am. Jim and I hadn't had anything to eat. I know that Jim's sister gave Sera some cereal and milk, plus snacks while the car was being loaded. I'm not sure if or what Bret ate. The closest fast-food we could get was an hour away. We wanted to just grab some food we could eat in the car. We'd lost enough time already. Jim took the first leg and the majority of the driving. I took over somewhere in Colorado, I think, and drove us to our dinner stop north-east of Denver. The Rockies are just gorgeous, but the constant elevation changes are really hard on me. I never realized until we visited them last year that I am sensitive to elevation changes. I immediately get headaches, light-headed, and it's harder to breath. Not seriously, but enough to make it physically tiring to me. We'd actually planned to eat in Denver before we realized that the route was actually going to take us around the north-east part of the city. When we switched highways, we ended up going through the industrial section of Denver. Not exactly filled with eating establishments, ya know? By the time we saw some restaurants, I pulled off the interstate without even caring what they served. We ended up at a Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

When we got back in the car to finish our drive to Sidney, NE, Jim pointed out a cloud on the horizon. It was a white fluffy cloud at dusk, but you could see flashes of lightning inside of it. Soon we noticed several clouds like this on the horizon. It was actually very pretty, almost like a light show with the lightning inside the clouds. Within about 45 minutes, the rain started. Almost immediately it turned into a complete and torrential downpour. We literally could not see the road. We couldn't tell where one lane ended and another began. We couldn't tell where the shoulder was to pull off. We couldn't tell what was beyond the shoulder - a field or a huge ditch. All we could do was follow the blinking hazard lights in front of us. Eventually, through flashes of lightning, we found the shoulder and pulled off. The rain seemed to lighten up a bit, and we followed the car in front of us as it pulled back on the highway. We soon noticed an exit coming up and decided to pull off the interstate and wait out the storm. By the time we reached the bottom of the exit ramp, we realized we had made a huge mistake. The road was completely flooded. We'd driven right into a flash-flood. We pulled into the closed gas station at the corner and pulled up next to other cars who'd driven up the slight incline to the garage doors. Other cars followed us in. You could see the water shooting out of the manhole covers in the roads, and the current on the road was moving very fast. The rain continued to lighten up. We watched the road and noticed that the cars were able to make it as far as the entrance ramp back to the interstate and decided to get out of there. Being stuck on the side of the interstate was preferable to being in a flood. Luckily, the worst of the rain was over. The rest of our drive to Sidney was uneventful, but we were already wiped out.

On Saturday, we left Sidney with plans to go at least as far as Des Moines, IA. We wanted to save as little of the drive for Sunday as possible without killing ourselves by trying to get back in just one more day. We also stopped at several of the Cabela's in Nebraska so Jim and Bret got to feed their inner outdoorsman. When we hit Iowa, we decided to go as far as we could. We even briefly, very briefly, entertained the idea of going all the way home.

One of the very great things we had on this trip were our Blackberries. I did start looking for a hotel in Des Moines in case we decided to call it a night. In the process, I found a hotel online that offered a 100' slide with their pool. It was in Coralville, about two hours further east. We didn't see anything in Des Moines and decided to keep going. It was also really fun watching all the 4th of July fireworks displays as we passed by the various Iowa communities. I kept Googling looking for a good place to stay. Finally, we passed a billboard advertising a hotel with a waterpark. It was 15 miles before the hotel in Coralville, so we decided to stop and check it out. This is how we discovered the Amana Colonies. I was not familiar with them and found their story quite interesting. The hotel had rooms available and was priced competitively with every other hotel off the highway. The main difference was that we did not get a free breakfast. Instead we got free passes to their indoor waterpark. Okay, waterpark might be exaggerating slightly. It was pretty small, but it was a perfect way to let Bret and Sera blow off some steam before another day in the car.

We took out time on Sunday with a morning at the waterpark and a few hours in another Cabela's before getting home around 7:30. We could tell the minute Sera truly recognized where she was. She was so excited. She started cheering and yelling that home wasn't too far away any more.

This morning was rushed as I got both kids up, dressed, and out the door. We had to go out to eat because I had nothing to feed them after being out of town for 9 days. No bread, no eggs, no milk, no breakfast. A late breakfast, a quick tour of Notre Dame, and then off to the airport to see Bret off. Sera was very sad. She wanted Bret to stay with us. I had to explain to her that Bret's mommy and daddy missed him and it was time for him to go home.

When we returned home, I just crashed. It was the first moment I just stopped and it all hit me like a brick wall. A look at our bank account showed us just how much even a cheap trip across the country cost us. Even bringing our own food and camping for most of it was not enough to keep it from costing a small fortune. This on top of being treated by everyone as if we were the "rich" relatives who were expected to pick up the tab (hence all the food I brought to help offset this) or people acting as if we were trying to get something was just too much. What exactly did they think we were after? John had nothing. When Jim brought me to meet him, he was so humiliated because his father was living in a camper shell. Not a camper; a camper shell that you put on the back of a pickup truck. Anything of value that he had was purchased by his partner. We never asked, expected, or dreamed of getting anything of monetary value when John passed. What we, and by we I really mean Jim and his brother, went to pick up were the things that John received when his mother died: all the family photos and few isolated items such as the folding yardstick that Jim's grandfather used in his shop or the medicine bag that John had made for his mother during her illness and had specifically told us he wanted Sera to have one day. That was it. There was no money expected. There was no money offered. There was no money received. There was plenty of money spent. It's really sad how death brings out the worst in people.

This post is so long that I don't expect any to read it. If anyone persevered long enough to have to deal with my rant, then you get to hear this news as well. One of the things I've wanted to blog about, but haven't been able to sit down and write about is my weight issues. I know I've mentioned them, but I really wanted to address them. I kept putting it off until I had time to write some big, eloquent post. I can do big, but I don't know that I can do eloquent. It's time to stop waiting and start telling. Jim's active approach to getting healthier has inspired me to try and follow in his footsteps. I'm taking babysteps to his big gigantic steps, but I've been working on it since April. I was shocked this morning (I weigh myself every Monday morning) to learn that I had lost over 7 pounds in the last two weeks. I didn't weigh myself last Monday as the tent didn't have a scale. This makes about 32 pounds since I started in April. I'm not breaking records, but at least I'm moving in the right direction.

Okay, I feel better now that I've typed out my rant. Thank you, and good night!

Frozen Terror

Sunrise in Mesick, MI

May 11, 2009

We are so very lucky. I know this. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that we're in the minority. Virtually everyone I know who has adopted has had to deal with far more than we've experienced. But just to keep us on our toes, we do get to experience something every now and then that I'm sure is adoption related. It's really a fine line between wanting to be aware of any issues that could be adoption related, but not wanting to over-analyze situations either.

Last week, we took a personal day on Friday and extended our three-day weekend into four. Monday was a Snow Day. Three snow days are built into our school calendar. They're placed in as three-day weekends in between Spring Break and the end of school. We used two days this year for actual snow days leaving us one spring three-day weekend. It's like a little bonus.

This weekend, besides being Mother's Day was also the 50th anniversary of the Mesick Mushroom Festival. Mesick is Jim's hometown. Its downtown is about 3 blocks long, and one of those blocks is the school. Mesick calls itself the Morel Mushroom Capital of the World, in case you were wondering where that was. There were a lot of activities planned, and we thought it would be fun to visit.

We made the four-hour drive Friday morning arriving in the afternoon. Jim set up camp, and then we headed to the carnival. Sera was not content to ride the kiddie rides; she insisted on riding the ferris wheel. We wandered around the carnival (another story to come on this event), eating really bad carnie food, and checking out the flea market before heading back to our campsite for a bonfire and s'mores.

The forecast showed rain coming around 11:00 pm and staying through Saturday evening. The lows for Saturday were forecasted to go into the low 30s. We agreed that was not optimal camping weather and had made reservations in Traverse City, about a 20-30 minute drive, for Saturday night at Great Wolf Lodge.

The rain came right on time and lasted all night, but had stopped by the time we woke. We dressed and headed to town for breakfast. Since the rain seemed to be taking a break, we decided to postpone heading to Traverse City until after the parade. The rain held off, and Sera got to enjoy her first parade. It was very tiny and perfect. Some of the noises were a bit overwhelming for her, so the intimate size was perfect. She was a big fan of having candy thrown her way, too.

After the parade, Sera fell asleep in the car, so we drove north of Traverse City and explored. We saw the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Sutton Bay, and some really cute little towns, one of which looked like it was still the year posted on the buildings, 1850. Finally, we headed to the lodge and checked in. Our time there is its own story.

Sunday afternoon saw us heading back to our campsite. We were quite relieved to see our tent still mostly standing. Two stakes had pulled loose from one side, but Jim quickly remedied that situation. Sera went down for her nap, and Jim and I enjoyed some quiet time by the fire that afternoon. He'd ordered three bundles of wood to get us through the night. I was surprised to see we had so much and was sure we'd be leaving some behind. But then it got cold. Surprisingly cold as the forecast had shown it would warm up on Sunday.

As the sun was near to setting, Jim added the last of the wood to the fire. I joked that it looked like we'd be turning in early as our fire wasn't going to last. Sera and I headed to the bathrooms to brush our teeth and make one last visit before getting ready for bed. She and I share one bed, and Jim takes the other. Jim puts two sleeping bags together for Sera and I to share, while he uses one. In retrospect, Sera and I should have shared one that night as we had far too much space inside. The night grew cold. Very, very cold.

Before I go on, I should give some background information. Sera does not like to be covered when she sleeps. She insists on her blankets in the car. She insists on being covered when she's put to bed. In fact, she'll sometimes ask for multiple blankets. But as soon as she's ready to actually sleep, she kicks them all off. During the winter, I make sure she's in heavy, fleece footie pajamas because I know she will not stay covered.

Our sleeping bags are rated for temps down to 20, so they are really very warm. Because it was so very cold, I was worried about Sera climbing out of the sleeping bag. She had snuggled in the crook of my arm, and I was making sure she was inside the bag. In her sleep, she'd struggle to get out, but I'd make sure she stayed covered. Of course, this meant I was not sleeping well, or at all.

Sera started whimpering and moving. The next thing I knew she was all out flailing and kicking the top of the sleeping bag away from her. I pulled it back and sat up thinking something was wrong. Sera sat up and was screaming. She was screaming about not having to go potty and something about diapers and wasn't really making sense. She kept yelling no when I'd ask her if she needed to go potty, or did she want a diaper. She was kicking me and hitting me trying to push me away. After a few horrible minutes, she collapsed, rolled to me, and snuggled in with her face in my neck shuddering as her sobs faded back to sleep.

This happened two more times. I finally realized during the third occurrance that she was having night terrors. She had never had them before, at least to my knowledge. I realized that she wasn't really awake and that what she was shouting out made no sense. She was screaming things like she wanted her tent or her campsite or chocolate milk. It was hard to figure out because it seemed like she was responding to what I said, but I realized she really wasn't.

By 6 am, I couldn't stand it anymore and braved climbing out of the sleeping bag to run to the bathroom. I jumped back into the warm sleeping bag and started to drift to sleep when Jim got up, took that beautiful photo, and started the van. He got the van warmed up and woke us up to climb in and get warm and get some breakfast. He took a sleeping Sera, while I got dressed.

We didn't want to wake her, so we stayed in the van until she woke at 8 am and got some breakfast. She was her usual happy self. I asked her if she remembered waking up during the night. She looked at me blankly. I then asked her if she remembered crying during the night, and she told me no. She had no memory of the three horrible events. She had stayed warm and toasty, so she didn't even remember it being cold while she slept.

I thought about it, and I really think it was the cold and having to sleep so covered in the sleeping bag that triggered these events. Sera is from one of the hottest provinces of China, but her village is in the mountains and is actually quite cold. We know that the orphanage is not well heated, and the children were bundled in many layers to keep warm. I think the combination of very cold temperatures and being covered with heavy flannel sleeping bags triggered memories that brought on her night terrors.

We've been home two nights and back on her routine. Everything is fine and back to normal. I could be wrong with my theory, but something deep inside tells me I'm right. These incidents serve to remind me that I don't want to overreact, but I must not be too complacent either. Sera's life before us does impact her. She does remember things, and it cannot be ignored nor erased. We have to respect her experiences and know they are part of her, too.

It Was Grand!

In an opposite of extremes, we ended our camping trip by heading to Mackinac Island and the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel was where they filmed Somewhere in Time. Most of you probably haven't even heard of it, but it's one of my favorite movies. My sisters and I all loved it from the first time we saw it. Jim, being from Michigan, was familiar with Mackinac Island and had been there as a teenager. When we married, we wanted to go to the island for our honeymoon. My dad and step-mother, Nora, surprised us with two nights at the Grand Hotel as a wedding present. We must have done some heavy duty raving. Okay, I know we did because for Christmas 2006, they gave us another two nights. They thought it would make a nice family vacation for us our first summer home with Sera. Unfortunately, Jim only had 12 days off last summer, and the hotel did not have two consecutive nights available during those 12 days. Luckily, we were able to book them for this summer instead.

Here's one of the official photos of the Grand Hotel from their website. Jim took a lot of pictures during our vacation as well. Be sure to visit his site to see more photos.

The hotel has a dress code after 6 pm. It officially states that men should be in coat and tie and ladies in their finest. Some of the signs list pants as unacceptable for women, but we noticed that they were allowing dressy pant suits for women now.

Here is Sera in some of her finest. It wasn't looking so hot at the end of the night when she dropped her chocolate milk in her lap. The napkin took most of the damage, and the rest did come out when I laundered it. Phew! I'm so glad I packed that stain stick!

Jim all suited up. He's not a jacket and tie kind of guy, so this is a rare shot. Notice his new haircut? He buzzed it all off this summer.

I was surprised to like it.
The dining room rotates three amazing menus. They also put out a children's buffet each evening. Sera had the choice of ordering her own meal, eating on the buffet, or sharing with us. She ended up eating from the buffet and from our plates, as usual. That child is developing quite the palate.
The dessert table on the children's buffet
The next morning at breakfast. You guys eat that normal stuff.

I'll stick to butter.
The view from the window

We walked into town to check out the shops. Sera got this really cool book. You can't see it, but on the right side it shows the animal. It appears to be moving when you move the page.
Here she's proudly showing off her monkey shirt.

She asked me to take its picture.
We stopped in this little alcove for a rest before tackling the big hill in front of the hotel. Sera was thrilled to get out of the stroller. She entertained all the passersby with her jumping and dancing.

Part of the tradition of the hotel is to go on the front porch and sit in the white rockers. It's a hardship following tradition.


She spotted an airplane in this shot. It was very exciting!

This one isn't centered well, and I cut off her right hand. Catching a running and jumping child can be quite the challenge.

She kept spotting all sorts of fun things to see.

I know it's out of focus, but I still love the expression on her face and her hair flying back.
A quiet moment with daddy
It's too bad she didn't have any fun on this trip.

More Summer Fun

I've already posted two pictures of Sera playing with this beach ball, but I love them all, so here are some more. She was having so much fun. It kept bouncing into the firepit, that's why her face and shirt are so dirty. I didn't have the heart to stop her once I noticed. The damage was already done.

She also got a kick out of collecting baby pine cones.

Sera loves baths, but hates showers. I was surprised when she went willingly with me to take a shower. Once we made it to the bathroom, I picked her up to see the mirror. I wish I had my camera then. The look on her face when she saw how dirty she was was just priceless. "Mama, Sera's face ucky. Mama, shower!" She jumped into that water to get her face cleaned. It was hysterical.

I Have Photographic Proof

"What big adventure," you ask? On Tuesday, when we went to Traverse City we stopped by Wilderness Canoe Trips to get some information. Jim and our friend, Eric, had rented a canoe when they camped in Mesick a few years ago. They also rent tubes, rafts, and kayaks. We picked up a brochure and asked a few questions. Jim wanted to get this information so we could be prepared to do something next year.

On Wednesday, as we sat around the campfire with Eric next year became tomorrow. I was concerned about Sera handling the ride, and I was concerned about getting myself in and out of whatever we were doing. We decided to go with the raft, and we decided to go on the shortest route, the two hour trip.

Here's the Manistee River as we started out. I really was surprised that we just got in the raft and headed off on our own. We were going downstream though. All we had to do was let the current take us.

Jim in his element. He's loving this.
Sera is a bit more cautious. She did end up enjoying the trip. It took us about 2 1/2 hours. She would have been happier if it had ended about 45 minutes earlier. She also hated her life vest, especially during the end when she wanted to rest her head on my shoulder. The vest wouldn't let her get that close.
The guys got a real work out when we ended up on the wrong side of this fallen tree. They had to do some heavy duty paddling to get us out.
This rafting thing is even better when daddy packs string cheese, grapes, and apple juice.
And the final proof that I was there, too. Yes, I went rafting down a river, minus the white water.

Rainy Day

Our first morning at the campsite was just beautiful. The sky was blue, and the sun was bright. We hung around the campsite for the morning before heading out to run an errand. Jim needed to take care of some business regarding his grandma's headstone. We had a choice between heading to Cadillac, about 15 minutes away, or Traverse City, about 30 minutes away. We decided to head to Traverse City because we'd come in through Cadillac the day before. We'd only be on the road about 10 minutes when it started to rain...and rain...and rain.

Sera fell asleep on the way there, so we started driving around. We headed to the downtown area. If you've never been to Traverse City, MI, I recommend it. It's a great little town. It's very tourist oriented, but in a good way. There are lots of great shops and restaurants, particularly in the downtown area. We parked near one of Jim's favorite stops, Horizon Bookstore, and waited for her to wake up. Well, I waited and dozed while Jim ran through the rain to the store. On his way there he passed a restaurant that smelled great. He asked the store clerk who helped him about the place, and she strongly recommended it. As soon as Sera woke up, we headed over there for lunch and then to the bookstore. The restaurant is called Amical.

Isn't it cute?

Jim had bought some magazines for us to look at while Sera slept. One of them recommended the Baked Tomato Soup en Croute.

All I can say is that it may be worth a four hour drive just to have this again.

Pan-sauteed Tilapia over spinach and portobello mushrooms with a white wine, garlic, and butter sauce

And Jim's lunch, Chicken Potpie

The food was amazing. All three of us loved every bite. In fact, it was so good that we went back there for dinner on our last night of camping.

After lunch, we killed time driving around and stopping a few stores. I bought some clothes for the new school year, and Jim checked out kayaks at a sporting goods store. We were basically waiting for the rain to stop. We headed back through Interlochen just because we'd never gone that way, and the rain finally stopped on the way back. By the time we reached our campsite, the sun was back out and it was a fantastic night. Jim grilled burgers, and we had another nice night by the campfire before heading to sleep.

Our original plans had called for us to leave the next morning for the Upper Peninsula. Our friend, Eric, was going to join us. He ended up delayed a day, and we decided that tearing down the campsite and driving for hours wasn't very appealing. We ended up staying in Mesick. We did have to move our campsite, but it was still easier than having to completely repack.

On Wednesday, we pretty much hung out at the campsite. The only time we left was a quick trip that Sera and I took to the store to buy a broom and an ice cream run after naptime.

Our big adventure happened on Thursday, but you'll have to wait to hear that story.

How To Take A Princess Camping

As I've mentioned before, I'm not an experienced camper. In fact, prior to our Utah experience I'd camped out exactly once. By camping, I mean tent. I went to 4-H camp, but we had cabins. I even spent a night or two in an RV. Even totaled up though, I still hadn't spent too many nights in the great outdoors. My dad likes to make an old joke, but it's true for my family. Camping, to us, is a night at a Da*y's Inn. It sounds somewhat elitist to make that joke, but please consider that my father is a hotelier. We literally grew up in hotels.

To say I've been leary about the whole camping things is to put it mildly. Jim, on the other hand, loves camping and has tons of experience. Sera loves being outside and the idea of sleeping outside just sent her over the moon. I was obviously outnumbered. I must admit, Jim worked hard to win me over.

A nice view doesn't hurt

Add a loving husband

An adorable child

Daddy and daughter moments that just bring a tear to your eyes
A strong tent ready to withstand any storms
A warm bonfire
And the real winner...elevated queen-sized beds
One beautiful napping child

An after nap stop for ice cream
"I help daddy"
Good friends
Hot dogs roasted on an open fire
And another great view