I Think Tom is my Only Friend by Now...

When you open a new "myspace" account, everyone gets "Tom" as a default friend. (He is the guy that created myspace.) Then when you ignore your account for awhile and so do all your friends, "Tom" shows up again. A myspace account with Tom as the top friend usually is a good sign that the page has been abandoned. I am quite sure if this was a myspace, Tom would have shown up quite some time ago. Bless you if you have still been checking in on me. Wow it has been busy!!

I have to rewind and post some recent events before moving on in blogland...

The last few days of school were so busy with parties and assembly's. Saroya had a Authors Party and read a book she published and illustrated. It was called "Who Is Nancy?" and it is hillarious! She has really become a great creative writer.

Ethan's final honors assembly of the year was so exciting! We got there late, but just in time for him to be awarded his Honor Roll certificate. Then came the awards for the Accelerated Reader awards. Ethan and one of his best friends were the last two to get their awards.

So in case you can't understand what is being said, the principal talks about how getting to a 200 point level is pretty amazing and it takes a big commitment to read outside the classroom. He calls up Ethan's friend for a 200 point award. Then he says, "Now for our top point earner, not only for 4th grade, but I believe for the entire school, 250 points- Ethan Avery" and then I scream. :) Isn't that exciting?? I was so excited for him because I know how hard he worked on getting that. And then to have that kind of honor! He did inform me that the selection of books for him in the library at school was diminishing. I hope they get a lot of AR quizzes this summer!

After the last day of school, we discovered that we had a whole night with no plans! It was storming pretty bad, but we loaded up the trailer and went camping. One of the places we like to go the most is Ludington State Park. I know I blogged about this place before, but I will never get tired of that park. We love it! They happened to have some openings so we camped there for the first time. WOW!

On our way up there, the tarp on our camping stuff came loose. (So much for keeping stuff dry!) We pulled off the side of the road and I see a cop pull over behind us. I thought, "Oh this is a nice way to start our rainy camping trip..." We'll I shouldn't have spoken so soon. Nathan ended up knowing him from work, and aside from telling us we were crazy for going camping in this weather, he was very helpful. (I thought this documentation was rather creative of me. Do you see how I took it on the sly?)

Well- the closer we got to the campground, the lighter the rain became. When we got there it had stopped all together. We quick made dinner (although the do have a really nice restaurant in the park right on the lake!!) and got things set up. It never rained another drop while we were there. Once in the park, we either hiked, biked, or ran as our mode of transportation. On our first bike ride that night, we almost ran into 4 deer that ran right in front of us!

In the morning after a typical AMAZING breakfast by Nathan, we set out to explore. There are so many trails there, and equally as beautiful! We let each of the kids choose a trail to follow, and then they led us on that trail.

We ran into some more deer. Just babies!

Of course all good things end up with at least one battle...

Yes- that is Ethan sitting on top of a crying Saroya....

Ethan wanted his trail to be to the beach, so we rode our bikes there. It was a very windy day because another storm was on it's way in, but it was fun to stand in wind that strong (for a few minutes!!)

When we got back, we decided we had better head for home because we didn't want to get caught in the storm. As we were leaving the park, I looked up on a hill. Don't you think that "A" is a sign meaning we HAVE to go back? :)

You know it was a good get-away when they crash out a half an hour after walking through the door, like this...

Oh- I almost forgot a few show pictures from the school production that Ethan was in. He remembered all his lines and he did great even though he was nervous. Yea ETHAN!

OH man! This little girls socks took me WAAAAYYYYY back! So Cute! (I love that she is on her toes to reach the mic)