What Makes You Alive?

I just had to use this title and include this video from our favorite singer, May Erlewine.  If you live in Michigan and HAVE NOT seen May Erlewine and Seth Bernard live, do it!  Don't  miss Joshua Davis either!

Today I was working around the house and exercising, getting ready for my backpacking trip coming up in two weeks and I couldn't shake an experience Nathan and I were able to have a few weeks ago.

I contacted Kalamazoo Nature Center to find out more about their bird banding.  I was hoping that we could get Nathan some experience with bird banding.  The people in charge said that they normally don't have teenagers come to volunteer, but we could try it out and if he does well, we could come back.

It's a husband and wife team that do the bulk of the banding and the wife has gone on to get more credentials so that she can band hummingbirds.  This part of the banding is a one-woman operation.  She nets, collects, and measures the hummingbirds all by herself.  She even has to make the hummingbird leg bands.  They are so tiny.  At one point I asked if I could feel the heart-beat of the hummer she was about to release.  She obliged.  It was amazing.  It wasn't so much as a recognizable heart-beat as it was a vibration.

Then the real miracle happened.  She asked if we'd like to hear the heart-beat.  She took that tiny bird in her hand and held it up to my ear.  I instantly heard that humming sound and felt the warmth of the little creature.  It was almost too much for me.  I pulled away before she pulled the bird away!  It was the embodiment of life.  Check out this photo to see what they look like in someone's hand.

It's no wonder that I have grown to love birds.  I love to watch their "life."  It is life itself that makes me feel alive.  How about you?

Letters to my children--Just how special are you?

Dear N, M, E, S, and B,

How special are you to me?  Immensely.  Each of you is different and amazing in your own ways.  You can't measure how special you are to me.

That's important, but there is another way to look at "special."

In the past I might have told you that you had intrinsic worth because God was your creator.  Even when viewed through the lens of evolution, which I was prone to do, God was ultimately the creator because he either got the process going in the first place, guided it along, or at the very least, put the spirits into Adam and Eve.  That relation to God and the possibility for what came in the next life was where the worth of a human being came from.  Otherwise, we were just a tiny piece in a huge puzzle, rather insignificant.

A lot of books have been written about self-esteem or the alternate, more spiritual term, "self worth." It seems there are many people, young and old, who suffer from feeling like they are worthless.  I think this has less to do with a misunderstanding of their inner worth from a perspective of a heavenly parent, and more to do with the barrage of choices, and the misinformation that is promoted in every way in society.

We have departed very far and very fast from what we evolved to be.  I'm not blaming technology completely for this.  After all, every species takes part in technology.  (To understand this, you must remove from your mind the idea that technology requires electricity or some other kind of man-made power. Think of all of the documentaries we have watched about animal and plant life.  They are adapted to do some amazing things and this is a definition of technology.)  However, due to the way that humans have been able to grow their population and interlink and pool their knowledge, things have changed beyond our evolutionary capacity to keep up.  Or in other words, the accumulated knowledge and messes mankind has added to the earth have sped past biological advances.  Biological change and adaptation takes hundreds of thousands if not millions of years.

Technology has led to both: too much work and too little work.  It has led to too much food and too little of the healthiest foods.  It has led to depletion of water and degrading of water.  It has led to an ultra-rich country that cannot take proper care of its poor and cannot see the rest of the world due to its myopic vision.  It has led to a larger world vision, but also the anxiety of not being able to do it all.

I could go on and on.  And, like I said, technology is not all bad.  The technology of the future is going to have to lead us back a degree.  It is going to have to be precise and even smarter than it is now, but it is going to have to lead us back to our roots if our species is to survive.  There are many cues that led me to this conclusion.  I have been observing the sustainable living movement and reading books such as Richard Louv's "The Nature Principle," watching documentaries like e-squared, and watching the presentations at TED.com.  The arguments given there are persuasive to me.  As I personalize it and think about my kids and possible grandkids, I can see that we have a big choice as a species.  I'm sad to consider the world that we are leaving to our children.

I may be off track a bit here.  I'll try to draw my ideas around to something that makes sense.

So, here's a question.  How do you view the human species?

It's obvious that we have used our technology to become dominant.  Of course, I used to believe that God made it that way.  We were meant to be stewards, but still, dominant.  What if we took the idea of the human species, which is standing pretty far up on a pedestal above the other species of the earth and brought it down level with all of the other species.  Does that make you feel uncomfortable?  What if I told you that your value is not more or less than the ant crawling across the sidewalk?  Is that a repulsive thought?

It is to me, but for a reason other than you might think.  We have made a huge mess.  Some scientists are trying to unravel the mysteries behind how we made the mess and what needs to be done to fix the mess (as best we can).  This is the science that is most valuable to me.  And it's what gives me hope and possibly worth.  The fact that we have made the mess along with a feeling of responsibility lead me to think that we have to keep striving for the answers.  We can't step back from the responsibility we have as a species.  The most important thing humans can do, in my opinion, is to figure out how to stop damaging the earth, give her back the reign of her species, and live in peace with each other and all life.  This is no small challenge.  I'm not entirely convinced we are capable of this, but I hope we are.  So, what can you do?

For now, I want you to keep developing your talents.  I'm happy to see that all of you care about the natural world.  It takes hard work and thoughtful patience to care in the ways that you kids all care.  Though you may choose different things to study and do as you grow older, I'd like you to keep ideas about the earth and what needs to be done in the back of your mind.  Try to incorporate it in some way with whatever path you take.  I'd like you to think of yourselves as important, for the work you can do to help bring about change, but I'd like you to think about yourselves as "just another species," when you consider if something you are doing is good or bad for the earth.

I'd like you to think about ways you can simplify your lives.  The digital world is certainly a part of the future and you will need to understand it, but learn when it is necessary and when it is not.  Think about entertainment.  Do you need to see a movie/play or would your mental and emotional self benefit more from a walk in the woods or perhaps even some service work?  Think about connectedness.  Does having 250 Facebook friends say anything about you? (not that any of you fall in that category, but it's just a good question to ponder)    What do your possessions say about you? your travels?  your job? your trash? your reading list? your relationships?

I have been thinking about these questions for myself for a long time and will continue to do so, as well as many other questions.

Keep learning and keep working!

Love,

Mom

The Ledges

Today, when I told Sariah we were heading to the Ledges, she automatically thought I meant the ledges in paradise (Pictured Rocks).  You know, the ones where the horse flies do nothing but pester her.  That's not where we were going, but the ledges in Pictured Rocks are one of the favorite places our family visits.  Look at the above picture and imagine it continuing to the right, reddish tan rock in thin layers.  The shallow parts are pure carribean turquoise and the deeper parts are a darker shade of the same.  You get to the end of the rock and must go round a corner.  You can climb to a flat ledge that is about 5 feet above the water line.  From here, you jump, hundreds of times if you have the energy and clock-time into deep, cool, jewel-like water.  Below are a couple of shots of kids walking out to the "edges of the ledges."  It drops off at that edge and is probably somewhere between 25-30 feet deep.  We love tipping off the edge, doing cannon-balls off the edge and just plain swimming off the edge.  Must be careful of waves because of the undertow there.  I can't wait to be there this summer.

But, no Sariah, we aren't heading to "those" ledges.  We went to the Ledges in Grand Ledge.  It's an area of limestone similar to Pictured Rocks where the Grand River has worn down the stone and left beautiful walls covered in ferns, lichen, moss and liverworts.

We had a very nice hike, a picnic lunch on the ground with a blanket (this is important to Sariah), another hike and then a short visit to the playground.

But, the thing that was hard on me today is the amount of noise we must endure when we go out into the wild world.  There were chain saws, leaf blowers, other worker machines, airplanes, cars driving by on nearby roads.  It wasn't the people who were walking, though I do really enjoy being totally alone on the trail, it was the machinery.

I wonder if people know how important the quiet of nature is.  Nature is really not that quiet, but it is a different and soothing kind of noise that many of us are deprived of.  Spring and Summer are the best because leaves to absorb some of the sound and there are birdsongs and other animal sounds that drown out some of man's world.  Winter can be horrendous without the leaves on the trees and with the perpetual inhaling yawn of the city constantly there.

I wonder if it would be better if I didn't realize how much I need nature sounds. I need nature sounds without background crud.   I think I tend to listen more carefully and feel more disappointed and resentful when I can hear human noise.

One thing is for sure, it helps me appreciate the U.P. even more.  I'll be so glad to get up there this year!

Three Oldest Gone

This morning I got up early to drive Nathan, May and Elijah to the bus at Community Music School.  They have left for Ithaca, New York for a choir experience for the next entire week.  They will be staying with choir families in their homes (we are so grateful there are people providing this service).  Mornings will be dedicated to learning music.  Afternoons will be dedicated to pool time.  Evenings will be dedicated to getting to know the families they are staying with who will both feed them and show them around town.  Ithaca has gorges and waterfalls, Ithaca College (where the kids will sing), Cornell University and other attractions.

Once I got home, I decided it was time to delve into the pile of "stuff" the kids brought home on the last few days of school.  That turned into reorganizing the art closet, which turned into cleaning the kitchen.  You can't clean the kitchen without mopping the floor and then vacuuming the surrounding rooms.  You can't vacuum when the vacuum suddenly loses power.  I found that it did so because I had never once cleaned the filter which was so clogged with dust and hair that I can't believe my vacuum hadn't ceased to exist.  You can't vacuum the main floor without working your way up the stairs and trying to figure out why your oldest son has such bad allergies in his own room.  Then, you certainly wish you never even went to check out those two boy rooms.  Oh BOY!!  Once that mess was worked out, I found that I needed to clean the bathroom (slightly) and feed the birds the last of the seed they will get until fall arrives.  The result was 5-6 hours of work, but a good feeling.

Joseph and I decided to take Sariah and Brigham to Impressions 5.  They haven't gotten so many visits to zoos and museums as the older kids got when they were young and this is the week I have decided to make up for that.  It's a very different thing taking two kids to the museum than it is to take five.  It was a very fun visit.

I do miss the other kids though.  I hope they have wonderful experiences.  When they left, I gave them each a hug and told them to come back better people.  I told them that I would try to be a better person when they get back too.

Nathan's New Goal

The other day I half-way jokingly told Nathan that he should make it his goal to become the best naturalist in Michigan by the time he graduates from high school.  A naturalist is basically a field biologist.  They are the people that take you on a nature walk and identify plants and animals, insects and mosses, trees and tracks.  They can tell you interesting facts about the life history of a bird or they can tell you if a plant is native to the region or not.

Nathan had his first opportunity to guide a nature walk at our local nature center where he is doing his summer research.  It was last week during the camp counselor training session that he led the soon-to-be counselors on a walk around the nature center trails.  People couldn't believe it was the first nature walk he had ever led.  I told him that he is a "natural at being a naturalist!"  Later in the summer, he will get the opportunity to lead the campers themselves on bird walks around the park.

Well, the wheels in his head have been grinding away and he has taken on my challenge, saying that at the very least, it will keep him busy until he graduates high school.  He has decided to learn all he can about Michigan:

plants (including grasses, sedges, rushes, ferns and mosses), lichens, slime molds, mushrooms, insects (including butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies), freshwater mussels, freshwater invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, mammals, birds (he's already got this one down), trees, rocks, weather, the night sky

Did I miss anything?  I'm sure I did.

Today, Nathan told another Fenner volunteer of his "idealogical, maybe impossible" goal.  The cool thing is that when I get him a new field guide or check out a field guide from the library, he will grab it up and spend, literally, hours devouring it.  I will be very interested to see what he can accomplish in the next three years!  Go Nathan!

Letters to my children--Death and Taking Care of your Brain

Dear N, M, E, S, and B,

First off, I'm putting the link here to a YouTube video featuring Sam Harris who is probably my favorite philosopher at this time.  His talk is called "Death and the Present Moment."  You may not want to watch this youtube if you might be offended in ideas about the non-existence of an afterlife.  However, even if you believe in an afterlife, Sam discusses topics that can be of benefit to every human being.  The five minute meditation that Sam leads the listener through is worth the time of watching the whole 55 minutes of the video:





I used to believe in life after death.  In fact, up until about three years ago, I would have told you that I know there is life after death.  Things have changed a little bit, and it was a difficult soul-searching process realizing that I don't believe things that I had held dear for much of my life.

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I had actually been sitting on this post, hoping to wax eloquent about my thoughts on death, but decided just to let Sam do the talking.  The main point he makes is that the solution to the problem of death is being present in the current moment.  At the end, questions are allowed and one lady asks about mourning deaths.  She specifically wants to know how to deal with death when she doesn't believe that there is an afterlife and sees the senseless killing that happens on the earth.  I have felt the same way.  Sam is bold enough to say that the solution for even that is being present in the moment.  I do feel that this is the answer.  Sam also speaks about brain health and the capacity that meditation has to help us take care of ourselves.

I don't know what happens after death for me personally.  If there is something after death, I will find out when I die.  If there is nothing after death, I will never know, but it won't be any different than the nothingness I experienced before death.

I'd like to think that I won't worry about my death and that I will survive the deaths of others with dignity realizing the ways in which I was lucky to have crossed paths with them in life.  This is  rather untested to this point.  It will be a lot harder than I'm making it out to be.

Take an hour and listen to Sam Harris.  He speaks very clearly and carefully on the subject.  Think about it!

Love,

Mom

We almost died today

Nathan didn't want to go to Fenner today.  I decided the he didn't have to go as long as he did a bunch of data entry because he's so far behind.  But, as for Elijah and I, we need our training walks for our backpacking trip coming up this fall.  Elijah was really not happy with me that I was making him come with me.  He spent the first mile of our walk lamenting how he was feeling and trying to figure out ways to get out of the walk.

As we walked the sky got darker and darker and I realized that I was being a bad example of what to do if you are outside and the weather begins to look threatening.  By the time we had reached our turn-around point, it had begun to rain.  Elijah was talking about hoping that it would rain hard so that someone would come and pick us up.  I was thinking that there isn't anyone to come pick us up.

Then it started to really pour rain and also thunder.  It was the kind of thunder that keeps rolling and rolling around in the sky.  I could only hope that lightening would not follow.  We hid under trees momentarily, but decided to continue seeing a Momma White-tailed Deer nursing her fawn in the river and a Map Turtle crossing the path.  Then, ahead of us, we saw lightening strike.  It was probably about 1/2 mile away.  Elijah says that it fizzled like firecrackers as it disappeared.  I couldn't see much since my glasses were covered in rain and fog.

When we got home, I told Nathan about how we almost died.  He heard about the lightening and said, "Wow, that's awesome!"  I told him to remind me the next time he almost dies so that I can tell him it was awesome!

But, the really cool thing is that by the time we got home, Elijah was laughing.  The endorphins had begun to circle in his bloodstream and he's been in a good mood ever since.  I'm hoping that he remembers that little trick for getting yourself out of a bad mood!

Ohio Young Birders--Birding by Kayak

Nathan, May, Elijah and I traveled down to Ohio on the last day of school and stayed overnight in Columbus so that we could get to the 8:30 am start time of OYBC just over a week ago.

Our first activity was "Birding by Kayak."  This was a fund-raiser for a group called TAASC.  They are an all-volunteer organization that helps people with handicaps do fun sports like skiing, water-skiing, kayaking and others.  They let us use their kayaks in exchange for our $20 a piece and we were all very happy! :)  We were able to get good views of Prothonotary Warblers, a Kingbird and her nest, Great Blue Herons and many more.  Kayaking is fun and I'd like to do more of it!

Next, we were able to watch and even hold baby birds while our OYBC leader banded bluebird, purple martin, and tree swallow chicks.  The purple martins had just hatched the day before and were totally naked and so tiny.

Finally, we got the chance to tour the Columbus Zoo's Freshwater Mussel Research Center.  Did you know that Freshwater Mussels aren't closely related to saltwater bivalves?  They diverged over 300 million years ago and have been steadily changing ever since.  We learned that freshwater mussels have parasitic larvae (parasites on fish).  They have evolved some pretty funky displays to try to lure fish over to them.  When the fish arrives, Mama Bivalve explodes her babies all over the fish.

Kingbird nest.  Click on this one to see one tiny pink chick poking above the nest.

Mama or Papa Kingbird near the nest

May hung around me while kayaking.  It was a blast!

This year's hatchling--Map Turtle

Great Blue Heron stalking

Mussel laboratory

Display of a freshwater mussel.  Try to tolerate the fact that it's not focused well and then prepare to be amazed at this creature and its adaptations to attract fish.

Then we drove and drove and drove and drove all the way home!

That same day, Joseph headed with the little kids up north of Grand Rapids to a man's house who cares for Purple Martins.  They were able to see the Martin hotels, baby Martins and learn all about what it's like to care for and attract Martins.  Cool stuff!

Some really cool things we've seen lately

Nathan has got us looking closely at plants, uncurling leaves, learning about which plants and trees host which larval species etc.  He has found some cool things while searching and the rest of us occasionally find some great stuff too.  We don't always know what they are and Google searches have proved fruitless, but here you go:

Baltimore Checkerspot--uncommon, but we are lucky to have a population at Fenner

Monarch caterpillars.  We started with a healthy crop of these and figure that most of them got parasitized.

Tulip tree flower.  This is a beautiful tree and flower.  I had never seen it before.

We have no idea what this pupal case holds.  We kept it, but the critter broke out and escaped before we were able to see what it was.

Question Mark caterpillar found on an Elm.

?? tiny moth species found on the white sheet at Family Weekend.

I don't have a  picture of the coolest thing we found recently.  Its a tiny cone shape made up of different lengths of grass, cemented to a leaf or rock.  Nathan broke one open and found eggs inside.  We don't know what kind.

Earthworks Farm Family Weekend

If you haven't heard by now, we have some favorite Michigan folk singers.  Their music got us through a hard year this past year.  I have been wanting to connect more deeply with the community that they represent and Family Weekend was one way that we decided to do that.

It started out on Friday.  We left home around 11 and arrived in Lake City at Earthworks Farm by around 2 pm.  We registered and set up the tent and then joined in on the art projects that were already in progress.  There was a shed which was set aside for making t-shirts.  Elijah decided to create a stencil of the Great Lakes and made a nice yellow t-shirt with blue lakes.  Several other people used his stencil to create their shirts.  There was also an ongoing tent called Art Zone where the kids could stop in anytime to play puppets, make crafts, look at bugs (or add bugs to the terrarium), or dress up.  Near the art zone, there were some hula hoops.  Brigham, Sariah, and Elijah had a lot of fun with frisbees any free time they had.

Around 4:30 we all got into a circle and played some get to know you type games.  Seth Bernard said that by the end of the weekend we'd feel like a community.  When he said that, I had a hard time believing it, being reserved as I am.  Also, I tend to be nervous about trying out new things.  I have to push myself to do things outside my normal range of activities.  We got a tour of the farm.

Dinner came next.  I will take this opportunity to say how wonderful the food was.  I wish I had someone providing me with that kind of food on a regular basis.  All of the food was either vegetarian or vegan.  It was organic, freshly and lovingly prepared, and so delicious!

People in line getting food!

After dinner we were introduced to Dick Siegel, who is also a Michigan folk singer (who I think we will be getting to know better).  He gave us a great concert including a song called "All of Mother Nature's Naughty Children" which almost made me cry.  I worry about the environment A LOT!

 Dick Siegel

The kids got some story time around a camp fire and then we headed to bed unaware that we were missing a great night sky.  In the middle of the night we heard a couple of things that surprised us.  First, we heard several peacocks calling.  Next, we heard coyotes howling.  That was pretty exciting for me since it was on my list of things to experience.  We are hoping to hear the wolves howling in Sylvania Wilderness coming up this summer.  We shall see.

In the middle of the night, we had to make a run to the bathroom.  On the way, I was astounded to see a backlight attached to a white sheet with all sorts of cool moths and bugs that had been attracted to the light.  It was like magic in the nighttime!  The next morning we were also able to get a look at this beauty that came in and landed during the night (Sariah found it):

Saturday was filled with more wonderful food and also workshops.  The kids, Joseph and I appreciated workshops including songwriting with Seth and May, clay works, drum and dance, nature walk, clowning, girl's and women's circle, and primitive skills.  My favorite workshop was song-writing.  We sat as a group and brainstormed, put together our ideas, split into groups and wrote verses with the musicians and then got back together to practice and record our song.  Three new songs were performed and recorded on Saturday.  Everyone was supposed to go home with a CD from the weekend (we did not as we left early).  I can definitely understand why people enjoy performing on a stage.

Rain was in the forecast and I was sure that I'd be in a bad mood if we had to pull down camp in the rain or in the mud, so we decided that after the talent show, we'd head home.  We used our break time to break down camp.  After dinner, we headed to the talent show.  I'm not a huge fan of talent shows in general, but this one was exceptional!  Little kids singing, little kids playing instruments and singing, adults playing and singing original compositions, groups performing theater or clowning shows, and the three new rock bands formed during the song-writing workshops performed their songs (myself included, yes, I am a rock star).

Sariah played her music-maker.  She did the song Clementine.  She meant to sing, but forgot and went right along as if she meant it that way.  May played her flute, Oh Danny Boy.  We sat in the audience and planned what we'd like to do next year to participate more fully.

We headed home, missing four more hours of fun the next day, but plan to return next year.

I think that Joseph and I both decided that the best part was seeing the kids with more freedom than they are used to having at home.  If for no other reason than that, we'd like to return and give them that freedom in such a place.  I found a lot of people I enjoyed talking to and look forward to perhaps meeting them again in the years to come.  Another reason to go back is that Nathan stayed at home working on his Fenner Nature Center project.  We missed him!

Letters to my children--Walking

Dear N, M, E, S, and B,

Just today I was thinking that I should liven up these posts with pictures.  I still think that I should and probably will, but here is another thought.  My grandma and I used to write letters back and forth to each other and they rarely contained pictures, but still kept my attention.  One thing people used to do when writing letters was to spice it up by buying cute stationary or cards to write on.  Interesting that the world has changed so much.  While you can still buy stationary and cards, it's not that common to actually get a letter on stationary.

I have been thinking about this post for about a week.  I finished thinking about it while I did my 20 mile hike on Tuesday.

One of the things my Grandma taught me was about walking.  She lived in Hyrum, Utah.  Almost everywhere you could go in Hyrum when I was a kid, there were square blocks.  If you walked all of the sides of a square block, you would walk one-half mile.  When I went to stay with my Grandma in the summer for a week, there was something that was the same every day.  Every day, Grandma Jennie went for a 2-mile walk.  The great thing about walking where there are square blocks is that you can choose a different route each day.  Grandma would let Jodi and I choose which roads to walk along.  Sometimes we were in the neighborhoods and sometimes we'd be out in the country near farm lands.  Sometimes (ew!) we'd end up near the meat packing plant.  Sometimes we'd scale steep hills, which from a distance looked like they sent straight up, but when you climbed them didn't seem difficult at all.

I really liked the daily walks.  Imagine my surprise when a few years ago, I read a book which included information that one of the most healthy things and older adult can do is to walk on a daily basis.  How did my Grandma know that?  She didn't have access to a book that told her so--at least I don't think she did.

Then, just recently, I met a man on one of my walks and had a short conversation with him.  He was probably 65 or 70 years old.  He said that he walks 10-12 miles per day.  I don't know if he meant literally, seven days a week.  Or if he meant Monday through Friday.  Either way, this was really impressive to me.

I feel lucky that in 2010, I was able to do many long walks, building up to a 24 mile walk, and many long hikes, culminating in a 22.5 mile hike.  It took a lot of training to get to that point.  Now, two years later, I can still do a 20 mile hike and with a lot less training than it took me to get there before.

This has made me wonder about my life in the years to come.  I recently made a goal to go on a backpacking trip every year for the next 20 years.  That will take me to almost age 60.  Can I do it?  I'm pretty sure I can if I train to do it and keep it up.  It's a very exciting prospect to me.  I just talked to Angie today about a pilgrimage that people do in Spain (?) called "The Way," which maybe is more formally called "The Way of St. James."  She said that she wants to walk it.  It's 500 miles long.  I told her that when she goes, I want to come along.

So, my point with this whole blog is to say that I think one of the single most important things you can do for your health is to walk.    Develop the skill of walking and continue doing it.

You all have a very good start on this habit.  You are the people that have done some of my long walks and hikes with:

Nathan and I did a 21.5 mile hike in the Porcupine Mountains.  Boy, that was quite the day.

May and I did a 17 mile hike in Pinckney Recreation Area on the Potowatomi Trail.  It rained that day and we slipped in the mud.

Elijah and I did a 22.5 mile hike in Waterloo Recreation Area.  We got kind of lost on what was supposed to be a 20 mile hike, making this the longest hike I've ever done in a single day.

May and Elijah and I did a 20 mile hike in Waterloo.  Waterloo is the home to many hills and is a good place to train if you are going to hike in the mountains out West.

Nathan and I did a hike along the Manistee River.  That's some crazy fall time beauty there.  It was nearly a perfect day weather-wise and I wished we had a tent and camping supplies with us.


Sariah and Brigham joined everyone on a 10 mile hike on the Chapel-Mosquito Loop in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, not once, but twice.


All of this is impressive, but equally impressive are all of the smaller walks and hikes that we have done to train for the longer hikes and also just to get around to the different places that we have wanted to see such as waterfalls in the U.P., hikes to see spring/summer/fall wildflowers, hikes to find reptiles/amphibians/birds, etc.

A walking habit will help your health for life.  A walking habit will provide for you hours of enjoyment.  A walking habit will keep you connected to nature.  A walking habit is a good way to connect with other people. A walking habit will connect you to your Grandma who you never knew.  A walking habit will help keep us close as a family.

Love you all,

Mom