History of the J Man

Well, this post is about two months late, but I at least wanted to get it down before I forgot everything.  Our family went up to Michigan for our annual trip up to Arcadia, Mich., near the Watervale resort where Julie spent many years with her family.  Papa, Nana, Aunt Amy and Uncle Tim came too.  It was Elliott’s first trip up to Michigan.

There’s no way I can give a chronological account of what happened, so here are some of our favorite memories with some added notes:

Going berry picking with Amy and Tim: As usual, we got a big ol’ haul of black and red raspberries.  We tried to tone it down a little this year because we always get too much, but they were delicious as always.  Usually mid-to-late July is the perfect time to pick them, but apparently this year (according to Nancy Meade), because of all the rain, stuff was ready for harvest earlier than usual.  My other favorite memory is watching Jonah eat five berries for every one he put in his bucket.

Climbing Baldy with Dad and Tim and Jonah: This was a big one!  It’s a long hike through woods to the top of a large sand dune, then down the dune and back home along the beach.  To be honest, I thought of it at the last minute and also assumed we’d get about halfway up and then have to turn around because he’d be tired, but Jonah was a trooper.  He did a really great job and didn’t need to be carried until the very end.  He slept well that night, as I recall.  Elliott’s turn next year!

The BBQ and playing tetherball afterwards: BBQ was great, though I didn’t put on an eating show this year.  I figure I have nothing left to prove there.  Jonah loved running around without having to worry about traffic or strangers like at home.  He even made a friend, 6 year old Annibell.  He was sad to go home that night.  One of the activities he really loved was playing with a tetherball they have.  I would pretend the tetherball would knock me down as it came around on the string, which he thought was totally hilarious, though I think he was rather slap-happy that point.

Toy Story 3 + Poop: We’d already seen Toy Story 3 back in Chicago, but we thought Jonah would enjoy seeing it again, so we went to the local theater in Frankfurt to check it out (The Garden Theater).  We were all impressed at the renovations on the inside — new seats, new paint, frescoes and other nice touches on the walls.  Unfortunately, about a third of the way through the movie, the screen went dark.  After a few minutes, the voices slowed down.  The movie projector had broke.  No big deal, we thought.  They started it back up, everyone cheered, and on we went.  Until it happened again.  It was around this point that Julie began to notice a strange smell.  She handed Elliott to me to go change him, and it turns out that he’d had a major poop blowout.  It was all over Julie’s wrap, all over our clothes, everything.  We took the opportunity of the broken projector to change him, and there in the harsh glow of the men’s room, it became clear that this was not your normal blowout.  Not only was Elliott’s bottom half pretty much covered in liquified poop, it was all over my shirt and shorts.  Plus, this theater having been built in the 1920s, the men’s room is the size of a closet, so I had to change him on the floor.  It was an ugly scene.  So while this was going on, apparently the proprietors of the theater discovered that fixing the projector wasn’t happening, so they ended the movie and refunded everyone’s money.  And what usually happens at the end of a movie, especially a kid’s movie?  A mad dash for the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I was elbow deep in baby poop, so several boys got an eyeful when they opened the bathroom door.  Needless to say no one came in until I had wrapped up.  So with Elliott clean, there was still the small matter of our clothes.  Julie was able to get her shirt off and put a jacket on, but I was afraid of soiling the car seat with what was on my shorts.  We ended up covering the car seats and seatbelts in newspaper and made the best of it.  As for the broken projector, the best quote was, “Fancy new seats.  Same old Garden.”

Elliott sleeping not that well yet: Since he was only about 2.5 months old at the time, it’s no surprise that Elliott was having trouble sleeping.  Couple that with a strange new place and not too many people in the house were getting much sleep, Julie least of all.  He would nap here and there during the day, but some nights he would be up every other hour or even every hour.  It was definitely challenging, and meant we usually went to bed nice and early.

Catching minnows with John’s net in Lower Herring: Jonah became quite the fisherman on our trip.  He had a little minnow net borrowed from John Meade and Papa and I would help him catch minnows that he would throw back in the lake.  I think he just liked seeing something living so up close.  He liked to touch them, too.  Usually every morning, he would want to run down to the pier and see if there minnows.  If he didn’t see any, he would say, “They must be sleeping right now.”  It’s only a matter of time before he wastes his time going out on the lake to fish with Mark and John in the evenings.

Visiting with John, Nancy and Emily: The Meades were having some extensive work done on their house during the time we were there, including adding on an extra couple of rooms and a bathroom.  That didn’t stop us from going to visit them as often as we could.  As usual, they were gracious with their generosity and we had several great meals not to mention many delicious Oberon beers.  The construction was due to last another month or so (I think) so it will be fun to see it completed and fully decorated when we go up in 2011.  Emily came up mid-week to hang out for a bit as well.

Boat ride with Evan (Mom and Jonah): Jonah got a chance to go on a speedboat with Evan, Nancy Meade’s nephew.  Evan’s mom, Carol, is Nancy’s sister, and Carol’s husband Ron is the one who usually pilots the boat, but Evan took Jonah and Julie out this time.  I stayed back with Elliott, since we didn’t have a life jacket his size.  Jonah had a wonderful time and tried to follow Evan around everywhere he went after that.  Jonah didn’t seem to care that Evan is 16!

Paddle boat ride with Jonah, Mom and Dad: The owners of our cottage also had a paddle boat that they allowed us to use, so we took Jonah out for a ride in that as well, mostly just puttering up and down the shoreline on Lower Herring.  We let Jonah steer for a bit, but as you can imagine, we didn’t get very far that way; we mostly went in circles.  Still, Jonah had a blast as the paddle boat captain.

Playing at the little beach with Jonah and Elliott:  The Big Beach, as it is known, is the shoreline for Lake Michigan.  For our little guys, it’s probably a little beyond them, so playing in the sand over by the Little Beach (on Lower Herring) is perfect.  We went down a couple of days and let Jonah wade in the water, play with his shovel and sand toys and mostly just enjoy the sunshine, or as much as we could with a newborn in tow.  Of course, Elliott was very popular with the other beachgoers, as he usually is anywhere we go.  As a side note, even if we had wanted to go to the Big Beach, there isn’t much sand there as there once was because of the conservation efforts to reduce the erosion of the land.  I can understand it, and it is surely the right thing to do in the long run, but there isn’t as much sand there as there was even just last year.  It’s sort of sad, but you can’t fight Mother Nature, I guess.

Sunset Friday night with Jonah, Mom, Amy and Tim: When Julie found out Jonah, Tim and I had hiked Baldy, she was a little disappointed that she hadn’t yet seen the Big Beach, so she took Jonah and Amy and Tim to go watch the sunset and spend some time out by the big lake.  Apparently the sunset wasn’t that great, but a good time was still had by all.  The other evening activity was that earlier in the week, Tim and I built a fire and we all roasted marshmallows.  The fire was going great until a certain someone decided to make some adjustments, at which point the fire was never the same.  But hey, who’s naming names, right Tim?

Elliott liked the big swing out in front of the cottage: The neighbors had a baby swing hanging from the tree out in front of the cottage, and we discovered that Elliott really enjoyed sitting in it and slowly going back and forth.  I would sit out there with a book for literally hours and let him sleep and read my book.  It was nice also being able to give Julie a break from time to time.  We joked that we might have to take him out there in the middle of the night to calm him down, but luckily it never came to that.

Papa learning ukelele from Uncle Tim: Tim and I are now no longer the only musical members of the family, as Mark tried his (only) hand at uke.  Tim had taught him a lot of simple chords; once he gets the strumming down, look out!  Watervale Open Mic Night, get ready for the Evanston Ukelele King in 2011.

A&W trip for Mom and Dad: It was our only time away from the boys, but one night Julie and I snuck away from some root beer floats at A&W.  I love the boys like crazy, but it was nice to get about 30 minutes of adult time where we could just enjoy one another.  Funny to think it was like that for years at one point!

No traffic on the way home, and Elliott slept most of the way: A wonderful vacation wrapped up nicely in a relatively uneventful ride home.  I think Elliott started crying at the Belmont exit on Lake Shore Drive.  I couldn’t have asked for more.  Plus, sometimes on the way back from Michigan, you have construction or some event is going on in Chicago that bogs things down, but this year we hit barely any traffic on the way home.  Hopefully next year Elliott will be a little better in the car and if we do hit traffic, it won’t be too bad.

Hard to believe I am posting this nearly two months later, but I am glad to have finally written it all down.  Can’t wait to go back next year!

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