Thanksgiving Day 2023

David helped me prep the chili board for lunch!
Grandpa made the green pozole and Gramma made the red chili.
It was a hit!
The 1,000 piece puzzle finished at 12:15.
The next 1,000 piece puzzle started at 12:50!

Friends of ours—Scott and Wendy—also joined us this year as she was visiting from Seattle and they didn’t have other plans! She loves Thanksgiving and cooking so she brought most of the sides to go with Tom’s smoked turkey and smoked ham!

Thanksgiving tip? Gravy in an insulated pitcher! Pourable plus it stays warm!

Dinner is served!
We were all gathered around the kitchen for grace…and I looked over and both dogs were in the circle with us!
Three drinks going at once (water, rum punch, and wine)!
Helping clean up!

The evening was spent watching football, playing cards, puzzling, and visiting!

Marshall Point & Owl’s Head Lighthouses

Today’s adventure in Maine…So happy it was sunny today! We started at Marshall Point Lighthouse in Point Clyde, ME. This is where the Forrest Gump scene of Tom Hanks running was filmed.

Back to our lobster place to get a few more for dinner!
Sharing a $1 beer!

Read the book? Check!
Visited the lighthouse? Check!

Lesson learned and Pemaquid Point

Last night we had asked Owen to take out the lobster waste and set the bucket inside the garbage bins (because it was too dark to go too the beach and dump in the water—but it couldn’t stay in the house or be left out where animals could get it.

Never underestimate the non-listening power of a teen brain. This is what we found in the morning. He somehow missed that we said to put the lobster shells IN the garbage bin and just left it on the porch. So then he got the glorious job of cleaning it all up! We all had a good laugh.

Exploring on our beach again!

Then it was off on another adventure—to my mom’s favorite spot: Pemaquid Point!

When we got home, Katie wanted to swim but it was a little too chilly.
Us girls had a nice time catching up on the beach.
Of course, lobster for dinner!

You’ve seen the lobster dinner, now see our dessert! Everyone loves strawberry shortcake!

Lobster, lobster, lobster!

When in Rome…

When vacationing in Maine, fresh lobsters straight from the dock are mandatory. You’re looking at nine lobsters coming in at 18-ish pounds!

Yesterday’s leftover lobster getting made into lobster rolls for lunch!
Katie loved exploring on the beach and looking for sea glass. She’d send us pictures when she found things!
Beth and Kath flew in today for the long weekend!
We dared Katie to touch a lobster again.
Grauntie Rose offering to take Katie’s share of lobster.
Mmmmmmmmm.

Our beach, Mount Battie & food!

Our view to the left.
Our view to the right.

There were LOTS of rocks between us and the beach.

Heading back up to the house to get ready for the day’s adventure!

On top of Mount Battie.

Then it was off to the surprise for the kids—Uncle Willy’s Candy Shoppe. They each got $10 to spend there ($5 from Grauntie Rose and $5 from me) and Katie spent all of it plus some of her own while Owen didn’t spend a penny and saved it instead.

This was one of the things she got—fruit flavored if you were wondering.

And this was what I got—it was interesting.

Then we went to mom’s favorite place for dinner—The Happy Clam. And of course I had to try their infamous Blueberry margarita!

Katie was enthralled with the old school playground so she spent most of her time out there! After dinner we took pictures!

Then Owen got involved!

Maine, I am in you.

My mom said this was probably going to be their last trip to Maine—so I took both kids out of school for a week and off we went!

And with my mom, the reason for the vacation!

Looking up at the beach cottage from the fire pit.

Two-pound lobsters for dinner? Yes, please! Katie hated it (color me not surprised) and Owen liked it. Tomorrow we’ll have lobster rolls.

Katie wasn’t thrilled with any of it.

Owen tried everything—from cracking to eating.

After dinner they surprised me with a birthday cake—complete with 50 candles!

The Len Christmas in July is over!

It’s now just a gathering with food (lots of food!) and catching up…and euchre!

Plus we get the chance to get the kids together for comparison pics!! (They were all really good sports about it, too!)

Nick (18) and Owen (14) have been going back-and-forth over the years, but Owen is taller now (he was taller than everyone except Tom!).
2013—Katie (1) • Owen (4) • Aubrey (almost 5) • Grace (almost 7) • Nick (almost 9)
The three close birthdays!

Our first hosted Thanksgiving dinner!

I was so busy with a houseful of guests and dinner prep that I barely had time to look at my phone (so most of these are from everyone else)! But it was so worth it to have everyone together — from Georgia (Filipek), Michigan (Schwalm & Coe), and Illinois (Schwalm & Hudson). And our best friends joined us, too…and fit right in!

Puzzle #2
Still can’t believe Izzy’s a college sophomore!
Izzy wanted to steal Olive.

Then we did some reenactment shots!

I can’t believe it was 22 years between these photos. But we all still look the same, right?! Also: no kids in 2000, six kids in 2022!

The whole gang!
Yes, two turkeys. Smoked and fried!
We easily had enough food for 4x as many people.
Kids table
Photobomber!

Grandparent Camp 2022

All photos and captions are from Gramma Jean!

Down at City Park in the river. It was COLD!
Looking for petoskey stones.
Goggles helped find them!
Swimming at Higgins Lake North State Park.
First ones there and last ones to leave! Five hours.
Owen now knows how to ride and mow the lawn!
Painting rocks on a rainy day!
A little laundry to do on their last day.
Our pit stop at the Big Mac.
Now it’s Granny Lin’s turn!

Gabby’s Graduation!

Gramma and Grandpa were headed to Gabby’s graduation party on Moccasin Lake in the U.P. (near Munising) so it was a perfect time to make the transfer. They got to spend the day with their cousins and had a great time!

Owen’s first raft ride behind a Jet Ski!
Waiting patiently.

First time in a hotel with them. We were tired enough, we all slept!

Off to grandparent camp!

It’s time for a road trip to take the kids to Michigan for Grandparent Camp! Usually we go all the way to Grayling but we decided to try something different this year and meet halfway!

Can you see her sleeping buddy?

I’m not sure what Katie is pissy about other than that’s her normal look these days. (I told you!)

One of the few times she’s sweet.

Our meeting point was Bilbo’s, one of our favorite restaurants from East Lansing that we hadn’t been to in 20 years (since we got married and left Michigan). We were excited that Kalamazoo was the halfway point!

Making the actual transfer! We’re free! Good luck and Godspeed!

Seriously though, the kids absolutely love this time with the grandparents and couldn’t be more excited… especially after Covid put the kibosh on camp last summer. Here’s to making memories!!

I guess 7:15 wasn’t too bad.

Tom and I had both taken Tylenol PM so we were both zonked in the morning when the kids came in together at 7:15 with a loud MERRY CHRISTMAS and hopped in bed with us! We always leave their phones outside their doors so they can let us sleep longer but apparently 30 minutes was all they could handle!

I must be slacking on my old age because I didn’t take any pictures! But they started with their stockings and were thrilled to find a ton of Lego Minifigure packs so they started building those right away! Before we knew it, this is what the room looked like (and I think this is after one mid-opening cleaning).

Santa brought the kids a few things they asked for so they were thrilled—Owen got a game for his computer (he was super sneaky and actually installed it on the computer!) and some video game cash and Katie got some dolls she asked for.

Katie was proud of her wrapping job. And she knows me…it was a stemless wineglass that said BEST MOM EVER.

Then we video chatted with both sets of grandparents AND had a zoom call with the Schwalmlettes. (We might have been a little unprepared since we were thinking it was noon our time. But it was noon Eastern. I am never going to get used to being CST.)

Tubing with the fam!

We all went tubing today at Hanson Hills!! I had never done it before but I am all about NOT having to walk up the hill!! I hadn’t been inside the building in probably 25 years…plus they’ve totally updated it…so how can it still smell exactly the same?!

Tubing was so much fun…but everyone else in Grayling had the same idea and there were too many people (IMO) so we only got three runs in! It only took about 10 minutes max to ride up and go down but they’re were so many people we were waiting 15 minutes in line. (The tow rope also broke for about 15 minutes—THANKS, MARIE!—so that didn’t help.)

Katie only went down twice—she got too freaked out that she was going to come out of the tube. I could actually understand—you really got going fast and I was initially a bit freaked out. I went down once with Owen, once with Tom, and then the last trip with Tom, Owen, Doug, and Robert!

Thanks to Gramma Jean for taking pics with my phone!!