My Summer…in pictures

(with a few descriptions!)

Summer is always an adventure.  I spend a lot of my time up north on Lake Huron with Presley.  She LOVES the water and we end up taking many walks each day.  It’s a perfect place to rest, relax, and even work!  I love working on things for the next school year while watching the waves hit on the beach.  Lake Huron is the SUNRISE SIDE.  I never thought I’d see many, as I’ve never been a morning person, but, in fact, I see many of them! 

The Petoskey Stone

The Petoskey Stone is a rock and a fossil, often pebble-shaped, that is composed of a fossilized coral, Hexagonaria percarinata.  These stones were formed as a result of glaciation, in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their fought edges and depositing them in the northwestern )and some in the northeastern portion) of Michigan’s lower peninsula.  In the years we’ve gone to Lake Huron, we’ve never found many Petoskey Stones, until this year!  We had a great time searching the sand and water on walks this summer.  It was amazing!  We also found a lot of sea glass, which really should be called LAKE GLASS, right!?  It’s always fun to find a gorgeous piece of worn glass.

 The Ann Arbor Art Fair

This is one of my favorite things, EVER.  I love to see all of the amazing art and am inspired by everything I see.  It’s wonderful.  There are so many ways to create spectacular things…and I love getting inspired to create my own work by the work of others!  Guess how many years I've gone to the Art Fair. Here's a hint:  It's a LOT of years.  

Tawas, Michigan

Tawas State Park is a delightful place to visit!  There’s a wonderful lighthouse (it still works!) and the beaches are wonderful.  The Tawas Pier is fun to walk down too.  My favorite part is looking at all of the cool names people name their boats!

Our Tree

We had an amazing tree on our beach for several years.  But, with rising waters, we lost it this summer.  We used to be able to sit in front of our tree, but this year, it was nearly under water the entire summer.  Finally, right before the 4^th of July…it fell.  We had to have someone come and chop up our tree…giving us a lot of fire wood, and a pile of wood for a bon fire! 

The first picture sows a split screen...the first picture was taken in April, and the second one was taken in June.  Sadly, we lost the tree right before the July 4th weekend.  It sure did make for a great bon fire though!  Whoa!  It was amazing!

Best.  Rainbow.  Ever.

There was a little bit of rain, but it wasn’t going to keep us from making a bon fire to and to make s’mores.  Nope.  We were determined.  Once we made it down toward the beach, we saw the most incredible rainbow I’ve ever seen.  It was spectacular.  I’ve seen a lot of rainbows in my day, but this one, it was magnificent. 

Presley Marie O’Malley McGee

You will hear several stories about this dog this year.  She’s my baby.  She’s eight, sassy, funny, dorky, happy, and she's an amazing best friend.  I love her to the moon and back.  She loves to swim and she loves to sit on top of people.  Yes, really.  She sits (all 50 pounds of her) on top of you when you sit on the couch.  When we are up north, she’s very often wet, or quite damp.  Stinky Pete is her pet dog.  He is aptly named.  He stinks.  But, she loves him and kneads him, while she chews on him…EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Here's our sweet Presley and her big brother Kody.  She was about 8 weeks old in this picture, now she's 8 YEARS old!