Sibling Retreat

My three sisters, my brother John and his wife and I had quite a weekend.

While cleaning a few months ago, I came across a fifty-year-old photo of some of my siblings and me on the back of a stone turtle. The photo was taken in Grand Haven on a family vacation when I was 6.

That's me in the back. 

Since it's been 50 years, we decided it was time to take another photo.  

I contacted the family from whom we rent our summer vacation spot and they were able to tell us where to find the turtle.  They were also kind enough to let us rent the house for our weekend getaway. 

So we set a date and last weekend it was finally time to go do a reshoot. 

We had a blast taking the new photo.  Please note the white socks on John and Margaret. 😂

I'm not quite as limber as I used to be and so I'm just faking actually sitting on the turtle.  My big sister was able to get up there though.  Way to go, Terry.

Unfortunately, getting down posed a small problem. Laughing didn't help matters. 

No one was hurt in the process! 

We let Connie and Michele have a photo with Mr. Turtle, too. 

After the turtle photos were done, we headed back to the cottage were we had to have a stair photo. It's tradition. 

We walked on the beach, ate, baked cookies, ate, talked and laughed. 

We got to FaceTime with our brother Dave who lives in California and could not be with us. 

It was very relaxing and so much fun that we decided we need to do it again next year, this time with David along for the fun. 

A reporter name Becky from the Grand Haven Tribune has taken our information and plans to run an article in their paper-the same paper we were in the first time.  Our 15 minutes of fame, 50 years apart. 

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Gumption

Our tenacious one is at it again.  She keeps me young!

Big sister Erin, got our 7th grader geeked on running.  Last year they ran the Martian Marathon "together".  Erin ran the 1/2 marathon and C. ran 1.2 miles.

The 1.2 miles was the culmination of running, up to 2 miles at a time for weeks before hand,  to get to the 24 miles needed to round out the 26.2 miles for the marathon.

Last year was a struggle.  She was in pretty good shape but there were unexpected hills and she was pretty pooped when she was done.

Nonetheless, she decided to run again this year.  She took it up a notch and decided to run the 5K all on race day.

Thankfully she had gym last semester in school and was in much better shape for this race.

The weather (cold and snow)  and a 10 day upper respiratory infection that started two weeks before race day kept her from practicing as much as she would have liked.

The weather forecast was daunting:  a cold 36 degrees and 100% chance of rain.

I woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of a steady downpour.  I also woke up hoping she would decide not to run.

No such luck.  She was pumped!  She wanted her t-shirt and her medal!

She had her running clothes on including  a raincoat, winter hat and gloves and she was ready.

Erin helped me get her to the starting line as there were road blocks and little parking (runners are diehards who don't let a little rain stop them).


She did it!

She got her t-shirt and her medal and a great run time: 43 minutes and some odd seconds.  She was drenched, tired and happy.  

Keep it up no-so-little one. Your tenacity will take you places. 

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