Family Time~

Well, my family and I got back a week or so ago from a long weekend to celebrate our son’s 16th b-day. While I would love to show you a few pics that we took, I have no idea how to upload.

We took our son to Cooperstown NY to see the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, and on the way, we stopped to see Niagara Falls, Canada. We had only planned to stay for lunch there, but ended up staying the whole afternoon. Wow! I wish we could have stayed the night there to see the colors of Niagara Falls at night. We just didn’t expect to have been blown away by the natural beauty there.

We had lunch on the second level deck of a nice restaurant, which overlooked the falls. The ambiance of the whole town fascinated us; a nice balance between yesterday and today. As I gazed upon the falls rushing down on both the American and Canadian side, I wondered how anyone could dismiss God. It is usually when I witness something so spectacular that I reaffirm my faith in our Maker, like the miracle of birth.

As the Maid of the Mist tour boat inched closer to the falls, I was transformed from tourist to Child of God, one of awe of the beauty of something so natural, so full of life. The only thing that took away from this was the view of a surrounding large lighted Casino sign. The place is a part of an ever-changing world, so while we enjoyed lunch at an updated restaurant that seemed to fit the atmosphere, the commercialism of glitsy signs and tourist shops reminded and annoyed me of the pushiness of today. Silly, I suppose to look at it that way, but it’s how I felt.

Then we went on to our original destination of Cooperstown, which did not disappoint. The green mountain countryside overwhelmed us Michiganders. The small historical town with its taste of something great and slower pace pleased us as if we were stepping back through time to the very place where dreams had originated. That was until we got our bill for souvenirs and lunch. We were pulled back to reality once again, but the lingering wonder of the little baseball town will stay with us for a long time.

The best part of our mini-vacation was having fun as a family and enjoying the company of our 16 yr old son, who loved it as much as we did and genuinely appreciated his birthday present.

Of course, the highlight for me was my picture being taken beside Cal Ripkin Jr.-my favorite baseball player, who is being inducted into the Hall of Fame this month. Okay, okay…so it was only me standing by one of his pictures there. Hey…I’ll take what I can get.

What’s next? A long, relaxing trip up north to the RV by the Lake... in just one week! Yippee!! Mini-vacations out of state are fun, but tiring…our vacation up north will be eating good and being lazy…ah, I can’t wait. Now if we can get our truck's alternator fixed by then, we'll be in good shape. Just so you know that I'm not on cloud 9. :)

Hope all is well with all of you! Have a safe and fun summer!

Thank you sweet Jesus for giving me life, so that I might enjoy life here and life with you, forever & ever. Amen.