Spring Break Trip to the U.P.

Now that everyone has forgotten that there ever was a spring break, here is my post of the spring break trip. If you are just looking for pictures, you can click on one and thus look just through them. If you'd actually like to read and have some time, plough on. :-)

On Monday, the fifth of March, the spring break trip began for me and Eric with an enjoyable seven or eight hour trip with the Coles. (This is not a sarcastic statement; car rides take at least two hours to really begin, and I usually find myself wishing they were longer, especially if I have a good group-which to me means either quiet enough to let you do your own things or with profitable and enjoyable conversation-and we had both.)

The snow that morning in Toledo was mostly melted when we left around noon. Some time into Michigan, we suddenly noticed snow, though it wasn't very deep yet.

I enjoyed taking pictures out of the window, and it was light enough that they weren't blurry.

It was the first time I had been in the Upper Peninsula and seen the bridge. Going over it, a short time before sunset, was cool.

The moon was out, and there was ice on the lake. It was cool.

 This looked like a fun hike, reminiscent of Chimney Rock in North Carolina.

The sunset was beautiful.

Across a field we saw clouds and the snow falling from them. That was pretty cool.

We missed a road and had to go down a long, tree-lined one instead, which had probably at least a mile between each house. I enjoyed taking this detour, for the view was beautiful, especially with the sunset.

We stopped at a little gas station on the way. There were long stretches without any places to stop; as Nick said, you wouldn't want to run out of gas there.

When we arrived, the rest of the group was already at the cabin we were staying in. Monday was Josh's birthday, and Heidi had made him a cake. We didn't have birthday candles, so he held a little candle above his cake.

I think he looks like a mouse or something.

Heidi and Hosea-so cute!

Nick and Hosea

I find this picture amusing.

The only surprising thing about this is that, though Eric and Jonny did suggest a tournament at one point, I think it was the only time Euchre was played.

When I saw the above picture, I was surprised. I think Abbi looks just like her mom in it.

The cabin we stayed in had lots of decorations with a rustic cabin feel. The main room had a sitting area on one side of the fireplace and a eating/mini hockey area on the other. Stairs, mirrored on each side of the cabin, led to three bedrooms, two with one bed and one with two. On the girls' side, I ended up having my own room with the other four girls in the other bedroom.

Due to the weather forecast-warm, even raining one night, and then cold again-skiing was promoted to Tuesday.

There are a lot of interesting houses in the UP, and this one caught my eye for some reason.

The first view of Marquette Mountain:

Eric and I had never been skiing before. He wasn't sure he wanted to at first, but we were both glad we did.

In the ski lodge

We went up the bunny hill once, and then to the top of the mountain. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful deal which included lunch at a little shelter with a firepit about a third of the way down the mountain. For those of us who had not skied before, it was difficult to make it from the end of the ski lift, around the curve, and down to the shelter-especially as the main slope, looking way too close to vertical, was straight ahead.

We talked to the lady who cooked the brats and hotdogs as we ate; there were also chips, cheese, crackers, and hot chocolate.

Then we had to attempt to get down the mountain.

Ben tried to lead Eric, Abbi, and I across to an easier place. Eric and Abbi didn't follow him all the way over and just went down. I went through the woods in knee-high snow, but eventually made it.

When we got back up to the top, Ben told me to take the Twin Hemlocks if I wanted to go on an easy place. (Which I did.) I had wanted to go down the same way as before, but unsure how to get there, I did as he suggested. There were two curves, each of which I fell at, but after that, it was pretty straight, and I made it to the end without falling. Halfway down I realized that it was the same place I had gone down. Lower Ski Run, it is called.

Map of the ski trail

I returned to Twin Hemlocks, and this time I think I only fell at the first curve. After the next time, I was going to go around the front of where the lift ends (Twin Hemlocks starts up higher), where we had gone after we ate (the place we ate was in the clump of trees above the square on the map marking Snowfield) but I met Eric and we went down the Twin Hemlocks again. The third time I went around the curves without falling.

Then I tried going around the front of where the ski lift stops. Somehow, it seemed simple, and I couldn't quite understand why it had been such trouble to get to the shelter to eat. This way, and also because it got colder as time went on, I went down fast. It feels almost like flying (I imagine, anyway). It was awesome.

Going up the ski lift was almost as enjoyable as the skiing. I like riding it, even though I scare myself imagining what would happen if you fell off (the advertisements on it, such as an emergency medical center, weren't helpful), and the view! Towards where we came from the view was so awesome! The road curved away, disappearing in the valley, prominent between two bright, snow-covered mountains, as it was surrounded by dirty brown snow, leading to many buildings on the other side of the mountains, with the lake beyond it.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and it is true. I can't describe the view. It was frustrating to have my camera at the bottom of the slope and an awesome view at the top, and yet be unable to bring the two together. I was so tempted to take it up. I could have gotten some good pictures, and it would probably have been no problem going down with it, even if I fell, for even the times I had fallen, I'd never wiped out. But the possiblity... I could only sigh and try to cement the pictures in my mind, and be satisfied with taking pictures from the bottom of the hill.

The sun was bright, making it hard to see, and the people were little (I didn't risk taking Ryan's zoom to the U.P., so I just had my 18-55mm). Dressed in snow outfits, no one looks quite like himself anyway, and it was hard to pick out people I knew. I thought one guy going down the main hill might be. He fell near the end, and when he raised his arms, I was pretty sure. Sure enough, it was Jonny:

Quite a few of us took a break, I to take pictures.

I had removed my glasses and left them in the lodge with my camera.

I was taking a picture of Aaron outside, but Nick thought I was taking his.

Attempting to remove Abbi's boots

Success!

Eric telling how he feels like flying with the wind blowing in his open coat.

I think this is Abbi saying, "Jeannette!" because I kept taking her picture.

Katie posing

I was enjoying taking candid photos.

Katie said, "Not that we're posing or anything," and did this.

Yes, this is Aaron dripping water on Katie's shirt.

It was funny, apparently.

Abbi took these pictures at my request. Happy, Ashley?

I returned to skiing. I forget what all happened before my (sort of) last two runs. These two runs are a bit mixed up in my mind, so I may not be relaying them exactly right.

Nick and Josh were trying the jumps ("Chute" it's called). I attempted to see Nick go over with his snowboard, so I was closer to the edge than I normally went. I started going towards one descent (it must have been Shaker) and managed to get past it, and then went towards Contour. The name should have given me a clue. I thought blue was the next level, and I wanted to try something different, perhaps a bit harder. What's the worst that can happen? I thought. I might fall. Really I hadn't fallen too much, as I hadn't been adventurous. So, I went for it.

Well, Contour was appropriately named. It was full of jumps and curves, and quite steep. My skis fell off quite quickly, and it took me a long time to get them back on. When I got one on, I could not get the other on without slipping. And this happened more than once. As I attempted to replace them, I contemplated whether to go down the steep side I was above or attempt to go to the side in between two jumps.

A boy I had seen before swerved to a stop behind me and then skied to the bottom. He was with a group of young boys who were all going over jumps. They were probably about ten or eleven, and this boy looked so tiny with them. He was probably four years old, a tiny little kid, and he skied around like an Olympic champion, going over the jumps and landing without a pause.

I got a picture of him later:

I admit I was looking for him to see if I could get a picture. He was cute, and looked so tiny zooming around the mountain with the bigger kids.

I finally made it down the hill. I think I probably spent a good twenty minutes getting down-seriously I don't think that's an exaggeration. But this was the better of these two runs.

I returned to the top, and this time I think I was playing around, trying to swerve and so forth. Ask Eric; this is dangerous. I started heading for the woods just below the end of the top of the ski lift. I saw a track there and decided to attempt to stay on it, though it'd take some good maneuvering to not hit a tree.

Well, I didn't need to worry about that. I fell, face forward, into the fluffy snow. I wasn't hurt or anything, but two boys going past asked if I was okay. Actually I was laughing. The one who'd spoken, a boy of about fourteen or fifteen, and a good skier, told me that I shouldn't go through the woods, that it's hard to go through the soft snow that hasn't been packed down. I knew that, of course, but that didn't stop me.

It was difficult for me to get up with my skis on in the deep snow. Three of our group-Jonny, Robert and someone else, I think-went past me up in the lift and also asked if I was okay. I finally managed to get out and continue.

I am not sure where I went; it wasn't where I usually did, because there was a jump. I tried to avoid it or something. Anyways, I ended up falling there. The same boy went past. I think he asked if I needed help or anything. "Is this your first time skiing?"

"Yes," I said. I restrained myself from asking, "What do you think?"

I couldn't see his friend on the other side of the jump or hear what he said, but as they skied down, I heard what the boy replied: "Give her a break, she's never skied before."

I laughed.

They should have seen what happened next...

I finally got to my feet and got back on my usual slope, Lower Ridge Run. Finally, I thought, after all this crazy run-and-a-half, I'm back to speed. I've got this.

I had gone down this slope multiple times, and even the first time I had ever skied and when I went fast I had never fallen on it. I don't know if it was because I'd messed up at the beginning or what. I don't remember what happened at first, but suddenly, I found myself falling. Halfway down Lower Ridge Run, my skis went up and my head went down, straight into the slope. I'm giving myself a headache thinking about it. It felt like whatever attaches my brain to my skull was yanked off. I lay there for a moment. My skis had come unattached and stopped a couple yards above me. I plodded back up, reattached them-glad they went on easily-and skied back to the lodge.

It was five thirty or so, I think. Some of the group was heading back. As the vehicle was full, Robert, who had had enough skiing, stayed in the lodge. Lying on the snow for a while, I took some pictures.

Abbi's snow woman-I think she's wearing a wedding dress

I thought this lady pulling her young son was sweet.

I don't like wasting things, generally, and wondered why I hadn't started skiing again earlier. When I got up, however, I realized why, as my headache remembered itself. I decided to wait a while longer and spent my time with my skiing mouse.

:-)

After making and photographing him, I noticed it getting dark.

I went down a few times after that; I met Josh and he said I should go up the other ski lift, from which you could see the other side of the mountain. I wanted to, but I didn't want to get back down. There was a way back to the easy side, but I didn't know how to get there. Eric had a fall of his own that awarded a headache to him and didn't want to go up again. After my break, I lost my ambition, so Ben, Eric and I returned our skates and I took pictures.

The paper we had to sign

Our things in the lodge

Eric wanted to play Euchre-there were four of us-but I wanted to take pictures before it got too dark.

I enjoyed taking pictures there. I wasn't cold-it was actually nice that it was rather warm.

There were so many tiny kids skiing around like Olympians, so fun to watch.

For some reason, this alley between the lodge and some sort of hangout fascinated me.

As most of the time, it was cloudy, which made the moon look myseriously cool.

This is one of the other two lifts, which I didn't go on.

A machine went past smoothing the snow.

In case you hadn't noticed, I liked watching the little kids.

A lady with a girl stood near the top of the bunny hill. The lady skied over to the other side, only going down a short way.

Then she stopped, and the girl followed her.

They repeated this,

until they reached the bottom of the hill.

These two little girls were kind of wrestling on skis. The world up there is different than Toledo. In case you weren't sure.

The boys waiting inside

I liked the colors of this picture of a girl putting her skis in the rack. I noticed the reflections of the big round lights in the lodge on the window and decided to combine them. It turned out to be one of my favorite pictures.

The lights remind me of constellations.

We were all tired, and as Ben had to drive close to an hour back, he took a nap.

Robert laughed at me taking pictures.

I know this isn't really an After School Kid's Club sign, but it made me think of it and feel sort of melacholy, thinking of the kids.

I thought this boy was my little friend and was surprised-he had looked so much smaller on the mountain. But I saw him later and realized they just had the same kind of coat. Which was a unique, interesting coat.

I like this one too, with the little dark figure of a skier in the corner

Jonny going up the lift-he's the figure you can see beside the pole in the middle

Waiting for them to finish

The little skiiing boy

Eric thought it was funny that this room is ALARMED.

A girl who worked there came in; Ben was sleeping on the table, Robert lying or slouching, and Eric hunched over a book of Chesterton essays. "Why don't you guys go home?" she asked. "You look exhausted." Robert told her we were waiting for the others in our group. She seemed to feel sorry for us. The place closed at 8:30.

I was glad for the opportunity to take pictures, but all of us were glad to head home. Well, to the cabin, that is.

Skiing was a fun experience, and if I have the opportunity, I'll probably do it again.

After dinner in the evenings, we spent time reading through several chapters of the Bible. We played games and talked, and gradually went to bed.

The small kitchen is located right to the left of the door, next to the entry room. Being cold, Abbi found an ingenious heater. It warmed the little room right up, especially when we had a cover hanging over the doorway.

Several nerf guns were brought, and they received much use over the week. Wednesday morning, Abbi shot any boy who poked his head behind the curtain, which happened to be Nick twice.

This picture reminds me of the men building the wall in Nehemiah, who "loaded themselves in such a way that with one hand they carried material for building and with the other they held a weapon".

I helped Abbi cook pancakes. I asked her if she ever made pancake men. We made pancake figures. It was fun, but it takes a lot longer than normal pancakes.

This was intended to be another mouse, but ended up looking more like a bear with a tail.

A bunny, which was probably supposed to be a squirrel

A skier is probably the most elaborate pancake figure I ever made. They stayed together surprisingly well.

This wasn't originally intended to be a bird, but it ended up being one of the most accurately shaped pancake thing I've done.

This is not a shapeless blob; it is the Upper Peninsula, made by Mr. Kepler. It got messed up a bit when it was flipped.

My two skiers

We enjoyed the fireplace-especially I, who was cold most of the week. Being a Beerbower, I like to think I'm not wimpy, but coldness is one place I indulge myself.

Abbi the terrorist...

In between activities, while people relaxed, the nerf guns invariably came out.

Josh attacking Robert on his bed

Nick with the ball gun, which he enjoyed using

Abbi reading Walleye stories

Lucas and Mary

The boys played some rousing games of mini hockey.

Once Nick said, "I want to play some mini hockey."
Robert replied, "I want to have knees."
That pretty much sums it up.

It was tough on the elbows, too, so Nick taped towels to Aaron's. I don't know if it helped much.

While they played hockey, I sat by a window and held Hosea. As a consequence of the good lighting, cute subject, and some time, I could do a whole post of just these. They're so cute though, that it's hard to narrow down.

This reminds me of a look Kristen used to make when she was a baby.

We played a game called Psychiatrist. In this game, one person is sent out and a problem is decided upon for the group. The person returns, and by asking questions, attempts to discover what it is.

It was quite an interesting game, especially the round Mr. Kepler was the psychiatrist. The boys were to react to one word and the girls to another. Mr. Kepler's questions were so atypical that it didn't work well.

What's the trigger? Maybe the stick. Look at the bear!

Lucas looks sleepy...

On Wednesday afternoon, we piled into the Zellers' van...

or the Kepler's truck...

or some sleds for some hillbilly sledding.

The sledders came in the van and we drove the short distance to Munising Falls.

It was a very short, easy hike to the falls, perhaps eight minutes. Even Hosea could do it.

I hadn't been to a waterfall since 2010, and I'd never seen a frozen one, even partially. Some of it was thawed and flowed behind the frozen part.

Abbi enjoyed me taking her picture as usual.

So she took mine:

Katie and Hosea

After looking around there, we headed up some icy stairs,

to this area:

It was pretty awesome to stand beside this huge mound of ice, with the cool orangish rock and sand beside it.

A little snowball fighting

I think they were attempting to knock off a large chunk of ice that looked like it might fall. Only part of it did.

This ice doorway was interesting. I wondered how it got there.

Behind the waterfall

I also liked this little block of ice jutting out from the wall.

Yep, somebody walked up there.

Some of the group returned to the lookout area and the others attempted to hit them with snowballs from the other side of the trail.

I slid down part of the trail, thinking it safer with the camera. It made a pretty good slide.

As we headed back, the light faded.

The white bark on some of the trees I found cool.

Jonny, Aaron, and Katie improvised a slide down part of the mountain.

More cool tree bark

We stopped at a place I believe was called Sandpoint, hoping to see the Northern Lights, or at least some stars. It was too cloudy, unfortunately, but I enjoyed the view and taking pictures-even though it was really too dark.

Abbi said this felt good on her back

When I tried to take pictures of the peninsula far out on the lake, the camera wouldn't focus because it was too dark and obviously too far away for flash to help, and trying to focus manually was a stab in the dark. (Pun intended, of course.) So you can imagine what it would look like from these unfocused photos.

Taking pictures of people in the dark is annoying for a few reasons. It's hard to focus, and often, when they do cooperate, by the time it's focused-well, it seems like when they do, it never does focus. So they're annoyed by all the flashing, and I didn't even get the picture. For some reason, flashing in the dark doesn't seem to annoy me. Maybe it's because I can sympathize with the photographer, or maybe it's just that I seldom experience it, normally being behind the flash.

When we returned, I stayed outside to take pictures of the cabin in the dark.

This is the entry room, and the little window with white light is for the kitchen.

Across from the cabin is the bathroom/laundry building.

The upstairs window is one of the boys' bedrooms, and the downstairs is into the living area.

Eric in the entry room before the "door" to the kitchen

Hosea in his cute little Grover snowsuit

Relaxing in the evening. It included computer time, and I actually kept up on my photo of the day during the week, thanks to Abbi's generous offer to use her computer and Jonny's.

The little kitchen got quite steamy that evening when we had soup for supper!

Abbi and Heidi (and Mrs. Van Engen, who couldn't come) spent a lot of time on food, and we were well-fed that week.

Eric thinks (and some others agreed) it's stupid to take pictures at dinner. I think that some are interesting to remember what you had.

With the blue light of a flashlight on his face, Jonny told, in the voice of Gollum, the story of ChewBobert. To understand the hilarity of this, you must have heard Jonny use this voice before. ("This isn't funny! This is a scary story!") Tired as I was, it was worth staying up for. ChewBobert was one of Robert's Star Wars names. Of all the ones they gave people, his stuck the most.

Wednesday night instead of reading, we split guys and girls for prayer. Abbi had skyped Elizabeth, and we enjoyed talking to her, though we couldn't see her because her computer wasn't working, and the one she used didn't have a camera. (For those of you who don't know, Elizabeth Bayly is volunteering at an orphanage in Peru, and I think this was the day after her three-month mark.)

The boys (Nick especially, and Eric) kept bringing up getting ice cream, so we had stopped at a store and about every other person got half a gallon. Josh was eating some when we were talking to Elizabeth. Ice cream sounded really good to her, and she actually wanted to watch him eat some for her. He gave some to her and got some on Jonny's laptop camera.

Not as bad as when I spilled Abbi's Sunny D on it... Praise the Lord it only made it smell like orange juice.

Thursday included hockey out on the icy drive...

Lucas and Mary by the lake

We enjoyed the outdoors; while some worked on a tunnel, I wandered around taking pictures.

The other side of the cabin

Down the road, with the lake on the right

I think this looks like some sort of spidery creature

An interesting window on the bathroom

A snowball fight ensued.

Nick marched forward with the basketball hoop for a shield.

Lucas' sneak attack didn't work well in the deep snow.

We were waiting for Mr. Kepler, who was attempting to find the shot he had bought on the way up. It turned out that they were left at the store. However, he had enough for everyone to shoot at least once.

Nick setting up the target

Robert and his nice gloves

Mr. Kepler explained the rules to us.

 

Eric shot first at the cardboard target. Since there was no way to tell if he'd hit it or not, we shot at a pop bottle and cans after that.

Katie went next and hit the bottle.

I tried to get a picture of a shot, and this was my only success:

Everyone had gone except Mary and myself-Heidi and Abbi were inside preparing lunch. Mr. Kepler asked me if I wanted to. I didn't know-it was loud, I didn't know what it would be like. "Your brother will take your picture," he said.

"You won't die," Eric said. As that was what I was thinking, I decided I ought to add this to my list of firsts.

Mr. Kepler showed me how to hold it, and told me that I shouldn't have my thumb on the hammer. The sight had a notch you were supposed to line up.

I took my time. It even seemed long to me.

But it must have worked. I shot the gun. I though about how it didn't really sound any louder than when others had shot it, and how the gun had pushed against my shoulder, but it didn't hurt really-when suddenly I was aware of shouting and the spraying of an exploding pop can.

I'm pretty sure no one was more surprised than I was.

Eric and Lucas traipsed out to replace the can and Eric triumphantly discovered that his shot had, indeed, reached its mark-right on the edge of the bulls eye.

Eric pointing out his good shot

Katie holding the bottle she shot

Mary decided to shoot it, with earmuffs.

Mr. Kepler showed her how.

Ear muffs applied:

and shoot!

Another of Katie's shots hit the can, but this can was shot three times and didn't explode like the one I shot.

Eric hit the can on his second shot. They joked that if we were really hunting, the boys would have to eat snow and the girls would have food, along with Eric.

Eric's edge-of-the-bulls eye shot

Replacing a can

Jonny says that "shotgun" is a stupid thing to call a gun. When you get a new one, "they should call it shoot-gun. It hasn't been shot yet. You can't call it a shotgun until it's been shot."

I had another photo shoot holding Hosea:

I love this picture. It makes me think of an angry dwarf.

On the way to sledding, Mr. Kepler wanted to stop at the home of his friend Dorothy. She graciously let all fifteen of us into her house (which was cute and tastefully decorated). It turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. She was a sweet, interesting lady, and I found myself wishing she lived closer. She accepted all of us immediately, and she loves babies.

Josh randomly announced that she was five hundred times older than Hosea.

With the contrast between Dorothy and Hosea, this is one of my favorite pictures, I think, that I have ever taken.

We prayed, and sang impromptu at Josh's suggestion. She told us about her family. She said was encouraged by these young people coming to see her.

She gave us coconut-covered rice crispys, which were delicious. She told us to tell her when we were coming next time so she could make more than one batch. It was a wonderful visit.

Then we went to the sledding hill at a high school.

They did some trains, which didn't stay together well.

They also went over the bump with people lying beside it.

Aaron recorded them sledding, some in slow motion.

Jonny's sled kept going the farthest, even though he didn't even make it to the bottom of the hill. Several times when they did the train this happened.

We went up to see the remains of a mine shaft which they had explored last time they went to the U.P.

Mary made a little snowman (the snow never got very good for making things; it was usually too dry) with a leaf for a hat.

The lights of the town amongst the mountain looked cool.

Mary didn't want to go down-and when she did, it was understandable, as she wiped out.

Jonny took another camera down, so I asked him to take mine and went down. I also wiped out at the end, giving my elbow a bruise. It was fun.

When we returned, we had a yummy supper of Hawaiian haystacks.

Eric and Ben playing an interesting-looking game called Puerto Rico

Watching sledding videos, I believe.

Friday had the sad feeling that this was the last full day. We had pancakes again, and I made a hillbilly sledder pancake.

I missed when Jonny and Aaron were pouring syrrup on with both bottles at once.

Jonny and his pond of syrrup

The open sky over the pond-so awesome.

The credit for this picture goes to Abbi.

Abbi, Aaron, and Jonny had gone sledding (and the latter parasailing) at a place by the pond they discovered. I wanted to go out, but first played Settlers of Catan with Josh, Lucas and Mary. I had heard of people playing it before. Josh was the only one who had. It was fun-but being the winner helps that.

Someone mentioned that they hadn't made a snow angel this year. "Oh, guess what? I haven't made a snow angel in...like five years!" Robert said.

Jonny decided to do a skiing snow angel.

Time to head in for lunch...

With his cape, Jonny looks like those gray things in Star Wars.

He made interesting tracks.

After a late lunch of hot dogs (and leftover ice cream), we headed back to where we had gone sledding where there was an ice rink.

Eric was not going to attempt to ice skate. I decided I would.

Eric stayed in the room and watched Hosea.

I came in and took their picture, and Hosea noticed the flash, looked at me, and smiled!

It was so cute.

The guys in our group are good skaters and they played tag with the friendly kids (people talk to strangers much more freely up there, it seems), making trains and so forth, and of course some hockey.

Once again, there were adorable little people zooming around like they were born with skates on their feet, swishing to a stop like Olympians. One young boy asked me, when I was sitting on a chair in the rink, if I wanted pushed, and pushed me across half of the rink. Abbi talked to a homeschooled boy who was very friendly and super smart.

There was a little girl that made me think of Kristen. She was a little younger than Kristen and had a pink coat, and tried to keep up with, I think, her older siblings. She could skate a lot better than I. I couldn't get a hang of it. Abbi told me a little about how to alternate your feet, and I did a little better, but I still couldn't. I could see it being really fun if you were good, but as it was, I wished I had taken pictures instead.

Out the window

After that we went to a pier on the lake.

It was freezing!

Lining up for the cruise

Eric and Ben ran down to the end.

Lucas did jumping jacks.

Testing the ice

It was so cold and windy we didn't stay long.

I stayed back a while to take pictures, and watched two people amble across the frozen lake.

I think the flash startled him.

The light in my room

On Friday night we returned to Sandpoint in hopes of seeing the Northern lights.

Eric and Jonny went out on some ice, but the camera couldn't focus that far away.

It's Eric the ghost!

Burning napkins...

Saturday morning we ate and packed lunch.

It was sad to have to leave.

This time we went along the lake, which was enjoyable.

Apparently this huge building was not a hotel but a house.

Leaving the time with the group, the fun, relaxing atmosphere, the opportunity to spend an hour each morning with God, the mountains and the snow was sad, but when I saw the first sign for Toledo, found the scenery looking familiar, and saw the first things I recognized, I started getting excited to be home.

I am sorry this is such a poorly written post at the end, but I am ready to be done with it.