MY LAST SUMMER VACATION IS HERE!

I am leaving town yet again! This is my brother and sister-in-law's boat docked at St. Ignace. They got it in long before the other boats, so it looks all lonely sitting there. Since this photo, though, lots of other boats have joined them and it's not quite this peaceful, but very close!! And, hey, if I'm not at home working, it's very peaceful and relaxing!



I will begin my trip first thing Saturday morning and will head to the J & J Retirement Resort. That is on the West Shore of Houghton Lake, Michigan and it is really my sister and brother-in-law's home. I often vacation in the summer with them, and since they are retired and living blissfully in Northern Michigan, I refer to their house as the J & J Retirement Resort (their name's are Jesse and Judy). They are the perfect host and hostess and Jesse waits on us gals like we are queens. He always waits on Judy like that! Since I'm not used to being waited on in such an awesome manner, I feel VERY PAMPERED and just refer to Jesse as my "Cabana Boy".

This trip I am hoping for a little boat time, but we'll see how it goes. I spent yesterday shopping at the Farmer's Market and local fruit markets to get canning tomatoes, roma tomoatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, canning jars, etc..... We are going to make stewed tomatoes, spaghetti/marinara sauce and some bread and butter pickles. The sauce has to cook for 12 hours in the roaster, so we will be peeling our tomatoes for stewed tomatoes while the sauce is cooking... yep, we have a plan going on! It's lots of work, but my "Cabana Boy" will be slicing and dicing for us (between freshening our adult beverages and fixing our meals), so hopefully it will go rather quickly. AND it's always more fun canning with family than it is by yourself. We always take a trip down "memory lane" while we're canning. When we grew up we had a huge garden and lots of kids to feed. In the summer we did lots of canning with my mom, and we really miss the taste of those stewed tomatoes in our chili, etc... So, as we are going along, we always do the "remember the year that..." thing. We end up having a great time and laughing a lot!

Then on Tuesday my mom will be coming up, and we will head to St. Ignace to stay on my brother and sister-in-law's boat for a few days. While we are there we will spend some time on Mackinac Island visiting with my other sister and my nephew. They both work on the island in the summer and love it! But that means we don't get to see too much of them, so it will be a nice relaxing time catching up and catching some rays.

Then next weekend on Saturday we will head to Lakes of the North to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle and Nieces and their spouses.... Again, lots of catching up and perhaps a few more trips down "memory lane". Then I will head home on Sunday for the Tiger Baseball Game Sunday evening and a big barbeque on Labor Day.

Bet you are tired just reading about how I plan to relax!

This summer has been full of lots of vacations, classes, an Open House, gardening, stamping with demonstrators, getting together with friends, Tiger Baseball Games and, of course, the usual cleaning, laundry, etc...

As you know, I have not been posting on my blog in my usual fashion. However, after I get home and settled back into a routine, you can expect the usual daily blog posts, as well as Watch It Wednesday Videos.

I hope all of you have had a wonderful summer!!