These guys are TOO MUCH!!!

Yes, there is a story about these guys and why they are "TOO MUCH", but it is too long to tell here...so you will have to ask me personally sometime.  Anyway, these guys (Brent Shaw, Dave Disch, Jeff Todd, Greg Groves, and myself)  comprise the "TOO MUCH CLUB", which has been our name for ourself since 1986 or so... when we first started getting together for reunion campouts every other year.  We all grew up together in Greenville, IL and are proud to have this longstanding history together as friends. We have met in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin at different state parks and private campgrounds over the past 25 years or so.  It is generally "too much" fun being with these guys as we tend to turn back into youngsters when we are together, and usually come away sore and tired as we have tried to do all the things we did when we were young, all in a 3-day period.   These activities include, but are not limited to the following:  hiking, rock climbing, canoeing, football, frisbee golf, TRIPOLEY that lasts all 3 days(a poker-type board game), camp fires, movies, EATING, SNACKING, exploring, broom ball, basketball, volleyball, carpetball and I am sure there are some I have forgotten...BUT, that's OK, because there is a HISTORY.  Greg has kept a history of our times together, down to the snacks we ate and other details we will want to know one of these days when we all have lost our memories and want to re-live our times together  (better get a copy for each of us soon). 

Needless to say, a good time is had by all, and we are blessed by our mutual friendships! Long live the TOO MUCH CLUB !!!

 

25th Wedding Anniversary!!

Rene' and I actually celebrated the actual day of our 25th Wedding Anniversary while we were up north camping with our family (what a great place to be).  We are planning a special trip for sometime in the winter to actually have a get-away celebration trip for the two of us.  But, while we were down in Greenville taking Em down to begin her second year at G.C., we were surprised by my parents to have several of our friends be at Mario's Pizza when we showed up there.   It was fun to see them there...and the pizza was good too!

A tiny crack...a day-long project

At 7:00 on this particular Thursday morning, I realize by a puddle and bubbling water out of the ground at the dump station, that it is going to be "one of those days"...but I did not expect it would take ALL day to fix it.  Actually, it took almost half the day just to find the crack...which ended up being 5 and half feet deep, when I expected it to be maybe 2 feet deep, since this is a seasonal dump station.  Rain also made this little project a little crazy, as if the ground was not already saturated enough from the leakage all night, but now it was super saturated with rain.  It made cave-ins and some serious mud to work in.  But, I do need to count my blessings because the timing was actually a good thing.  There were hardly any campers needing to use the dump station on this day, and had it been one day later, it would have been REALLY BAD...like lots of RV's rolling into the campground, as in the Friday of Labor Day Weekend.  So, I am very thankful for the timing.

Young State Park & Emily to GC

Our end-of-the-summer family vacation was once again at our ole stand-by campground up north, Young State Park, in Boyne City, MI, where we have been going for the last 12 or so years.  We love it up there, and this year was once again, very relaxing and a great time with my family.  Check out the video my kids made if you want to see the boys in action out on the hiking trail
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnrsndjzpU
As soon as we got home, we unpacked the camper and then immediately re-packed and left the next morning to take Emily down to GC for the start of her sophmore year.  We arrived in Greenville expecting to have Mario's pizza with Mom and Dad...and ended up having a surprise 25th Wedding Anniversary party for Rene' and I, with friends gathered to help celebrate.