Treasure Hunting

Today the Weddle Family did the annual summer treasure hunt. Mom does the clue hiding, the kids do the finding, dad does the jokes and sometimes accidentally finds the clues and ruins the whole thing, but the treasure is always something good to eat.   This year, clues were hidden on a neighbor's deck, another neighbor's backyard, another neighbor's chicken coup, a tree, a cashier at Menards and ended with the wonderful treasure of McFlurry's at McDonalds.

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The Man

The Man of the family had a real cool day back in July. One of the guys from church grows hay and needed some help. Hey, no problem!   The Man got to stack hay on the wagon and then got an opportunity to drive the tractor. Too cool. Maybe, when he grows up, he'll be a farmer.

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On Razor's Edge

About fifteen minutes after Belinda's fall off the swing, the family began packing up the tents. While mom and dad were busy folding tents, Belinda found a knife. Ah yes, I fear you see what is coming. Knives are not the sort of thing a girl on 8 hours sleep who is falling all over the place should be holding.   However, neither mom nor dad had any idea this was taking place until. "Oh! I cut my finger." Whine, pout, walk funny, cry, etc. Unfortunately, Mom could not get the bleeding to stop so they had to go visit the campground hosts, who were quite nice and helped out greatly.   Here is the final profiteering of the trip. The campground hosts gave us three coupons for free happy meals at Burger King (approximate value $12). They also gave us coupons for three free ice cream cones at the local ice cream joint (approximate value $5.50).   In all, the kids made $22.50 on the camp trip! We all agreed that Belinda cutting her finger was totally worth it.

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Dear Belinda

After limping back to the campsite, Belinda decided to go swing on a tire swing with her brother and sister. Although the brother and sister managed just fine to stay on the swing, Belinda fell off, scraping up her other shin.   Ah, but we still have not yet met the full demise of Belinda.

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The Decline and Fall of Belinda

Dad got out of the tent around 6:15 after getting approximately 5 minutes of sleep due to the noise of 1.4 million tractor trailers going down highway 35 between Escanaba and Stupid Green Bay. At about 6:30 Belinda popped out (keep in mind they went to bed after 10) declaring that she was wide awake. So awake she'd been up since five, even though she has no concept of time.   This is not a good start. The first activity of the day, after breakfast, was to go on a walk down a trial along the shore of Michigan Lake. We found a large rock, which Jacob got up somehow. Here is a shot of Belinda attempting to be cool like her brother.   Long story short: she is not quite like her brother. She fell off, scraping her shin all up. This, however, was just a warm up in the saga of Belinda's morning.

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Campfire

The funniest part of the entire trip was the campfire. From about 9-10 we sat around the campfire and each person got a turn to tell a story or sing a song or something. Jacob really got into it. He told many stories, which were long and rather involved.   Each story revolved around the theme of a monster coming into the campground and eating us. You could sort of tell what was on his mind. The other highlight was dad standing up in front of the fire and singing "Tomorrow" from Annie. It's beyond description really.

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Swimming In Michigan Lake

I know, most people call it Lake Michigan, but not the Weddle children.   The beach was initially disappointing as it was not near our campsite. Although our site was on the water it was on a weedy, marshy piece of shore. The beach had green stuff floating in it and rocks. But we discovered that if you went out about 10 feet the green stuff and the rocks went away.   About 100 yards out there was a sandbar, the water was barely up to dad's knees. Quite nice. While swimming, the Weddle children made $5 off a Green Bay Packer fan woman who dared the kids to go splash this guy in her group who was celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary.   Weddle children, being related to their father, were excited about the opportunity to make some easy cash. They splashed the guy and got their $5. This will not be the last time the Weddle children will profit on this outing.

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Biffy's B-Day Adventure

Although it might have looked like we were going to a meatloaf factory in a rocky canyon, we were actually going to go camping. The cake was a campfire, silly Uncle Roger. Campfires are what you have when you camp.   We drove three hours, due to excessive construction, to Cedar River, Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan. We got a lovely campsite and put up our two tents with little difficulty. Then we began a whirlwind of activity.

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Biffy's Birthday Presents

After eating her cake, Biffy tore into her pile of presents. She got lots of good stuff, including polo shirts, which her dad just loves to see her wear. A good time was had by all.   Until everything was opened and the battling with the siblings over who got to play with what started. There was particular dispute over who got to wear the polo shirts. Oh the humanity.

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