Forty Before Forty: The End of Summer

Well, the unofficial End of Summer is upon us. I think a lot of us have mixed feelings. For me, I know I was happy to see my son go back to school today because he was excited to see everyone and see who was in his class. He grew a lot over the summer, physically and mentally, and I think he is excited to see what this year has in store for him. It helps that he was excited to go too and not dreading it like some kids!

There is also some sadness that summer is over. I am not sitting here boo-hooing or anything like that, but given the horrible cold and snowy winter that we had, I am just not ready for the sunshine and warm temps to end!

This last week was our last summer camping trip of the year. We have a couple of great families that we enjoying camping with and this last week was no exception. We chose to camp at a spot that we love called Cranhill Ranch in Rodney, MI. It is a Christian campground and we love that we also get to worship in the woods on Sunday morning. They have so many activities to choose from also and thankfully I was able to go and cross a few more items off of my Forty Before Forty list!

I will start with horseback riding. I cannot remember ever going horseback riding in my life. There may have been a time when I was very young that I don’t remember doing it, but I can tell you from 4^th grade on, I have never been horseback riding.

This was an okay experience. It tells you something that I went with three nine year old girls and they had a blast while I fretted and fumed that I was falling off and getting run into trees. My horse, Cairo, that I rode apparently was directionally challenged and had a mind of his own. He thought nothing about running me into trees and bushes in the pouring down rain so he could walk where he was more comfortable.

I am thinking I don’t need to experience this again anytime soon. I think it will be one of those things that I am glad I overcame my fear and did, but I don’t really want to go again anytime soon.

Here are some pictures from Horseback Riding:

Another thing I thought would be fun (since I saw it on the Real Housewives of New York City) was to throw tomahawks. I felt like this would be a lot of fun since I liked archery and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Cranhill had this at the campground this year.

We made it a family event and all three of us threw tomahawks. My son and I never got one to stick, but my husband did a couple of times. I don’t think I would make it in the wild if this was my weapon of choice! I will tell you that I liked this a lot and probably would try it again even! Practice makes perfect!

Here are some pictures of Tomahawk Throwing:

Well, well, well, you have never tie-dyed you say? Nope- not in my lifetime have I done anything tie-dye. (This was about the point I think my friends started questioning what I have done in my life since there are so many things I have not done before!). Apparently I have been living under a rock because I hadn’t done it before. Surprisingly I really liked this-probably because I like crafts a lot too. I had a lot of fun painting and designing the tee shirt. My two friends and all of the kids made tee shirts too. This was a lot of fun!

Here are some Tie-Dye pictures:

And let’s just throw one more thing in for fun-driving a boat out on the lake. This wasn’t really on my list but I haven’t done this either so we are pretending it is…We spent a day at our friends’ cottage on the lake and had a great time riding on the boat, tubing, wakeboarding, etc. This was the second year we have been to Cranhill and the second year that some friends of ours from church, who have a cottage on the lake near there, have invited us over to spend time with them. We had such a blast catching up and talking about our summer and soaking up some rays of sunshine before we headed back to camp for an ice cream social.

Here I am driving the boat (and yes, the boat was stopped at the time of the picture taking):

Here are a few other pictures from our camping trip:

So, the end of summer is here. Early bedtimes, homework, soccer games, etc. will be our normal routine for the next couple of months. I am sad to see summer leave but will start planning fun fall activities for us to enjoy. We are already planning our trips to the cider mills for fresh apple cider and doughnuts, our Halloween costumes and how we will decorate our pumpkins.

Here’s to a great summer (my last one in my thirties!) and the arrival of fall!

Thanks for reading and following along with me!

Sandae