Chris and Jut's Musings: The Lighthouse Visit

For our vacation this summer, we spent a week with our good friends at their home. They have five kids and our littlest ones are 6-weeks apart in age. Our families mesh together so well. We have a great time.

Well, one of the things that we wanted to do was visit the lighthouse in Ludington where our good friend was a lighthouse keeper for the week. When we decided to do it, I didn't realized that it was going to take us 1.5 hours to get there. I did know that it was a two mile week along the beach to get to the lighthouse, but the logical part of my brain didn't really analyze the logistics of trekking 8 kids down the beach for two miles.

So, we all climbed into our vehicles 'right' after lunch to start our journey (We started about 1 hour later than we intended b/c it takes a long time to get 12 people moving in the same direction!). The trip went smoothly. We parked. A park ranger had just finished a demonstration somewhere and came walking by with a wagon full of stuffed animals. Kids thought that those were pretty cool. She stayed and chatted with us for quite a while. Then, we started walking. The kids were excited to see the water. They wanted to play in the water. We were in a time crunch to get to the lighthouse by 5...so we had to keep pushing them along. That was fairly easy for the first half mile...then we started getting stragglers. We saw some shipwreck ruins which the kids enjoyed investigating. When we were about a half-mile out, we could finally see the lighthouse and that put some pep back into the kids steps.

We got there right about 5. They were closing down the lighthouse for the night. Thankfully, we knew someone on the 'inside' and they were all waiting for us despite our tardy appearance. Just as we reached the lighthouse, I looked up and waved to our friend and consequently stubbed the bottom of my big toe on a huge rock and almost lost C out of the backpack carrier as I almost fell to the ground. I tore a huge chunk out of the bottom of my toe and it started bleeding nicely. It was a great way to start our visit to the lighthouse.

So, we all go inside the lighthouse. I head to the bathroom to wash all the sand our of my toe to properly assess the damage. Lindsey starts the video about the lighthouse for the rest of our group and gives a little presentation. I bandage up my toe. We prepare to climb the 120 steps to the top. It quickly became apparent who would make the assent and who would be staying at the bottom. C charged right up those winding, see-through steps. I don't think E even attempted one. X made about 20, but thankfully he's so light that I just carried him up (but don't tell anyone official that because it is against the rules). Our friends' twin 4 year-olds also made the climb. Our friends couldn't. So, Jut, myself, and 4 kids (plus Lindsey) went to the top.

C loved it at the top. That boy tried to run around the top like it was a racetrack. He made me so nervous. I think he tried climbing the railing too, but we foiled all of those attempts quickly. It was beautiful at the top. It would have been really nice to sit and relax up there for a bit, but with C running around like a crazed maniac, that wasn't an option.

Lindsey took the kids up to the very top where the light was too. They thought that was awesome.

When we got back down the steps, (just a side note: C trouped right down them as well as he went up them.) Lindsey's aunt and friend had made us all dinner. So, we even got to eat at the lighthouse! That was awesome! I still can't believe that they had enough food to feed our small army of 12. It was such a blessing. I really don't know how we would have gotten everyone back down the beach and then to a restaurant to eat before numerous meltdowns would have occurred. Dinner was an amazing blessing. So, that was cool. Then, Lindsey had popsicles for dessert, too. Kids thought that it was perfect.

Then, to make life even easier for us, they bent another rule and went and got our vans to save us the trek back down the beach. So, while the guys went for the vans, we went out to the water to play. It was perfect. The kids had a great time. They finally got to just play like they wanted to do when we arrived. C loved the water and the gentle waves.