The Cub Scout roundup was today. We had a lot of new kids sign up... and a lot of old ones not show up... and missing parents who said they would be den leaders... and not a single new parent indicated that they might be interested in becoming a den leader. We did the whole pitch but got nothing. We aren't just a babysitting service, folks....anyway, it looks like we'll have a lot of Tigers this year.

The Cub Scout 'board' or whatever we are called had a meeting this evening at the Lemp's. Still can't reach some of the supposed den leaders for this year. Hope they do show up. Anyway, I think this will be a good year for the scouts. We learned a lot last year that I hope we can apply to this year. The popcorn kernel's meeting was Tuesday in Fort Wayne. Like last year, I went to the meeting and got the spiel. Unlike last year, we are going to try doing a cash & carry sale. I think we can get in to First Fridays for October and sell then; the problem is how much to pre-order. We're taking a guess at 120 boxes of the microwave kinds, which might be the easiest thing to do. There's no sale-in-a-box like there was last year, though, so we'll have to make all that up ourselves. And the $600 level prize is a disc shooter instead of a marshmallow crossbow.

We are back from camping most of last week at Holland State Park, nearly the same site (just across the street) from where we were last year. It was a good week overall, although not quite what we wanted from the beach. Anyway. Last Saturday, the Cub Scouts had scheduled a trip to Pine Lake, a water park in Berne, just south of FW, a trip for the whole family. We decided, sure, we can all go and get everything ready for the camping trip in plenty of time. Not so much. We were so behind that Beth stayed home instead of going to the lake. The kids and I had a fun time going down water slides and such all day (except you're not allowed to go off the zip line into the water with a life jacket on, so Missy didn't get to do it, for which she was very disappointed...Alex did it and got yelled at) while Beth worked on laundry and grocery shopping. We left the park in the late afternoon, JUST as the downpour started. Alex also lost his glasses but we found them...stepped upon...in the grass where a towel had been when we first got there. But Beth got everything ready yay honey. Sunday we were going to depart for Holland as soon as church was out, but based on the weather reports and forecasts we waited a little bit because I didn't want to set up in a rain shower. But it was pretty nice when we got there in the late afternoon, and after dinner we decided we had time to go to the beach before dark. And we found out that the water was very very very COLD. Unseasonably cold. Unbearably cold. Something like 50 degrees, over 20 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. We returned to the beach on Monday, but it was still too cold for any actual swimming (I never got my trunks wet, and even the kids were only in for pretty short times). We had planned to be at the beach all day, every day, but with it being so cold in the water that plan was shot. Then in the evening the rain started, so after dinner we found a Redbox in town and rented "Rango" to watch in the camper in the evening. Tuesday we decided to go visit Dutch Village instead of the beach, but Beth and the kids didn't really seem in the mood so we aborted the idea and hung out at the campground instead. The kids played nicely and Beth napped, then in the later afternoon we went down to Lake Macatawa to see if the beach there was any warmer (it wasn't) but they did have canoe rentals so we did that. We canoed all around the lake checking out the big fancy yachts at the marina, the activity of which helped the moods. We headed back to Ottawa Beach in the evening for the sunset. There was a red flag and big waves (for Lake Michigan) going on, which was kinda fun splashing around in knee-deep. Wednesday we actually did go to Dutch Village. Missy skinned the dog food out of her knees on the way in by tripping on the brick walkway (we found that their "first aid station" at Dutch Village is a desk with a few band-aids in the drawer) but otherwise it was a very good time for much longer than I thought. We must have spent 6 hours there. The kids loved the farm (bunnies) and the pedal pumper rides the best, we saw some Dutch dancers (one lost his wooden shoe when he kicked upwards...must've gone 30 feet straight up), Delftware, candle carving, wooden shoe making, etc etc...and we got some really "gouda" cheese, har har. We got a free game of cosmic mini-golf with admission to Dutch Village so we did that afterwards. And Lake Michigan was still very cold in the evening. We packed up and headed home today, stopping in Saugatuck for the famous dune rides which were expensive but worth it. I highly recommend that. It's like a roller coaster along the dunes. Beth managed to trip over a limb at a photo op stop and skin the dog food out of her shin just like Missy did to her knee, but otherwise it was a blast. Missy was running down a dune and fell facefirst at the same stop, but she just sprang up and yelled 'I'm OK' and kept running. From there to home. We're back, it was a good trip even if the lake was too cold.