Orange Sky
We went back to one of our favorite campgrounds/engagement site, but this time we took friends that were more adept at camping. 
It was one of my first extended experiences with Brooke, Kirk’s girlfriend from AZ. Mosquitoes love to bite her. I wasn’t bit all weekend, and I didn’t wear any bugspray. I think that is because she attracted all the flies to her. There were many new sights for her to see, including Dad’s garden. (She had never seen a garden before and was quite amazed by it)
This picture was not at all posed. You can tell by the suprised look on the squirrel’s face in the other campsite.
Sail Away
Get ready for a long post…. 🙂
We went on a 9-night New England & Canada cruise with the whole Gunnink side of the family July 3-12. The trip started out on July 2 with the 7 of us in our immediate family packing into my parents’ minivan and driving to New Jersey. Fun times! There were 2 days where we were at sea all day long and fun laying out, playing mini golf, playing cards, etc. We had six days where we were at a port. The evenings were fun and filled with nice dinners, karaoke, trivia games, hanging out a various bars/lounges around the ship (our favorite was a piano man that we sung along with), and going to a show that the ship puts on every night. There definitely wasn’t a shortage of things to do! The cruise left July 3 from New Jersey, but with a great view of New York City and the Statue of Liberty.
At the first of many amazing dinners (above). Below is the 5 of us siblings the first night of the cruise in the karaoke lounge. We had fun! This included Justin and Reuben doing another duet of “Under the Bridge” which they won a Kareoke Idol competition with on the last cruise we all went on.
4th of July: New London, Connecticut
This town welcomed us like a Prinsburg on the ocean. There were a ton of volunteers and the mayor of the city himself greeting us as we all swarmed their town. It was very cute and quaint.
We went to the aquarium just outside of New London. Here I am with a beluga whale!
Below is us with our home for 10 days: Explorer of the seas. This ship carries approx. 4500 people (passengers & crew combined).
July 6: Halifax, Nova Scotia
What a beautiful city! We had fun simply walking around taking in the sights. We walked along the waterfront, went up to the citadel and toured it, and walked through the Halifax Public Gardens.
At the citadel that we visited, Reuben was fascinated by the cannons. We watched a demonstration firing too (with a blank inside- still very loud).
Above is Reuben in our state room getting ready for our first formal dinner. Below is after dinner with our champagne at the Captain’s Welcome Reception.
July 7: Saint John, New Brunswick
The coolest thing we did here was drive out to see the Reversing Falls. This is where the Bay of Fundy – ocean waters- and a large river meet and every day the bay pushes the river back as the tide rises so that basically the stream reverses. The effects are seen almost 40 miles upstream! It was very cool to be there and see all of the cool lines, whirlpools, and rapids in the water.
The scenery was gorgeous despite the cool, foggy day. Below is supposedly the oldest farmer’s market in Canada which was a lot of fun to walk through. We bought some local wine- a dry blueberry wine- we’ll let you know how it is. 🙂
July 8: Bar Harbor, Maine
This was most definitely our favorite stop! Bar Harbor is on Mt. Desert Island which is also home to Acadia National Park. Bar Harbor is a beautiful, quaint town. It gets its name from a sand bar that you can walk or drive across to another island at low tide, but that is completely covered at high tide (2 pics below is my fam walking on it).
The majority of our day in Bar Harbor was in Acadia hiking. We first did the Beehive with my family which was a short, but intense climb. Below is my brother waving, ahead of us on the trail. The pictures below are from this trail.
Everyone at the top of the Beehive, very sweaty. It was a hot, beautiful day!
Reuben and I went on another more leisurely hike on our own, Jordan’s Pond Trail. This was over 3 miles, but nice and flat that went around this whole lake. The view were beautiful and we really enjoyed it. The five pics below are from that hike.
The Bar Harbor water was filled with fishing and lobster boats. It was very scenic. This is the one port where we were tendered to and from our ship, so we took a ferry and had this view.
This picture of us is from the “Smart Casual” dinner evening. 
July 9: Portland, Maine
Portland is another pretty city. There are a lot of cute shops and beautiful old buildings. We went on a guided walking tour which was informative, interesting, and something different to do.
Above is our stop at a Portland brewery, Sebago. We tried a few flights of their beers and cooled off on the a/c after our hot walking tour! Below is a picture from the top of the cruise ship of the Portland harbor in the evening as it was threatening to rain.
July 10: Boston, Massachusetts
We loved Boston! We had never been there and it’s such a cool, historic, beautiful city. We walked the Freedom Trail and saw many historical sites. We also did our most touristy thing of the trip where we took the “Duck Tour.” This is in an old WWII amphibious vehicle that drives on land as well as goes in the water. Our driver/guide was hilarious and we were able to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time.
Above is the cemetary where Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and the 5 men who died in the Boston Massacre are buried. Below is the one of the old, historic buildings in front of which the Boston Massacre took place.
What would a cruise be without all of the food! My “Fisherman’s Dinner” below was very good. Below that is the record night for number of deserts ordered. Out of the six of us that were at our table, we had 11 deserts that night!
My family on the 2nd formal dinner night towards the end of the cruise.
Bon Voyage!
Jobs and Tomatoes
Ok, so I need to tell all of you that I now have a long term sub position at Grand Rapids Middle School as an 8th grade earth science teacher up to Christmas break. (16 weeks) I’ll teach 5 of the 6 earth science classes. It’ll work really well because Katie can drop me off on her way, or I can bike the couple of miles. I kind of want to get a used moped for the winter months, but that is still in talks. So, I am employed through the end of the year, but who knows what will happen next year. I can always go back to part time researcher if I need to.
Also, I put some pictures of my tomato plant to show you how resilient the thing is. A week ago, we got about 6 inches of rain in about 5 hours and the gutters were overflowing. It just so happens that my garden (consisting of one tomato plant) was under the gutter. I tried to move the plant and in 2 seconds I was completely soaked. It was quite the storm. But the plant rebounded and is doing quite well. I am always amazed at how well those plants can stand themselves up straight again. The two pictures are only a week apart.
Here are some pictures from the fireworks this past weekend.
Happy Anniversary….
…. Ashley and Ben!
Hope you had a great day yesterday.
Born in the USA
My first official photoshoot. Here a few of my favorites. (mom, if you have any sendable actions I would love to share! …and by share I mean take…) More on life soon, happy Independence Day!
Strawberry Fields Forever
Hey Family. It has been a while since I gave an update, so before I leave for another two week vacation the North-Atlantic coast I had to clear my memory card. I also thought it would be a good time to update everyone on the happenings of Rach and I. The first of my three posts here is of some strawberry pictures. I visited Grandpa and after a mere hour of picking in only a couple rows, I ended up with 5 gallon pail of strawberries. After a few small donations, some cutting, freezing (which can be seen in the photos below) and sorting, I ended up with 3 1 gallon bags packed with strawberries to help me preserve a piece of summer. I like to try and buy local, but it doesn’t get to be a better price than free. Thanks Grandpa. Great jam too Grandma.
Now I have two more posts below on Ludington State Park and my newly built deck. Enjoy.
All decked out
Here are a couple pictures I dug up from before the deck. The top one is the entire backyard minus the garage to the left and the second is the portion of the yard around the corner behind the garage.
I had to stop and think a lot. “How was this going to work again?”
Hooray for safety.
Measure twice, cut once.
Scroll slowly as the top of the deck magically appears.
Voila! A deck.
The front.
The back (with Lou and I)
Rach and Reuben on the deck.
Our first deck party was with the care group.
Summertime
Here is Rach and I in our kayaks. Proof that we actually ride them in the water.
Rach floating.
We stopped at the dune on lost lake with our boats. The hurdle form is still there even down hill. You’ll notice the knee driving forward on the trail leg as I pull my elbow back. You will also notice Matt trying to fly. 
Rach and Reuben at the nice sunset.
Here the men are taking care of breakfast. The amount of meat made it obligatory for the men to be in the kitchen.
The men’s obligation allowed for coffee and chatting over breakfast for the ladies. how pleasant.
A less pleasant interaction between the men and women were the numerous games battled over between the two groups. There were many guys vs. girls games throughout the trip. We kept track of the victories and this year the men ran away with the trophy. The trophy is being worked on by me above. As it is in the picture, the trophy currently is still a work in progress, but the accomplishment is no less meaningful for the men.
We took a small hike toward the lighthouse, but started running out of light so we pulled off trail to enjoy the sunset. Here I am burning in thought (get it?) as I ponder the magnificent landscape.
On the way, the men posed for the album cover of there future band, The Victors of Ludington. The Victors, from left are Matt Baer, Reuben Sportel, Bryan DePotty, and Eric Timmer.
A shot of the second sunset viewing through some dune grass.
A rare sighting of dune ninjas was caught by accident. We didn’t know it happened until we looked at the camera. Rach was just trying to take a picture of the clouds at sunset when the burst into her frame and disappeared into the sand below.
Here is a nice posed shot of the Ladies of Ludington. The Ladies are from left, Amy DePotty, Katie Baer, Jeni Timmer and Rachel Sportel
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Deb
Mattea
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Randy
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Sportel Central 