Sun Glitter - Week of July 8th

Sun glitter is a bright, sparkling light formed when sunlight reflects from water waves. The waves may be caused by natural movement of the water, or by the movement of birds or animals in the water. Even a ripple from a thrown rock will create a momentary glitter. Light reflects from smooth surfaces by specular reflection. 
A rippled but locally smooth surface such as water with waves will reflect the sun at different angles at each point on the surface of the waves. As a result, a viewer in the right position will see many small images of the sun, formed by portions of waves that are oriented correctly to reflect the sun's light to the viewer's eyes. The exact pattern seen depends on the viewer's precise location. The color and the length of the glitter depend on the altitude of the Sun. The lower the sun, the longer and more reddish the glitter is. When the sun is really low above the horizon, the glitter breaks because of the waves, which could sometimes obstruct the sun and cast a shadow on the glitter.

Before we had beach time over the weekend, we had a few interesting events back home.
Chris celebrated a birthday on Wednesday and Cam and Jane let him choose where we would eat out for dinner.  We had all wanted to experience a new place.
In Spring of 2017, Cascade Township welcomed its first brewpub – Thornapple Brewing Co.
Cam requested a menu check online prior to heading out.  Imagine his relief when chicken tenders was one of the options.  After enjoying a hot pretzel for an appetizer, we all declared it was the best we'd ever tasted.  Chris and Jane shared a wood fire pizza and Cam, shockingly, had chicken tenders.  Due to our birthday guy, a free dessert was headed our way.  Chris chose the 'cookie slider'- 2 warm chocolate chip cookies surrounding a hearty serving of vanilla ice cream, topped off with chocolate sauce.  Cam did not look very amused when his dad pretended he might partake in the entire serving.  He did love listening to the live music as he happily accepted a few bites of his dad's birthday treat.

The remainder of the week was spent attending summer school for three mornings of the week.  The afternoons and other full days were reserved for Cam's latest endeavor as Ms. Amanda's teaching assistant helper.  The pair made a few trips gathering supplies and bringing them to Ms. Amanda's fall kindergarten classroom.  Cam has eagerly provided his input on all items.

With the very warm weekend forecast, it was a perfect time to head northward and see Oma and Opa.

Since we hadn't spent any real time on the beach yet, Chris and Cam settled into cleanup duty while Jane inflated the family sea kayak with a foot pump.

It was an unusually calm day on Lake Michigan.  Some fun facts about our big lake:  Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

The CamMobile II was back in action and provides our son with beach mobility.  It was a bit too chilly to go swimming but the warm sun made for some fun play time for Oma and her grandson.
Continuing the birthday celebration for Chris, Oma and Opa assembled a delicious dinner of ribs, Oma's potato salad, broccoli with cheese sauce and Oma's famous strawberry cheesecake for dessert.  Nothing can compare to sand in your toes, diamonds on the water and a deck-side dinner with a view of Lake Michigan!

Actual weight of Cam's power chair

Camology Quotes:
Cam had an appointment with his favorite Mary Free Bed doc.  Dr. Voss was talking to our son about his interrupted sleep he's been experiencing and she was trying to determine the cause.

"Cam, is there something that wakes you up at night?"
"My brain wakes me up at night."