Wordless Wednesday: Fun in Lake Michigan at Sunset

This is an Almost Wordless Wednesday! I have a hard time posting photos without saying any words!! :)

We spent 5 days at Silver Lake, Michigan last week camping. Here are some photos from our first night at Lake Michigan out on the Dune Beach. The sunset was beautiful, the water was warm and everyone had a blast playing in the water and in the sand!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Boat Captains!

The Ferry "Emerald Isle" that we rode on both ways!

Brayden pretending to turn us around to head back to the Island!! :) Uncle Mike is sitting next to Brayden!

Brayden getting some "help" from his cousin Keegan!

Emily wanted her Daddy to help her steer the boat!

Keegan and Brayden all smiles after hanging out in the wheel house with Uncle Mike!

We spent our 4th of July weekend on Beaver Island, MI this year for a Family Reunion on my hubby's side! Kyle's Aunt Kitty and Uncle Mike live on the Island. Uncle Mike is one of the Ferry Captain's for the Beaver Island Boat Company and on our way back to the mainland on Monday(it is about a 2 hour ferry ride, or 30 miles to Beaver Island) he let the kids (and us) visit him in the wheel house! The kids all got a turn driving the boat(not sure if that is the proper terminology or not)! I thought it was pretty cool and the kids thought it was AWESOME! You can see it on their faces! I will be posting more photos about our trip to Beaver Island soon!

Our Weekend trip to Traverse City

Kyle and I spent last weekend in Traverse City for our 4th Anniversary! We normally plan a weekend getaway every year for our anniversary instead of big gifts. We would rather spend the money on getting away to reconnect and spend some quality couple time together! :)

We were able to find a pretty good package deal at a hotel. It was their Wine & Dine package and included 2 nights stay in a King Bed room with a whirlpool tub, 2 breakfasts, free wine tasting and bottle of wine of choice, $50 gift card to local restaurant, late check out of 1pm on Sunday and 2 free DVD rentals (we finally watched the Blind Side!! Such a great movie).

We had a great weekend. We arrived in TC around 6pm on Friday night. Thanks to my sister Julie for staying home with Emily for the weekend!! We had the best dinner ever on Saturday night at the Apache Trout Grill in TC on the bay. If you are ever in TC, I highly suggest stopping by. It is beautifully decorated in an outdoor/hunting lodge theme and overlooks the bay. We both ended up having the prime rib and crab leg meal. It seriously was the best prime rib and crab legs we have ever had! No lie!

It was nice to be able to stay up late and sleep in. We even took a nap on Saturday before dinner!

We spent most of Saturday driving up both Peninsula's, exploring and doing several wine tastings. We also checked out 2 lighthouses. The drive was beautiful.

It was one of our best weekends away and felt like a 2nd honeymoon! Thinking we might go back up next year since there is so much to do in the area.

Here are some of the pics I took while away!

We stayed for 2 nights at the Grand Beach Resort on Grand Traverse Bay!

The hotel was beautiful and very clean.

The beach was awesome!

Our Hotel Room 211

I love the nautical feel with blues and greens.

We had a King Bed with a huge Whirlpool Tub in our room!!

We went for our first Wine Tasting ever at Black Star Farms on the Leelanau Peninsula on Saturday!

Black Star Farms...So beautiful!! I love all the red barns!

The drive in was beautiful with all the grapevines on the hill.

Tasting Room! We both found a wine that we really love! We got to take home our wine glasses that we sampled our wine in.

They have a B&B on their property. So gorgeous. We would love to stay here sometime.


We visited 2 lighthouses....
Old Mission Lighthouse

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Check out this cool miniature Grand Traverse Lighthouse made out of Lego's! Had to take a pic for my Lego loving boys!


Beautiful Grand Traverse Bay

I love rocky beaches...

Some more vineyards with the bay in the background! So beautiful

Memorial Weekend Fun!

I have not been on the computer much lately. I have a hard time sitting still long enough when it is nice out! Since it is rainy and chilly this morning I thought I would do some updating on the blog.

We went camping in Grayling over Memorial Weekend this year! We had an absolute BLAST! The weather could not have been more beautiful. It was sunny and warm every day and we spent most of our time playing in the Manistee River! We camped at a Rustic State Forest Campground right on the river. The campground only had a few other people in it so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Normally the river is way to cold this time of the year to be in, but it was perfect and helped cool us off. Our friends Jesse and Sally, along with their daughter Lilly came along too!

Our family loves kayaking, but we only have 2 kayaks right now so that presents a problem sometimes if we don't rent extra ones! This weekend I had Kyle drop me along with 1(1 at a time) of the older kids off up river and we kayaked down to our campground. It is about an hour trip and it was great getting the one on one time with each of them over the weekend!

At night Kyle and Jesse did some fly fishing for trout on the river and the kids played in the river and we also did a scavenger hunt one night. Of course a great camping weekend would not be complete without smores and tonka pies!! Lots and lots of them! :)

Here are some of our photos from our awesome weekend!

We visited the Grayling Trout Hatchery on Saturday and fed the trout!

We Kayaked! A lot!!

We tried to stay dry when we went to the river the first night.....

but we just couldn't!! Had to go in the river in our clothes!!

We played on the sandbar and got muddy! :)

We looked for cool rocks in the river!

We ate yummy ice cream at Dairy Queen! :)

We posed for those obligatory photos for mom!! ;)

Isn't the Manistee River beautiful? It is one of our favorite places to be in Michigan!

Spring Break Getaway Day 1 Continued....

Here are some more photos from our Spring Break Getaway up north to Houghton Lake! After we had a picnic lunch at Higgins Lake we went back to Houghton Lake and visited a gift shop that had Indian Tee Pees and Totem Poles out front. We then stopped for ice cream, before the rain moved in. We finished our evening off with more water fun at the pool area and a very yummy dinner of pizza at the hotel restaurant! I did not get many photos in the pool area, partly because I was chasing Emily around and it was hot and steamy so my camera kept fogging up.

My 4 little Indians!

Hanging out in a Tee Pee!

Emily looking small

Hannah and her new "friend"

Emily enjoying an ice cream cone.

Brayden coming down the water slide

James' turn on the water slide!

Emily had a blast and went down the water slide at least 25 times!

Emily and Hannah sleeping after a fun day at play!