michigan

A little bit last minute we decided to go to Michigan for R's week off. We had heard a couple people refer to the beaches up there, so we decided we needed to go check it out! We stayed at a little vacation rental which had its ups and downs, but grew on us by the time we left. It was a wonderful trip, besides the fact that we only saw the sun on Tuesday and then had overcast, rainy, and windy days the rest of the week! Thank goodness we went to the beach that day!

We played hard!! The beach was perfect in every way. We played in the heat, jumped over the waves, built a sand fort we dutifully named Fort L, chased the water, dug holes in the sand, ate a picnic, enjoyed the wind, chased away seagulls, body-surfed, closed our eyes and listened to the wonderful beach sounds, and swam to our hearts content. So refreshing and exhausting! It was perfect! LE hung out in her own little hide-a-way under our beach umbrella on a camping chair with lots of towels blocking out the wind and sand. And I think L was in heaven with the playtime! The waves scared him a little, and he never fully got in the water to swim, but he fell often enough to get completely wet over and over again. Love it! 

We spent the evening visiting a nearby city, Holland, walking through its cute parks and little downtown area. The next day was basically our recovery day! It was rainy, so we worked on R's applications and played at our little home for the week. We ventured into the small town for an evening picnic and had fun walking along the water talking about all the boats and looking out at the water. It was a really cute artsy town and a fun downtown area. 

On Thursday we tried to do things in spite of the rain, and finally got lucky in the afternoon. We did a short hike through a nearby state park which lead to a secluded beach. Although we weren't dressed for the water, nothing can stop L! So we played for a long time and enjoyed having so much open space to ourselves! LE loved being held close - it was pretty windy and loud! 

Jumping over waves was a BIG hit all week long! 

Oh this little boy is my favorite! 

Our last day there we started by climbing steps to see the view from Mt. Baldhead. The view was beautiful, but the thing that impressed me most was that L climbed all those steps by himself! And if you look closely, you'll see that he's concentrating really hard to say "cheese" for the camera. Cutie!

I LOVED the long grasses along the shoreline. It was so peaceful looking and gorgeous! 
Then we tried to go to the beach, thinking that it was a little warmer but boy we were wrong! This picture doesn't do it justice at all - it was gale-force winds and crazy! I stayed in the car nursing LE while R took L down to get things set up. By the time I was done and walking down to meet them, they were on their way back up and L's lips were totally blue. It was freezing with that wind! So we decided to head back up to Holland and see their lighthouse. 

So windy but yet so fun! There was this big jetty going out from the lighthouse that was getting drenched with big waves crashing up on the rocks, but we bundled up and ran across it anyway to grab a couple pictures and see the water up close. People looked at us like we were crazy but it was so much fun!

And we completely fell in love with the city of Holland. Such a cute town with beautiful water fronts! We will definitely live by the water someday. It's a must.

All in all, a great vacation. Although we learned quite a bit about ourselves and what we want/expect out of future family vacations. We definitely want to go back and see more beaches and some other cool things in MI that we either didn't have time for or didn't even know about until our week was over.
Maybe next year? :)