Our Vacation began with a stop at the cabin. We checked out Uncle Jimmy's mule deer mount. WOW it was really big! Plus a little fun with some cousins and really big frogs.
Next we went to Traverse City to stay at the condo on East Bay beach. We go every year this week for Honda's July shut down. Every year we try to different things while we are there. This year we went to the Cherry Bowl Drive-In Theatre. I remember going to a drive-in when I was a kid and Ken remembers going with his family so we were excited to show the kids what it was like. This place was great too. It had the playground and even some putt-putt golf plus a really great snack bar. Oh my! The people running the place were so nice and their mission statement states that they want to make it as family friendly as possible and won't show any movies over PG-13 rating. We saw Walle and the second show of the night was Narnia II. However, with a movie start time of 10pm we only made it through Walle and Noah and Nathan didn't even make it that far! We backed our van up and closed our back seats down and turned the two middle seats around for Ken and I to sit on. The kids had blankets and laid on the floor. Next time we'll bring more pillows. It was really fun. Everyone enjoyed it.
Yes the toilet seat light up!! The kids wanted me to take a picture.
The next day we went canoeing on Crystal River in Glen Arbor. It's about 5 miles and takes about 3 hours. Most of the river goes through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake shore park area so it's remote and beautiful. They try not to alter the river at all so you will come upon trees in the river and will have to navigate around them. The water is crystal clear and you can see all the river rocks in the bottom and some fish as well. It's really beautiful and peaceful because there weren't a lot of people around us. Katie and Noah used a kayak and they did great together. Ken, Nathan and I used a canoe. Last year we went on a different river that went through a lake. It was a lot harder last year. This year was great. Everything went smooth and we were able to enjoy all the scenery. 
There were three different Portages that you had to carry your canoe across a road, but it wasn't that bad. One of them however, you could go through the tunnel to get under the bridge. That was a little tricky because you had to bend way down and had to get in the tunnel just right to go through. Katie and Noah somehow went in sideways and were stuck. Luckily Ken could just walk over and help them out.
We stopped and had lunch on the side of the river. It was so pretty, but there were a million mosquitoes. We went through a brand new can of spray that day! Yikes!
The kids like to call this old slide at Mission Point lighthouse "The Slide of Death". As you can see by their faces you hit the bottom pretty hard. They just don't make slides like this anymore! He he!
We went to my parents house on the way home for a night of fireworks. Grandpa Mike gets a few on his way home from Florida and they are great. Chrissy and Rich and kids came too to watch. It was a good ending to our vacation. Until next year......
Next we went to Traverse City to stay at the condo on East Bay beach. We go every year this week for Honda's July shut down. Every year we try to different things while we are there. This year we went to the Cherry Bowl Drive-In Theatre. I remember going to a drive-in when I was a kid and Ken remembers going with his family so we were excited to show the kids what it was like. This place was great too. It had the playground and even some putt-putt golf plus a really great snack bar. Oh my! The people running the place were so nice and their mission statement states that they want to make it as family friendly as possible and won't show any movies over PG-13 rating. We saw Walle and the second show of the night was Narnia II. However, with a movie start time of 10pm we only made it through Walle and Noah and Nathan didn't even make it that far! We backed our van up and closed our back seats down and turned the two middle seats around for Ken and I to sit on. The kids had blankets and laid on the floor. Next time we'll bring more pillows. It was really fun. Everyone enjoyed it.
Yes the toilet seat light up!! The kids wanted me to take a picture.
The next day we went canoeing on Crystal River in Glen Arbor. It's about 5 miles and takes about 3 hours. Most of the river goes through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake shore park area so it's remote and beautiful. They try not to alter the river at all so you will come upon trees in the river and will have to navigate around them. The water is crystal clear and you can see all the river rocks in the bottom and some fish as well. It's really beautiful and peaceful because there weren't a lot of people around us. Katie and Noah used a kayak and they did great together. Ken, Nathan and I used a canoe. Last year we went on a different river that went through a lake. It was a lot harder last year. This year was great. Everything went smooth and we were able to enjoy all the scenery.
There were three different Portages that you had to carry your canoe across a road, but it wasn't that bad. One of them however, you could go through the tunnel to get under the bridge. That was a little tricky because you had to bend way down and had to get in the tunnel just right to go through. Katie and Noah somehow went in sideways and were stuck. Luckily Ken could just walk over and help them out.
We stopped and had lunch on the side of the river. It was so pretty, but there were a million mosquitoes. We went through a brand new can of spray that day! Yikes! After canoeing 3 hours we took a drive down the coast and came across the Sleeping Bear Dunes where you can climb the dunes. The kids wanted to climb them. We must have been delirious because we agreed. Noah and I just made it up the first hill. That was enough for us. It's really hard. The view up there is awesome. You overlook Glen Lake. It's light blue against the green of the hills and trees. Wow!
Ken, Nathan and Katie went up further to see if they could see Lake Michigan.
Next we drove further down the coast to Pierce Stocking scenic drive. It's park of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake shore. It's a one way drive with 12 scenic stops. Some of are the sand dunes others are the lakes. Number 9 was really cool. It was a 450 drop off to Lake Michigan. They have a deck you can walk onto. It was so windy and steep. Some people actually walked down the hill. I thought they were nuts! They looked like ants from the deck it was so far down. It was a really neat place to go though and I'm glad we found it.
Needless to say this is what the kids looked like on the way back to the condo. When we got back to the condo Ken and I got in a nap too!
Ken, Nathan and Katie went up further to see if they could see Lake Michigan.
Next we drove further down the coast to Pierce Stocking scenic drive. It's park of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake shore. It's a one way drive with 12 scenic stops. Some of are the sand dunes others are the lakes. Number 9 was really cool. It was a 450 drop off to Lake Michigan. They have a deck you can walk onto. It was so windy and steep. Some people actually walked down the hill. I thought they were nuts! They looked like ants from the deck it was so far down. It was a really neat place to go though and I'm glad we found it. 
Needless to say this is what the kids looked like on the way back to the condo. When we got back to the condo Ken and I got in a nap too!
We stayed pretty much on the beach all day the next few days. We were treated to a Blue Angels air show while we sunned on the beach. They were practicing for their up coming weekend shows in Traverse City. It was pretty cool they flew right over us all day long. Then we headed to Leland to watch their fireworks at night. The sunset was so pretty. The Manitou islands were in the background. The kids checked out the breakwater with the harbor in the background and hopping down the sand hills to the beach while we waited for the fireworks to start. They had a good display and we were really close to where they were lighting them off so we had a great view. We will go back to that spot next year too.
The kids like to call this old slide at Mission Point lighthouse "The Slide of Death". As you can see by their faces you hit the bottom pretty hard. They just don't make slides like this anymore! He he!
We went to my parents house on the way home for a night of fireworks. Grandpa Mike gets a few on his way home from Florida and they are great. Chrissy and Rich and kids came too to watch. It was a good ending to our vacation. Until next year......
Proud parents of our 1st communion candidate Noah. There were 121 kids at his mass getting their 1st communion and 119 at the earlier mass that day. Wow! Luckily we had a really beautiful day between two rainy days. It couldn't have worked out any better!!
