michigan!

This July marked our 10-year anniversary of vacationing with our friends from Michigan.  We started out in our first few years with zero children, and have since graduated to NINE!  :) 

 

May I present to you the lovely Stutes family...

Chuck and Teri with Carson (7), Cooper (5) and Kendal (1)

Next we have the ever-popular Heagle family...

Scott and Dawn with Will (3), Ana (5) and Sam (1)

And last of all... us!

Adeline (6), Tate (2) and Millie (4)... all turning 7, 3 and 5 in a few weeks!

Let's take a look back on our week...

 To start out, we spent a LOT of time at the beach in Sutton's Bay.

We were entertained in the evenings with many shows put on by the kids.  Here is one of the many renditions of "The 3 Little Pigs" with masks and all.

We also enjoyed hanging out at the house, especially if it involved yummy treats!

And there was lots of scootin' goin' on.

We were fortunate that this house had a long, private, paved driveway so the kids had plenty of room to ride!

Of course we did our share of cramming kids into phone booths as well.

The idea was there... the picture in my head looked fabulous (with all the kid's sweet little faces being visible, everyone happy and smiling)... but in reality, it just wasn't happening! ;)

This shot was a little more comfortable, although we're missing 4 kids. 

We found this fierce cap gang hanging out in Target.  They were quite intimidating.

We also made some new friends, although they were a little stiff...

The 4th of July provided some great photo-ops, especially with the beautiful, huge backyard as our backdrop.

Addie totally picked this shirt out by herself... she's so punk. ;)

These little girls did an excellent job of portraying our flag.

And, of course, Independence Day isn't finished until we've done sparklers and fireworks!

We were only about 15 minutes from Leland, so we took a day and hung out in historic Fishtown for awhile.

It was so hot out, the ice cream was just begging us to eat it.

Tate's ice cream turned him into a mini Charlie Chaplin. ;)

 One of our favorite nights of vacation happens when we run the kids hard all day, skip naptime,

feed them early,

and then send them to bed so we can...

GRILL STEAKS!!!

How many men does it really take to grill a perfect steak?

Three, I guess...

because the steaks were perfect!

We spent our last day at the beautiful beach of Elk Rapids.

This is the perfect spot to bring little kids, because the water stays shallow waaaaaay out. And it's crystal clear!

Here, I'm standing about 25 yards from the shore and look at the people way out still in water just up to their knees.

And there's fun little coves to play in.

Sam thought it was fun too!

The girls stayed up a little later on Friday night with a slumber party to celebrate their last night together... for this year at least!

It was sad to say goodbye, but we had a lot of fun memories to look back on!

Next summer, we're leaving the nine kids with grandparents and going on a cruise!!!  Not sure we'll know what to do with all that luxury time with no responsibilities... but I'm sure we'll figure it out! ;)

and then there was june...

June started out with lazy days spent splashin' around in the pool, riding bikes and scooters and sleeping in.

Then the madness started with Vacation Bible School. 

Adeline brought her good friend along all week and they had a blast together!

Millie also had a friend come with her and stuck pretty close to her cousin Ruby too!

And, of course, Tate had Harper.  :)

(FYI - it was crazy sock day... incase you were wondering)

Our favorite day was probably Backwards Day.

 That Friday night wrapped up our 2011-12 season of shows at the Civic Center.  This was also our last weekend before Chad left us for 2 weeks.  He got a new position teaching engineering at the high school this fall, so he had to go to U of I for a 2 week course.  

We decided to get tickets for next season again too.  We count this as gifts for each other for every holiday/event for the entire year.  Birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Mother's/Father's Day... you name it - we already have our gift for each other and it lasts all year! :)  We love it because it takes the pressure off of trying to buy the perfect gift for each other all the time.  Especially because Chad is so dang picky... ;)

That Saturday, we spent the afternoon at Big Creek, enjoying some quality time with Daddy.

On Sunday, which was actually Father's Day, we went to church and then it was time for Chad to leave. We said our goodbyes and he went to Iowa City and the kids and I headed down to my parents' house where we celebrated Father's Day, without Chad! *sniff*, and spent the week there too.

 Here's our Father's.  Aren't they a group of handsome men?

Addie and Clara felt pretty special eating at the "Big Girls' Table."

Millie, Ruby and Taryn built a huge staircase!

Me, my bros and my pa.

I really couldn't have a better dad!

We had a lot of fun at Nana and Baba's house that week.

 Addie wore matching shirts with Baba.  Or maybe hers is more of a dress?

We enjoyed the hot temps by running in the sprinkler.

Nana spoiled us with popsicles.

The kids repaid her by watering her flowers.

We went and fed the ducks at the pond with Kaiden and Taryn.

It was so exciting I could barely contain myself. :)

Actually, I was mostly excited about where we were going next...

We love our ICE CREAM!!!

The next week we headed back to our house, where we stayed for less than 4 days, and then left on the 29th to pick up Chad and headed to Michigan! 

Those pics coming next...