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A morning filled with frantic packing, loading, searching for all of our things......and then it was time to hit the road for our long drive home. We took a few moments to take some photos and say real goodbyes to our friends. These kids were so great all week. Everyone was sad to see the week end and clearly Juno was over it all. I love how the kids paired off in different ways depending on the activities. They made it all pretty easy because they could entertain each other. Here's the nice one.
And then the silly ones......
Big hugs! Squeeeeeeeze.......
Love these boys.
More hugs and squeezes!
These ladies mean the world to me. We are all hard working mommas just trying to raise our kids right and enjoy life along the way. We've all had changes in the last year - some harder than others. I am so glad we took a week to spend together with our families. This is my Michigan summer vacation tribe and I love them.
A few final hugs and squeezes with Lillie and Zach.
We hit the road and arrived at home around dinner time. It was a pretty uneventful trip home with just a few slow downs due to construction. I am so happy that Jason doesn't mind driving so I can catch some zzzz's. The kids slept and stayed entertained as well. Always nice to be gone on vacation but it does feel nice to be home too.
It was hard to believe that we were already to the last day of vacation. It always goes so fast when you are having that much fun. With eleven people in a rental house, the bowls go fast in the morning so poor Lillie had to use a mixing bowl for her Cheerios!
Quick snap of Lillie and Zach before we hit the road for our day of fun. The kids loved that swing and it got a lot of use during the week.
Chaos in the car....never dull and certainly not quiet.
I had run across something about an hour south of where we stayed called Mac Wood's Dune Rides. It looked a little campy and touristy but it got rave reviews so I convinced the crew that we should check it out. It wasn't warm enough that morning to hit the beach so this was a fun activity. It was busy but our wait was only about 30 minutes before we could jump in an open topped sand buggy with our tour guide. It was windy!
We took up two rows in the buggy and there were plenty of smiles and laughs due to a fun tour guide. It was a tour of speed up and down the dunes but also some learning in there too.
Not sure why he has all of a sudden started throwing up the peace sign for every picture. It's like he feels he is back in Korea.
Sweet face.
Quick stop off for a run down the dune.....and then the big climb back up. I wish I would have run video when Paul ran down as he took two separate headers as he ran down the dune (hindsight I was wishing I had taken his glasses before he made his run). Lillie ran down with Karen.
Back up top after his first run - he took another crack at it and avoided the tumble on his second run.
Lillie and Mark climbing back up the dune. I'm tired just watching them!
The whole crew. Love this family of ours.
And this just makes me laugh - the Mac Wood's Dune tour guides take these selfie style photos for each group that asks for a pic. Scott was our tour guide and he was great. He's a full-time teacher and then appears to do this gig for the summer.
We finished up our fun time on the dune and headed to an adjacent playground to eat some lunch.
He seriously loved his ride....can you tell.
Kids loved the sign on the way out - this is the little food shack we snagged our lunch from. Not the best service but nice to grab an easy lunch before we headed back to the rental house.
The previous day of storms allowed us to have access to the public access beach adjacent to our rental house. It brought in some sand to make the beach actually appear. We schlepped our stuff down and enjoyed some relaxing beach time to wrap up the trip.
Always smiling this girl. She had such a fun trip and has really grown a lot since last year's trip I think.
Super relaxing afternoon.
The starting of a big sand hole.
We ordered pizza for dinner and ate outside at the house before heading back down to the beach. The littles got their own little table.
And the big boys had their own space to eat too.
And then we headed back down to the beach for some more fun.
Happy parents after a wonderful week of vacation.
Not even sure how to caption this beauty.
Time for s'mores!
Beautiful fire for the sunset.
Lillie snagged Karen's sunglasses - thought she was pretty special.
No one was happy to go to bed because it meant we had to leave to go home the next morning.
Another day with rain in the forecast so we snuck in a trip to Arcadia - single track mountain biking for the boys/bigs and a hike for the littles. Paul was pumped to try his hand at mountain biking again after the fun he had at Crystal with Mark and Karen earlier in the week.
The boys were ready to ride!
Here are the boys in action - so glad Karen took some pics for me!
Like a pro!
They found a little friend.
Here's the crew of littles - minus Juno who didn't want to be in the picture.
We took a nice hike - some with wide paths and some that weren't as wide. Kids did great and kept a pretty decent pace for the distance.
Let's go slowpoke!
Hiking up to the dune overlook.
Top of the dune with lovely views - even with the gloomy clouds!
She's always posing it seems.
Looking at the dune climb - was far too steep for us!
Lillie was the line leader for a while.
Back into the lush green trees.
Jason's parents happened to be vacationing through Wisconsin and Michigan and were able to coordinate their schedule to land in Manistee on Friday. They came over to our rental and offered to watch all 6 kids so the adults could head out for some drinks and a nice kid-free dinner. The weather started to turn stormy with lots of wind and rain as we were finishing up in Arcadia. We got nailed with wind and rain as we walked the downtown area in search of cocktails before we headed to Bluefish for dinner. Despite the cruddy weather, we had a great night out with great friends. Wonderful food plus laughter = WIN!
Gram and Pa survived their evening with the gaggle of kids all cooped up in the house because of the weather. They made dinner and enjoyed plenty of laughter all night long. Here's the view of the very angry lake and scary clouds. It really rocked and rolled during this storm.
