Michigan Lake

We are home from 4 days at Lake Michigan, and despite us calling it that the boys continue to flip its name.  We had a fabulous time!  We got into a nice routine of spending our mornings and evenings at the beach with various outings in the afternoon.  I kept expecting the boys to protest going back to the beach but they got excited every time we headed that way.  Their ability to have fun in the water and in the sand had no bounds and they had such a great time.
We stayed at the house of some friends -Jeff and I have been there many times but only once since Casey was born, when he was 4 months old.  It was so nice to be back there and be near the water.  It was so hot all week but it doesn't really matter when you are standing in the cool waves of Lake Michigan.  The boys were pretty well behaved and got along with each other well.  We had our moments of course - I think we all had at least one meltdown - but for the most part it was just a really nice time for us as a family.
On the first night we arrived Jeff took the boys for a walk to the water while I got a few groceries.  By the time I was coming back, I got a text asking me to bring dry clothes and towels.  The boys were soaked - already having a ball.  Sam yelled "I love the water!!!  Can you get me a shirt that says that?"  The amount of sand they carried in their trunks, shoes and hair was simply unprecedented.  There was a fairly large clean up to do before we left the house on the last day!  But it was worth it.  We have a lot of fun things going in this summer but this was our only getaway for just the 4 of us. Not only did we spend hours on the beach, we went on go karts, climbed the lighthouse, and took the dunes tour.  We flew kites, we even did a few geo cache treasure hunts.
Jeff's iPhone has this cool app called Instagram and it basically makes pictures look older - he got some great ones on our trip.... take a look.

Of course I had my regular camera too, so here are a few more highlights...

cashed out

It was a really nice getaway and we got to slow down together and be present to our kids in a way that's hard to do all the time at home.  We loved watching them play - together and with us and on their own in their own imaginations.  Each evening we would let them do whatever they wanted on the beach until the sun got low and then we had clean up and snuggle up time to watch the sunset.  The boys would probably sight this as their least favorite time of the day but it was my favorite.  Watching the light change over the lake was just awesome.  Our life isn't perfect but there are moments that are.  On the last night we were there, my camera was out of commission due to sand and the iPhone had run out of battery, so we could not capture the incredible sunset we witnessed, and it was truly incredible.  The clouds were wispy and there were reds, oranges and purples.  But despite there being no record of it to share, I do not think I will ever forget our last night of vacation: the four of us, snuggled up, watching the sun go down... over Michigan Lake.