Anyway, a few weeks ago we went up to northern Michigan for a family reunion on my mom's side of the family with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' kids. It's kind of crazy to see my cousins as responsible adults with kids and stuff. When did we all grow up? We stayed at Crystal Mountain Resort, and it was great! Ryan, the kids, and I shared a condo with my parents, my sister and her family. (My other sister just lives too far away--one major drawback of living in SoCal, but I have to say that after visiting this summer, there are not too many!)
We had a lot of fun just hanging out. It's definitely different now that we all have kids--the nights end a lot earlier! However, it was good to be with my immediate family. Jack, Grant, and Caroline had fun playing with each other and with their cousins, Barrett and Audrey, even though Barrett wasn't feeling 100%. That actually probably kept the 2 two-year-olds out of some mischief!
One of the favorite things that we did was spend a little bit of time at the beach in Frankfort (about 15 min. away). It was too cold to swim (or so we grown-ups thought) but was nice to see and spend some time enjoying. I just LOVE Michigan beaches. When I was in high school and college my family would rent a house with my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Grand Haven, MI, and it was such a relaxing, great vacation. When our kids get older, I think I'd like to do a Michigan beach vacation sometime.
Here are some snapshots of our time there.
Jack, Grant, and Caroline gathered around the iTouch.
Caroline loved Audrey! She looks like such a big girl sitting like this next to Baby Audrey.
We also rode an alpine slide, but Caroline was too young. They had this one at the base of the hill to practice braking. Caroline enjoyed playing on it.
more Audrey admiration
Jack was so cute on this ride. He asked me several times if the baby was okay. I guess he was worried that the baby might be hurt by this ride.
Grant, my little daredevil, loved the alpine slide! Look at his wild hair!
the two-year-old troublemakers who couldn't ride, sitting and not getting into mischief at that moment--trust me, I got a workout chasing after these two while my sister rode and my brother-in-law took care of Audrey
Jack and my dad--I think there was a battle of wills over who had control of the brake! Jack is his grandfather's grandson!
Isn't this a cute entrance to a town?
my dad with Jack and Grant heading out to the lighthouse
So the boys decided to get wet, and we decided that it was fine if they wanted to make that choice--I'm not sure they liked being so wet, though, when they got out of the water without a towel or on the drive back to the hotel!
Caroline wasn't so sure about sand at first but quickly got used to it. Once she saw her brothers in the water, she decided she wanted to join them. I, however, decided I didn't want to deal with her cold, wet whining (I would have to carry her, afterall), so I dragged her away from the water pretty quickly and onto the swing set. She was pretty happy up there, too.
another attempt at a family picture--You just really cannot get a good picture of three kids!
And just one more of Caroline fawning over her baby cousin. I am pretty sure Caroline is going to be a very doting big sister, but we shall see!
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