"School's OUT" Tradition

Last year we started our annual tradition of a trip up-north to celebrate a terrific school year. We always begin with a day in Muskegon at "Michigan's Adventure", a little amusement park that is Michigan's best kept secret. We left early Friday morning. Scott & Adam came with us in our car, and Mom & Dad, Leslie & Alyssa, and Paul & Linda met us in Beulah later that night.


Here's the 3 cuties in the back seat. They were little angels the whole way!





We stopped half-way at Culver's and had butter burgers and custard shakes. Deeee-lish! Did I say the weather was gorgeous? It was sunny, blue skies, and about 74 degrees. Perfect!

These two! They are best buddies and so kind to each other. We are so lucky to live so close

I was cracking up at Scott stuffed into the little boat with Adam! They insisted that we ride with them...it was a feat of skill that we actually fit into those tiny things. And notice that Adam's boat is the pink one, which is his absolute favorite color.

Check out the employee in the background. She looks like an Oompa-Loompa. Scott and Jeff actually asked her if they could buy one of those yellow suits anywhere in the park...they thought it would be a great get-up for wake boarding. Yikes!

Alec was a trooper all day - he was still not feeling 100% from being so sick, but he managed to do all the rides and even some roller coasters!
What I don't have is a picture of Ian on his "first roller coaster", as he liked to say. He was so brave, much braver than last year, and he went on the log ride and on a coaster called "Mad Mouse." I thought he was going to start crying on the latter, but in the end he had a big smile on his face. He just couldn't get over his act of bravery & told all of the big kids that he went on the "Mad Cat" ride. Too cute.
We pulled into our little cottages on Crystal Lake around 9:00 on Friday night. We got all settled in, had a good night sleep, and then hit the beach on Saturday and Sunday - which was only about 200 feet from our front door. We filled our weekend with lots of good food, kite flying, a seriously mean game of whiffle-softball, bubble blowing, fishing, playing in the sand, early morning golf (J&S), and naps in lounge chairs (pictures are too scary to post).
























The guys were fishing off the dock and ended up catching this HUGE small mouth bass. We were absolutely amazed by it's size. I snapped this quick shot before he wriggled loose from the hook...the fish lived on a big rock right by the boat dock and it drove them all crazy because you could see it right through the water and it took a lot of patience to lure it over to their bait.

The Mama's and the Papa's.

One night for dinner, we went into Frankfort and enjoyed the view of Lake Michigan. Isn't the sunset beautiful???

Here's how Dad kept himself busy all weekend...starting fires in his Altoid tin with the magnifying glasses my mom bought the kids. Now Alec & Ian can do this all summer in the backyard...thanks, Dad!!!

Enough for now...more pics of the trip tomorrow.