Lake bound for Labor Day

It doesn't matter how many times we go to Mackinaw, we still find something new and exciting to do. We had so much fun last weekend up north (can I really say up north if we never actually crossed the bridge?) Anyway, it was beautiful (the weather was perfect!) and the greatest part for me was watching Avah and Benn experience all that the city had to offer.

My mom and her friend Brenda came along on the trip so Russ and I even got a night out by ourselves to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We went to dinner at O'Reilly's (an Irish Pub) then played put put golf. Russ scored 3 hole-in-one's and I scored 2! I love that course!

We ended up not going to the island this year, although I'm sure Avah would've had a blast seeing all the horses and flowers, and instead spent most of our time at the beach. Like I said, the weather was awesome (upper 70's to mid 80's all weekend) and Avah kept saying she wanted to go to the beach, so we did. The water temperature was not so warm though. Yikes, it was down right cold, but the kids didn't seem to mind. I even went for a dip! Russ waded up to his waist then called it quits. Aside from lounging on the beach we did some shopping and also went down to the docks and saw the huge sailboats.

The only thing that slowed us down a bit was that both Russ and I were sick and not feeling well for most of our trip. The kids did great (well, as good as 2 kids who are 2yrs and under can do) during the 5 hour drive. They even slept well in the hotel room (all that worrying I did about the drive and sleeping arangements for nothing).

On Monday, Russ' brother and I ran almost 5 miles (in preparation for the 5K we're doing next weekend) and we (Russ and I) are feeling much better...just in time to go back to work. Huh...funny how things work out isn't it?

We have tenative plans to return next year (maybe an annual thing for us) and we're hoping to Russ' parents will join us. We'll definitely go to the island next year. With two kids walking it'll be a breeze, right?!

Saturday we came back to our room to find this elephant on our bed. The staff at the Hamilton Inn was overly accomodating and super sweet to our kids. I'd highly recommend staying there.

This was Avah "lounging" on the beach. We didn't prompt her to do this, its just how she is. Our girlie girl. Oh, I should note, she had LOTS of sunscreen on and only actually laid like this for a minute before running off to play in the sand.

Benn enjoyed the water too, but entered into a clinging phase while we were on vacation. No complaints here (I know it won't last long) but it did make my arms sore.

Here the kids are playing with their dad one morning before we headed to the beach.

Yet, another beach picture. Russ was trying to build a castle with a moat, but Avah kept taking the sand from the castle and throwing it. It was pretty funny.