Michigan Road Trip June 2015

After spending a week exploring Michigan I am more in love than ever with this beautiful state we get to temporarily call home. 

Northport

My parents dear friends the Verdiers were generous enough to let us stay at their two vacation homes.  So amazingly nice of them. I've decided vacations with kids are so much more fun when you get to stay at houses rather than all squeezing into a hotel room. I think this is the first vacation in as long as I can remember that we actually all got good sleep. Hudson even decided to start sleeping through the night that week- hallelujah. 

Home base for a few days. Did lots of fun mini day trips but it was so nice to come back here every night. 

view from the back porch. ahhh....

 These girls and I went and toured the Grand Traverse light house while Dave stayed with a napping Hudson in the car. Too bad the scafolding kinda ruined the charm of the light house. Oh well. 

 so glad they inherited my love of rain! 

top of the lighthouse 

Sleeping Bear Dunes State Park 

Spent a glorious day exploring what I think is one of the prettiest places in the country (from what I've seen at least) 

The dune climb. The kids were troopers but were happy to take turns having us carry them. It was quite the trek up. We definitely got our workout for the day 

not exactly sure what to do with the sand 

Esch beach. A hidden gem. 

Traverse City

Spent a rainy day in Traverse City. Went to a movie, bowling, the mall then the rain cleared up and we spent the evening at a park by the marina. 

dancing :) 

Mackinac Island

Love love love this island! The highlight for me this time was renting bikes and riding the loop around the whole island (only 8 miles) It was breathtakingly beautiful. The girls favorite part was the horses and the fudge shops  

Splurged a little to stay at this hotel right on the island. It was well worth it! 

House modeled after the Grand Hotel. The girls decided a princess lived there

legendary Mackinac fudge. We got to see them make it, sample a bunch and we took some home with us. Pretty obvious why this was one of their favorite things 

Macatawa

We spent the last few days at the Verdier's beach cottage in Macatawa. It was dreamy!

Private beach. Pretty much had it to ourselves the whole time. 

Big Red

after a dip in the pool at the yacht club. 

Michigan Adventure- Muskegon

We were there the week before school let out so it wasn't crowded at all. 

No lines + perfect weather = a great day. Hailey was tall enough to ride the big coasters but was too scared. Nora wanted to ride them but was too short- go figure. 

 Bumper boats! Way more fun that bumper cars right? 

Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens- Grand Rapids

Stopped in Grand Rapids on our way home to see the gardens. They did not disappoint. The kids could've spent hours in just the children's garden alone. I was actually pleasantly surprised how much they liked this. 

Trying to figure out where "this guys head went". There definitely were some shall we say unique pieces there 

=

 Think this was unanimously the favorite sculpture of the day...

and leave it to Dave to pretend he was trapped under the horse so the girls had to save him. 

Such a goof :) 

Hudson woke up with swollen eyes this morning. We though maybe he got bit by something or maybe some sand irritated his eye. Found out the next couple days that he had Roseola. Poor kid. He was still such a good boy even though he was sick. Sure do love him! 

Left the gardens very wet and very happy

My favorite trip we've done just our little family. We made some great memories.