family visit

My brother came with his family for almost 3 full weeks and we had a lot of good times together. They stayed in my parents new home. I took a couple days off work, and pretty much every day I wasn't working we tried to get the kids together in the afternoon and then we'd all eat dinner together in the evening. There was a fair amount of kids' squabbles, and frustrations here and there, but overall a nice visit. The adults even got in a couple games nights together. 

Celebrated Doug's birthday

Smoothies!

Play doh

Going to the park together

Watching Veggie Tales for their quiet times.

We set up a couple pools in our yard and had a couple water days, those were fun.

Stole Doug's sunglasses and his drink :)

Cousins!

U.P. trip

We took a long weekend trip to the Upper Peninsula this weekend. Doug's birthday is mid-July and mine is beginning of August, so we thought a little trip in the middle might be a fun way to celebrate our birthdays. Doug has been wanting to go to Kitch-iti-kipi for quite awhile, so we planned this trip to see it. 

Long day in the car and first stop in the U.P., the Garlyn Zoo. 

You could roll an apple down this tube and watch the bear eat :)

Our airbnb was right off Indian Lake, it was beautiful. 

The kids loved kicking their feet in the water. It was warm, but the shore was very rocky so not good for wading.

S'mores and bonfire in the chimea after the kids went to sleep! We saw a beautiful sunset and even some heat lightening off the dock.

The next day we took a little train ride on the Taquemenon train.

The train was far from the falls, so I'm not sure why it was called that. Later we drove to the park and walked to the upper falls overlook. 

That evening we went to see the Big Spring! It was really cool. 

Apparently this is 45 feet deep and so clear, it was really cool. 

And came home to another sunset. 

On the drive home we stopped by the shores of Lake Michigan and played in the sand a few minutes. 

 It was a nice trip.