Grandma's Gardeners

We have awesome flowers in the garden, esp. the sunflowers.
It is a little early for our sweetcorn, but there were some that were ready. Maddie was looking for the perfect ear of corn. She actually did better than I did at finding ripe ones.
Dylan and Macy were on the husking crew. They have gotten really good at it. I hate doing it so this works out really well. The garden has really been fun for the kids to do with their grandparents and it is way more work than my family has time for. We get the fun of a garden but without all of the work. The kids have enjoyed picking things and watering but we have not had to weed it.
This was the one Dylan picked it was not ready yet but he insisted that is was. I should have made him eat it at dinner.

Girl Friends

After doing some pageant stuff at Megan's I surprised Maddie and brought Olivia with me to pick her up. The girls got to swim for a little bit together. They were so funny and really hyper.

Down On The Farm

Dylan climbing the fence to get into the goat pen.
Here is a photo of one of the kids goats, I think this is Mary. She is shy.

It is always really fun at Grandpa and Grandma's because the kids get to do lots of dirty silly things. A couple of years ago after the county fair my kids were convinced that they wanted goats. So after much pleading they talked their grandparents into getting them some. They decided they wanted to wrestle with them the other day, and after much giggling the goats won. They head butted Maddie and bit Dylan. Macy was the smartest of the group and would not get into the pen with them. Their names are Max and Mary and they are pretty cute, I am just glad they live at grandma's house. A gold fish is enough of a commitment for me.

The beach here was a short, sandy hike away. When you came up over the hill you looked down at the sandy beach and felt like you were looking down at the ocean. There was a steep trail that right down to the waves. Dylan liked climbing up the huge dunes, he was sure he saw bear tracks.
Mike and the kids built a huge castle in the sandcastle. They worked on it for a couple of hours. Then Dylan had the most fun crashing it all down. Dylan liked the beach more than anyone. Our first day there they had a no swimming sign up because there was huge white cap waves coming in. Of course we went swimming anyway, and it was really cool. The kids would pick up their feet and the wave would carry them all the way to shore. Mike really enjoyed swimming with the kids which gave me time to enjoy the sun.
There was a river that ran right down onto the beach. The kids liked that more than Lake Michigan. It only came up to their shoulders. It was also 90 degrees.
There were huge bluffs in the dunes at the beach so the kids would jump off them into the sand. They were scared the first time but then they loved it.
Here is a small portion of the castle, they called it the light house.
We were all really sad that vacation had to end. It went so fast. I hate to get all corny but it really was a trip of a lifetime. The kids are growing so fast, I wish I could have put this trip away in a bottle so I could go back whenever I felt overwhelmed. What a great 9 days.

PJ Hoffmaster State Park

We had some amazing bike trails everywhere that we went. Everyone loved them but Macy had a lot of trouble on them. She had a hard time with her training wheels. Another problem for everyone was that she had to stop and talk to every single person she passed and tell them about her Dora bike.
They had the neatest bike trail here that went right through the river. The kids thought that was really fun. Mike helped Macy get through it a couple of times too. This park was easily everyones favorite.
The kids liked playing on the playground at the campground too. Dylan was a little confused about what to do here and got stuck, but after a little help he really liked it and played forever.
The kids also perfected their tree climbing skills. Unfortunately they actually got stuck in a couple of trees too.
There was a tree that had fallen over in our camp sight and the kids played on it forever. It was everything from a stage to a mountain. It was so pretty everywhere we camped.

Dylan loved the beach at Traverse City. This beach was so much nicer than Clear Lake. It felt like we were actually in Florida at this beach. The sand was awesome. Dylan liked finding shells and chasing all of the ducks.
Maddie and Macy were searching for treasures in the sand. They found quite a few shells. We got to see our first seagulls of the trip and the kids loved chasing them. They played in the waves for a while and watched the parasailers. Our campsite was right by the beach. There was a foot bridge to cross the road and then you were on the beach, our sight was connected to the foot bridge.
We spent the day with the Dilt's at Traverse, they own property there and were also visiting. We rafted with them and then went back and had a cook-out. Dylan liked Brady so much, everything he said to Dylan was "cool." He got to help make the corn on the fire and carry wood. Brady was so patient and nice to Dylan.

Here is a cute photo of Larson. The kids loved him, they would not leave him alone. Luckily Larson was pretty tolerant of them. He is too cute.

Clear Lake State Park, Michigan

Michael and Dylan went down to the dock to catch some fish while we were camping. Dylan actually caught a little, small mouth, he was awfully proud of it too. The days were so relaxing, our most stressful decision was what to grill for dinner.
Kenzie and Maddie are happy to be out of the vehicles as we arrived at Clear Lake. The dads were checking us in to our sight and we just got out to check everything out. It was about a 5 hour drive, and the kids did pretty well. We stopped for lunch and a potty break but other than that pushed it pretty hard.
Macy was climbing the fence down by the beach. She thinks she is pretty tough now, actually she is pretty tough. She was so funny, she kept singing and dancing, once everyone laughed she thought it was even more fun.
We took a rafting trip, but all of the pictures are on Tina's camera. It was pretty fun...... I am horrible at paddling. Michael tried to be patient but he had trouble not getting mad at me. Here are the kids before we left. They were excited, and they liked to trip alot. Maddie kept asking uncle Jason to help us the whole trip, I was getting annoyed that even a 5 year old knows how bad I was.
Here is the all of the kids. This was our last night. We were sad to leave Tina and Jason behind but we did not know how much fun we would have later on. On our final morning camping with them Maddie did not want to get up because she did not want to leave her cousins. It was funny since we see them a couple of times a week when we are home.