Things I Learned on Vacation

We are back from vacation. We had a wonderful time in Shelby, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan.

We stayed here:

and had this view:

It was so relaxing! We had beautiful weather, with only one rainy day. We lounged on the beach all day, only coming inside to eat. We ventured into Pentwater, Michigan, an adorable little tourist town. We ate at Bubba-Q's for lunch in Silver Lake, Michigan, after taking a dune ride in this:

Nathan learned to crawl:

Ella was visited by the "Sand Fairy" every night. (Gigi put a treat in Ella's cup every night and Ella thought it was the best!) However, now that we're home, Ella still believes the "Sand Fairy" will be leaving her treats on a nightly basis.

We decided to take the high speed car ferry back to Milwaukee, since it took us nearly 8 hours to get to the cottage a week earlier, due to construction and traffic. It sounded like a grand idea, until we got on the boat and barf bags were being handed out. Lake Michigan was extremely rough that day, so rough that we couldn't even get out of our seats without falling into other passengers or just falling. And, about a quarter of the boat was seasick, including my husband and my son. Nathan vomited Exorcist style, which in turn caused a lovely young man across the aisle to begin puking as well. What a super experience. But hey, we arrived in Milwaukee much faster.

Back to happier times...each night we sat on the deck and enjoyed the sunsets:

We sipped Lemondrops (or Irish Whiskey for the boys) and played Yahtzee. I am addicted to Yahtzee! My family humored me by playing every single night. Thanks guys.

We discovered that Ella may turn out to be a champion kayaker (is that a word?) (Side note, "Kayak" is the word I misspelled at my 7th grade spelling bee. I spelled it "Kyak." Oh well.)

Despite the puking on the way home, it was a fabulous vacation. Now it's back to real life.

I am entering a contest to get my blog "made over." The website is onceuponablog.org and I've added the site's button on my side bar. Really neat stuff...maybe I'll win!