Fun in Bay View, Michigan!

This past June, we spent a fun 2 weeks up in Northern Michigan. Each summer we have the privilege of visiting Luke's wonderful grandmother at her charming little cottage in Bay View, Michigan. The cottage was built in 1879 and has much rich history behind it! Luke and his family came up to this same cottage every summer when he was a boy....so now we are taking our turn at making the same memories with our three kids. Nanny is probably not quite 5 feet in stature....Logan is quickly gaining on her in height as you can see! But her wisdom and kindness measure far above and beyond the norm. She is such a spunky and fun grandmother...a ton of fun to spend time with and be around! We had a delightful time together this summer. Thank you for having us, Nan!

One of our favorite things to do in Bay View is just hang out on the porch. Here are Luke and Nan enjoying some porch time.

We spent Father's Day in Michigan this year. The morning started out at The Pancake House and just got better as the day went on...

Luke and Faith Anna



Luke is such a great Daddy...just look at these happy faces!

The evening ended with this unbelievable sunset. This is the view from the front porch looking out over the bay. Nothing like a Michigan sunset.

We spent lots of time on the Bay View beach. The kids just loved the sand...and actually enjoyed the water, despite it being about 60 degrees! Chilly....

I love this picture of Faith Anna...

Logan trying to get his nerve up to get out in the water and swim!

Beth loved the beach!

Logan got brave...and he and Luke actually swam out to the floating dock! He was so proud.

So of course if Logan did it, Faith Anna had to try it. So here are she and Luke taking their turn at swimming in the frigid bay water. I couldn't believe it. Swimming in the bay at 4 1/2 years old!

Building sandcastles was a favorite....

...as was watching Faith Anna perform her "sand ballet". Ha!

The pool water was quite chilly too...

...so Faith Anna just hung out by the side posing in my sunglasses.

More sand play. Beth is such a little love.





Another one of our favorite places is the "Waterfall park" as the kids call it. It is actually called Sunset park, I think, down on the Petoskey bayfront. The girls loved posing by the waterfall...

What cuties!

While the girls were busy posing, look where Logan climbed up to!

Beth loved playing in the stream...

...while Logan and Faith Anna loved jumping over it!

They were very proud of themselves for climbing to the top of these stairs. There's Beth at the bottom heading up as well. She couldn't be left out of the fun...and yes, she made it all the way to the top too!

Being silly back down at the bottom.

Another favorite activity was playing in the sprinkler...

Logan got it all started...

....and Faith Anna joined right in.

Goofing off with Papa Dude

Logan decided that just riding a scooter wasn't exciting enough...so he created a new activity that he called "scooter skiing"!

This was a common evening pastime...watching the girls perform ballet and curtsey on the front porch.

Logan and Faith Anna with their good Bay View friend, Suzie Parker.

One evening we had a picnic in downtown Petoskey at the "Gazebo park" as the kids refer to it. It was such a nice night playing frisbee golf, eating ice cream after dinner, and playing with the kids.

Beth is posing by "her garden".

Faith Anna and Granny Boo put on a ballet show for us in the gazebo.

And Logan had fun playing on this vintage war-time cannon.





Pirate's Cove putt-putt park is another favorite place for us to go. Logan and Faith Anna had a blast here! Faith Anna wouldn't wash off her pirate tattoo for a couple of weeks afterward! ha.

Future Tiger?

Future Annika?

This was a fun memory with my two big kids.

One afternoon we drove a few miles over to the darling city of Charlevoix to watch the drawbridge open. Every half hour, the siren would go off signalling that the bridge was about to open and let the tall sailboats and yahts pass through. We had such a fun time there that day with Granny Boo.

Faith Anna accomplished something quite significant this year...she successfully swung across an entire set of monkey bars! She's been working at this for some time now...and she was so proud of herself.

I think we played on a playground nearly everyday! The weather was magnificent and we just thoroughly enjoyed being outside all the time. What a fun trip. Thanks again to Nanny, Boo and Chris, for a such a fun time.

This is on the plane trip home. Luke had to go home and get back to work a week earlier than us, so I braved the plane trip by myself...5 months pregnant with our three kids. Ha! Some thought we were crazy, but wouldn't you know? The kids did great and we had a fabulous trip. I couldn't believe that all three of them slept during most of the 2 hour second plane trip. Here are Faith Anna (never without her tiara) and Logan completely under his yoda blanket.

And our sweet Beth, completely sacked out. I knew Luke wouldn't believe it, so I had to document it. I actually got to read several chapters in my book that evening on the plane...pretty nice.

We had such a fun time! Can't wait until next year...