Vacation - Deer Ranch, The Beach, and The Water Park

After a busy day on Monday, we decided to lay low on Tuesday.  We all slept in until 9:00 so we "jumped" out of bed and headed to breakfast before it was gone :-)  (Don't you love "free" breakfast at the hotel?).  After breakfast and getting all of us ready, we headed out at about 11:00 to cross the bridge.  Josh was enthralled.  In his words, "I love that bridge".  He talked about it all week and made up a song about it too. 

 Our first stop over the bridge was Deer Ranch.  This is a place that I've passed for years driving back and forth across the U.P. I'm sure I went there at some point or another but we wanted to take the boys to see the deer.  They even were able to feed them (and even got the courage to do so after about 20 minutes!)

 My "deer" boys :-) Josh and Nate love these face signs.

 There were quite a few babies too - they were super cute.

 Darryl and I thought we would drive down to a really cool bridge and take the boys down the steps to the water but we decided to just pull off along the side of the road and enjoy the beach.  One of the great things about the Upper Peninsula is that there IS just miles of Lake Michigan shoreline where you can just pull off the road and swim.  The boys were thrilled and, since the beach was empty, it was like our own little piece of paradise. 

 Footprints - Darryl, Nate and Josh.

 The boys found all of the sticks and planted their flower garden with them.  They had a blast.  We finally pulled ourselves away from the beach and headed to a fantastic place for lunch where we got the best fish ever.  From there, we went back to the hotel for the sole purpose of getting on our bathing suits and heading to the indoor water park.  Talk about a perfect way to spend about 3 hours.  It was the perfect size for our kids and they loved it - we even managed to get both boys to go down the water slides by themselves after we had gone down with them many times.  I didn't take any photos at the water park .  .too much water dumping all over!! 

One of the fun souvenirs the boys each picked out were these giant slinkies.  Darryl taught them how to walk them down the stairs at the hotel.  This activity kept them busy for quite awhile and then, we had to do it every single day :-)

We ended our busy day by ordering some sandwiches and pancakes (for the boys) and bought them back to the room to enjoy.  Once again the boys got to play and go to bed late.  They played "workers" on the bridge since we had seen the orange barrells set up and the workers working on painting sections of the bridge.  Plus they played going on the boat to the Island.  I think they are enjoying their vacation!!!

Too Cute Not to Toot

Summer is officially here!  What better way to start than with water balloon fun ideas from Fantastic Fun and Learning !  I did read through the whole list but I think we will do a few of these ideas this summer.

Just last week I posted updates to my dining room walls with photos and I mentioned that I wasn't totally happy with one of the walls.  Well, I really like this concept from The Idea Room and think I might try to incorporate it in some form or fashion . .

Sticking with the photo idea, this idea from Lil Luna would make a great gift for pretty much anyone or it would be a great addition to a kids room because kid's love pictures too!

Ok, photos are the "theme" this week HA!  I saw this idea over at Cactus and Olive, I had to share!  If you are tech savvy (which I'm not) then you could create this on your own but she also shares a link to her Etsy shop where she will create it for you.  Such a cute idea especially when it is so hard to get the entire family together for a photo shoot when you are continents apart.

Happy Crafting! 

Vacation - Mackinaw Island

Our first full day of vacation dawned a beautiful day.  When planning this vacation, I planned out activities to do but we decided we would look at the weather each day and decide what "fit" best.  With that in mind, we decided that Monday was the best day to head to the island.  In retrospect, besides the weather, it was also the best day because it was the only day the boys woke up at 7:00 AND we were dressed for the day and had eaten breakfast by 9:00 HA.

 We headed to the ship dock to catch the 10:00 Ferry to the Island but we ended up getting on an "unscheduled" 9:50 sailing.  The captain then took us under the Mackinaw Bridge as a bonus - it was really cool!  We would have loved to have been sitting on top of the Ferry for this ride but the boys really wanted to ride inside.  It was still awesome to see the Bridge from that view though :-)

 Once we got on the Island we decided to rent some bikes and pull the boys in a buggy behind Darryl's bike.  Best decision ever :-)  The boys loved the bikes and were always yelling for Darryl to go faster HA.  Now, you know how they say "it's just like riding a bike - you  never forget".  Boy are they wrong!  It always takes me a good 30 minutes to be able to ride that bike and not run into anything :-/  Even then, if I remove my hands from the handle bars or LOOK anywhere other then straight ahead, I get all wobbly on that bike!  It was still tons of fun though.  We did not ride all the way around the island (it is like 8 miles) but just kept the bikes for about 90 minutes. 

 Before we left on vacation, I had asked Josh what he wanted to do while we were gone.  He listed two things: 1) Play on the Beach and 2) Play on a playground.  As luck would have it, there was a big playscape on the island so he got to play!

 I enjoyed using my camera and taking some shots of things around the Island.

 Josh wanted to pose this photo so he told each person what to look like.  (Nate is not really sad - he was just supposed to look sad HA)

 Someone kindly offered to take our photo :-) 

 Me and my boys.  (By the way, I was supposed to be making a funny face but when Josh wasn't looking, I smiled hehehe)

We ate a fantastic lunch on the island and then did a little shopping where the boys enjoyed being able to pick out some fun souvenirs to play with later.  It didn't take long for them to start asking to go back to the hotel.  We had done a lot of walking at that point and they were tired.  We grabbed our end of the "day" treat (some ice cream and chocolate's) before heading to the dock.  This time the boys wanted to ride on the top and we enjoyed a very cool, windy ride - it was awesome!

Once back in Mackinaw City, we went back to our hotel for a bit before heading to a well-reviewed Pizza place for dinner.  Then, as promised to the boys, we headed to the pool where we swam for well over an hour before heading back to the room.  The boys were free to play for quite awhile that  evening before heading to bed (late).  Another perfect day of vacation!

Vacation - Our Travel Day to Mackinaw City

We are home from vacation and it is time to share all of the fun we had!  We started talking about vacation with the boys about a week prior to leaving.  We count "sleeps" when we talk about time so we had about 6 sleeps before leaving on vacation.  Needless to say the boys were very excited about the thought of going away so I made a countdown chain (I totally forgot to take a photo) to help them have that visual.  Let me tell you, every morning the boys were very quick to remind me to take down a 'sleep' (remove a loop from the chain) and they would then count how many more sleeps we had left!

I spent Friday and Saturday working on my lists, laundry and packing.  Saturday dawned hot and steamy so I worked first thing on some packing.  Then, to get out of the heat, the boys and I ran errands, went out to lunch and turned in all of our change to use for vacation.  Once Darryl got home, we finished up a few things and officially started our vacation with dinner at "our" Chinese Resturant.  The boys love it because they can pick their own food AND get ice cream.  We ordered the boys some lemonaide - we usually only order them water - when Josh took a drink he said, "Thank you daddy for making money so we can have juice to drink" HA!

Sunday morning we actually slept in a little but the boys were still up at 7:30 - ready to go on vacation HA!  We had basically decided that we would get up, get ready, load up and go.  We ended up hitting the road at about 10:30 which was perfect.  The boys loved the travel bags and dug right into their activities.  Just like clock work, about an hour into our trip poor Nate got carsick.  I feel so bad for the little guy - he knows to grab his puke bucket like a true champ.  The only good thing is that it was right at an exit with a car pool lot to boot so we could clean it all up and hit the road again.  We made our first official stop about half way to Mackinaw City for lunch at McDonald's.  We were there for 90 minutes.  No lie.  The service was super slow, my kids are super slow eater's, and then came the bathroom trips.  The joys of potty training boys - one that is 100% trained and one that is when he wants to be means LONG trips to the potty.  Wow!

The boys were so excited when we were close enough to see the bridge and then to our hotel.  It was really cool because our hotel, The Clarian Beachfront Hotel, had a huge clock on the front of it so the boys had that constant landmark to look for each time we headed "home".

 Our room had a fabulous balcony - it was one of the things I prayed for on our drive North - I wanted a view of the water.  We had a view of the water that was just wonderful and my boys loved having that balcony where they could watch the birds and the boats.

Once we settled in, we drove down the main drag and headed to the Lighthouse park so the boys could see the water and the bridge.

To say that the boys loved the Mackinaw Bridge is an understatement.  They did not want to leave to go to dinner - they just wanted to stay and play.  Once we dragged the boys away . . .and changed them out of their wet clothes . .. we headed to dinner and then went back to the hotel where we then headed down to the beach.

The boys had so much fun in the sand and the water while Darryl and I enjoyed some lounging in the beach chairs in the sand.  It was a fabulous private sandy beach right behind our hotel; the perfect spot.  Needless to say, bedtimes were thrown out the window, it is vacation after all :-)

Day one of vacation to Mackinaw City was a huge success. 

Food Friday - Crunchy Asian Salad

Crunchy Asian Salad
adapted from a friend - Jacki Lewis

I love the Asian Coleslaw versions that are out there but I have never found one that I LOVE until now.  In May a friend and I made the food for a Ladies Tea at church and she made this salad.  It was the best I had ever tasted so I grabbed her recipe!  The secret?  Good Seasoning's Dressing mix.  The dressing for this salad is my new favorite go to dressing for everything. We had steak one night last week and had one steak left so I cute it up into thin strips, added it to lettuce with sunflower seeds and croutons and used this dressing - best salad ever :-)  

1 env.  (0.7 oz.) GOOD SEASONS Italian Dressing Mix

1/2 cup  sugar

2 Tbsp.  soy sauce

2 pkg.  (3 oz. each) ramen noodle soup mix

2 pkg.  (16 oz. each) coleslaw blend (cabbage slaw mix)

4 green onions, sliced

1/2 cup   Dry Roasted Sunflower Kernels

1/2 cup  Sliced Almonds, toasted

Make It

PREPARE dressing mix in small bowl as directed on envelope. Stir in sugar and soy sauce.
BREAK apart Noodles; place in large bowl. Discard Seasoning Packets or reserve for another use. Add coleslaw blend, onions, sunflower kernels and nuts to noodles; mix lightly.
ADD dressing; toss to coat.

 

Weekly Menu

I don't have any food prep photos this week since I didn't prep any food to eat this week HA!  I will say that as much work as food prep is - even just getting fruits and veggies ready to eat - we actually eat more of the stuff I buy because it is ready to eat.  Now, if only I could get my three year old to eat FRUIT Salad instead of his CRACKER salad.  Yes, that's right.  He comes up to me and asks for Salad.  Then says, "I want my cracker salad mom" which is just . .. a bowl of crackers.  HA!

Saturday - First day home which means grocery shopping!

Sunday - The last day of our vacation!  We will grill today - burgers sound good to me with some corn on the cob and fruit.

Monday - I have a roast to use up and have a recipe for a balsmic beef in the crock pot.  I'll add some potatoes and a veggie for an easy "first day back at work" dinner.

Tuesday - Ham and Cheese Quiche, Banana Bread, and fruit

Wednesday - Hot Dogs, Mac and Cheese and chips

Thursday - Today is 4th of July (WOW!)  I'm not sure yet.  (Since I'm writing this the week before we go on vacation).  If the weather cooperates, we like to go to the beach which means we'll have a picnic.  If not, we will probably grill some steaks and have potatoes and garlic bread.

You might notice this is a pretty easy menu this week.  That's the plan.  I wanted to plan ahead, keep it simple, and start out strong after vacation.  :-)