We had a great time on vacation! We didn't leave until last Sunday morning. Our first stop was here, at the Great Wolf Lodge. I've mentioned it before, but if you have kids, this place is a must! Our kids LOVE it, and so do we. It's fun. The baby even had a good time. Go figure. She can't stand the bath tub, but loves the pool, and the beach. Sleeping was a bit rough. J woke up at 3am, and didn't go back to sleep until 6am. Hubs and I had just fallen back to sleep (ahh), and the other 2 got up at 7. Sheesh. Hubs and I were none too pleased, but alas... So we were all a little grumpy as we left. From there, we drove to Ludington, which was about 2 1/2 hrs away. Wouldn't you know it. It was hotter than hell, and we have a broken air conditioner. Family of 5, very little sleep, cramped van full of shit, and H O T. Not so pleasant. Kids bitched back and fourth for the whole drive. Hubs made me giggle. He actually pulled the car over to the side of the road. Did your parents ever say that to you? "DON'T MAKE ME PULL THIS CAR OVER!" Mine said that, but they never pulled over. Haha. We were relieved when we finally pulled up to our campground. The campground was great. Not very big, shady lots, and it sits on a bluff, over looking Lake Michigan. It's called Buttersville. There is a very steep staircase that goes from the top of the bluff, down to the lake. Perfect. Private beach. Going down is no problem, but man! Walking back up all 80 steps after swimming and sunning all day w/ 3 kids and beach crap. OUCH. My legs were killing me by the end of the week! We had borrowed a camper for this trip, and it took a while to set it up. It was a nice camper! Plenty of room for us, and much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground, in a tent, as we normally do. When we finished setting up, we went straight to the beach. What a sight! There was a HUGE storm rolling across the lake. The lightning was shooting all across the sky, and then straight down to the water. Purple, gray and black clouds. Awesome. The storm was terrible! If you want, you can read about the storm Here. I'm so glad we had the camper! The storm reached us a few hours before it got to Grand Rapids, and the link for the storm info is from GR, but you get the idea. Instead of hanging out in the camper, we decided to find a restaurant, and then go grocery shopping. The worst of it was over when we got back to camp. The campground lost electricity and water for the next 24 hours. Icky. When the power came back on, they still couldn't get the well pump to work to get water back. My brilliant hubs fixed that. Thank God! He was the hero for the rest of the week :) We spent the next few days laying on the beach and swimming. Wonderful! The kids did really well, and all 3 of them had a blast. Hubs and I had a good time to. As soon as we could get the kids to bed, we'd get a couple of beers, and sit next to the fire to talk. Catch up. Its amazing how little time we have to do that at home. We get so busy w/ chores and kids, we forget to make time. So nice to get to do that. I loved being able to hang out w/ him for an entire week! When we got bored w/ the beach, we did some exploring in Ludington, checking out all the little shops. It's such a cute town. Quaint is a good word for it. I've already decided that I want to go back, but only w/ hubs, and I want to stay here. For some reason, I fell in love w/ that place. I just have to go back!
We also spent an afternoon at White Pine Village. That was cool too. WPV is I think 23 acres, and filled w/ historical buildings from Mason County. I think all of them are from 1800's. They have been moved from all over the county to WPV. All of the buildings are filled w/ antiques from that time period. Its a self guided tour, and you get to go through everything, which is awesome! It was cool to see how families lived in the 1800's here in MI. I love history, and it was great to be able to share that w/ my kids. They were really interested in all of the places we went through. We went through a farm house, barn, courthouse w/an upstairs apt, trappers cabin, print office, post office, ice cream parlor, blacksmith, hardware store, doctors office and a chapel are just a few of them. They had a lot of questions about different things, and what they were used for. When we were going through the house, I asked them if they had seen a bathroom. Well no mom, where is it? Te he he. They thought it was so funny that you had to go outside to pee in an outhouse. In the gift shop they had cook book filled w/ recipes from that time frame, which I found really interesting. I wish I would have bought a couple!!! That's ok, though.. I'll be back. We had such a good time. It was one of the most relaxing vacations we've had. Generally when we go on vacation, we go out of state, and every day we are there, we're going to check out the sites, constantly running. I think I preferred this, and it was so much cheaper. Very nice time. Its good to be home, but now I'm so far behind on things. I can't seem to catch up on the sleep that I lost either. J had a hard time sleeping pretty much all week, so hubs and I rotated getting up in the middle of the night and driving her around. Getting back is always the worst. Now I need a vacation from my vacation. LOL. I had good intentions to put up some pictures, but I haven't had time to get to them yet. They're on my list :) I'll get to it!