Labor Day Fishing

Since Morgan's team didn't make it to the championship game in the tournament, we had a free Labor Day! Morgan and Matt went fishing with her new pole, but didn't catch anything. :(

Weekend in Indiana

We spent the weekend in Monticello, IN at Lake Freeman visiting the Klemmes at their lake house. Lauren used to work as an actuary in Chicago with Matt. She has since moved to Indiana and is a teacher. Lauren and Lee have two kids, Taryn who is 15 and Cole who is 11 (just a couple of weeks younger than the girls).

We headed out after Avery's boot camp ended on Friday. It's a little less than three hours drive. 

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny, warm and breezy, but not too hot/humid.

We went out on the boat Friday night. We stopped off at the White Oaks campground across the river where Lauren and Lee's friends were staying in their RV. There was a bar with live music, so we hung out there with them for a while.

One great thing about the country is how quiet it is. We noticed that immediately. Just even sitting outside, there's just no noise. I guess you don't realize how loud it is where you live until it's gone. With that said, the girls slept really well! Even our early riser Avery slept in!

On Saturday, Morgan got a little fishing time in the morning. She didn't catch anything, but got some bites on her line.

Avery was a big fan of the zero gravity chairs by the fire pit.

After lunch, we went out on the boat.

We stopped off at Lee's brother's house to pick up the tube. Morgan was beyond excited to go tubing!

She had the biggest smile on her face and laughed the whole time she was riding on the tube! I couldn't tell if she was crying or laughing - ha!

 

Then, Avery wanted to do it. I was surprised, but she jumped out there and hopped on the tube. She loved it, too!

 

The boys (Cooper and Cole) took a turn, then Avery and Morgan went together.

 

Morgan was getting fancy and tried to stand up. Then, Avery gave us the signal that she was done.

We dropped the tube back off and headed over to pick up Taryn (who had been at volleyball practice all day).

Here's a picture of Lauren and Matt.

While picking Taryn up, the kids (and Matt) took turns jumping off the deck of their neighbor's dock.

 

After we got Taryn, we went to the sandbar to hang out. It was a little too windy for volleyball, but we gave it a shot.

Courtney (Lauren's friend) and I took the kids to the swimming pool at the campground to swim for a bit while everyone else went back to the house to get dinner started. The pool time was ended a little early because some little boy threw up in the pool. We hung out by the RV for a bit and waited for them to pick us up. While waiting, they learned the water at Lauren's house wasn't working. They tried to get it fixed, but could only temporarily get it working.

We went back to Lauren's and grilled out for dinner. We hung out by the firepit and played Euchre. I was on a team with Courtney, Matt was with Lauren and Lee was with Travis (Courtney's husband). Courtney and I were the big champs of the night! We were undefeated! :)

On Sunday morning, we packed up the car and stopped off at the USA diner for brunch before getting on the road. We went to that same place last time we were in town (it has a big stuffed lion in the front).

Here's a picture of the kiddos... they are all getting so big!

Vacation - Day 7 - Swimming, shopping and some more fishing

We started the day off with some swimming... these two goofballs look like twins!

We went to all the shops in downtown Saugatuk and Avery found this super cute baby octopus that matches her large one at home!

Back at the house, Morgan and Grayson did some more fishing.

Morgan caught a big one! Not sure if her mouth or the fish's mouth is bigger! Ha!

 Such a fun and nice last day of vacation!

Vacation - Day 6 - Urban Air, Fishing and an evening boat cruise

It was a bit cloudy and gross out Tuesday morning, so Sandi suggested we take the kids to Urban Air in Holland, MI. This Urban Air was really nice (so much better than the one by us!) No go-karts, but they had a bunch of other fun stuff.

We stopped for lunch afterwards at the Crazy Horse. We had been here last year when we went to Ludington and we all loved the food.

The girls were exhausted on the drive home. Morgan crashed!

Here are a few videos from the day:

 

After we got back to the house, Morgan went out to the pond with Papa for a little fishing. She caught a fish and brought it in mostly by herself! This video cracks me up... Erin is in the background cheering Morgan on. But, then Hunter is in the background and gets hooked by the hook on his fishing pole! Luckily, it wasn't bad, but Erin may have used a bit of bad language in the video - HA!

At around 6:00, we went on a boat cruise (was postponed from the day before). Luckily, Brett and Sandi were able to stick around to go with us. They had to head home right afterwards to get back since the boys started school the next day. We rented a boat called the Flying Dutchman complete with a captain. There was plenty of room on the boat and a long table, so we brought pizzas and drinks for dinner. The kids had a blast dancing to the music!

Morgan was super excited to see a boat named the "Morgan J" (her name is Morgan Jo)!

The kids all danced and tried teaching Calvin how to twerk! :)

Such a beautiful night!