We finally made it back to New Buffalo with my family for a vacation! The pandemic had sent us to other locations the past few years. Here is a photo dump from the week. These are not really in order. :)
Packed full.. on our way!
Avery with her bestie Calvin - walking to check out the beach
Trying out the new slide Brett brought
Thumbs up!
A little iPad time
Rainy day = movie!
We swam SO much!
She's part fish!
The kids and.... Matt!
Night swims were the best!
The hot tub had fun lights
Avery loves to pose
Waffles courtesy of Uncle Brett
Loading them up with all kinds of goodies
Beach day in St. Jospeh
Backbends at the beach
Lunch at Silver Beach Pizza - cheers!
Spaghetti is so messy!
And of course, the gigantic fountain in St. Joseph
Extreme close-up!
Drying off and warming up
Enjoying my beer from the Kropscott vacy in Ludington
Morgan helping Daddy grill
Making homemade ice cream with Papa
It's delicious!
Load it up with toppings!
Playing at the park nearby
Sunset time
Avery and Mommy selfie
Morgan with Beckett, Grayson and Nolan
Now Hunter joined them
Always swimming... even with swimmer's ear
Avery made brownies for Daddy's birthday
Decorating cupcakes for Daddy's birthday
Posing at the beach
Happy Birthday Daddy!
Night swim with Daddy
Getting one last hot tub in before we check out
Last swim before we leave
View of the back of the house and the pool area
Another view of the back of the house and pool
Sunset pictures of the kiddos
Goofball
Nice job Avery! Ha!
Avery diving on the slide
Giving Calvin a little help
I think Nolan left a little early!
They really tried to make the moat fill up with water - no luck!
Someone buried Papa's feet
Family sunset picture
Morgan and Daddy
Pretty sure she's throwing a rock, but looks like some sort of power pose :)
Grayson and Morgan
Avery doing gymnastics at the beach... again.
No luck finding actual sand toys at the store, so these had to do. :)
Silly family picture with the shirts Aunt Sandi made us all
Normal family pic - love these shirts!
Cousins!
Sisters!
Night swim in the hot tub
Night swim
Posing in front of the lights
The sun makes Avery's hair look like it's on fire!
Of course, Morgan makes a canine friend!
Hitting Oink's of course!
Ready for the family pictures
Family pictures - will post more of these later
Oink's - yum!
As always, we had a blast in New Buffalo! I have so many more pictures and memories from the week. I may try to add another post to capture some of those. But I will leave you with our favorite jokes from the youngest of the family, Calvin. He had some really off the wall jokes - ha!
Morgan tested for her next belt... moving from orange/green to green. She had to write an essay about why they bow in class and take an online test. They do the actual testing on Friday nights. All the levels test together, but they are broken up into groups with their same level and evaluated by the black belts. They get a score sheet at the end with their rankings on the different parts of the test.
This is her favorite teacher Ms. Loula giving her the green belt
We spent a long weekend in Michigan this past weekend visiting with Matt's family. They had rented a house in Ludington, MI near the beach.
We drove halfway there on Friday evening and stayed in St. Joseph, MI. We loved the town and the beach area there. We grabbed some pizza from Silver Beach Pizza (on the recommendation of a coworker). The place was packed! We ended up having to just get carry-out to eat at the hotel because the restaurant had over an hour wait (and it was already 8:30 PM).
View outside out hotel in St. Joe - beautiful sunset
On Saturday morning before heading out, we went to the beach to walk around. The weather was gorgeous! We walked over to the splash pad, which was SO fun! It's a huge splash pad with tons of sprinklers. And every 10 minutes or so, huge water cannons go off and soak everyone! The girls loved it!
On our way to Ludington, we stopped in Holland, MI and had lunch at the Crazy Horse Restaurant. Morgan tried popcorn shrimp, but wasn't a huge fan of it. They had steak fries and she was a fun of those!
We made it to Ludington and hit the hotel pool! The girls relaxed in the hot tub!
We had dinner at the Jamesport Brewery in Ludington. Great food and beer!
Drinks outside while waiting for our table
Morgan tried root beer and loved it!
Gigantic pretzel!
Finished off with a hot fudge sundae
On Sunday, we went to the beach. Again, the weather was beautiful! We forgot to bring beach toys, so we had stopped off on our way from St. Joe to Ludington and grabbed some shovels from Five Below and a bucket from Target. They were sold out of traditional beach toys. On our way out of Target, we saw these baking dishes shaped like dog bones, so we grabbed them! They made for some fun sand sculptures!
On Sunday night, we had dinner at the house with Matt's family. Matt got to cook all the hot dogs over the fire pit. The girls had fun playing with Matt's cousin's kids. We roasted marshmallows for s'mores. The kids played hide and seek until well after dark. We made it back to the hotel late and they crashed!
On Monday, we hung out at the house a bit while the kids played games and worked on puzzles. We then checked out the dunes nearby. The water was super choppy at the beach!
It was tough getting to the top!
Selfie!
The girls wanted some souvenirs, so we went on the main street to check out the shops. We found a place where you could pick out the decals for the sweatshirt of your choice. The girls were so excited!
Back at the house, we couldn't leave without finishing the puzzle!
Family picture before heading on the road home
It was a quick few days, but lots of fun! Wish we all lived closer, so we could get together more often!
