The day Billy arrived, we hit Pirate's Cove for our inaugural putt-putt outing...
At John's request, only "the boys" played ;)
Nana and the boys walking the plank :)
Discussing the grain, obviously...
It was a great time, no meltdowns this year for John! Woo hoo!
I think he might actually beat us all next summer!
We also had to play some baseball this vaca - Will literally goes NO WHERE without his glove, a ball, or whiffle ball and bat...so here we are spending a chilly morning at a diamond...
Lefty slugger, like his mamma :)
I had to add this picture because I'm not sure what is more concerning, Will's pre-hitting face or the fact that John, unsupervised, is about to walk off of the edge of the bleachers!
We also made another trip to the dunes - where the boys went BANANAS!
Warning, there are a LOT of action photos - because I love my Nikon's shutter speed :)
We took a quick family photo at the top...
And then the boys continued to race up and down and all around the surrounding dunes!
Dune jumping - it is fun, unless you are old and arthritic like me ;)
If you look VERY VERY carefully you will see the boys right in the center of this particular dune - I'm telling you, this dune climb is HUGE!
And then they made the run down - John bit the dust right off the bat, but recovered and made it to the bottom.
Look at these two love birds :) Relaxing and soaking in all the awesomeness that time spent with two adorable grandsons can bring!
After a while, we decided enough was enough and we all ran down the main face...
Will won :)
I placed second :)
Billy and Johnny tied for third :)
Later on in the week we made a trip to one of my most favorite stops - Pierce Stocking Overlook...it was a beautiful morning!
The kids did tons of exploring at this spot - you can BARELY see them nestled in this grove of trees :)
Postcard Picture!
Here's Johnny, trekking onward!
Nana and Will at one of the overlooks...
This spot was a new discovery (we MAY have gone off the trail a bit)...Will is WAY up high trying to scale this extremely steep dune, and John is sliding around about half way up!
Here is Will, he lost his grip and did a backwards somersault hee hee!
Another few postcard pics! It's easy to capture beautiful moments when the scenery is so beautiful!
Here is a typical afternoon at the inland lake, Lake Leelanau.
Billy and Johnny hanging out and Papa Dave and Will causing a ruckus!
Cannonballing it! Seriously, dock jumping is SO MUCH FUN.
About two thirds through our vacation, we had ONE (and only one) rainy, chilly day. So we decided to spend it at the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.
The boys did some more exploring in the cedar trees...
And then the four boys made their way through the lighthouse (Nana and I opted out of the scavenger hunt - museums with Papa Dave can be rather LOOOONG because he insists on reading and reviewing EVERYTHING :)
The boys all finally made it to the top and we headed out for a picnic lunch!
The day was rainy, but the night ended with a beautiful Trey sunset - I could never get tired of this view!
The next few days were ROASTING - high 70s! We spent nearly every waking moment at a beach!
And in the afternoons, we played Papa's favorite and most innovative game - broomball...
And Will's favorite, croquet...
Towards the end of the vacation I convinced everyone that it was worthwhile to pack up and make the hour drive to Empire - to hit up North Bar Beach. This place is AMAZING. I've never taken the kids (or Billy) here - and I'm so glad we finally did it this year. North Bar is an inland lake that is notoriously very very warm. There is a small sand bar that separates it from Lake Michigan and some of the most amazing shorelines you'll ever see. Here are the boys on the Lake Michigan side....
Here we are standing on the dividing sand bar...
And here they are in North Bar Lake - looks like we are in Wyoming or something doesn't it?
Here's a good view from North Bar Lake of the sand bar dividing the two bodies of water...
Late afternoons were usually spent in Leland - one day Papa Dave surprised us all by showing up to the dock in his A Cat - the boys were fascinated by this!
On Billy and I's last day we all headed down to mom and dad's beach for some petoskey hunting (Michigan state rock)...
Luck was on our side that morning, Will and I found oodles and oodles!
And of course we shared our findings with Johnny (although he prefers beach glass)...
We literally hung out in the calm morning beachy air for hours - which gave me ample opportunity to capture some good photos...
With our pockets full of beach glass, petoskeys, and other amazingly beautiful Michigan rocks we headed up the stairs to the house. Here is our stash of petoskeys! Nana is going to work on polishing some of the boys' favorite other rocks and Johnny, of course, has his collection of beach glass.
That afternoon we hit the beach one last time before leaving the kiddos...this is a typical Brown family picture, adults looking and smiling, kiddos totally distracted haha!
Here is my favorite picture of the vaca - the Treys (including auntie Em!) and the Browns. Snapshot in time.
We had an amazing summer vacation.
I will never, ever, ever grow tired of going up to quaint northern Michigan.
Each year brings new adventures, surprises, and memories.
Who knows, maybe 2016 brings an escape to the UP for some Lake Superior action (think about it Billy, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - let's do it!)
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