We're Baaaaa-aaack

Oh, man. What a weekend. We had beautiful weather, lots of fun and I took 400 pictures. {I'll spare you the agony of looking at them all and just post my favorites from our weekend}

Here goes:

This is us enjoying our time together as a family. We left Thursday, July 3rd for Gaylord, MI.

Joey and the kids enjoying the pool our first night.

I don't know what it is about this picture, but I love it! Maybe it's the cutie with the blue eyes.

We went to Boyne City and they were having a 4th of July celebration in the town. They had these awesome bouncy things that the boys had a blast playing in. (This is still our 1st day...Thursday)

Me showing off my mad photography skillz!! This is Mariah looking into the bay at Boyne City.

Our fearless leader enjoying some sun on the rocks at Petoskey, MI (Friday, the 4th)

In front of J.B. John life boat at Petoskey.

Capt. Joe Collins, in charge of the lighthouse at Mackinaw City. :)

The Mighty Mac

Happy 4th of July. St. Ignace's fireworks. From our hotel we could see fireworks from about 4 different towns around the lakes.

Simon enjoying the view of the bridge. There is a quaint little gift shop in St. Ignace that has steps to it's roof so you can go up and enjoy the sights. (Saturday, July 5th)

Enjoying the ferry ride to Mackinac Island. It's about a 15 minute ride from St. Ignace.

For the first time we took the carriage tour around the island. This is the horses at one of the stops we made along the way.

You can't go to Mackinac Island without going to the butterfly conservatory. Alex got a butterfly to land on his hand.

Me and the kids at Arch Rock on Mackinac Island.

Fort Mackinac

The Grand Hotel. We had tickets (as part of the sight seeing package we bought) to go into the hotel, this is normally a $15 charge-just to go look around. We forgot about the time restrictions and didn't get there until 5:40, at 6:00 everyone has to be in their dress clothes...men in dress pants and a tie, women in dresses-no pants! And in walk the Collins' with their flip-flops and shorts. We didn't realize that everyone would be ahead of schedule. We were so out of place! I had a nice time taking pictures of the grounds and flowers though.

Simon throwing rocks into Lake Superior at Whitefish Point. This was our last day, Sunday, July 6th.

Whitefish Point, MI

Tahquamenon Falls. We had a blast playing in the falls. At the lower falls there is an island with falls around it. We were able to rent a canoe and go to the island. It was a lot of fun playing around.

One of my many favorites. Alex at the falls, Sunday the 6th.

Okay so that's only 22 of the 400 photos. Keep checking back and I'm sure I'll be scrapbooking like a mad woman this week, so I'll post some of what I do. Hey and look at it this way, I just showed you everything we did 'up north' so it's like I just saved you the trip...aye?! {okay, that's an 'up north' joke, must have spent too much time too close to Canada.}