Did you miss me?

I’m baaaack!  You know you missed me!  This is actually the first break I’ve taken from blogging since last summer when I first started my blog.  Speaking of which, one week from today is my one year blog anniversary!  Yeah!

We actually got back from vacation on Saturday, but I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and write anything.  I honestly have so many pictures to share, I don’t even know where to start!

Maybe I’ll just go in order, that might be easiest.  We left on Saturday afternoon, after spending at least an hour trying to get the car packed up.  By the time Shawn was done, we totally looked like the Beverly Hillbillies!

Oh, and see that yellow ladder on the right edge of the picture?  I climbed up on top of the car, and then couldn’t get down!  I was up there whining and crying, meanwhile my children were pointing and laughing. 

On the way to Silver Lake, we stopped at the Country Dairy because that day was their yearly ice cream social!  Hey, I’m all for free ice cream!  So, we ate ice cream, made butter, petted some calves, and the girls got their picture taken with a cow:

I think we finally made it to Silver Lake around 4pm.  I’ve always loved the view on the road we come in on, you can see the sand dunes, and behind the dunes, the blue part is Lake Michigan:

We spent our first two nights there in my parent’s motor home, because the people who own the condo we rent wanted to stay in it for the Fourth of July weekend.  It wasn’t ideal, but we made the best of it!  On Sunday my brother, sister-in-law, and baby Ethan came up to spend the day.  We spent almost the whole day swimming at the pool and then watched the fireworks over Silver Lake that night.

Ethan loved playing in the water:

He is cutting his top two teeth, so he kept biting his top lip…my brother and sister-in-law were calling him a bull-dog!

Alivia and Lainey swam almost every single day.  By the end of the week, Alivia was even diving into the deep end!

Ethan stayed awake to watch the fireworks, which he seemed to love!  He never cried or anything, but he wasn’t a fan of me taking his picture:

On Monday my sister and her whole clan came up.  Again, we spent the whole day playing at the pool and that night the kids went and rode go-karts.  I sat out the go-karts this year due to the fact that I was involved in a crash last year between Shawn and my brother-in-law two adult males who shall remain nameless.  I’m still pissed about that, especially since both guys keep pointing fingers at the other!

Okay, onto the pictures…

Alex and I playing in the pool:

 

Before I go on, I have to tell you how stinkin cute this kid is!  When I was in the shallow end with him, he pointed down to the deep end and said “Hey, Aunt Tami!  See that #8 down there?  That’s my favorite number.  #8!”  My sister told me to tell him my favorite number, which is 7, and he even remembered it on Friday when he came back!

My brother-in-law asking me “Hey, does this look normal?”

Um, no.

Riding the go-karts:

Watching the other kids ride:

Grandpa and baby Ryan:

My niece, Natalie, wearing her Dad’s hat:

Whew!  That was only the end of the first two days!  I hope I don’t bore you to death with all these pictures.  I’ll leave you with one more picture of one of the many beautiful sunsets we saw: