Little Northern Michigan vacay

Even though it was a little vacation, I have lots of pics! So, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Last week we got back from Clear lake Resort, up in central northern MI. We had fun and it was nice to get away. It was the perfect distance too. Not too far, but far enough! I was pleasantly surprised that Addie did GREAT in the car. This is the girl that complains about the car ride to Target. A huge thank you goes out to Grandma and Grampa Hosking for the portable DVD player for the car. Definitely eased the pain!

So, here is where we stayed. It was..ummm...cozy. Actually it wasn't that bad, tight, but not bad. Well, the bathroom was a bit of a challenge. We'll just say that not only was it tiny, but the showers were lightning fast!

But, how can you complain when you wake up to this view every day?

Here we have Jim and Aidan getting ready to go fishing. Aidan was so excited to fish and I think Jim was just as excited to take him.

But miss Addie and Zoe were not happy that they weren't invited. Here they were just staring out the door watching the guys fish.

Here are they guys, doing their thing.

While the guys were fishing, the dew on the grass caught my eye and I thought it may be neat to take a pic. This isn't exactly how I hoped it would turn out, but I still like the color and clean feeling.


As many of you know, this summer has been dubbed the "bummer summer" since it's been a bit cooler than in previous years. With the weather up north being a good 5-10 degrees cooler, we were a little disappointed that there wasn't much beach time. It actually wouldn't have been too bad it wasn't so windy. Jim and the kids braved the weather to swim a couple times. The kids (especially Addie) love the water.

She LOVES the beach.

Digging in the dirt is her favorite part.

I don't know what Aidan was doing here, but he was having fun!

He loved looking for sea shells. I know, freshwater lake, no seashells. But he found a bunch of snail shells. He was pretty excited about that!

Even Zoe had fun!


Then we rented a pontoon boat for a couple hours. The kids really seemed to like it. Again, it was a little cooler than we would like, but it was nice and peaceful. Here the kids are enjoying ice cream candy.

Then the guys decided to try their luck at fishing again.

And Addie gave boat driving a try.

She finally got a chance to fish and LOVED it! She took it very seriously!

I don't know what she's doing here, but you can sure tell she loved being on the boat!

Aidan gives his best pirate impersonation. No, he's actually squinting from the sun, but he sure looks cute!

I was obsessed with the clouds over the lake. It was at this time I wished that I had a nice wide angle lens. I just love those big sky shots. I never get the opportunity to do that at home!

Then a rare thing happened. I handed Jim my camera in auto and had him take a pic of me with the kids!


I love this pic of Aidan. It was just one of those moments I was sitting down, playing with my camera when Aidan sat next to me. I said "Hey Aidan!" he looked at me and I snapped. I just love his eyes here. I didn't touch them in Photoshop either (except size/sharpen for web). Every once in a while I nail my focus and get so excited! And Look, you can see Addie in the bokeh!

Annnnd, here is our deck view from our last night on vacation. The first couple evenenings were too overcast to give much color. So pretty!

That was our little get away. I can't say it was exactly relaxing with the kids, but it was a nice change of scenery!