A girls getaway

I must blog about our most recent Up North vacation...before our next one begins tomorrow! It was such a wonderful little get-away, just the girls and I. Here's how this spontaneous vacation all went down...

My Aunt Carol, my mom's sister, who lives in Wisconsin, called to say that she got her boss's cabin in Mancelona for a week, would my mom and I like to come and stay with her? I didn't even have to think twice about it or look at my calendar, I immediately answered "Yes!" My gut reaction was to stay all week but then I remembered other obligations so ultimately we landed on a Monday to Wednesday visit.  I knew Aaron wouldn't be able to take the time off but I didn't want that to hold the girls and I back from taking advantage of a free place to stay and to just kick back and do nothing. That's the only thing I was looking forward to on this vacation, doing as little as possible. In fact, I planned as little as possible and I packed as little as possible. I always over-think, over-plan, and over-pack for every vacation so I did the opposite for this vacation. It felt great.

In the days prior to leaving, as I was explaining our little vacation to Kayla, I used the phrase "Up North". She couldn't grasp what that meant. Then the day before we left I overheard her talking to her friend about our trip and when her friend asked where she was going, Kayla replied, up north. Yes! She's got it!

Here is our humble little 3-bedroom home. I knew it would be as close to "camping" as I - and certainly we - might ever get as far as Aaron is concerned, so that's another reason I wanted to go, to get my fill of "camping". It was quaint, otherwise known as "old", but it was clean even though it hadn't been stayed in for over a year. It reminded me of Great Grandpa and Grandma Stillberger's home. The home sat on 80 acres on a quiet country road 5 miles out of town. The front porch was great for morning coffee, reading a book in the afternoon, and watching the full moon at night. Here's how we enjoyed ourselves when we weren't off exploring:

 Playing croquet

 Swinging ( We so need one of these!)

Enjoying delicious homemade breakfast cake from Carol

Although I tried to plan as little as possible for this vacation, there were a few things on my Up North bucket list. Mostly I put together a brief list to help Carol which highlights to visit in the area. Mancelona is nothing to get excited about, but there are places all around there that are worthy of a bucket list. My first bucket list item was to visit Torch Lake - a place I'd never been! For as many times as Aaron and I have been up north and for as many lakes we've had our boat in, I can't believe Torch Lake is not one of them. It was voted as one of the most beautiful lakes in all of the United States. If a place is the 'most beautiful', you should visit there, right? 

 Fist time in Torch Lake..... brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

You wouldn't know the water was cold by watching Kayla dive like a mermaid and Khloe swim!

Playtime at the beach was followed by dinner at Dockside, which was right on the water. I must take Aaron there sometime!

The next thing on my bucket list was to take the girls navigating down a river. This was my main motivation for going up north. We called the Jordan River Outfitters and they recommended a raft for the five of us, which would be perfect for a six and two year old. We reserved our time slot for 12pm and began the 1.5 hour rafting trip down the river. 

It was a perfect weather day for being on the water - hot and sunny. Let the adventure begin!

 I would do this trip again in a heartbeat! It was so fun! (Although my mom my think differently, right mom?) The river is quiet and pristine, very cold and quite fast. I loved how the entire stretch was lined with cedar trees. When we found shallow beach areas and decided to take little breaks, the water felt refreshing on our skin.

We took our time getting down the river, so it took us a little over 2 hours. At the end where we pulled our raft out, we just sat and played in the shallow water for about 2.5 hours! The girls had a blast playing and Carol and I were successful in hunting for Petosky Stones . The really really really weird part in all of this is that I was in East Jordan, without Kurt and Sarah. In all their years of living there, we never went on the Jordan River. Then two years after they move to Iowa I take a trip just to spend a day in East Jordan. Trust me, it was very strange to be there without them. 

Our stopping point, the beautiful Jordan River

Here's how rafting and playing in the water all day ended for two little sweeties:

Whew! So, day three of our relaxing vacation - and our last day - was spent in Boyne City. We went to check out the farmer's market and have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Sante. 

Downtown Boyne and Cafe Sante did not disappoint! What a great ending to our fabulous spontaneous vacation! After a long day spent shopping in Boyne, then another long evening spent shopping at Birch Run, we finally arrived back home at 10:30pm. The only thing I did not get to cross of my bucket list was going to Shorts in Bellaire. We just ran out of time; there were too many things to do on our "do nothing" vacation! I think we're all still recovering from "doing nothing"! 

This was the first time I took the girls on vacation just by myself, which is another reason the trip was memorable and special to me. I really enjoyed our "girl time", although flying solo in an unfamiliar place was exhausting at times. Still, I would do it all over again. The only thing that did surprise me is how much Kayla missed her Daddy. He travels frequently so it is not new for them to be sepearated, but perhaps her being away from him made her homesick. She called and talked to him every night, which is when she was the most sad, and finally on the last night (during our looooong trip home) she lost it and cried. I know the trip was fun for her, but this made me feel a little sad for her.

Thank you so much Carol for helping us create and be a part of these awesome memories! I hope we can do this again sometime! (Only next time, with Aaron)

Boating with friends

The summer's not complete until we have the Gumbis on our boat. We tried so many times the last several weeks, but each time fell through mostly due to the horrible fall weather we were having in August. Finally, everything worked out. We <3 to have the Gumbis on our boat because they <3 boating as much as we do. We couldn't have asked for a better day!

 Lots of cute little girls on our boat! Mary (6), Katherine (4) and Emma (almost 2), and Kayla and Khloe

 Yay Emma! Her first time boating and she loved it!

 Mary and Kayla

Emma riding front and center, wind blowing through her hair as we cruise along. No fear whatsoever. Elizabeth to Emma: "Emma, do you want to sit on Momma's lap? Do you want Momma to hold you?" Emma: No. 

Okay Emma, the bow is yours!

 At one point or another during the day, every girl took a nap on the boat. We wore them right out!

Emma asleep on Joe and Katherine asleep on Elizabeth, Khloe asleep on me and the two big girls were napping in the front. Ha! It was an exhausting day!

Thanks for squeezing us into your busy schedules Gumbis! It was a great last boating day in Port Huron before summer ends and school begins! It was all part of our "weekend that never ends!"

A moment to remember

Keeping each other warm and safe on the front of the boat

Passing under the Blue Water Bridges

Kayla, 6 and Khloe 2

5k color fun run!

This is going down as one of the summer highlights for the girls and I! It was such a BLAST! I don't know if it was such a blast because A) I actually did a 5k, B) It was fun to get so messy, C) It was a great girl's night out, or D) All of the above.

Color Fun Run was trademarked in 2012 and has turned into a craze sweeping the county, including over 800 people that took part in Port Huron's first color fun run. I've seen pictures from friends who have done recent color runs and they looked so fun!!! This 5k was marketed to all ages and abilities which was good because I neither want to [nor probably could] run 3 miles and I was going to have three little girls with me including a stroller. The point was just to try it AND have fun! Aaron was busy celebrating Christmas (aka FFL draft night with nine guys at our house), so this was our special Girls Only Night activity!

The premise is that you show up wearing all white and then at various stations along the route you get doused with paint. At the start line we got hit with purple paint and purple powder, then a kilometer later pink paint, the next kilometer blue, then green, then orange. The grand finale at the finish line was everyone was corralled in a large fenced off area and given a bag of colored powder of their choice. Sunglasses are a must, the countdown from 10 began and then everyone throws their powder up in the air (or on each other) for a truly spectacular rainbow show! What a mess, what a hoot!

As an interesting side note, our friends Scott and Alissa's 10-year old son Bo ran in the race, his second 5k. He came in 3rd place out of 800 people finishing in 20 minutes! I was proud to have finished in 48 minutes! We did take a few short cuts, but we weren't last! Like I said, there were all ages and abilities. Khloe wasn't too sure about getting splattered with paint during the first half of the race, but by the second half she wanted out of the stroller and she ran the whole rest of the way. Oh she got so many comments on her cute little curly piggie tails and her arms swinging back and forth. Yes, I even passed people trying to keep up with Addie, Kayla and Khloe! People commented on how a two year old was putting them to shame! When we crossed the finish line Addie said, "I can't believe we won. What prize do we get?"

These two girls did their first 5k! I was so proud of them!

Here's our before and after shot! Ahhhhhhhhh! We did it! Can't wait until the next one! My goal for the next one is to seriously run the race!

The party continued after the race at the waterfront park with inflatables, a rock wall, a live band, concessions and beer tent. Kayla did her first climb on a rock wall! Then we ended with a night cap at Quay Street to visit Melissa and Aunt Kristy and show them what a mess we were!

All part of our "weekend that never ends"!

Sunday best

 "No Kayla, you stand right over here!"

Little sister bossing big sister around. I love it.

 Can't get much goofier!

 Okay you two goof balls, how about a sweet sister pose?
Awwwww, just how Momma likes it.

Summer fun continues

Rockin' the Rivers every Thursday! It's our fun family summer tradition. Kayla counts down every week and then on Thursday mornings announces "It's Rockin the River's day today!" My goal this summer has been to get as many neighbors from Black Forest there, I'm not doing too bad considering no one had ever been before. The kids love the slushies and the bouncies and just rolling on the hill and playing in the grass. 

Any day, any moment, any week of the summer. Friends, outdoors, and popsicles. 

Kayla was on her way over to Addie's for a sleepover!

 On Saturday, we made the most of a somewhat chilly day (definitely was not hot on the water!) to watch the powerboat races. It was fun being anchored in the St. Clair River watching the loud boats race by. We didn't get out of our sweatshirts much that day!

 The girls wanted to be cuddled up together. Kayla said "Khloe let me hold her!" Clearly they were both enjoying the tender moment, as were we. In Khloe's words, "Awwwww! So cute!"

 When you meet up with the Quains on the river, where must you go? The Zeb for dinner!

It was another long, fun day and evening on the water. Somebody crashed on the floor under Daddy's new blue lights.