Vacation

 Wyss Vacation has come and gone. 

Vacation was the last week in June.  That Friday, we left in the morning.  I had a home study for work up in Chicago so, instead of making two trips, we decided to take a slight detour.  Nathan and the kids spent time in Bass Pro. while I did my home study and then we were on the way.  Traffic was awful, so our trip there took a while. 

 Packing with kids is crazy. We took so much stuff.  

 We arrived at Grand Beach Inn, Michigan in the evening and pretty much unpacked and went to bed. 

Grand Beach Inn

 We took a walk in the morning to find a beach. Sadly all of the rain has washed out the beaches in the area. They are still decent, but nothing like they used to be. 

We spent a quiet afternoon at the beach. 

beach time!

The water was freezing.

:)

nap time on the beach

a cool little area off the beach

This is why I love the Great Lakes

 The beaches were very rocky, but we had fun building. 

Aurelia loved the sand and rocks. :)

 Grand Beach Inn is great.  It's an old hotel so everyone is in the same building. We were able to put the kids down for naps or for the night and take the monitor down. Some years its a bit isolating if you have to stay in the cabin.  It also has a large kitchen and dining room. Which is great for all the communal eating we do. 

A group took an evening walk to the beach. 

Aurelia and Wren

how many kids in a stroller

Shena posing with a very friendly deer

volleyball in the evening at the park

Rowan and Aurelia

 Sunday, we had church services as a family. 

The guys did some quarteting

afternoon chatting and relaxing on the deck

pool time

Aurelia napping by the pool this time...

 Both Kacie and Kray had birthdays on vacation. 

Confetti cannons!

 I bought Kacie a pinata. hehe. 

Gideon even got to give it a try

picking up the candy once it finally did burst

enjoying the pool

kacie may :)

Troy and Aurelia 

These boys... 

such handsome young men hehehe...

As the week went on and more people arrived, meal time became even greater chaos. 

We spent another evening at the park.

:)

I joined in on some pickle ball

I really have no idea what troy is doing here. 

But, rest assured, this picture will be in his scrapbook some day. 

these two did not make bedtime on vacation very easy.

I made breakfast one morning. We had sausage, eggs, and a crepe bar. 

 A bunch of us went to the nice public beach one day. 

:)

They look like they are filming an add for pop

The water was still cold but it was hot enough outside to make it almost bearable to swim in. It didn't seem to bother Gideon at all. 

little fish

By some miracle, both took naps on the beach.

tag football

Grandpa and Grandma Celebrated their anniversary. 

having a conversation with the kids on the porch

One day during Aurelia's nap, I heard giggling coming over the monitor. I went up to our room to find this...

heading to another beach day!

afternoon in the pool

We had Wednesday night church services too.  And after Sunday's meltdown from Gideon "This is NOT church!!!!" I decided it would be best for everyone if the vacationed up, wound up, sugared up, exhausted kids were not in the room. So, I took everyone out to the porch to color and play. 

 At some point Cecily and Boden got in to a discussion of how God and Jesus are the same but different. "And God lives in heaven... and that's weird." haha. 

Church went a little long... so, I read them lots of books, they colored everything, and then I pretty much set them loose. 

late night games

One morning Kayla helped me take Aurelia's 9 month pictures.

She didn't cooperate as well when we actually got down to the beach. 

The rocks were just way too interesting. 

It was just gorgeous 

We went to the small beach again. more sunshine and rock building. 

I took a pretty cool picture of Cliff

Then, because I insisted, we took a trip to Oink's for ice cream. 

Kandace came up with a family scavenger hunt that we did one evening. It was hot but fun. :)

take a selfie with someone older

read books

jumping shot

air guitars

awkward family photo

spell Wyss

action shot

yoga poses...

hahaha. anyway, I mostly got to be the photographer. But, it was fun. 

We took an evening walk to the beach to catch the sunset...only there was a storm and no sunset. 

awww... a pretty good picture if I don't say so myself.

:) 

check out those clouds!!

Look how gorgeous it is!!!

And then the storm came and we all ran.

Then we had to say goodbye. Vacation was over. Sad day.  We had to get everyone packed up and out by 10am. So it was absolute chaos in the morning. 

Someone was VERY happy to be home. 

 I however struggled with some very serious vacation withdrawals. 

 We really had a good time. Vacationing with two kids is harder. But, I love watching them experience things. It took a few days to figure out their routine on vacation, but we made it and it was fun. They got back into their routines pretty fast after we got home. 

Ah, Wyss Vacation. It's definitly changing but I still love it. I have an amazing family. Just saying. 

:)

In Christ
~Michelle