We spent several fun days "up north" this weekend for a short and sweet getaway with the kids. On Thursday morning, my mom stopped by to get Brutus's things so she could watch him for us while we were gone. Poor little buddy can always tell when we're about to leave him for a little while. He starts shaking all over. :( So we make sure to love him up before and after.
Anyway, mom showed up wearing basically the same thing I had on. Haha! So we took a quick pic and then hit the road. :)
Five hours in the car is the longest we've ever driven en route to a destination with the kids. But we can also never head up north without stopping on the way at Birch Run Outlets. So we decided to just break up the drive to Traverse City with an overnight in Houghton Lake on Thursday/Friday and check out some prettiness in that town too.
Lots of reading up on family fun ideas in Michigan.
I requested Uno's pizza for lunch upon arrival at the outlets and everyone obliged.
The pizza did not disappoint.
Deep dish cheesy goodness.
We hit up a few favorites (North Face, Nike, OshKosh, Carters, etc.) but ultimately did not spend a ton of time in any of them. I did plenty of personal shopping back in May here, so I just looked for some things for the kids.
Catching a few zzz's as we finished our drive to Houghton Lake.
I swear, this boy gets older looking every time I blink.
Sophie always gets so quiet and focused in elevators as she waits to feel those funny floating sensations. You can see the new Nike sandals Craig bought her for our upcoming hike on the sand dunes. She had to sport them now for a bit. :)
Checking out the view of the lake from our hotel room balcony.
Aaaaand, then there's our kids' favorite part of staying in hotel rooms. ;)
Love that my boy is not too big to hold yet. He actually likes being picked up and snuggled still. Hanging on to that as long as I can!
Our kids got to play photographer several times this weekend. :) Sophie did a particularly good job when it was her turn.
Here, I was taking a pic on my iPhone of her holding the big camera and she took a picture right back at me! Hehe!
Walking down to the beach and the dock.
The light was just gorgeous this evening! The sunset, the clouds, the water reflections. Just beautiful.
These don't even need captions. They're just pretty.
Craig challenged Sophie to a race up the hill to the swing set on the property and she, of course, accepted. Gosh, I hope this girl chooses to be a runner! She is quick!
We ate dinner at a restaurant called The Limberlost. There weren't many choices in this smallish town, but the atmosphere on the outside patio was very nice and the food was good.
Sans nap, our kids were getting tired and a little impatient by this point.
I snuggled Sophie a bit and played silly games with her to distract her for a little while.
But then finally, we allowed a little bit of electronic entertainment.
Craig and Will played some game on the iPod.
And Sophie watched little videos of herself on my phone. Haha! I happened to have a couple of her "reading" to me and one she videoed of me reading a book to her, so that was handy! :)
So pretty in Michigan.
Uhhh... yum!
We went back to our hotel and swam in the pool before doing baths and bedtime. All in all, a good day!
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