Watervale

This was my family's 21st summer to make the 1,200 mile trek to northern Michigan, and the Peanut's 2nd trip (or third, if you want to get technical about it, as I was 3 months pregnant with him in 2010).  Just as we did last year, everyone else left on Friday morning to make the two day, 22 hour drive, while P and I stayed behind - catching a flight to Chicago and then Traverse City the next afternoon.

Here we are on the way to the airport.  We decided to buy P his own seat and take the car seat on the plane with us.  Best. decision. ever.

We arrived at the airport around 1:30, didn't have to wait in a line at security (thank you God), and made it to our gate about 90 minutes early (since our flight was delayed 20 minutes).  As we were waiting, I tried to pull up a video that I had downloaded for P, only to realize that while I had purchased it on iTunes, I hadn't actually downloaded it to my phone.  Fail.  Travel tip:  As of right now, DFW doesn't have free Wi-fi, but if you go and hang out outside of the Admiral's Club, you can mooch a connection. :)  All the classy people are doing it.

 

In our seat on the airplane...if I have time, I'll write a post about traveling with a toddler.

Of course he was awake for the entire flight to Chicago, and the second the wheels touched down, he fell asleep.

Fun fact: a lot of food courts at the Chicago airport (all airports?) don't have highchairs.  We took food from other eating establishments into the Chili's and just ate our dinner there and enjoyed some down-time.

Although it's hard to see it, the little contraption that is attached to P's car seat was my lifesaver!!!  The GoGo Kidz Travelmate let me wheel P around like a piece of travel luggage, which meant I didn't have to bring a stroller!  Also, this picture may or may not be taken in a bathroom stall.  Poor kid was up close and personal with his mama...more than once.

 

Made it onto the next plane to Traverse City.  Peanut really enjoyed the takeoff and the landing.

 

Just hanging out on the plane...

 

When we finally landed in TVC, we still had to drive another hour to our final destination.  You would have thought that P would have fallen fast asleep in the backseat.  But that was not the case.  When we arrived at our cottage, P proceeded to race around the place like he had all the energy in the world.  Thankfully, that was short-lived, and he finally crashed and burned.  It was definitely a long day!

 

 He woke up every morning ready to go!

 Hanging out on the porch.

 Enjoying some Michigan blueberries.

 And some more...

 Washing off the airplane funk in the antique bathtub. :)

 Hanging out on the porch swing with Aunt KiKi and Uncle Bear.

 Peanut loves his Aunt KiKi.

 Rockin' the sunbuggies.

 "Well hello there..."

 This is SUCH a Peanut face! :)

 A vacation treat...popsicle snack after nap.

 P's curls were our scientifically accurate humidity indicator.

 Love those baby blues.

 Popsicle eating is a full-contact sport.  No shirt (or pants, seemingly) necessary.

 I LOVE POPSICLES!

 I mean really love popsicles.  :)

 The sunbuggies return.

 Sunset over the little lake.

 Sunset 2.

 Hanging out on the porch swing with Grammy Share.

 More with Grammy Share.

 One rainy morning, Grammy Share was CRACKING Peanut up by creeping up to him and then jumping and shouting "Kaboom!"  It was hilarious!

 Oh yeah!

We all made our way down to the big beach early in the week.

P had no idea what to expect. :)

 

Making our way down to the big beach.

 

Here we all are.  It was a beautiful day!

 

Playing in the water.

 

Snuggling with Grammy Share and trying to get warmed up after eating a handful of sand. :(  His daddy had to run him out into the lake and more or less dunk him under to get the sand out of his mouth.

 Listening to Grammy Share sing some songs.

 

J getting ready to go for a swim in Lake Michigan.  Don't be concerned...he's not really this white.  Thank you Instagram filter for making J look like a vampire. :) (Sorry, Buddy.)

 

K's rock hunting finds.

 Hanging out with Grandpa Ron and Grammy Share.

  

He loves them. :)

 Playing in the sand.

Looking for his toes!

Found them! :)

Besides the sand-eating fiasco, P had a GREAT time at the beach!

We began a tradition a couple of years ago of going to this little bakery in town and having breakfast.  Vacation is usually a time where you don't count calories, which is good - especially for this breakfast - as we probably couldn't count that high. :)

You've heard of an apple fritter?  Well, when you're in cherry country, you get cherry fritters. (Cue angel choir).

This may or may not be the box of donuts that we bought.  And we may or may not have consumed all of them.  Don't worry...there were six whole people responsible for making these disappear! (And P was not one of them...we tried to give him some bites of a cake donut, but he was not interested.  As a side note, he also really disliked the french fries that came with his dinner one night - so much so that he took one out of his mouth after taking a bite and had to take a big drink of water.  He also wouldn't have anything to do with the fruit snacks we had for him as a fun food for the plane.  I'm picturing a broccoli sculpture for his birthday cake this year.)

Walking with Aunt KiKi.

Pretty flowers in Frankfort.

As he tends to do at everyone's home, P quickly found the pantry, and spent a lot of time there grunting for saltine crackers (a culinary love he must get from his Grandpa Ron.)

Here he is with his saltines...one for each hand, of course, as he will have it no other way.

On Thursday we climbed Baldy - a 3 mile hike up through the woods and then down a huge dune and back along the beach.  This year we had quite the adventure on the way back.  There was a huge storm brewing, and the moment we ran down the beach, we were caught in a torrential downpour.  Not to worry - there was also some thunder and lightening, which encouraged us to go ahead and run back down the beach...we felt very hardcore.  Who am I kidding...we were very hardcore.

A new plaque at the top of the dune hike.

 Our last day there it rained in the morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out. :)  We decided to go and pick some blueberries - something everyone should do at least once in his life - at a little place about 5 miles down the road.

 We thought P would be all over it, considering blueberries are the kid's go-to food.  At first he was unsure defiant.  He picked a berry, put it in his mouth, and proceeded to take it out and throw it on the ground.  Just to prove his point, he picked another one, and simply threw it on the ground.  J and I were admittedly bummed, as we thought P would be in heaven!

 We were about to give up and go home, but we figured that we were there, so we might as well pick some.  So, we started filling our bucket, and then P became interested.

 Wait a second...what is this?

 A blueberry!?  Well why didn't you say so!?!!

And thus began P shoveling berries into his mouth out of the dirty bucket. :)  J was a poor sport and decided that wasn't sanitary, so he told P "no."  You can see how P took that in the next picture.

 He was seriously upset.

 Not to worry...J continued to pick berries and put them in the bucket.  I continued to pick berries and put them in Peanut's mouth.

 The blueberries cost $1.75 per pound.

 Love the honor system at work here!

 Our take-home bounty.

 Smile. :)

 The one piece of photographic evidence that we made the trip with P this year!

 Before dinner.

 On the porch swing.

 I love my little boy.

 Getting some sweet smooches.

 Sunset at the beach on Friday night.

 This is the most people I have EVER seen on the beach!

 Love my sweet sister.

 The original 4.

 Sister and Bear.

 On Saturday, P and I made our trek back to Dallas via the air.  Here we are watching the planes come in and cars drive around.  He loved it.

 We found a mini oasis in the middle of the Chicago airport.

 I love my travel buddy...even if he did have an epic meltdown before we got on the last flight home (I think his wailing allowed us to pre-board.) :)

As soon as I got his seat buckled in, P crashed and burned.  He slept almost the entire way home from Chicago to Dallas.

Here was our little family last year when P was 7 months old.

 

And here we are this year with Mr. Personality at 19 months.

It admittedly is not easy traveling with a young child.  In fact, when I got back, I posted on Facebook that if someone told me that they would pay me six figures to fly alone with a toddler several times a week, I would turn them down.  It's exhausting...even when your kiddo is well behaved!  And I'm sure that J might have other things he would rather do than ride alone in the car packed with P's favorite toys and books for 22 hours, but we do it because it's worth it.  P had the time of his life this year - playing in the little lake, going for walks down the sidewalk (multiple times a day!), going to the big beach, swinging at the playground, chasing the basketball around on the basketball court, playing in the sprinklers, eating breakfast at the Inn, hanging out with his family, (did I mention going for walks down the sidewalk?), picking blueberries, and thankfully for his mom and dad - taking great naps and sleeping well at night (a MAJOR improvement from last year!).  We look forward to all the memories waiting to be made in the years to come.