The Clan McKinnon

A trip to this area is not complete without a visit to The Sleeping Bear Dunes.  John really, really, really wanted to race down the hill! Luckily he didn't, but he still missed out on our family photo! We found a little hill that we could go part of the way down without too much of a climb back up!  We finished the night watching the sunset -   which is really hard to capture with people in the picture.  Perfect sunset to end the trip!  

A big storm had blown across the state on our way up north; the wind stayed around for our whole trip! Wind + Sun = Funny Pictures We left Fishtown and headed just a little south, but stopped for a nice long bike ride along the Leelanau Trail.   Our next stop was at The Homestead. Still on Lake Michigan, still with lots of waves. Still with lots of fun!  

We started the day by watching the action on the river from our little hotel balcony.  They call this place Fishtown, but we didn't wake up earlier enough to see the fisherman head out.  We explored the beach area right by the hotel before heading up the Leeleaau peninsula.  We explored all the way up to the tip of the peninsula at the Leelanau State Park and then found some good hiking trails with great views!  After lunch in Northport, we found a big park with lots of play equipment to burn off more energy.  We all got into the swinging action! Some of us got creative.  Then back to our hotel for some late afternoon beach fun. I was the only one who would venture into Lake Michigan (it was cold)!  We finished the night meeting the Hensel family at a super cool outdoor restaurant Hop Lot - which had lots of picnic tables and outdoor games to play!  

It's usually a good start to vacation to have ice cream!  

It was a beautiful summer morning for a nice bike ride. We loaded the on the bikes car and traveled west just a bit to get on the B2B and rode all the way to Dexter and beyond!  For me, it was a really nice ride! 

That's right - today I turned 3 BIG years old!  But still - trying to get 3 kids to smile at the same time?  It's definitely something we are still working on.  Sometimes we show affection for one another.  But it's my birthday - so I'm all smiles!  Finally I got to open these boxes! Lots of new toys for me!  And one new hand-knit sweater from Grandma!  There were 3 BIG candles on my cake this year.  So big, that I had to stand up.  And use all my might!  Hooray!

When you head to the pool early on a Sunday - you can be the only ones there to play! Later in the day, Eve and I got to work building my tool box. We did great teamwork (all by ourselves)! Oh yea, I lost my first tooth yesterday!

The building at our neighborhood park got a new mural showing the great view of town from the park.