More Father's Day Celebration

We got back to California and home around midnight on Father's Day Eve, adjusted our time clocks and got to Brett's family's gathering the next day.  The cousins entertained themselves as well as getting to go duck feeding with Poppy.  We shared stories of our last week and enjoyed some good food and memories about what we like best about our dads.  We also made it a two-for as we celebrated James' birthday.

 

Gettin' crazy with the fathers.

We found a classic Star Wars toy for Dad from Episode IV and he didn't have it.

Grammy made some cool Star Wars placemats!

Father's Day Photos

Then there was the whole fun idea of doing some Father's Day photos with the boys and some crazy poses with letters and Dad and Grandpa.  Griffin staged a brief protest and was not included in some of the photos but he decided his protest was not on solid ground, so decided to beach it and join in the fun.

 

 

Family Photo Shoot

You get the whole family together once a year and you have to get some good group pictures done during that time, especially when you have great scenery like Lake Michigan and the beach.  So enjoy some of the candid moments and some of the planned formal ones.  See if you can find our Chariots of Fire reference.

 

A Daddy tackle hug.

Oh the effort sometimes unseen that goes into each picture...

Traveling

We started out with a red eye flight out of San Francisco which led to an arrival in Chicago at around 4 am.  We stretched out as much as we could near our gate and tried to catch some more zzzzs.  But eventually we ate breakfast at Starbucks and then nearly missed our flight that left an hour late because they made no announcements about the departure (but we heard the announcements for all the flights to Philadelphia that were 20 gates down...go figure).  You might think that sleeping in between your brother's feet is a bad idea?

 

A smoothie and brownie...the breakfast of children...in an airport.

 

 
 

Keeping ourselves out of trouble in the car.

Driving past a Wisconsin dairy.

Down a hill.  Weeeeeeee.

We had to get from Wisconsin to Michigan somehow and this time instead of enduring the 7 to 8 hour journey in the car around the Lake, we decided to cut across the lake using the ferry.  So we boarded the SS Badger and hoped that our car would actually be put on the ferry as well (it is a valet service).  Then we played games, watched movies (not really for us), talked, colored, and ran around while enjoying the view.  Much better than strapped in a seatbelt!

I hope everyone is on board because we are setting sail.

Our African American family members.

 



Aunt Alecia liked playing Life, BINGO, and running around with the boys on the trip.

Beach House Fun

We arrived in Michigan and stayed at a beach house called the Shanty, which at first glance sure looked like its name.  But the place grew on us and the access to the beach, right our front porch was sand, was amazing.  The deck out of the second floor gave an amazing view and was a great place to spend a quiet morning while the kids slept.  We never really adjusted to east coast time...the kids often stayed up until 10:30 or 11:00 and slept in until 9:00.  Or maybe that is not so different from our norm?  We enjoyed the large sand dune just a short walk from our place.  We experienced sunshine, rain, and thunder and lightening which gave us a great variety of sunsets to enjoy.

 

 


Do you prefer the nice organized photo or the crazy one?

Cousin Kaleb is looking pretty familiar in his handed down clothes.

Roasting marshmallows with Uncle Aaron's guidance.

Grandma lounged on the beach to watch the whiffleball action.

One of many beautiful sunsets over Lake Michigan.

Mommy showed us how to hang upside down from a Stegosaurus.

The Luddington Lighthouse at the end of a long pier.

Did I fly far enough to land safely without a splash?

Our favorite mini-golf hole depicting the SS Badger that we took across the lake.

The rewarding view from the top of the dune.

Grandpa and Griffin work their way to the top of the dune.

Daddy at the top of the sand dune.