4th of July Vacation

We had such a wonderful vacation, and I think Luke really enjoyed it. It was so much fun to get to spend so much time together as a family, and Luke just blossomed having so much attention. His vocabulary is increasing by the day, and it's truly amazing to watch. Some of his new words on the trip are Cracker, Book, Balloon, Ellie (Becky, Gordie, and Katie's dog), Juice, and Shoe. Granted, these are words only a mother could understand, but it's fun to see him start to understand that everything has a name. His two favorite expressions are Moo Cow, and What's that, which are funny to hear over and over. I never thought Dave and I would be sick of answering "What's That" to a 12 month old!

To start our vacation, we went down to South Bend to our friends' Mike and Theresa's new house. It was a surprise party for Theresa, and super fun to get to visit them. They've just built a new house, so we were seeing it for the first time (it was beautiful!). We drove down a little early and went to the South Bend Zoo with Luke which was fun since he loves animals so much. We didn't take very many pictures, but here are a couple of us there.




That night we drove back to South Lyon, and left the next afternoon for our vacation up north. We started with 3 nights of camping, then went to Chimney Corners on Crystal Lake for 1 night, and then to Manistee for the last 2 nights. It was so great to get away, and so much fun.

Camping turned out to be really fun, and Luke really liked being outdoors so much. We went to Hartwick Pines State Park which was just ok overall. We were tent camping, and the campground didn't have very much shade which made it roasting during the day! Everything worked out, however, and our little camp worked out great. We had a pack n play for Luke in the tent which you can see below, and he also had a little hook on highchair which connected to the picnic table. Dave and I thought feeding Luke outside was the best part because you didn't have to clean up any of the food that Luke dropped. Seriously, there was a chipmunk just waiting for Luke to finish eating at every meal! Here are some pictures of our site.






What the park does have is over 40 acres of old growth forest which is amazing to see. They have a really nice visitors center that Luke adored because it had - of course - animals! They had lots of pelts that you could feel (including a bear pelt) and some stuffed animals that Luke was completely impressed with. He walked a lot there too because he was so motivated to look around which was really fun. He's still not completely walking on his own, but he's taking a lot more steps to interesting things without prompting which is really fun to see. One of the cutest things was that Luke was so excited that even when we went for our walk from the Visitor's Center, Luke talked to himself through the whole forest. He was just having a great time.

Here are some videos of him at the nature center, and then some cute pictures too. In the video, he is saying "What's that?", then he looks up at the wolf and keeps saying, "It's a roar, it's a roar..." So cute!










Overall we were able to go on lots of walks, and we got to find some great small, undeveloped lakes both in the state park, and in the state forest. It was nice to be so far out in the country and get away from the noise for awhile.




Next we went to Chimney Corners at Crystal Lake to meet up with my Aunt Becky and Uncle Gordie, my cousin Katie, and her boyfriend Joe. This is the place where I always used to vacation with them when Katie and I were growing up, and it just brought back so many memories. It's really hard to describe, and I don't think there are many resorts left like this, but it is a family owned place, and you can definitely feel how welcoming it is. When you go annually, you typically get to know lots of the other guests as well, and you typically see them every year. There is a great beach and fun activities for families. I really can't say enough good things about this place! Anyway, we got in and had so much fun watching Luke hang out with Ellie. He learned to say her name right away, and had so much fun saying it over and over again... Poor Ellie, she was so sweet to Luke, but it's got to be a lot to have a baby try to play with you non-stop! We hung out with them, and then we went out to dinner that night. In the morning, we had a great day on the beach and Luke got to experience Chimney Corners' famous paddleboards. It was a great time all around!

Here are a couple of videos of Luke around Ellie, and then some great pictures of us at Chimney Corners. We just couldn't get enough of his excitement and thought it was so funny. In the first video, you can also hear him get distracted and ask for a glass of "wa wa" (water).







Here's Katie imitating how Luke puts his whole face into his blankie. He is so attached to that thing (yea Grandma Chris!).






After Chimney Corners, we went over to Manistee to Dave's parents' condo. His sister Mary and her husband Josh were there too, and we had a great time being together. Luke loves hanging out with his Papa and Grammy, and loves to jump and laugh with Aunt Mary and Uncle Josh too. They were having all sorts of 4th of July activities in Manistee, and one day we took Luke to a small petting farm and watched "Extreme Sculpting" with a chainsaw (only up north!). The best part of being at Manistee, though, is being so close to the water. We took Luke to the beach, and he got to swim around a bit. It's still so cold, but Luke liked it anyway. He's also really starting to walk and we expect that any day he will be off! Here's some pictures of all the fun we had. All in all, it was a great trip, and really fun to be together as a family.