Back from vacation!

Hey there friends! Sorry for the absence from the blog, but we took our annual end-of-summer vacation to the Traverse City, Michigan area. It's a wonderful place with tons and tons of things to do.
We were supposed to camp for the first four nights, but got a little lazy about packing and also had to wait around because Logan's karate class was in a parade in our town, so we ended up leaving late on Saturday and driving only a little over halfway up north, then we stopped and stayed the night in a hotel. We headed to the campground the next day and set up camp for three nights. Amazingly, there were no mosquitoes, but every time we got out food, a ton of bees would show up, and they were shameless! They'd crawl right into our sandwiches and stuff, so we had to inspect before each bite. Luckily, no one was stung.
After the last, rainy night at camp, we headed to our favorite hotel in Traverse City, the Grand Beach, which we've taken to calling The Big Blue Hotel, thanks to Logan. We stayed there and enjoyed the beach until a rainy cold front blew in and banished us indoors. We enjoyed the pool and hot tub, though.
We finished out the trip with a night at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, which is a neat little German town in mid-Michigan. The hotel has five pools and three hot tubs, and it's lots of fun for kids. It also has mini golf and tons of games.
After such a long trip, though, it's nice to return home. One gets tired of sleeping in places other than their own bed (Though the Grand Beach hotel does have pillow-top mattresses, which are lovely!) and eating food from restaurants.
Well, it was nice to be home until... we emptied out the truck! Now the kitchen is piled with dirty camping laundry, gear, dishes, etc. We also seem to have brought several pounds of sand home with us.
Anyway, it was a nice farewell to summer, and with really cool temperatures and Logan's back-to-school open house to welcome us home, it really feels like summer is giving way to fall. Where did the time go?
Actually, we packed a lot of fun into the summer. This was the third camping trip we took. In June, we went to Wilderness State Park near Mackinac, in July we went to Tahquamenon Falls and then there was this trip, and I have to say it got easier camping with the two boys each time. The first trip, it was kind of hard to get Jordan to sleep in the tent. It was a little better the second time around, but he still woke frequently during the hour or two immediately following when we put him to bed. This time, he went to sleep in the Pack n Play with little trouble.
By far, though, the very best part of this entire trip was spending time with all three of my men. They mean so much to me and I really treasure the times when we get to hang out all together as a family.
Here we are, dirty and happy!