The Cottage plus Julie's birthday celebration

Our last vacation was our trip to the cottage.  My parent's had the cottage starting June 3.  So, my little family of three made the trek up north.  Over the weekend, my brother and his wife came up with the two little girls.  Fortunately, it was beautiful weather for the majority of the week.  So, our days consisted of this:
Sleep in or wake up early and enjoy the peaceful morning on the lake.
Eat breakfast
Get our swimsuits on and hang out on the dock.
Eat lunch
Take a nap or go down to the water again.  (Kyper would nap and then we would take the sea-doo out)
Eat dinner
Enjoy the evening outside
Have a campfire, go to Jones and/or play games.
Go to bed
Repeat. :)

A few notes: Kyper loved the lake.  It was full of minnows.  (Or in his words: mimmows.)  I had never seen that many minnows.  The girls and Joel had fun catching them to use for bait for the big bass that were swimming around the dock.  Joel had gotten a fishing license earlier, so he had a great time trying to catch the bass.  Kyper also found rocks that he could throw into the lake.  Also, Joel and I were pleasantly surprised that Kyper did not mind wearing his life-jacket at all.  He learned early on that he couldn't go down to the water without it or without an adult.  He loved that he was just able to walk into the lake and he was quite brave once he got used to it and walked quite a ways out.  Once he felt his life-jacket floating he would walk back.
Going back to the mimmows quickly--Kyper is now obsessed with mimmows.  Every fish he sees, I hear  "mimmows!"

"I caught you a delicious bass?"  (Name that movie.)

Grandpa and Kyper

Peyton catching minnows

Yummy, Jones

Sydney's nerdy smile.

Loon

Master of the Minnows

I caught you another delicious bass.

My little Kyper fish

On Wednesday night, our friends from Iowa came to the cottage--Rick and Monique.  They arrived quite late, so they headed to bed.  We had an excellent breakfast cooked by my mom and then headed to Traverse City.  My parents stayed at the cottage and watched Kyperman.  The four of us, decided to explore a few of the wineries on Old Mission Point.  We went to Two Lads and Chateau Chantel first.  I liked Two Lads better.  I liked the wine better, but I also liked the customer service better.  We had gotten a coupon for a restaurant from Two Lads, so we decided that we would grab some lunch.  Lunch was good.  The real adventures began after lunch.  We got into the car and it wouldn't start.  We tried jumping it, but to no avail.  We ended up having to call a towing company and bring it to a local mechanic that one of the guys from the restaurant recommended.  I then called the cottage and my dad had to rescue us.  It takes a good hour to get to Traverse City, so we had some time to kill.  Joel waited with the car, while Rick, Monique and I walked 10 minutes to another winery--Bowers Harbor Vineyards.  It was my favorite--also the one with the cheapest wines.  We walked back to the restaurant and my dad came and picked us up.  We then headed into town to pick up Joel.  The car would not be able to come back with us that night.  So, the five of us headed to Moomers Ice Cream before heading out of town.
We had planned on going back from Detroit straight from Baldwin, but due to the car problems we headed further north.  Instead of leaving for Detroit right away, we showed Rick and Monique Sleeping Bear Dunes and Glen Arbor--our honeymoon destination.  We then went to Traverse City and picked up our car.  We were finally headed to Detroit around 5:00pm.  We arrived home in Detroit at midnight.

The typical evening view at Big Star.

Wine Tasting--2 Lads

Cool wine bottles

The view from Chateau Chantel

At Moomers.  The cows next door produce the milk Moomers uses for their ice cream.

This is some good ice cream.

Family Picture

Monique and Joel braved the cooler morning and kayaked.

One of my favorite cities and places: Glen Arbor/Cherry Republic

Saturday it was my birthday.  I had to work from 7:30am to 2:30pm.  Joel and Kyper gave Rick and Monique a tour of downtown Detroit.  After I got home from work, Monique and I went shopping.  Joel made my birthday cake.  Rick studied.  We then had chicken parmesan for dinner--so yummy.  We had cake and ice cream for dessert.  I opened my gift from Joel--a sweat shirt he bought in Glen Arbor.  Monique got me a neat jewelry tree while we were out shopping.  We put Kyper down to bed and the cards came out.  A rousing game of hand and foot ended the evening.  It was fun.  Rick and I were partners and we won by a lot--I finally got out of my losing streak. :)

On the People Mover

On the river walk

Joe Lewis Arena

Joel got me this for my birthday.  I was really surprised.  (Not really--he bought it in Glen Arbor and I picked it out.)

My birthday meal

My fun cake.

Rick and Monique headed out early on Sunday morning.  Kyper, Joel and I were able to go to church that morning--although for some reason we thought it started at 10:30.  Who knows why?  We have gone to this church for 4 years (total, not consecutively).  At 10, Joel realized that church started at 10.  So, we quickly got in the car and were 15 minutes late.  Funny, how we were never late when we lived 30 minutes away, but now that we live 5-10 minutes away we were late.