We had such a lovely weekend. I have been begging Scott forever to go on a trip. “Just ONE night away. PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE! We need to do something fun.” He told me a month ago that he was planning to take us all somewhere for my birthday. A friday/saturday away from our house and the demands that come with it. It was lovely.
We went on Friday over to the Lake Michigan side of the sate. We have seen Lake Erie (which was dirty and gross..) and Lake Huron (seriously gorgeous) but not Lake Michigan from this side. We have seen it from Chicago is all. We drove and got confused and took some back roads. I love driving around with my family. The girls are usually really good in the car, and it’s the only tie that Scott and I get to spend together and TALK to each other.
Our first stop was Lake Michigan. We drove west and figured that as long as we headed that way, we would find beach. We found a small park. There was a huge sand hill to climb, or a million stairs to walk up. Chloe and I walked up the sand part and Scott walked the stairs with Addi and Harper. When we reached the top, I had to catch my breath. Not only from the climb, but the view…
I mean.. look at that. It was beautiful. It was a little hazy and cloudy, but SO amazing. I love water. I love seeing NOTHING on the horizon except the beauty that God created.
I love having my feet in the sand. The water was pretty darn cold, but I didn’t care. It truly is my happy place.
Next stop was our hotel so that the girls could swim. We swam for the evening and then went to bed.. or went to the room to deal with 2/3 kids screaming ALL. NIGHT. LONG. It was a terrible night, but Scott and I have decided to ignore that part of our trip. We had a blast both days, so who cares that we barely slept.
Saturday morning we headed to the tulip festival.
Sooo many tulips. There are so many colors and types of tulips that I didn’t even know existed. The whole town was covered in tulip gardens and carnival games and food. We decided to just go to the tulip fields so that we could see the flowers without dealing with the crowds and smells off food that I can’t eat. (HA!)
The girls loved it, and didn’t even try to pick any flowers. They have been obsessed with bringing me handfuls of dandelions. They wanted to bring some on our trip, and I told them that we would see lots of flowers where we were going. Their little minds were blown.
After walking through the fields of tulips, we headed to the zoo. Harper’s first trip! This was our first time at the zoo with the girls old enough to really understand the animals and enjoy the exhibits. It had been drizzling all morning, but stopped when we got to the zoo. It was cool weather and the animals were all really active. Perfection.
We are back to reality now, and were smacked in the face with it first thing Sunday morning. We were blindsided by a few things that left us feeling frustrated, but we are trying to cling to our good memories from the weekend. We need to do it more often. Not a hotel stay, but we live in this BEAUTIFUL and amazing state with free beaches and parks everywhere. We need to take advantage of it.
I hope that everyone had an excellent weekend, and a happy mother’s day! I got to double dip and enjoy Mom’s day and my birthday at the grocery store alone. haha!
