Labor Day At The BH...Our Last Hurrah of Summer '08!

With school just about to start, we headed back to the BH for our last hurrah of summer. This time we did not invite anyone to join us. We wanted it to just be us for the last few days of relaxing and fishing and frogging and fun. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time doing just what we planned.

One thing we knew we needed to do was pick up some fresh corn at the corner of 10 and 66. It's hard to even describe this corn, but if you like corn on the cob, it's worth whatever it takes to get you there. It's the type of corn that you will never forget eating. Needless to say, we picked up a bunch and ate it all visit long and still had some to take home with us.

We also hit the flea market in that area. After wandering around for a while, we went to the snack bar at the golf course that sits right next to the market area. Gret and Dan wandered into the pro shop and we wandered out with a new set of clubs for Gretty boy. As I mentioned earlier, he played his first round of golf this summer and got bit by the golf lovers bug. He was floating on cloud 9 when we left and made his father run back to the BH, pick up his own clubs and take him back to the course to play a round immediatley! So, that's what they did.

We stopped by the Rustic Furniture store that we love and picked up our newest order... hickory door and cabinet handles for the kitchen and display shelves the for dining area. This meant that a little bit of work would have to be done on this trip to get them up and running. The installation went smoothly (no F bomb were dropped)and the end result was exactly what we had hoped for. I love it!



The boys finished up the summer catching frogs like madmen! They caught and released them over and over and never got tired of it, while the same could be said for Dan and I with fishing.
This was one awesome, amazing summer!

Mama's Big Catch x2!

How could I not dedicate a quick post in honor of my best fishing day ever? Sometimes a girl's just got to brag!

Last Stop...Traverse City!

The last leg of our vacation was to visit Traverse City. This was a combo of business and pleasure since first Dan had a conference to attend, followed by a hockey tournament to play in. Our first night we stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. After being at Boyne Mt. a few weeks earlier, I wasn't prepared to be overly impressed, but WOW! They really took the cabin theme to another level. Not only was the lobby was so full of cool things to see and experience, but each restaurant was themed to go along with the outdoors/camping/wilderness idea. Very cool. Our hotel room had an area just for the kids called the "Wolf Den" where they had their own cave like place to sleep and their own TV! The indoor water park was slightly smaller than Avalanche Bay, but a little quieter, which I liked. The arcade was just as big and they had a putt-putt golf course, too. The kids had non-stop fun! There was also a cool game that you could play through out the hotel called Magi Quest. The boys each got wands and a book of riddles they had to solve by seeking out objects and waving their wands at them to collect them all. In the end, they both became Maste Magi.

After hanging out for one night and most of the second day, we headed over to The Beach Haus, where we were staying 2 more nights. We discovered "The Haus" a few years ago when Dan played in his first hockey tourney in TC. It's a swiss chalet looking motel that sits right on the bay and has a gorgeous beach area to play in. Plus, on Saturday nights they have a big bbq for the guests complete with water balloon toss and pinata for the kids. What's not to love?

Dan and Gret took part in the water balloon toss and tied for 1st place! Both boys got into the pinata and walked away with lots of prizes and candy.

At the last minute Dan's team backed out of the hockey tournament, which was a little disappointing. But as a man who won't sit back and take no hockey for an answer, Dan went up to the rink anyway and skated twice. With our schedule freed up a little, we got to go into downtown TC for a few hours and check out the sites and shops. The shopping there was really great! Tons of boutiques and restaurants. Plus we walked right into a one day art fair!

Back at the hotel, Gret couldn't get enough of playing volleyball and Reece became a little sand castle architect. After the craziness and stimulation of The Great Wolf Lodge, it was awesome to see them play for hours in the sunshine and sand!

Aunt Suzy and Thom Visit!

No sooner did we return from Boyne, than Aunt Suzy and Thom drove up. This was their 2nd visit to the Brown House. After visiting for a few days last year, Thom declared that if he could spend his entire vacation at the BH he would be a happy man! So, this time, they planned on staying 6 nights!

Aunt Suzy played a lot of Rummikub with Gret. He was up for the challenge and even won some of the time.

As a special treat, we took them out to Food. Food is one of our favorite places to eat breakfast. It's only a 10 minute drive and the place sits right on Chippewa Lake. The sign says it all!

Aunt Suzy is not much of a fisherwoman, but she gave it a go and caught her first fish! Way to go, Suzy! She also got to see the boys go frog cratching crazy!

Before the visit was over we asked Aunt Lisa to babysit and went on our 1st ever Evart pub crawl! We started off at Connor O'Malley's the one and only Irish Pub in town. The menu had a lot of Irish dishes that were really good. From there we went to a bar that used to be a bowling alley at some point in its past, but isn't anymore. Interesting. We ended the night at Club Shadows for the elephant ears. 2 for a $1.00. Quite the deal.

We left Sue and Thom to a night of their own, when we had to take off to get to Traverse City before they had to head back to Florida. They followed our closing up directions to a tee and will definitely be invited back next year! :)

Off To Boyne Mt. and Avalanche Bay!

After a week, we headed to Boyne Mountain. Dan had to speak at a conference, so the boys and I got to go along for the ride and stay 2 nights at the hotel. Plus, Avalanche Bay is there, which is a giant indoor waterpark. Needless to say, the boys were fired up!

We got a 2 day pass into the waterpark and started swimming right away. The whole place was really cool. Gret tried out the water slides on his own pretty quickly, while Reece was content to float along the lazy river for as long as we'd let him. After a while, he warmed up to the water slides, too. They even had a bigger, tube water slide called the Super G and one that was kinda like Michigan Adventure's Funnel of Fear called the Vortex. Gret slowly built up his courage and by the time we left, gave each of them a try.

Reece got brave enough in the end to try out the racers. These were 4 slides set up side by side, that you raced down on your belly. Unfortunetly, he did not enjoy the ride. Bad Mama! Sorry Reece. It was a little too much, I guess.

The arcarde was a big hit. Both the boys LOVE skeetball! We won enough tickets to get a ton of prizes, which is alway good.

Since it is a sky resort in the winter, they have a number of chair lifts. We were able to ride one to the top of the Mt. and have a cocktail at the restaurant at the top. Tried something called a Boyne Breeze that was vodka and blue carroco with lemonade. Yum! The view from the top was gorgeous!We decided to walk down one of the trials and discovered a frisbee golf course. So, on our second night, we took the lift back up and played the frisbee golf course down. The boys really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.

After 2 days of non-stop swimming, we were all pruned up and ready to return back to the BH just in time for Aunt Suzy and Thom to arrive!

August At The BH!

At the beginning of August we headed back to the BH for 2 weeks of vacation. The Utley's were the first guests to join us. There was lot of washer toss playing and Walker was the king!The kids had fun fishing and playing as much Lego Indiana Jones as we'd let them.

Walker and Ethan had taken a golf lesson this summer, so they brought their clubs with them and took some shots into the lake. This sparked Gret's interest in golfing, too.So, before our vacation was over, Dan and Grandpa Lu took Gret out on the course for the 1st time and he LOVED it!

George came by for one night to hang out with Rasta, too. He had been renting a house on the big lake with a group of friends the week before so our timing worked out good. I'm happy to report that Rasta didn't eat all the fish like last time!

After the Utley's took off, Cody and Rachael came up. Then all of us headed to Muskegon and Michigan Adventure for the day. We weren't sure what to expect since rain was in the forecast, but it was the only day that worked for us to go, so off we went! Even though it rained on us during most of the drive there, once we arrived, it was sunny and hot! We rode a few rides and headed to the water park. We ended up staying at the water park most of the day, since the boy's were having so much fun there. Gret just kept getting more and more adventurous and trying different slides with Daddy. Reece and Cody loved the wave pool and pirate ship area. When we left the water park, the sky was getting darker and it looked like it could start raining at any minute. Minutes later, it was raining! We headed for cover at a restaurant and when we finished eating, we decided to play a game or two and head on home. The kids were pooped, especially Cody who fell asleep on Rachael's shoulder during dinner. When we got back to the BH it was time for bed, but they had just enough time to get silly before hitting the sheets! Good times!