Family Vacation-- (part 1)

On July 12, around 11:30 p.m., our family headed out the door for a family vacation in Upper Michigan.  Isaac & Amy and their little family had left their home a few hours earlier.  We made it up early on Friday morning.  And Aliisa & Steve were going to be joining us on Friday night.  We all had about an 6 hour treck up to our destination: a cottage on Twin Lakes, a.k.a. Willie World!  My great-Grandparents have owned that house for about 20 years, and its been a family get-away/vacation ever since!  Its so fun to stay there..your never bored, with jet-ski's, pontoon boat, paddle boat, raft, tubing, games, bikes, canoing...the list goes on!  :)  We all had such a wonderfuly week away with our family.  Ike & Amy ended up leaving on the following Monday morning.  And Ali & Steve left on Sunday night. It was really nice to be able to be up there will our whole emidiate family! 

My sister-in-law, Amy, is a wonderful photographer and took a bunch of awesome pictures while they were up! Here are some from her camera.......--

.:.Friday.:.

  Caleb chillin' on the dock.

Now off for a ride on the jet-ski with Daddy.

Elsie hanging out on the raft.

Jake getting ready to go 'snorkeling'. ;)

Emmy and Eli.

Caleb & Ike.

Grace jumping...

Anja swimming.

Eli, Caleb (probably Emmy's 2 biggest fans) & Emmy. :)

Ike jetskiing..

...

Its always fun watching people jetski while sitting on the raft. :)

Bitty...ain't he cute??

Ike gave rides to pretty much all the little kids.  He's such a good big brother!!

Jake's turn!

Emmy & Caleb.

Eli...:)

Deffinitly having fun!!

He likes spraying himself. :)

Jackson.

Anja's turn!

Helping the boys...

Grace.:.

Caleb and me.

Dad taking nap with Nathan. (for some reason i couldn't get the picture to turn, even after rotating both ways...so sorry!) :)

.:.Saturday.:.

Ali and Steve got to the camp late Friday night, so on Saturday we had a fun, full day in the water.  First:tubing!!

Ali took Steve & I tubing.  Steven took a turn on the tube first & I spotted...:)

Ali ended up getting Steve off the tube, without even trying! Same happened with me later...:/

  Coming back....

:)

Dad and Eli watching the fun!

Smiles from Elsie! :)

Auntie Em and Caleb hangin' out together!

Jake and Marcus, best buds.

Grandma's a wonderful playmate! :)

My turn!  Oh dear! ;)

Ali & Steve.

and...we're off! :)

And I'm literally off! :/  haha, this is when i fell off...if you look closely you can see how the tube is upsidedown, and i'm swimming to the jetski..:P

"get Gramma!!!".

Looking for shells.

Digging...

I guess he doesn't really like sand on his hands! :)

Teaming up on Gramma! :)

:)

Goin' for a ride.

Ali and Steve comin' back..

'twas very fun! ;)

Buddies! :)

Grandma and Grace hanin' out on the raft.

Talking in the kitchen.

Ike's such a good daddy! :)

Me and Lily.

She really did like being in the water! I guess she didn't want to smile for the picture. :)

Our great-aunt Toni came on Friday & stayed 'til Saturday! It was a lot of fun having her there!  She was helping Anja try and swim!

Ali and Lil

Ike and Jake on the jet-ski.

Emmy and Caleb.  He liked watching Ike on the jetski. :)

Jack!

A bunch of people in the water..-Steve, me, Lil, Ali, Elsie, auntie Toni and Anja.

They had pretty crazy hair!!

touching sand...

..she wasn't really sure what to think! :)

She's so snugglie! :)

Amy and Nathan. [Isn't she so pretty!? :)]

Caleb and me! :)

Dad taking Elsie and Jacob out for a ride.

Eli!

 

Trying to get Nathan to smile. :)

.:.Sunday.:.

We headed to Grandma Jackie (my mom's mom) and Grandpa Ken's house today. It was a lot of fun to spend the day there! Ali, Steve and Lily ended up leaving for home from their house.  Here are some pictures from that day...enjoy! ~

 

 

Eliot & Barb

 

Because of the sand bar, you have to walk a ways out to get to any deep water. :)  I think Barb, Alice, Emmy & Zack are in this picture.

 

Ali & Steve.

 

 

You could see a lighthouse super easy from their house.  They figured taking a boat it'd take maybe a 20 minutes to get to it tops, with driving, it'd be at least an hour and a half!

 

Grandpa Ken & Anja

 

Talking and eating.

 

Grandma and Nathan!

 

More pics to come...:)

 

--aleks