4th of July fun

We were happy to have a 3 day weekend for 4th of July this year.  We started the weekend with fireworks on Union Lake with our great friends, the Wolak's.  Friday (the 4th) we spent the day with Aunt Katie & Uncle Danny and then headed home for an early bedtime (fireworks on the 3rd kept us up late!).  Saturday we had friends over for a chaotic (but fun) party, and Sunday we had some family beach time! 

 

Anxiously awaiting the fireworks on Union Lake

 

 

A selfie with Mr. T!

 

And another selfie with Evan!

 

 

Fun times, good friends :)

 

"What are those bright colors in the sky?"

 

 

Fireworks were a little too late at night!  He slept through most of them!

 

 

I had barely put the car in drive when Evan fell asleep from all the fireworks fun

 

 

8 adults and 9 kids at our house for some BBQ and water slide fun!  Chaotic but fun!

 

 

 

Not so sure about sparklers.....

Silly kiddos waiting for Mr. Mike to start some fireworks in our driveway

 

Spent the day on the lake with Uncle Danny & Aunt Katie.  Always a good time!

 

Daddy on the paddle board, WAYY out there!

 

 

Spotted some turtles!

 

Time for a boat ride.  Evan loves the boat but has a specific cup holder on the boat that he holds onto, it's so cute.

 

 

 

A boat ride isn't complete without a jump in the lake

 

And of course Mommy had to show Daddy how to ski 

 

Boys, this is about as sporty as I get - water skiing & paddle boarding!

 

Daddy just HAD to compete with Mommy ;)

 

 

Tyler LOVES the water

 

Peekabo!  Playing with Aunt Katie's cars & blocks in the house.

 

We ended the weekend at the beach with the kiddos.  Evan made probably hundreds of trips in and out of the water scooping up water and sand to help a group of kids build a giant sandcastle.  And Tyler ate sand.  That sums it up!

 

 

"Crunchy....grainy...hm....what is this?"

 

 

He's perfected his wave.  Such a handsome little man!

 

 

Evan ran in and out of the water rolling in the sand.

 

Cutest sandy butt ever!  :)

 

Overall a FANTASTIC 4th of July weekend for the Anderson's!  :)

Mackinac Island....and the missing sock.

On our way home from the U.P., we stopped in Mackinac for the day.  It was fun to take the boys on this "mini trip" and check-out more sites in MI.  We did everything you're supposed to do on Mackinac in 5 hours - bike ride, throw rocks in the lake, eat ice cream, buy fudge and taffy, ride the ferry, tour the scenery & smell horse poop. 

 

 

First ferry trip to Mackinac!

 

The best way to tour the island

 

 

The boys did great in the bike carrier!

 

Looking manly on the cruiser bike with basket AND bike carrier.  Hot!

 

 

Evan was happy just throwing rocks in the lake.

 

This picture is special because of the socks in it.  See when we got to Mackinac, I realized that I had one sock and one shoe for Tyler.  Oops, my bad.  So my first stop was to buy him the socks (pictured below).  See how one sock is off his foot though?  Well that's the last time we saw this sock.  On our trek UPHILL (a VERY steep hill), he must have thrown the sock.  And Mackinac is so clean that I imagine someone followed me around the island just waiting for garbage or something to fall and they scooped it up.  We actually went back in the camera to figure out the last location of THE SOCK and re-traced our steps, but it was gone.  So I can to Mackinac with a 1/2 set of socks and left with a full set....that didn't match.  Oh well!  I'm sure this information is not interesting to anyone to Erik and I who found this quite comical. :)

 

 

Taking a break with Daddy

 

 

Mackinac Bridge way in the background

 

 

Tyler loved the canon (Note there are NO socks in this picture...hmmmm....)

 

 

Our little man, taking on Mackinac solo

 

This sums up the day.  Fun, memorable, but exhausting!

 

Our first "mini trip" with the boys was a success.  What's next!?  It's so fun taking them places and I'm so excited for MANY MANY more family trips!  And Tyler, I promise to bring you TWO socks and TWO shoes next time.