Sunday Beach Day!

Sunday Funday was our beach day! It started with a run along Lake Michigan for me...

and I returned to a delicious pancake breakfast...

and just hanging out before changing and packing up for the beach. 

We could not have asked for better weather for it. 

We also were so lucky we could just walk there!

The girls really loved it and so did the mommies and daddies!

Thank goodness for her puddle jumper! She was so comfortable in the water with them. Thanks grandma and papa!

 The ladies.

3 best buds thanks to an amazing year in New Orleans :)

our beautiful princesses, Delainey, Riley, Linnea, Brynley and Bryce. (Im sorry if I switched Brynley and Bryce around) Harper is missing on the ledge again...but she is in the next picture:

Saturday in Saint Joseph

Saturday was a wonderful day on our trip. After a short little walk around the block and packing up a picnic and swim stuff we headed to the cute little town of St. Joseph, just about 20 minutes away. What a perfect place for families! There is something for everyone! Cute restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops, a splash pad, a beach, playgrounds, fountains, a children's museum, a carousel and more. It was FABULOUS! We got there around noon and stayed until 4:30ish I think but easily could have stayed longer. It was a little windy and cool when we first got there so I wasn't sure about the splash pad and swimming and thought we may end up at the Museum but it quickly warmed up so after our picnic we hit the water!

Even though us Meyers had some fro-yo in St. Joseph we went out for more ice cream (I had iced coffee instead) with the group in South Haven after our cookout at the cottage. YUM!

Some family pics in South Haven.

Out of order but this is at the splash pad...

At the beach near the playground. Harper was very interested in this soft sand!

The girls waiting for their ride.

Mommy and Linnea on the Merry Go Round!

Girls in shades post frozen yogurt.

There were lots of these fun little things for the kids to sit and pose in. Daddy especially liked this Star Wars one!

Friday Night at the Cottage

The best reunion. Ever.

Amo, Mego and Julio's kids meet...minus Harper.

Friday night we enjoyed pizza once we got unpacked, settled and reunited with some wonderful friends :) The girls all played very well together too and went to bed okay which was great for us! Linnea needed/wanted the tablet to watch some shows in bed for a bit (its vacation so we didnt mind too much. We were just happy she stayed in the bed in a room by herself and have us some adult time!)and Harper just slept on me or Chris while we stayed up chatting. 

Harper playing on floor.

Checking out the backyard.

Bubbles!

Sadly we didn't take many pictures of us...just our kids. But they are cuter anyways :)

Day 2 of Traveling

We left our "lovely" Motel 6 around 9 I think right before it started downpouring. Thank goodness we were in the car! I had made some muffins and bought some fancy juices before we left so we just did that for breakfast and stopped for coffee about 2 hours in which was a good time to pee of course anyways. We had gotten ahead of the storm but by the time we were leaving McDonald's it was quickly catching up to us.

This is the storm when we were leaving Motel 6! So dark for 9am! Very eerie!

The storm caught us leaving McDonalds with our coffee and smoothie.

We went through 5 states including MN and MI and terrible weather to reach our destination! We also went through many tolls which Linnea has never seen before so she was quite curious about that.

 Here are a few of the presents and new busy bag items Miss Linnea received to keep her busy and they really worked! I think she just watched one movie and played a few games on the Tablet the whole way which was about 7-8 hours long.  We had to get through/around Chicago somehow which always takes a while and it just kept raining! 

 Grandma sent that sour sugary dipstick candy! Don't worry we were at a gas station when Linnea was unbuckled here! And below Harper had just finished eating and getting her diaper changed in the passenger seat!

Grandma found this bendy bunny for her and it turns out Harper really liked it too!!

Notice her beaded anklet...she made one for herself and a necklace for me with the cute beads from a kit her and daddy picked up at Target before leaving. We also had noodles and foam which she strung onto a pipe cleaner and made me a bracelet.

 The magnetic pom poms I made her maybe were her favorite little activity. I found dotted printables that the pom poms fit perfectly on. She also used her paint dobbers on these printouts. A princess chalkboard from Grandma was also a hit!

A little Dora Magnet kit was fun and we of course took advantage of our AAA membership and got a triptik to help guide us along and give us tips of where to go :) Linnea had plenty of other goodies that I found around the house that she had either forgotten about or maybe hadn't seen before to keep her busy and we did give her kids Dramamine to help with her carsickness. It never did knock her out but I think it helped with her nausea that she sometimes has.

I think we arrived at the cottage around 6 or 7. There was a time change for us though too so its hard to say exactly how long it took but it doesn't really matter we made it!

Here is the cottage but pictures of the girls and the reunion of us will come in the next post...I must hit the hay for now!

It was a wonderful home away from home, but our stay was much too short :(

On the Road...!!!!

Last Thursday (well a few Thursdays ago now since I am way behind on the blog AGAIN!) we packed up the Rav and finally headed out on our family vacation we have been planning and waiting for! We did a countdown with Linnea when there was a week to go so she knew something exciting was happening Thursday too :) Way back in January (I think) we started planning a trip to South Haven, MI to meet up with two of my best friends and their families. I met Julie and Meghann the year I lived in New Orleans. We were houseparents together parenting teenage girls in our early 20s...now we meet again in our early 30s with our husbands and baby girls of our own. It has been around 5 years since we all have been together. We are so blessed and lucky to have met 10 years ago and hit it off so well.  South Haven was a somewhat midway point for all of us to meet and it was by Lake Michigan which had beautiful beaches which was important in our search of where to go. We found the perfect cottage for us to rent and an evening and a day of driving later we arrived!
Back to the journey...we drove through Red Wing thinking Free Energy was performing there at 5 since that is what their twitter and FB page said and the Red Wing Central Park website also said that. Free Energy is one of our fav bands and Linnea likes their music too. Chris knows 2 of the performers so we were super pumped there was a concert at a decent hour and in a family friendly location that we could all go to...well it turns out they didn't actually start until 8...we got to hear them warming up and sing one song. We just couldn't stay that late. We wanted to drive 3-4 hours and starting driving at 9 or even 10 with a 9 month old and 4.5 year old who don't sleep in the car wasn't going to work.

this doesnt really fit with the paragraphs of this post but I dont know where to put it and I think it's so cute of daddy and his girls making trail mix for our trip :)

Waiting for the show...before we knew it wasn't happening until 8.

all ready with her "ear muffs"

The one song we heard.

Aunt Allison was even there hoping to see the concert with us.

Im ready! 

still warming up...

two music lovers. daddy and daughter.

We left at about 645pm instead which is when we hoped to leave if we had heard the band anyways but with stopping for one thing or another we still didn't get to Janesville, WI until around midnight! We checked into a disgusting Motel 6 and fell asleep right away.
Since all we needed to do was sleep we thought we may as well just spend 50 and do that and spend more on our way home.

Everything just takes longer with kids...especially one who is nursing and one who needs to stop and pee somewhat frequently. We also needed gas and ice cream once which of course doesnt always match up when Harper needs to nurse or Linnea needs to pee:) The girls did good overrall though and eventually did fall asleep for about an hour. When Linnea wasn't sleeping she watched one movie on our Tablet and did some games. When Harper wasnt sleeping she was fussing on this stretch of the trip. I made a ton of busy bags with new activities in them for Linnea but we saved most of them for the next day when it would be light outside.
My mom also sent a bag of new presents for her to open :)
Lucky girl!