The Great Lakes are GREAT

Over the 4th of July weekend our little family ventured to the upper peninsula of Michigan!  Michigan is a beautiful state, and I think the Great Lakes have a lot to do with it’s natural beauty!  We were able to swim in Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, and touched the water of Lake Heron.  We drove around the entire Lake Michigan on this trip.  We officially decided we love the Great Lakes because they look like the ocean, but the water is so clear and NOT salty.  Plus, there are no jelly fish to worry about.  In fact, the only water critters we saw were a few tiny fish, and they were in the rivers we played in that led to the lakes.  The only down side to swimming in the Great Lakes is the water temperature!!  FREEZING!  The ranger told us the water is only 60 degrees.  Despite the coldness, Josh and I still dunked ourselves, and Payson would have if we let him.  Once he got use to the water, he wanted to keep playing. (The water was a lot warmer in the rivers).  Payson’s favorite part of the lakes and rivers, though, was the rocks!  Josh taught him how to throw rocks, and that’s all Payson wanted to do after that! (Pictures below).  Swimming isn’t the only thing we did on the trip, but we sure did it a lot. Our camping spot was about 7 hours away from where we live, so to avoid driving so far in one day after Josh got off work, we stayed in a hotel in Green Bay about half way.  The hotel had a fun kiddy pool for Payson, so of course we went swimming there, as well.  I didn’t get pictures of us swimming in the lakes because I didn’t want my IPOD stolen! We also went on some cool short hikes to see water falls, beautiful views of Lake Superior, and sand dunes.  At our camp spot Josh grilled good food, and we had Recess Peanut Butter smores!!  Our camp site was buy a smaller lake, which was a lot warmer than the great lakes, so we also waded in it, and walked on the dock/board walk.  The worst part about our trip was the mosquitoes. We practically used our whole bottle of bug spray.  Check out the video below of the mosquitoes trying to attack us from outside our tent!  Our tent was awesome, and the best place to be to get away from those nasty little things! Payson was cute at the campground.  He just walked around, and was very good about not touching the fire! One more thing we saw was an old ship wreck on Lake Superior! That was pretty neat!  Anyway, enough rambling- here are the pictures/videos from our trip!!

Splish Splash

 

   

 

Mosqitoes

Walking Around

     

Galina, IL

A couple weeks ago, Josh had a conference in Galina, IL.  If you have never heard of Galina- it is kind of like the St. George of Illinois.  It is the most beautiful place in IL that Josh and I have seen, and it is a quant little historic town.  It is where General Ulysses S. Grant was born, and it was a hilly little town!  Needless to say, it was a nice little change from busy Chicago city life and traffic. Anyway, Payson and I decided to go along for the ride.  Plus, the conference was family friendly!  They had a barbeque for the families the first night.  This barbeque had delicious food, but the food had to wait for us to eat it because we all got sent to the basement!!  Two words… Tornado Warning!  There was actually no funnel clouds.  Josh wanted to watch the storm, but the security guard wouldn’t let him.  He even threatened to have Josh arrested if he didn’t go to the basement. 

The conference had some other family activities, but Payson was a little too little for the activities, so we did our own thing!!  Galina was not busy at all!  First we walked Main Street, and found the post office.  (I needed to mail my Father’s Day cards).  The post office was authentic, and I felt like I was dropping off mail 100 years ago in the old historical building.  We also window shopped, saw other historic buildings, and ate lunch.

After we picked Josh up from his conference we took a little drive.  We saw some water falls and the Mississippi River.  There were bugs galore on this trip, but luckily we didn’t end up with a lot of bug bites!

  

Back at our hotel Payson had a jolly ole’ time going in and out the door- on and off the deck. 

 

The next day was a lot of fun.  Josh’s conference was only half day, so we got to play with him the rest of the day.  During his conference in the morning, Payson and I had fun going on a hike around the lake.  We saw some cool rock structures, and lots and lots and lots of gnats!!  I could hardly stop to get pictures because the gnats just swarmed my head every time I stopped.

 

After the hike, we played at the playground.  I couldn’t find Payson’s hat.  It was also pretty warm on the very sunny playground, so we didn’t stay too long.  There was no gnats at the playground, and that was a plus!! :-)

 

After Josh’s conference we went to Dubuque, IA.  We had lunch at Tony Roma’s.  While waiting for our lunch, we walked down to the river.  It was so full, that the dock was covered by water, and some of the stairs to the dock were covered, as well.  After lunch we went to Maquoketa Caves.  These were neat caves.  Payson had just woken up when we put him in the wrap, so he wouldn’t smile for the pictures, but he thought the caves were pretty cool!

    

The caves were our last stop before we headed home. We had to make sure we got home in time to pick up Jarom, Josh’s brother, from the airport.  He flew in to surprise his fiance, Laura, at her bridal shower.  She is from Chicago, and we set the two of them up.  It was a pretty fun surprise, and we had fun with the two of them Saturday night!