Labor Day Weekend {Day 5} - opening and enjoying birthday presents!

Samuel got to celebrate his 4th birthday up at Mighty Mac!

From Mommy and Daddy

Opening a big present!

So excited to be 4 years old!

I can't believe my big boy is 4 years old today!

A tennis racket from Grandpa and Grandma

Tennis balls to go with his new racket!

A radio controlled car from Mommy and Daddy

Labor Day Weekend {Day 4}

An early morning walking the Mackinac Bridge!

The Dave Stegink family walking the bridge

The huge mass of people walking the bridge

Grandma walked the bridge with us!

Uncle Ron shook hands with all of the military people and said "Thank you"

Samuel wanted to walk over the grating:)

The sunrise while we walked the bridge

Watching the water

The afternoon was beautiful! After a big morning of walking the bridge, the beach was a perfect place to spend the afternoon.

In the evening, we celerated Samuel, Tiffany, and Stephanie's birthdays!

This was the only time that we had rain the whole weekend!  It rained for the evening while we celebrated birthdays and then a little bit throughout the night.  After eating cake and ice cream, a lot of the gang played a game called "Headbandz".  Uncle Ron was sitting under the canopy holding an umbrella over his head and the word on his headband was "Umbrella" - it was SOOOO funny. :)

Labor Day Weekend {Day 3}

Sunday was a pretty good day around Straits State Park!  We had a relaxing morning and then headed into town (St Ignace) on our bikes.  There isn't a good playground at the campground so we headed for the fun playground right on the shores of Lake Huron.  The kids had fun playing there with the guys while my Mom and I walked to a shop in downtown St Ignace.  It was a longer walk than what we were thinking it was going to be, but it was fun!  While we were gone, Aliyah fell and scraped up her knee pretty good but that was the only casualty!  By the time we headed back for the campground, Aliyah was so tired that she fell asleep in the bike trailer.  Hope was a good big sister and sang Aliyah songs and let her rest her head on her shoulder while she slept.  The best part about the ride back was that we found a shortcut through a fence so we didn't have to go up a couple of HUGE hills.  No pictures of our trip to St Ignace.  We spent the late afternoon down at the rock beach and I did take pictures of that!!

Samuel really thought that Grandpa was drinking the "coffee" that Samuel had made for him.  He was watching Grandpa closely!

Labor Day Weekend {Day 2}

 This morning I told Samuel it was September 1 and then I asked him how many more sleeps until his birthday.  Right away he got a big smile on his face and said, "Only 3 more sleeps!!"  Like it or not, my baby is going to be 4 years old in just three short days.  Yikes.

The morning started out with an early pick-up baseball game.  Samuel, his Daddy, his Grandpa, his Great Uncle Ron, and his Great-Grandparents all joined in on the fun. 

 How often does a little boy get to play baseball with his Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa?  What a special memory making time that was!  (Samuel is on first base . . . it must have been taking Daddy a long time to hit the ball! ;)

 And Great-Grandpa steps up to the plate!!  Great-Grandma was catcher because her favorite Detroit Tiger is Alex Avila :).  I love it that my grandparents are such huge Tigers fans!

Samuel's turn to bat.  I absolutely love this picture of him with his Grandpa and Great-Grandma!

Today we headed for the sandy beach down Highway 2 about 10 miles.  It was well worth it!  The water was perfect, the sun was shining, and we all had a wonderful afternoon.

Hanging out in the deep water.  Tiffany (my cousin) joined us.  Her family was going to town and the beach sounded like a whole lot more fun to her!  We enjoyed having her along because she loves playing with Samuel, Hope, and Aliyah!

Waving to Grandma!

Pure joy and happiness on the faces of my kids:

More fun at the beach:

 

 

 

                                 

 

It was a gorgeous second day of camping up at Straits State Park!