Sleeping Bear Dunes

Much of this past week was spent preparing for our trip North to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Our weekend adventure started with an unexpected twist on Thursday when Ezri lost her first tooth!  It had been wiggly for a while, but didn't seem super loose and wasn't bothering her, so I was very surprised when she came out of her room holding a tooth.  She decided she wanted to pull it out and did so all on her own!!!

She was quite proud of herself.  So, this created cause for us to work on a sewing project together.  Ezri and I spent some time choosing fabric, laying out a plan, and then sewing a Tooth Fairy pillow for her to store her tooth until the Tooth Fairy exchanged it for money.  She was so excited to use her sewing machine and very pleased with the finished product.

Thursday night, the Tooth Fairy arrived, and when Ezri woke up Friday morning, she was thrilled to find a sparkly, fairy dust covered one dollar bill.

Friday morning, we put our final items into the van and headed out early with the rest of our group (the Sebrights, Jay & Becci) for our drive to Frankfort, where we camped at Betsie River Campground.  After some lunch, we set up camp and then did a little exploring at a nearby alpaca farm.  It was pretty underwhelming, though the girls had some fun taking their pictures..

Then we went to the beach in Frankfort so the kids could play for a while.  

Last year, we were able to walk out to the end of the pier and check out the lighthouse, but this year, we made it about half way down and decided with the waves and wet surface, it was a bad plan to take the kids out the rest of the way as the pier narrowed considerably.  So, we admired from a distance instead.

And instead let the kids play on the beach in the sand.

Saturday morning, we woke to a beautiful mid-70's sunny day.  We headed to the Sleeping Bear Dunes welcome center, where the kids explored the exhibits and each left with a junior ranger hat.

Then we drove to Glen Arbor to explore the little town and take in the beautiful view of the islands and lake.

Tierney was happier with hers off, but found her own fun riding high on Kathy's shoulders.

The big attraction for our group was the blacksmith shop, where Alex enjoyed looking at all of the old tools and watching the demonstrations.  

Tierney was only amused for a short time, so walking around the barn helped keep her attention while the rest of the group watched as the man working the shop made hooks.

After watching him several times, we left with three of the hooks he had made, one for each family, thanks to Tony.

We found a park across the street from the big dune climb area and had a picnic lunch before heading over to climb the big dune.  The girls were most excited about doing this again and could hardly wait to get out of the car and get going.

Tierney was a lot slower going up and had to be carried after getting half way because she was much happier laying down and playing in the sand than actually making it to the top.

We finally all made it, and while Tierney, Becci, Tony and I stayed behind on the top of the first hill, the rest of the group went up to the next hill together at the kids' urging.

Tierney enjoyed the time to sit and play in the sand, happy to make castles, sand animals and such.

Pretty soon, the kids came charging back down the second hill to meet us...

Then we all headed back down the big hill together.

We were so grateful it was a bit cooler as it made this visit very pleasant and comfortable.  After making it back down the big hill, we drove through the scenic drive and stopped to look a little before getting out at another big hill.

While there, a small plane flew along the shore and it was shocking to see how small it looked compared to ourselves way up on the top of that hill.

Of course, we had to get in some group photos together...

Back at camp, the kids made their own fun, playing together in a tent outside with their toys.  Tierney hammed it up a little in our tent...

We enjoyed pizza sandwiches cooked over the fire...

And had some very tired kids at bed time...

Tierney must have awoken at some point after falling asleep and, looking for someone to snuggle with, headed over to Alora's bed where they both fell asleep together.

Sunday morning greeted us with a promise of rain, so we packed up camp and headed out to explore Point Betsie Lighthouse.  When we arrived, we found it closed until noon, so we instead checked out the beach and outer grounds of the lighthouse as we watched the waves grow with the incoming storm.

 

As the rain began to fall, we turned back for our cars and considered our options as the rain was looking to last for hours and none of us were ready to go home yet. We landed on getting lunch in Ludington and then checking out the children's museum in town.  By the time we got there, the rain had nearly passed that area and we were hopeful for it to hold off the rest of the afternoon.  The kids enjoyed playing in the museum for quite a while in the early afternoon.

The band area was a big hit with our kids...

As was the grocery store and bank area.

The kids also enjoyed playing inside the airplane and ship.

After we left the children's museum, the weather had improved and we opted to head to Silver Lake so we could go on a dune ride together.  We had so much fun!!!  We loaded up into the Mac Woods truck together and set off for an adventure most of us had never been on before.  The kids were excited to get going.

The dune ride took us past some beautiful and fun sites to see, we learned some things about the dunes and shared some laughs.  Occasionally we would go over a hill causing the kids to squeal with delight.  When we reached the lake, we were allowed to get out and explore for a few minutes.

Our fun driver took all kinds of group photos for us while we were stopped.

As the ride continued, we found more to learn about and went over more hills.  The final big hill was so steep it was like a roller coaster.  

Tierney was unsure of all of the hills.  She handled it well and smiled after we got done going down, but each time we would start to go down, she would either cover her eyes or get a funny look on her face.

We had such a great time on the dune ride together.  Once we returned, Alora informed us she felt sick, so we quickly got her off the truck and sat her down to rest for a bit.  Since there was a lighthouse just down the road, once Alora was settled, we went exploring some more.

We got to the Point Sable lighthouse just shortly after it closed for tours for the day, so we were not able to go inside, but we had some fun playing on the beach for a while.

 It was becoming clear that Alora was still not feeling well, she just kept asking to lay down or be held...

So, we allowed her to do that, where she fell asleep for a while as we played.

 We have made a name for our blended framily - the Westbrightcoffermans, so we made our mark on the beach.

 Since a storm had passed a bit before, the waves were still very active, resulting in several of us getting wet pants in some way or another.

We finally decided we would have to wrap up our fun and find some food for dinner before finishing the trip home, much as all of us would rather have stayed.  So, we packed our sleepy Alora back into the van where we found she had spiked a fever.  I got her some Tylenol and encouraged her to drink a little sprite before we left as those of us who were wet found some dry clothes to change into.  Since we had a sick girl, eating in an establishment was out, so after some debate and searching, we settled on hitting the road, stopping at Arby's and eating outside where Alora could remain sleeping with us just outside the car.  The poor girl slept the entire way home, through transport into the house and her bed and all night long. Thankfully, she woke up her normal self.

While Sunday didn't necessarily follow what we had originally thought for the day when we started out on our trip, we found ourselves glad for the rain and change in plans because it afforded us adventure and fun discoveries we would have otherwise missed.  Now for the unpacking and cleaning up...