Vacation Time...Holland, MI

Our family has never really done a vacation that didn't include going to see family or church sites, we went to Nauvoo at least 7 times in 3 years and I know they weren't all with family but most were. Anyway, so just our luck we planned to just be beach bums at Lake Michigan and pretty much just hang out at the beach, great idea right!? Well we got there and it was rainy, overcast and a little chilly. We still forged ahead with going to the beach when we pulled up to one of the first beaches and saw this sign. I don't know if you can read this sign it says that there is Ecoli in the water and to not get in. Just our luck! But we made the best of it and played around and had a GREAT time!
This is Tunnel Park in Holland Michigan, there is a huge sand dune with a park and then there is this tunnel you walk through and come out onto the beach. It's so pretty! Logan and Porter love tunnels and loved to hear their voices echoing in the tunnel.

I love the beach and even with the crummy weather and cold temps we had so much fun. There is this huge stair case that we walked up and the view from it was Spectacular. So peaceful and realaxing to just be there and to hear the waves splashing. The good thing about the weather was that there weren't a lot of other people around on this day that seemed to add to the coolness.

This is Logan walking up the sand hill so he could run back down it. Porter would fly down this hill and crash hard, get up laugh and do it again. My boys are fearless most of the time I love it, but when he almost hit a tree I had to stop him.

Olivia just sat and kicked in the sand and watched her brothers. She loved the feel of the sand and had so much fun.

I love this picture and am seriously considering using it for our Christmas card. It's the first time we're all looking at the camera and have pleasant looks on our faces. Who would have known 5 seconds before we were yelling at the kids to look at the camera, I guess it worked:)

There's a red light house in Holland Michigan that really is fun to see, it defiantely adds to the picturesque background of Holland.

Holland is also very famous for it's Dutch influence. They have a little "factory" shop where they make wooden shoes and Delft pottery. We went and tried on some shoes and looked around. We also met up with our friends the Kilpatricks. Porter and Liam got along super great. Logan seem's to see himself as an older kid when their is another older kid around and Maren put up with him tagging along beside her.

Logan and Maren at one of the windmill's in Holland.

Olivia and Brandon bonded more on this trip. She has turned into a little daddy's girl through and through. She's starting to say Da, Da and it is completely melting his heart. I love it!

We went to the beach again and it was even colder, the Ecoli seemed to have disappeared since the sign was gone and other people were out and about. Porter didn't take too long before he was soaked in his clothes, he was going crazy!

Logan took it upon himself to move this log out into the lake. He wasn't quite strong enough to do it on his own so he got some help.

Eventually they all got it out into the lake were we left it floating.

The view of the Lake as we were leaving...

This is Porter on our way to the hotel, he was purely exhausted and had so much fun.

It was such a good trip and so needed for our little family to be together and do fun, relaxing things. We loved having friends with us to share in the fun as well. We're definately going to be doing trips with just our family more often than we have.