Last leg of trip

The last few days of the trip we camped out at our favorite Mill Creek campsite near Mackinaw City. It is close to the beach, but it still has its own pool, golf course, a few different play grounds, a nice camp store. It works well for our kids at this age.(I'm waiting for the day we can go back country camping with the kids and wake up in a tent on top of a mountain - But, we have to start somewhere! Faustina and Jude loved the fire we had. It was a bit on the wimpy side, but that doesn't seem to matter much!

Here is Frat boy Jude loving the campfire, his sunglasses during the nighttime, the headlamp, and relaxing in his chair.

The highlight of this part of our trip was Mackinaw Island. It was so. much. fun!! The last half dozen times we'd been to Mackinaw we kept saying, "Oh, next time we'll check it out". We spent the day there this trip and loved it. We biked the 8 miles around the island with the kids. Oh how I miss biking! I haven't for the last 2 summers. We walked around and looked at the stores. It seemed like a paradise there. There were quaint buggies drawn by horses (no cars on the island!), cute stores, beautiful old houses, good food, surrounded by sparkling blue water and you can see the Mackinaw bridge in the distance which is pretty spectacular. Mike and I were ready to go back - without the kids!

Here Jude was getting tired, so we had to carry him the last part of the day. Finally he had run out energy. When we first arrived on the island there were crowds and crowds of people. Jude's new game is 'lets lose Mom and Dad'. So he did. There were 2 times we lost track of him as he darted away from us (being a stinker). The first time he had found a stairwell leading to a room above stores - it was an arcade. He hit the jackpot. I found him sitting in one of the big adult chairs playing duck hunter. I was not amused at the time, but the picture in my mind of finding him is pretty funny. Also in this picture, I'm holding Murdick's Fudge which is famous around the Mackinaw area.

The Church there was beautiful. My favorite was the altar that had a picture of The Last Supper on the front of it.

Here is St. Joseph holding Jesus. We asked him to intercede for us since he is the Patron Saint of homes and selling houses.

Thanks goodness this kids are so good in the car! It is a 'quiet' time for us all. Or we can talk, listen to books on tape or music. Somehow, it all works out quite well.