Well, we haven’t really done any big family trips this summer, so we decided to buckle down and get at least one beach day under our belts. Since we don’t live near the ocean, we settled on Lake Michigan. A friend of ours mentioned this awesome beach, Silver Beach, so off we headed on a 3 hour trip out to Lake Michigan to spend 4 hours there and then drive another 3 hours home. We figured, if you’re only going to do one beach day, might as well go the distance and it was worth it. We invited our friends, the Ordazes to come along and they did and it was a great rtip. Tons of fun. We liked the beach and all the amenities nearby (a carousel, splash pad, playground, cute downtown) that we’re going to try and find a beach house to rent on Silver Beach next summer and stay for a few nights. Here are more than you want to see pictures of our trip.
Alonzo
The set up. We actually bit the bullett and bought an EZ Up type tent thing. We loved it. Very useful. And since I got it at a steal for $24, it made it even better. Can you also see the little baby tent we had set up for Baby Ray?? It was super useful too. Ray was not a big fan of the wind … and sand. He’s not really a beach lover just yet, but he’s not even 2 months yet … we’ll give him some time to warm up to it.
Ray is doing some killer dance moves (or something) in the baby tent.
left to right: Alejandro, Liam, Daniel, Noah and Antonio.
Noah and Liam about to jump a coming wave. These boys were made for the outdoors.
Then it was lunch time. Here’s my favorite part of the beach stuff we now own: the little compartmentalized food containers. It’s in Liam’s lap. It totally worked like I thought it would. I always have a hard time bringing food to the beach because sand gets in everything and the stuff in the cooler gets soggy – enter, the cool containers. No utensils needed, no plates needed and when they were done eating – you just put the top on the containers and stick it back in the cooler. No hassle. Totally awesome. I love compartments.
Another hit? Izze canned drinks from Costco. I feel good about them because they have half the sugar in them than regular sodas and no artificial stuff in them. The boys love them because they’re tasty … homerun.
Almost all of the Ordaz family: Arturo (the daddy), Antonio, Alejandro and Alonzo.
Happy faced Liam.
Just gorgeous. I was sitting next to him when I took this. Can you see the tiny reflection of me in his sunglasses? Good. That’s the only shot of me there is form this trip. Wonna know why? I was behind the camera and Daniel never picked it up to take any shots of me. It’s just as well though, I look like I’m about 6 months pregnant still, but without a cute little round tummy – imagine a flabby, weird tire around my middle like a floaty … not really picture worthy.
That mound under the sand is Liam. And then he immerged:
This is what Noah spent most of the 4 hours at the beach doing – digging a hole to China … or making a natural bathtub … not sure.
This cracks me up. Daniel and Liam found a little sandbar about 10 feet out and just sat there, letting the waves crash around them, just enjoying and relaxing. These two are Olympians at relaxing. If they could, both of these guys would sleep like Baby Ray – about 16 out of every 24 hours. They are in their element when they are unconcious.
And then the sun started going down and low and behold ….
Liam and Daniel were still relaxing. I told you.
Now for my other favorite part: Noah action shots. It was so nice to let Noah be Noah all day long and not have to tell him to calm down, or stop running or stop jumping. He got to just be himself – free as a bird all day long. And he reveled in it.
Daniel and I are die hard Calvin and Hobbes fans. We read it every night. We now think and speak in terms of Calvin and Hobbes … sometimes. So, when I saw this next picture of Noah, I had to put it side by side with the comic I was thinking of:
Awesome, right?
I’ll let Noah take us out with this last picture … it was a good beach day:
