Birthday Trip for Bianca, Part 1

I celebrated a very special birthday this month and—as usual—we celebrated with a family birthday trip! I will let my pictures do most of the talking for me, but here’s a little introduction to our trip:

We left our house around lunch time for a friend’s high school graduation party in town. We spent a few hours there and enjoyed a delicious taco salad lunch before hitting the road again. Then we headed north!

Around dinnertime, we stopped in a little town near Cadillac, at a quaint little pizza place. Here are all of us kids in the booth.

Mmm, the amazing pizza we enjoyed!

We kept driving and driving, and finally, I began to realize where we were going. Our very dear friends have a cottage near a camp on Lake Michigan. My jaw dropped when I realized that we would be spending the weekend with them, in their cottage, on Lake Michigan!!!

This is the view from their cottage. Isn’t it breathtaking?!

Rubia and Roma down on the beach in front of the cottage.

Josiah and his friend enjoying the hammock in the yard. Just about everybody who sat on this hammock ended up flipping it over a few times before they got the hang of it (myself included! J)

After arriving at the cottage and settling in, we walked down to the camp to look around. Mr. and Mrs. M spent summers here while they were growing up, and their kids are the 4^th generation to be a part of this camp and cottage! As I’m sure you can imagine, they have great memories here.

The birthday girl in front of the lodge.

All of the girls getting ready to head out for a sunset beach walk.

I think the sunset we witnessed was one of the most beautiful that I have seen in my entire life. It was incomparable.

Roma and our friend K enjoying the walk.

Daddy and I walking hand-in-hand.

The group making its way towards the south pier.

In the middle of the rock pier was a bush of flowers growing. I tried to capture the bush with the sunset in the background.

Everyone enjoying the climb. But we all look concerned here because just before this picture was taken, Ben fell on a rock and scraped his shin very badly. Thankfully, there wasn’t much blood, but he did get quite bruised.

The south pier with the lighthouse at the end.

After our walk, we went to the Trading Post which doesn’t open until 9:00 p.m. We went there because. . .

We had to end the day with ice cream!

Several of us enjoyed cherry fudge ice cream with all the toppings on it. It was delicious!

This was the ladder to where the girls slept.

We slept in the attic! Just like the “Little House on the Prairie” movies!

Lights out around 12:00 a.m.! We had a great day and an even better next day. Come back tomorrow to hear about it!