June, Part the Second and Warren Dunes

Our last big event in June was Cadence's birthday!  She asked for an axolotl ocean cake. Um. Thankfully, you can get axolotl toy figurines... Also, they live in freshwater lakes in Mexico, so I guess it's more of a lake bottom than an ocean. 😜

She liked it. 

It just so happened that her best school friend celebrated her birthday early, on Cadence's birthday! So Cadence got to go to Hanna's party for a bit, and came home with a gift. 😝

Presents!

Eight years old already. Wow.

We packed the van to the top the next day and headed out on an adventure!  First stop was Michigan.

We found a little cottage right next to Warren Dunes.  It was perfectly vintage and just felt like vacation.

There were two bedrooms and a bunk room; but all the kids decided they wanted to sleep in the bunks.

Backyard swing for three.

The girls were so intrigued by the outdoor shower... it was super nice for cleaning off sand after the beach! 

We spent two full days there- the first morning we did a little bit of hiking.

The trail was through the dunes and we were all wearing tennis shoes and got so much sand in our shoes.

I don't understand how they can run up and down the dunes like that.  I'm getting old.    

Cecily spent all of her down time reading.  😋

We went to the beach in the afternoon.  The water was a balmy 52 degrees, so we mostly played in the sand and got our feet wet briefly. 

Mr. Perrin loved the sand.  Bob and the older girls climbed the big dune while we drove construction trucks in the sand.

A little painting...

Emmy started feeling weird that evening and wanted to sleep near the bathroom.  I maybe panicked a little bit (ptsd).... but she was fine after a good nights sleep.  The sleeping bag had cars and a road on it, so of course Perrin loved it. 

Reading books.

Watching the 'garbage can.'  Our vacations are super exciting. 

Day two hiking the girls wanted to wear sandals and we ended up walking through woods.  ha.  Can't win.  It was also a lot more buggy so there was more complaining. 

Just me and my shadows.

We went back to the beach in the afternoon.

And we all climbed the big dune.  Bob carried Perrin the whole way up. 

I made it.  Barely.  I look as hot, sweaty, and winded as I was. 

Perrin just wanted to play in the sand every time we put him down.

And then they all ran straight down the dune.... crazies.  😆

The lake was calmer and water temperature was up to 55 degrees!  Haha. 

They discovered a whole drawer full of coloring supplies at the cottage. 

I let the girls sign the guestbook. :) 

It was a good little vacation and we were all a little sad to leave.  After we packed up, we drove into town to a yarn store in the rain, saw a train, and then headed southeast for our next stop- Rita's!  

Blessings.