Summer Vacation - Part 2 - 4th of July...

Yes, I realize that it's MUCH past the 4th of July holiday festivities... but none-the-less, here are the pics from our day. We drove up "north" Michigan to the small town of Ludington. This little town will always be special to me... I grew up camping over the 4th almost from birth. My grandparents also lived there for a majority of my life. I have many wonderful memories... :). That being said, we are NOT campers. The thought of camping makes both A and I cringe.... but for one day, we swallowed our distaste and decided to make a go of it....

My sister and her family along with my parents were camping. Here is a pic of all the cousins on MY side of the family...all 5 kids. :) Yeah - it's a HUGE group! My dad always puts up these huge "feathers"... not sure if they're obnoxious or pretty....

The state park had a craft for the kids... 4th of July paper lanters. Pretty cute... and easy to make (THANK GOD!!). Besides the mosquitos the kids thought it was fun...

For a small town, they put on a pretty great parade on the 4th. I (along with my sister and my dad) took the kids and their cousins downtown just in time... to grab hotdogs and wait. Seriously, you have to get there SO early to get a "good spot"... it's quite ridiculous. The kids did really well waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

Grandpa came to the rescue with food...

and the parade itself came with the snacks. Usually it's candy being tossed... but not this parade. The local ice cream shoppe (House of Flavors if you're wondering) gives out full pints of ice cream... this year they even remember the spoons! I got "stuck" with Coconut Sorbet (EWWWWW) but the kids got some caramel vanilla flavor. A church tossed out freezie pops...which "I" LOVES.... he pretty much chased them down the street trying to get more.

All in all it was a really fun time... a great way to celebrate with family. By the time we left... we were ready to go. We did our "camping" for the year... :)