Vacation - Day 6

Wednesday of vacation, we spent driving from Eastern OH to Western MI. My brother was getting married that weekend, and we weren't about to miss it :)  We shared two cabins with Gramma, Grampa, Auntie M, David, his pastor & best man. It was fun to have everyone close by and the cabins were cool, too! Thursday night was the wedding rehersal and dinner, but the morning was free to just hang out - so that's what we did.

 Auntie M made a great swing for Faith!

 And Grampa read the kids a new storybook.

After a quiet, laid back, morning, we headed over to the wedding location for the rehersal.

There wasn't too much for the kids to rehearse, there were no tables or chairs set up yet - so the 3 toddlers in the wedding (Nathan, Faith & Kristen's nephew, Malachi) all had fun just running around. 

After the rehersal, we headed to a local park to eat some yummy BBQ!

There's soon-to-be Aunt Kristen!

The kids had fun playing at the park, with their Maryland friend, Ethan. 

And they enjoyed eating the yummy mac & cheese - and lots of other goodies, too! 

Yum! 

There's Malachi with his daddy, and adorable chubby cheeks full of yummy food :) 

Uncle Dave & Aunt Kristen gave out gifts and thanks to all their wedding party.
And they included the kids in it! They gave them each a backpack full of goodies

to help entertain them at the the wedding. Nathan loves his new backpack, possibly more than his Thomas bag! And Faith adores her's, too - we use it as her diaper bag for church now and she insists on wearing it as often as she can, even if it's just for the 20 steps from the front door to the car. :)

 After dinner we headed over to the nearby sand dune to climb over and see Lake Michigan.

 That dune was hard to climb - and sooo big.

We were all out of breath by the time we got down the other side.

And Nathan surprised us - he made every step up & down himself!

On the other side of the dune was Lake Michigan! 

Someone told us the water temperature was 49 degrees!

It was cold - so we didn't do much but get our feet wet.

And even our toes didn't last long in the cold water! 

While Momma drew in the sand...

Faith threw it.

She thought it was great fun to get fist fulls and throw it in the water. 

Until the forward motion of throwing it made her fall, face first, into the sand one too many times... lol She was COVERED from head to toe with sand - and still loving it!

The hood on her jacket came in handy... hehe

And helped keep her from tipping over again ;-)

Soon, many of the rest of family & friends we're coming over the dune.

My Aunt Helen & Uncle Mike, Kristen's bridesmaid, Dave & Kristen and our friends from Maryland, Tim, Sara, Ethan & Miles.

There's the happy couple, David & Kristen. 

Nathan & Ethan had a blast throwing sand in the lake, too. 

Yes... Nathan! I told you, he's nothing like the little boy who hated dirt & all things natural last summer! Now he loves to get messy!

Nathan & Ethan had a great time together!

They were cute to watch. 

After fun on the beach, we clean up and headed back to the cabins to sleep - the kids weren't as tired as we expected. They were too excited to dive into their new backpacks full of goodies... hehe But when their heads hit their pillows that night, they were out fast! And they slept great - which was good because tomorrow would be another busy busy wedding day!

Congratulations, Dave & Kristen - you two make a great couple!

I'll post pics from the wedding tomorrow :)