Michigan - Mackinac Island

I should break this up into multiple posts, but I'm not.  Just know, lots of pictures ahead and it's still just a fraction of what I took!  We really enjoyed our little side trip.  

Mackinac Island in Michigan is like stepping back in time.  You take a ferry to it and there are no cars on island, but there are LOTS of horses and buggies and FUDGE!  Oh my, that fudge is GOOD!

I snapped this pic on the way to Mackinac at a rest stop that was near a section of beach on Lake Superior.  One of my greatest joys as a wife and mom has been watching Brian with the girls.  It always makes my heart swell!  

Ferry Boat ride out to the island.  Naomi wanted to be up top until she figured out how very cold it is once the boat really gets moving and the wind whips up from the water.  Brrrr!  She hid out under Daddy!

Views of Mackinac - aka bicycles, buggies (and horses) and boats!

Love our little family pic with the horse and buggy!

 

The Grand Hotel as seen from our buggy tour:

Our first stop on the tour was at the Butterfly House.  I took a ton of pics because the butterflies were so beautiful!  Here's a little sample:

The girls taking a little beverage break before we see the butterflies.  

This butterfly landed on Brian when we first got there and rode around on him the entire time we walked through the place. 

Lots of beautiful butterflies!

 Me and Brian in front of a little Love Blooms sign.  :)  And cutie Olivia smiling!

The next stop was at this awesome arch!  At some point in the ride from the butterflies to here, Naomi fell sound asleep in my lap and slept through me climbing off with her, walking around with her and climbing back on the buggy with her.  Have I mentioned how heavy a sleeper she is?  

 

We toured the Fort next and the girls wanted to fire the cannon.  In fact Naomi cried when she found out that only the re-enactment soldiers got to fire the cannon so we found her one that she could pretend to fire. 

Here are some beautiful views, some from the Fort and some from the walk down the hill back to the main street.  

We had a little lunch with a little fudge of course which put everyone in excellent spirits!  We took a little walk along the water front before boarding our ferry back to the mainland.  

I think it may have worn some of my crew out since this is the pic I snapped on the ferry ride back.  

The next day before we drove back to Marquette, we used our free passes to go to a little in-hotel waterpark.  It was the perfect size for preschoolers!  Plus, they had a warm pool too!

Then, we cleaned up, grabbed some lunch and drove back to Marquette.  :)

(Mmmm... just noticed that the strap on Olivia's carseat is twisted - oops!)

Back at "home", someone snapped this pic and it doesn't really go anywhere else, but I love it!

Michigan - Oswald's Bear Park

On our way to Mackinac Island, we stopped at Oswald's Bear Park and got to check out the bears and even take a picture with a little cub.  Now, my kids think baby bears eat Fruit Loops since that is what was in the little spoon we held out for the cub.  Too funny! 

Michigan - American Airlines Flight Saga - Part 1

I have to write this down because it was an unfortunately very memorable part of the trip for us.  First, I will say that my girls are travel troopers!  Under the situation and given their age, I could not have asked for better.

After learning our lesson last year, we arrived at the airport with plenty of time, parked in remote, grabbed a shuttle, checked most of our bags (travel light in terms of carry-ons if you are with small kids - just trust me), through security without any issues and got to our gate with time to spare.  We had left the house at 11 am, got to the airport around noon and flight was around 2pm.  Off to what we thought was a good start.

Then, they change our gate and we trek across the terminal.  Okay, no biggie.  Then, they announce they need to make a repair, we will be delayed 30 minutes.  Okay, makes our connection a little tighter, may have to grab dinner on the run through Chicago, but we can roll with that.  Then, after closer to an hour, they announce that they are going to have to find a different plane.  Uh oh.  We scramble back to the other side of the terminal to see if we can get on a different flight that is leaving about that time.  They only have room for 1, not 4, not going to work.  Trek back across the terminal.  They announce that they have found a plane and we will be changing gates.  Trek back across the terminal.  Board plane.  Overhead announcement - this plane also needs repairs and we have to shut off power so everyone will have to de-plane.  We all get off.  We wait.  We re-board at about the same time that our connecting flight is taking off in Chicago.  Did I mention that it is the only flight to Marquette that day?  Doh!  The girls do so well through all of this!

We arrive in Chicago around 8pm and work on alternate flight plans and getting set up with hotel and meal vouchers (thankful it was mechanical and not weather related so that the airline provided this).  We are re-booked on 2 flights - fly to Detroit at 2pm the following day on AA and then switch to Delta to fly to Marquette and arrive around 9 or 10 at night, adding another leg to our journey.  We are assured that our luggage will be checked through and as hauling our luggage with our littles isn't practical, we go with that.

We wait for the shuttle to the hotel which is located about 20 minutes from the airport.  We wait.  We call.  Shuttle is at the next terminal and will be there shortly.  We wait some more.  We stare longingly at the Hilton across the street.  We breathe in fumes - bus fumes, car fumes, cigarette fumes, cigar fumes... We call again.  Last shuttle was too full, it will come back (40 minutes round-trip).  We wait.  We cheer with joy when shuttle arrives.  We chat with all of our fellow disgruntled airline passengers.  We line up at the hotel for our room with our vouchers (all of us).  We get a key and request cribs - we get into the room around 10:30.  The cribs arrive around 11 or so.  We finally get our over-tired, jumping on the bed kids into bed around midnight.  Olivia cries every 45 minutes - I try sleeping with my hand in the crib, pulling her into bed, etc. to no avail.  Everyone wakes up exhausted around 6:30am.  Breakfast opens at 7.  We eat breakfast, watch tv and pass the time.

We get back on a shuttle and back into the airport with plenty of time to use a meal voucher for lunch.  We buy lots of soy milk from Starbucks as Olivia can't have regular milk and almond milk isn't available.  Get on plane to Detroit and negotiate with other passengers to sit with our kids.  Arrive in Detroit.  Sit on tarmac waiting for our gate to open up - please don't let us miss our connection.  Exit security.  Get on shuttle to Delta terminal.  Check into flight despite extremely rude Delta lady (we may have given her back a little attitude).  Go back through security.  Trek through really big terminal.  Get gate person to arrange for us to sit with our kids (although not together).  Brian grabs dinner for us, but they give it to him in open containers and the flight is boarding.  Exhausted, stressed... Juggle food, kids and carry ons onto plane.  Finally break down into tears.  Give kid food, but can barely eat through the tears.  Order wine.  Ignore little plastic cup and drink from little plastic bottle.  Take lots of deep breaths.

We finally arrive in Marquette and no surprise, our luggage did not.  I watch the kids play at the Little Tykes play thing at the airport while Brian fills out the lost luggage paperwork and I cry some more.  I'm just done.

Our luggage (and our Plexus!) arrives the next night at midnight.  After wearing the same clothes for 3 days and having run out of my carry-on Plexus Slim, I could have kissed the delivery guy!

Michigan - Park

Marquette in the summer has perfect park weather!  When Texas is sweltering and clinging to the indoor AC vents, Marquette is basking in the 70's and 80's!  It was a great morning at a great park right off the lake!

Michigan - Fun with Family Part 1 - Happy Birthday Brian

Our first full day in Marquette happened to also be Brian's birthday!  :)  They had a family barbeque and a cake for him at Brian's step-sister's house.  It was so sweet and thoughtful and we enjoyed getting to hang out with family that we normally only get to connect with on social media. 

Naomi loved the cake as usual!  And Olivia was all smiles!

Baby Lily and Gloria

Justin and Kylie

Bill, Dawn and Gary

Michael and Lily

Chris and Kerri

SeaLife Aquarium - Octonauts Edition

Naomi loves Octonauts and sea creatures.  She even had an Octonauts themed 3rd birthday party (I don't think any of the other kids knew anything about the Octonauts, but at least one of them is a fan now).  Consequently, Olivia is also a fan.  

So, when we heard that SeaLife Aquarium in Grapevine was doing a special Octonauts event, we had to go!  My Dad and Step-mom came with us, although  I didn't happen to snap any pictures of them.  (Olivia would only wave to the Octonauts characters; she was not interested in hugging them or anything.) 

Naomi with Captain Barnacles

Our Little Family (the girls are watching Octonauts on a screen in the room.)

Naomi with Kwazi

Aquarium Fun

Naomi saw this carousel before we went into the aquarium and would not stop talking about it the whole way through the aquarium.  We should have just let her ride it before we went inside so that she could get it out of her system and enjoy the rest of the day.  Lesson learned.  She was fixated on it, so the minute we exited SeaLife, she made a mad dash for the thing.  We let the kids ride it twice.