Traverse City Review {our fun up north}

It was so nice to take a break from the Georgia heat and join Rico Suave last week on a business trip. He had the hotel booked, rental car booked…and with summer here–why not use his SkyMiles to take the whole family on the business trip. Now, it was QUITE the week…it even felt sord of like a vacation {minus having my hubby around during the day while he was in meetings}! I’ll take his help though at night over running it solo any day. One thing I would choose to leave behind though was being stuck in the air with 2 two-year-olds who aren’t great travelers. DISPITE that one litte quirk…thought I’d share our fun pictures from our week!

The weather was AMAZING. Makes me wonder why we don’t all go to the lakes during the summer heat. It was in the 80s all week…just perfect weather that we only get for a week or so here in the South it seems. The kids even thought it was COLD…so there was no convincing them to jump in the water in the morning. The hotel {Grand Traverse Resort} though had a pretty sweet indoor pool. The older two especially loved it!

When Rich was at work–momma wasn’t so brave to let them swim without life jackets (even though they can swim)…made me so much more at ease knowing every one could float! 1 on 4 in a pool isn’t the easiest:) They were sports and went along with my request…

The hotel we stayed at also had beach access to Lake Michigan–so in the afternoons after nap times we would head on over to the lake. The water always seemed warmer in the afternoons. And some times we’d get lucky and Rico Suave would finish up and meeting and join us!

AND THAT my friends–is about as close as ITY gets to an open body of water. Yep. He does NOT like oceans or lakes. He likes pools…particularly baby pools. But this…NO GO. This is more his style…

He convinced me to give him my hat…my glasses…and eventually he even got my drink. He has some tactics I’ll tell ya…

You could seriously walk out FOREVER and the water was just knee deep–PERFECT for the little ones. Frankie baby especially loved it! He was busy throwing balls…practicing his kicks…just chillin’ in the shallow water…

Later in the afternoon–Richard would join us. BUT he’d have to take business calls…which this just melted my heart to see! I love watching how much Parker loves his dad and mimics what he does. When Rich had to take an important call from London, he was concentrating on the business call—and I looked back to see Parker quietly pacing WITH him…like father like son:)

AND THEN…it was time to put on the gear and see guppies and little fish…and rocks and what not:) The older two geared up…

And they took off to snorkle.

Poor Frankie baby felt left out. He had not snorkle set. He had no snorkle set–because he wanted a Lightning McQueen snorkle set–and K-Mart no havey. He INSTEAD chose Lightning McQueen goggles. Let me remind you there is NO reasoning with a 2 year old. He also insisted they be TIGHT. Like really tight. He did NOT want them loose. But no matter what we did…they just didn’t seem to be like he wanted them…

“TIGHTER!!! Tighter Daddy!” he would say…

He looked to daddy for approval…

And I almost spit out my juice when he looked at me…

Those look GREAT Frankie baby! But he knew they needed some adjusting;)

HOW about now mommy???

AWWWW…who are we kidding?! We all know Frankie baby isn’t going to put his face in the water! He gave up laughing at least!

Eventually–he did give it ONE more go (which didn’t work) and Isaac finished off my juice that I couldn’t finish because I was laughing too hard at Frank’s attempts!

His business trip to Traverse City just happened to line up with the Cherry Festival. We didn’t have much time at night because we even went along with Richard to client dinners (at THEIR request for us to join them!) One night before dinner, we decided to take them down and check it out…

I guess it’s better to ride these on empty stomachs right??

And I’m thankful to hold on the the babies while he did a few things like this with the older two (the thought of going on this makes me want to barf)…but they loved it:)

Unfortunately for the babies–they were TOO SHORT to ride anything. Frankie baby did just barely hit the line for the race cars…so he got to go on this one…

Oh if you could hear him squealing!!! It was SO cute!

Isaac didn’t fuss one bit to do anything…he just wanted me to hold him close with all this overstimulating! He was perfectly happy to watch the older ones. Before racing off to meet Rich’s clients–Parker climbed a rock wall…

He had fun repelling off too…

And then to my surprise–I saw these two waiting in line for something I wasn’t so sure about a 2 year old doing…

Crazy baby…

He had big sister in the jumpie beside him to offer moral support:)

Our LAST day in Traverse City–we grabbed pastries at a shop and then took a box to deliver at another client’s office. We thought it was a good idea to sugar them up before letting this group of clients meet the kids. Can you imagine when this crew came running in their office???

THEN we spent the afternoon having a playdate at the pool and then lunch with another AGCI family!!!! The Gothro family came to meet up with us! They live about 5 hours away from Traverse City and they had planned a camping trip just 20 minutes away. Like us–they have 4 kiddos–so the kids had such fun playing together and it was such a fun way to end our business trip!

Crazy daddy even amused the kids acting like he didn’t know the bucket of water was going to fall on him in the sprayground…(how funny are Laney and Frank covering up their mouths in dismay!)

SO…that was our week in Traverse City packed into a post:). I completely understand why so many go North for the summer and camp there too. Michigin folk are SO FRIENDLY and kind! (They might even have something on the South…in face I think they do after our visit!) It’ll be awhile before I can brave another flight with the little ones, but I hope one day we can go back and visit another spot on the lakes!!!

NOW…off to do some laundry! (By the way–when we stepped out of the airport in Georgia…the heat came on and I felt like I was stepping off the plane in the Sudan! Oh my–it is HOT here. BUT the North doesn’t serve sweet tea at every restraurant…so I guess you can’t have it all;). I told Rich though if he ever wants to relocate to be closer to his MI clients…I’m totally cool with that!)

XOXO!

Andrea