Plenty of beach and pool time

Whip Nae Nae on the beach -- apparently the song of the summer for kids.  I never heard of the song before, however our kids seemed to know it start to finish with rehearsed dance moves to boot.

We obviously took advantage of the coast for half the trip -- beach through early afternoon, pool afterward, followed by the grill -- my kind of vacation.

The kids loved the ocean, both of them seemed to navigate the waves well -- only a couple times when I had to wait a few seconds until I saw them pop up.

Outer Banks Vacation - Road Trip

On the road

...after 11 hours on the road

We made it!

The backyard -- pool, hot tub and grill -- the essentials

We met up with some friends for the week at the Outer Banks, great trip!  Weather was perfect with lots to do!

Car Wash

Kids were interested in washing the cars, no issues here.  They spent a solid hour on the job -- and for their hard work, $1 each!

Downtown stroll

Taking advantage of the weather... and the ice cream.  These pics are from a recent stroll downtown, as you can see, it's quite the challenge to have Dylan actually pose for a photo.

Niagara Falls Air Force Base

Made a quick trip back to WNY a couple weekends ago, went to our first air show.  Apparently Dylan loved it, he said it was as fun as a Red Wings game.

Pics from 4th

We had perfect weather for the 4th, spent whole day outside 11am-10pm -- kids had a blast.

Mackinaw City

Stopped here on our walk to dinner one night.

Some more pics from Mackinaw City, spent a decent amount of time on beach and took advantage of the restaurants for dinner.

Mackinac Island

Mackinac Bridge -- ranks up there as one of the largest suspension bridges in world -- I picked up a few facts on the tour.  

Grand Hotel -- member of Historic Hotels of America, apparently has the longest front porch in the world at 660 feet.  When it first opened, cost was $3-5 per night -- rates have since experienced a slight bump upwards.  

Took a trip "up north" as they say here in MI, spent a few days in Mackinaw City -- most of the pics above are from a day trip we took to Mackinac Island.  I didn't realize the island was such a tourist attraction, people all over the world were visiting.  No cars allowed on island, need to walk, bike or take horse to get places -- we ended up taking a 2 hour horse ride tour to see good portion of the island.

Tiger's game

Madison's girls scout troop, along with all the other metro Detroit girl scout groups, had the opportunity to walk the field.  Of course Dylan couldn't miss out on this action, "anything sports" will peak his interest.  It was a great game too, Tigers were down 4-0 in 8th and they tied it up -- then bottom of 9th with walk-off HR for the win!  Dylan and I stuck around for the exciting finish, the ladies missed out -- left in the 7th.