Fly Away: Beaver Island, Michigan -- Part 2

Oooweee! Our first week back to school hit everyone a bit harder than we had expected. So, we're just getting back to our awesome end of summer vacation deets. After our great day spent exploring mom's little cabin in the woods, we woke up to a lot of clouds and rain. But we were not bummed. We knew that weather meant one thing: the promised trip to the Beaver Island Toy Museum. Mom had told us all about the wonderful store/collector's museum. How she and her siblings looked forward every summer to combing their way through its teeny tiny card catalog drawers of unusual toys -- many of them filled from the local artist owner's bulk purchases of vintage gum ball machine wares. We were psyched and it did not disappoint. In fact, we made two trips to the toy museum during our stay, which also gives you some indication of how much it rained the rest of the week.

Fly Away: Beaver Island, Michigan -- Part 1

Our mom spent much of her summers growing up at her family's cabin on Beaver Island in northern Michigan. It's not the easiest of places to get to, which was all part of the adventure when she young. But coming from the east coast, getting there involves a flight, a long car drive, and either another flight or a ferry. So, needless to say, we'd never been. When we received an invite to one of our favorite former babysitter's wedding in Charlevoix this past August, mom thought it was fate. So we jumped on in and planned a week at the island with our Grammie and Grandpa B (mom knew their 130 square foot cabin without running water or electricity was not going to fly with daddy, so we rented a house on the the island's best beach). Daddy ended up having to travel for work, so we had to cancel our plans to attend the wedding, but he was able to make it home in time for the Beaver Island trip!

We had an awesome time exploring the island and listening to mom wax nostalgic. But, we were there almost an entire week and mom took about 8 million photos, so we decided to post about our trip in parts. Today we're sharing our trip there and the family cabin!

We first flew to our grandparents' house in Chicago and then all drove up to Charlevoix together the next day. Daddy somehow managed to set a record driving time, which meant more time for us to get acquainted with the important northern Michigan delicacy of Superman ice-cream. Holy cow. Then it was a little plane ride in a little plane -- some of us were more nervous than others. But we made it! 

We arrived to our beach house welcomed by sunny skies and sparkling water and, of course, wasted no time getting ourselves into the drink. When the sun is out, Donegal Bay is by far the best swimming beach on the island and mom and her siblings used to beg Grammie and Grandpa to go there when they were little. There were some rocks right in front of the house, but big patches of sandy, shallow water stretch out along the bay. We floated, splashed and explored until dinner time. Donegal Bay is also famous for its sunsets. And we caught a pretty good one our first night!

Our first full day there we woke up to lots of clouds, which mom and Grammie announced was the perfect weather to take a trip down to visit their cabin out in the woods. We bumped our way along dirt roads and parked at the top of "the hill," which apparently requires some serious engine gunning and lack of care about the car you're driving to drive back up. So we skipped down excited to finally see what all the fuss was about. We didn't quite get why someone would pack 6 people into a 10 X 13 cabin on purpose, but we soon got down to the point of Beaver Island: exploring. We took to catching frogs, daddy long legs, slugs, you name it. And we were glad Grammie brought a "habitat" with us. Mom showed us the remains of their once fabulous treehouse and pretend sailboat, now just barely frames.

We fashioned our own walking sticks and headed off on the hike to their "beach," which apparently back in the day used to be an hour-long hike marked off by favorite landmarks (lightening tree, fern field, bee attack cove). Today, there's a road cut to follow, but it was still pretty wild for us. Mom's beach used to be completely deserted and they'd often shower right in the lake, which was cold, but still much warmer than the solar shower back at the cabin. But it's changed a lot. There are homes on the beach now and a lot more vegetation than mom recalls. Grammie thinks part of the changing landscape is from the zebra mussels assault on the Great Lakes. We were just psyched that Grandpa B taught us how to use a compass and walkie talkies. So awesome.

Stay tuned for more on our vacaye later this week and Happy Labor Day!

Fly Away: Christmas in Chicago

How is it the middle of February?! Mom's been trying to get through the photos from Christmas and New Years and finally realized that she just needed to stop trying to organize them and get them up before spring. This year, we spent Christmas in Chicago at our cousins' new home in Lincoln Park. We got to see ALL our cousins from mom's side of the family, Grammie and Grandpa B, and most of our aunts and uncles. It was FREEZING, but so, so, so much fun. We cannot wait to go back!

We spent our first day downtown with Grammie and Grandpa B checking out the German Christkindlemarket and the Christmas windows at Macy's. It was chilly and crowded, but was nice to get out and about.

As you might have heard, one of my most favorite books (we listened to all the audio books in the series, actually) is Blue Balliet's "Wright 3," in which three school-aged children solve a mystery involving Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio is actually in mom's home suburb, Oak Park, and she has a small obsession with him, too. So as my Christmas present this year, Grammie and Grandpa B took us on a tour of all the best Hyde Park spots from the book! We went by Powell's bookstore, took a tour of the Robie House!, and had lunch at The Medici Cafe. It was AWESOME.

The Robie House actually runs a special "Wright 3" tour for kids, but it is on Saturdays only and couldn't swing it. The regular tour was pretty awesome though, especially when the guide learned we were "Wright 3" fans -- she made sure to point out some of the features from book. I'm kind of obsessed with pentominoes (a math puzzle used in the book) and architecture, so I insisted on getting a second set from the bookstore there. Cam did the same.

We spent a lot of time just hanging with our cousins, which made us so happy, but sad that they live so far away :(

Christmas Eve dinner was from Eataly Chicago -- everyone loved the delicious food and lack of preparation that I think it might be a new tradition. Cam and Jack helped Grammie B with her famous Lemon Bee cake -- so there was some homemade, of course. See that outrageously cute baby belly? That's our new cousin Alex -- he was born about 2 weeks later and is even cuter than he was in Aunt Carrie's tummy! (see below)

Our Aunt Allie, aka Ms. Frizzle, put together a super awesome treasure hunt for us to do after dinner. See -- it runs in the family.

Christmas day we went bowling (of course) with our immediate family and then, well, hung out some more and tried to stay warm.

Cousin love at breakfast. 

We also made our first visit to a bounce house, which was a huge success all around and gave everyone some much needed exercise.

And mom made it back this past weekend to visit a month-old baby Alex. Certifiably the cutest baby ever.