Mackinac Island

During our trip to Michigan, we drove through a stormy, dreary morning to go see Mackinac Island.  By the time we got up to Mackinac, the rain started to clear out.  We visited the lighthouse, drove over the Mackinac Bridge, climbed up to Castle Rock, and took a ferry over to the island itself to see what we could see.

The lighthouse - the kids, Erin, and I went up to the top first...

A view of the bridge

Daddy got stuck with the next tour, which happened to have a couple of very curious and chatty ladies who caused him to get "stuck" enjoying the views from the top of the lighthouse for quite some time.

After we eventually got Thom John back, we drove across the bridge and stopped at a tourist outpost to see Castle Rock.  The funky ceiling of the souvenir shop:

Views from the top:

Next, we waited for a ferry to take us over to Mackinac Island:

Our tour of the island included lunch, walking on the main street, walking around the Fort, a hike in the woods, and really neat views of the shoreline.

We hiked to see Skull Cave, which sounded super-cool but really wasn't.  It didn't have skulls nor was it much of a cave rather than a depression in the hillside. The gang was disapointed.

We stopped for ice cream, of course!

While waiting to take the ferry back to the mainland, we strolled by some Victorian-style houses and the kids hopped on the beach to throw rocks in Lake Huron.

Fire Station

Oh yes, it's time for our annual visit to the fire station!  This year, the kids didn't really focus on the cool trucks and equipment as much as other years - due mainly to the amount of Sean and Clare's classmates who were also visiting the fire station.  The kids had a blast running around and playing in the fire station with their friends, taking brief breaks to check out the equipment and to eat a quick hot dog dinner.

Seany's annual stand-by-the-giant-tire photo, age six:

At five:

At four:

At 18 months:

And Baby Clare at 18 months:

Fall fun

Not too long ago, the Sooy kids met up with their cousin for some fall farm fun.  We went to the kids' favorite local farm to go apple and pumpkin picking.

Sean was happy to help his cousin pick apples:

The Sooys picked two full pecks of apples (we still have a few apples left) and they were happy to keep picking for their cousin, too.  Soon we moved over to the pumpkin patch where the kids went wild in among the pumpkin plants, deciding which pumpkin to pick.

Sean was so nice and gentle with his little cousin while Clare was so happy to have someone to direct around the pumpkin patch :-)

It was a fun day!

September at the Beach

No, we didn't get caught up in Pope Fever and we didn't board a flight with the Pope to Italy.  For Pope Weekend, we took the Sooy Babies to the beach!  Despite the clouds, the kids had a ball at the beach.  We even gave the lifeguards something to do - Clare and Sean got into a spat and Clare whacked Sean in the back with a sand shovel.  Sean ended up with a scrape and we asked the lifeguards for a bandage and all was well.

Here are a few snaps and a video from our afternoon: