Lake Michigan ( a whole bunch of pictures)

 

We were going to drive down and get some stuff out of our storage unit this weekend but at the last minute we decided to go the opposite direction and head to the beach.  It was really really cold.  Almost too cold for a picnic but we did it anyway.  

At Lake Michigan they have these really incredible sand dunes which my kids think are called sand "dudes".  This hill doesn't look all that big in the picture but in reality it's the tallest mountain I've seen since I've lived in Indiana.  The white sand and the blue sky and the stark trees just made for fun pictures so I guess that's why there's so many here. 

Some of us slid down the dunes which was apparently totally awesome but the rest of us that are either too small or too big stayed safely at the top. 

Luckily we stopped at Target on the way out of town and bought a couple shovels and buckets and the kids thought it was pretty cool to dig big holes and bury themselves.  The problem though was that the sand was pretty warm at the top but the further down you got the colder the sand got.  They didn't stay buried very long.  (this picture is sort of giving me anxiety,  it looks like one wrong move and they're all going to fall off the cliff)

One last minute purchase from Target were some bubbles and that turned out to be the best part of the whole thing.  We even started to draw a crowd from the beach below. 

After playing in the sand for a couple hours the kids were getting tired and cold but John and I didn't really feel like going home yet so we drove up the waterfront until we got to Benton Harbor.  There's only like 5 people in the world that would understand why we would want to go to Benton Harbor and find Benton Harbor street but we did and they had a really fun little beach. 

Even better they had a carousel right on the beach.  You can't really see my kids in this picture but they're in there.

My only regret of the day was not putting Charlie on the carousel too.  It seems dumb but the guilt of it is keeping me up at night.  I don't know if it's just a pregnancy thing or what but I am seriously beating myself up about it.  It wouldn't have cost anything and he would have loved it.  What was I thinking?

Anyway, Michigan was beautiful and even though my kids were sandy and exhausted by the time we got home it was worth it.  Someday I might even miss the Midwest..