Chicken BBQ, the Zoo, and a Tale of Three Cities

A few weekends ago, we attended the Drenthe Grove Community Chicken BBQ with Eric's parents and our nephews Tim and Luke. Eric's brother's (Steve) family has now moved to West Michigan from Iowa (yaaay!!), so while Steve and Joy were busy painting and unpacking, we got to hang out with two of their three boys. What a great time we had! Because it was the 50th anniversary of the BBQ, there were an absolute ton of activities for the kids - petting zoo, corn maze, hayride, firetrucks, tractors, inflatable games, and more! Below are a few pictures of the evening.

Jump...fall...jump...fall...jump...fall
On the "hayride" ready to go - L to R: Eric, Grant, Luke, Tim, Mom P. (isn't it obvious just by looking at them that the 3 younger boys are cousins??)
Corn maze - "It's not scary" (Grant)
Petting some of the animals from the Critter Barn

Last Tuesday Marcy, Amy, and I took Grant, Reese, and Hannah to John Ball Park Zoo. It was such a beautiful day to visit the zoo! The kids loved seeing and interacting with all the animals. I had to laugh, though, because when we asked Grant after the day was over what his favorite animal at the zoo was, he said the ducks. Go figure - of all the great and exotic animals at the zoo, my kid liked the ducks best!

Petting the sting rays
Checking out the monkeys

We decided to get away this weekend for one last "hurrah" prior to school starting. Saturday morning we headed up to Howard City to visit the cottage of Frank and Linda, one of my co-workers, on Indian Lake. Also invited were another teacher-friend of mine, Erica, and her family. The kids played in the water and sand, went seadooing and tubing, we ate lunch, had nice conversation, and then were on the road again after a very relaxing few hours. Our next stop was Traverse City to visit Doug and MaryAnn (and their kids Allee and Harrison), friends from Albion College. It had been a number of years since we've seen them, and we had never met their children, so we had the chance to eat dinner with them and the kids got to play together. Again, we had a fantastic time catching up and watching our kids enjoy each other's company. Unfortunately, I failed to get my camera out for either of these two visits, so I don't have any pictures to post.

Our final stop of the weekend was Boyne, where Eric's parents were staying and invited us up for a few days.
We stayed at the Mountain Grand at the base of the ski hills of Boyne Mountain and what a beautiful resort it was (above is the picture taken from the top of the ski hill, where we rode the chairlifts up). It was built just a few years back and boy was it impressive. Indoor/outdoor pool, multiple hot tubs, king size beds, big screen TVs, beautiful exercise room (yeah right - we're on vacation - we looked but didn't attempt any physical activity), spa, restaurants, shops - you name it. Grant even had his very own room (that actually slept 4 - it had two bunk beds).

Grant looking out the "door" of his bedroom. The whole facility had a Swiss theme.

The only problem - the fire alarm went off when we were in deep slumber at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Everyone had to evacuate the building and stand in the parking lot for about 10 minutes until we were given the all clear to come back in. We saw lots of jammies!! No fire - but some part of the alarm system malfunctioned and caused it to sound. I guess I'd rather have a problem with the alarm going off when it isn't supposed to rather than the other way around, but having to wake a sleeping 2 year old in the middle of the night isn't exactly my idea of a fun time. On the positive side - we got free breakfast the next morning at one of the restaurants because of the inconvenience. Best French toast I've ever had - dipped in cinnamon and corn flakes! I'd take another waking up in the middle of the night if I could get that breakfast again!

Part of the resort was the Avalanche Bay indoor water park, so we spent our Sunday morning there. Ever since we got back from Mackinaw in early July Grant has so desperately wanted to go to another water park, so he was on cloud 9 the second we walked in.

Eric and Grant at the end of the "Vertigo" (aka toilet bowl) water slide. This one was my favorite ride!
Our attempt at a family picture inside the park.
Eric trying out the "surfing" pool. Looked like a lot of fun, but probably not a wise choice of activities for a pregnant lady.
I swear, Grant went down this water slide in the kiddie pool area over 50 times. This is where he wanted to spend most of the morning. He went down this slide on his butt, stomach, and backwards - he just couldn't get enough of it.

We also had the chance to briefly visit with Eric's aunt, uncle, and cousins, who live in Boyne City, went out for pizza, checked out Deer Lake, and just RELAXED! What a great way to spend one of the last weekends of summer.

Grant loved his very own bean bag chair!
Relaxing Monday morning in the pool and hot tub.

We headed home Monday afternoon, and this next picture tells it all -
Summer has "unofficially" come to an end, and G-man is pooped. It sure was a good one, though!