Vacation in Michigan Part 1

We just got back home from a week-long vacation with the Wiers fam in Grand Haven, MI! It was a wonderful week, full of sun, fun, and family (and we even squeezed in some time with friends, too). We were all sad to see the end of the week arrive so quickly! Now... for the highlights of the week (in 2 installations):

We left Ankeny at 4:30 Friday afternoon, and our plan was to drive a ways and then spend the night in a hotel and finish the drive Saturday morning. We weren't sure how Jeremiah would do on the 8.5 hour drive if we tried to do it all in one stretch! Turns out he did pretty well, but we still decided to stop about 10:30 pm in Chesterton, IN. Jeremiah enjoyed his first night in a hotel room:


Saturday morning we got up and headed for Grand Haven. We met my friend (and former co-worker at Chicago West Side Christian School) Erika for lunch at Panera in GH. It was so nice to see her and catch up!


In the afternoon we arrived at our rental house in GH:


Saturday evening we decided to let Jeremiah give rice cereal a try. Turns out he LOVES it!


He looks like he enjoyed it, right? :)


Sunday we went to church and then enjoyed a nice lunch at The Kirby Grill.


Sunday night we had a Waanders family gathering (my mom's side) at Uncle Tony and Aunt Jeane's house in GH. This was a "small" group of Waanders... only about 55 people. :) Here is me with my cousin Karen and her boyfriend Juan:

Jeremiah with my cousin Melissa. He was just a bit crabby that evening, and Melissa had the right touch to get him to calm down!

Let me just say that the Waanders family is pretty amazing and I am blessed to be a part of it!!!

Monday we walked around GH-- it was a beautiful day! Jeremiah also got to spend some quality time getting to know his cousin Josie:


Jeremiah is "Grandpa's Sidekick":


We also hit Temptations for ice cream (a few times)!


Jeremiah was pretty crabby on this particular day, so he did this:

And this:

Turns out that his bottom 2 teeth were popping through-- poor baby!

Other people also decided to snooze:
Look at this guy all cuddled up!

And then there was Matt. He insists that he was "reading."


On Tuesday we met my friends Natasha and Kara (and her beautiful 8 month old daughter, Emery) for lunch, and then we hit the beach! Jeremiah went in the Big Lake for the first time!
Look at this beach bum:

Hmmm... not so sure about this.

Tasha with beach babe Emery:


Okay, folks, that's all for now. To be continued...

Oh, alright, if you insist, I'll leave you with one more cute Jeremiah pic:


Part 2 will be coming soon!