Island Fun

For the 4th of July Weekend we decided to head up north to Washington Island, a island about 30 miles off the northern tip of Door County located in the middle of Lake Michigan. It was a great trip, here's the recap.

We started off the weekend with a trip to the Golf Course. (Wes actually took all the kids golfing with him....and I'm not sure he'll do that again.) Taylor & I got some manicures.

I must say it's been years since I've had bright pink nails, but she wanted to be twins!

We then found a miniature golfing course that was all about Wisconsin, the picture below was Lambou Field, where the packers play.

We couldn't leave without the boys hitting in the Batting cages.

The ferry coming to get us....

Then we boarded the ferry to the Island

The kids thought it was so amazing that our car was on a "ship" as they called it. The entire ride over they kept asking me 100 questions. What happens if the ship sinks? Will our car still work? If a robber was chasing you would you jump off the ship? How far is it? Does the pee from the bathroom go into the ocean? (They kept calling it the ocean, when actually is was Lake Michigan) How big are the sharks? Are we going to race that sail boat? Literally 100 questions, I finally told them to close their eyes and enjoy the sunshine and wind in their face....it lasted about 30 seconds.

I have so many pictures from the ferry ride, but this one was my favorite -Taylor enjoying the sunshine & wind....for a few seconds at least!


This was a picture of the port town and I don't know why, but I was very surprised to find the island so full of trees. Why was I thinking there was going to be palm trees.....I'm so losing my mind!

The first beach we went to was School House Beach. It was covered in white smooth stones, very unusual, but beautiful. The water was so clean and beautiful you could see forever.

The kids loved skipping rocks, but didn't like the fact they had to wear shoes to swim. The water was also a little chilly, but it was fun because there were so few people.


Next we took a drive, and there were so many neat cottages, old, authentic, pricey,rustic, mostly all of them were really tiny and very old, but I liked them.



We found the next beach, the first time I drove right past it because there was just this little sign pointing to the beach. We had to walk through this little tiny trail through the trees and...

We finally found the sand!

The next problem is that there was tons of marsh land between the sand and the water that my kids were like..."You got to be kidding me" "The rock beach was better" "This is crap" "The sand is burning my feet" Wes was also pretty crabby, and because I have been to Washington Island 6 times before I am supposta know everything about the stupid place.....

I finally just said, "Look, Mom makes mistakes to and this is nothing like what the brochure said." Needless to say we packed back out lunch, towels, toys, everything back into the car.

My kids just lying in the sand complaining...Wes sitting under a tree complaining and I'm the only one thinking of a solution to the problem....Lucky me!

We did find a little farm museum and stopped for a tour. It was actually a beautiful farm settled in the early 1800's.

The house was a little one room cabin and my kids thought it was so cool. I asked them, "could you live in this?" They were like of yes, it would be so fun...blah blah blah...on & on, why this would be sooooo cool.

Wes took them outside and showed them how they had to bring water in the house, and they were fine with that. He then showed them an old outside oven, how they use to wash clothes, grow their own food (no snacks) which they were all ok with, then ......

Wes showed them where they would have to go to the bathroom (picture above) when they couldn't make it to the outhouse and they were like....."FORGET IT" I'm not cleaning that thing out! You can imagine the other remarks made....but I'm trying to keep this clean.

Taylor and I enjoyed rocking on the front porch.


Tye loved pulling Tate & Taylor around on the old carriages.

What you probably didn't notice about the picture above was that Tate stood up and started pretending to whip the horses (Tye) and smacked Taylor right in the face!!!! She started crying and screaming like crazy that this couple came around the corner to see what happened and I said "Don't worry it's nothing, the Davis Family is just here, along with Mrs. Drama!"

We got on the Road again......

and as you can see the island was covered in vegetation, with big beautiful trees hanging over the small windy roads.

And Finally, after two previous attempts to spend the day on the lake, we found a beach.

One that was sandy,

Warm, and super fun to swim and play in....I did it!!!!

At the end of the trip before we headed for home, we found this fabulous ice cream store called "One more Lick" and trust me, they know what they are talking about.


There was a river behind it that you could canoe on in and it seriously was set so beautifully in the woods. They also had 2 huge playsets for the kids and Wes & I sat and read Sunday's paper. It was so relaxing~


Don't stop yet, the story is not done. Let me tell you about some of the "realities" of the trip that I do not have pictures of.

1. At one beach Taylor and I were standing in the water splashing around. Out comes a guy in a speedo....of course Taylor has never seen anything like this and looks and me and says "Nasty" I couldn't stop laughing.

2. I have to admit I got a little nauseous on the ferry...no clue why?

3. The only healthy item of food my kids ate all weekend was the carrots and celery appetizer at Tony Romas....am I terrible?

4. I was sitting on the beach, just thinking about how good it was to be away from the ranch when out of the blue Wes asks...."Do you have a calculator?" ....WHAT....are you serious???? I keep one right here in my beach bag. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES!!!!

I asked calmly, why do you need a calculator? He said, I think I want to buy a farm, I found a whole bunch of farms for sale on the Internet. In my mind I'm thinking.....Well, you already own every plaid shirt known to mankind so you mind as well buy a farm to go with them.

5. I have enough sand in my car to build my own beach.

6. I canceled our hotel rooms when I found out the swimming pool was out of service, totally irritating!

7. We had a pathetic attempt at Fireworks...so pathetic It's not worth writing about.

8. Taylor has a Davis Bladder, and she has to go the bathroom ALL THE TIME, and I'm not exaggerating. We were standing in line at the ice cream store and a lady was in front of us. Taylor started dancing around, (The in trouble Dance) and out of the blue, she says to the lady..."Do you have to go poop or pee?" At this point what do you....

9. I ruined my manicure playing hours of Frisbee on the beach with Tye.

10. There was a very large man on the beach with us and Tate asked me why he had boobs? I started laughing and said, "Those are man boobs," he said..."I hope I don't get those when I'm a Dad." I said, "I hope not too!"


So there's the untold version.....

A Son who after I got my hair done on Friday Night was mad at me because "You still look like you".... he told me as I picked him up from the Golf Course. Thanks, son.


A daughter I can't even began to describe.

A husband who hates the beach, wants to become a Farmer but is a good sport with all these adventures I take us on.



And finally my last son, who is heading into a hard week. One of my favorite moments of the entire trip was when he decided to sit in the front seat with me and we just drove holding hands!

And the major miracle was that I actually got this thing posted within hours after coming home....miracle!