MICHIGAN!!!

Ok, so I know...I totally lied to you guys. I went home and got doing other things. Sorry for such the long wait. This last weekend, we were suppose to have a Dill family reunion in Michigan, but half of my siblings backed out at the last minute. It was still way fun, but would have been even more so if everyone would have been able to come. On Friday, Josh and I woke up at like four in the morning and began our trek. We were both super tired because neither of us went to be before 12:30 that morning. We ended up leaving a little late, but got to the Tulsa airport at the same time my Dad and Nola arrived. We hurried to check in and ran onto the airplane. We made all of our flights, luckily (you never know when you are flying standby). Both flights were pretty empty though. We got into Detroit at about noon or so. Dad, Josh, Brayden and I all waited at the airport while Nola went to get the van. Nola, of course, had complications with the car rental place, so we were outside for quite some time.

Dad trying to look like the local gangsters outside the airport

Once we were picked up from the airport, we were off. We stopped at a common restaurant in the east called Bob Evans. We ate some very tasty breakfast/lunch. We drove to my grandpa's house where we were staying, which was about an hour and a half away. Since we were all sooo tired, we just took a nap and hung out the rest of the afternoon. Later that night, I went with my dad to pick up Logan, Shawnee and James. On the way there, we got stuck in traffic TWICE at ten o'clock at night! Since when is there traffic at ten o'clock pm?!?!?! The first time was out in the middle of nowhere and traffic was backed up for miles. We thought it had to be an accident....but no, it was a horse! Yes. traffic was backed up for miles because some was walking their horse around near the highway. Something must have happened to the horse/trailer while they were pulling it or something. The second time was because of construction. They had three lanes of traffic blocked! It was just totally crazy, but we finally got there. When we got back to my grandpa's we had pizza!! There is no such thing at a Dill vacation without pizza on the first night!

Saturday is going to be where the craziness begins and ends, luckily. We got up somewhat early and started our drive to Lake Michigan! Yeah, we were all really excited. We got to see lots of farmland on our way there. It was a pretty, but somewhat boring drive. Once we got there, we were ready to go! (Well, after we changed our clothes, packed the things we wanted to take with us and so on.) Here of a few pictures of the before:

My Dad, Nola and Brayden-Smiling and ready to go.

Shawnee and James (not really sure what this is all about)

Josh & I-Smiling and ready to go....or so we thought (oh the smiling didn't last very long!)

James and Josh starting the LONG day

Shawnee on top on one of sand dunes...doing a weird pose as usual.

After climbing the first big hill, we could see lots of sand!

Then we saw the lake!

At the very beginning, when we were all doing ok. This is Shawnee, Logan, Grandpa and me.

Ok, so my dad had the brilliant idea that we would hike the sand dunes to Lake Michigan from Silver Lake (Bad Idea #1). We all thought "ok, that will be fun." And it really could have been fun and I actually did have fun. In our group though, we have 3 three people who had a hard time. My grandpa came, who is 82 years old! He actually did REALLY good. He ended up having to turn have about half way across though because he wasn't feeling very well. I asked my dad if we should be bring water, he said not unless you want to carry it. So, none of us brought water (Bad Idea #2). So we are trekking across the sand dunes carrying Brayden, towels and a few other things. We let my dad navigate (Bad Idea #3) and end up getting a little lost and going WAY out of the way to where we need to be. We all sit and rest and let my dad go ahead and scope out the best way to go. Logan and I see that he is not going to right way and is turning back. So we start going the best way to get there. We leave the group and start trekking across the desert. This is the point where I believe my grandpa turned around. He is diabetic, so Josh let the group to go try and catch up with my grandpa to make sure that he made it to the car safely. They were suppose to meet us at the lighthouse. So, Logan and I are the first ones to reach the lake!! YEAH!! We both jump in and are having the time of our lives! Shawnee and James finally come over the hill and tell us that Josh and my grandpa had turned around and the Nola really needed some water. There was no one near where we were, but we saw a group of people down the beach about half a mile or so. So, Shawnee and I go down there thinking there might be somewhere to buy some water...but no there wasn't. We ask someone is we could just buy a bottle of water from them and they say no, but we could have one! So, we start on our walk back. When we get back to where we had left Logan and James, we see that Nola and Brayden are there but not my dad. I guess my dad had walked up the other way on the shore to see how far the light house was from where we were. It said it thought it was just around the bend. After waiting about 45 minutes for him, we ask some locals how far the lighthouse was and they told us that it was probably about a mile to a mile and a half. So, we start to think that if it is only that far, then my dad she be back by now. So, we decide to start walking in that direction to see if we can find my dad, the lighthouse, Josh and Grandpa. As we are packing up the few things, Nola puts her shoes on, loses her balance and twists her ankle. I have some Alieve with me, so she took some of that. We wait a little while than began our next trek.

After about a mile or so, we are thinking that the lighthouse should be right around there, but there is still no sight of it. By this time, we are all pretty exhausted. I have taken my shirt off and my dad had been carrying it (Bad Idea #4). I know I am getting burned, but can't really do anything about it or so I thought (we actually had my shirt with us the whole time). So, once we think we have gone the distance, we find some other people and they tell us that we have another mile or mile and a half! Oh yeah! Don't forget we have Brayden too! Luckily, we slept pretty much the whole time, but he did get heavy FAST! So, we have nothing else to do but to press forward. We literally felt like the pioneers only in the desert! The wind had picked up and was throwing the sand on our legs which caused great pain! We finally see my dad walking towards us. He brought water with him!!!! Yeah! We were so happy! So far we have walked at least 7-8 miles on SAND! We finally get there and find my grandpa and Josh! We were sooo happy our little trek was over! Yet we were a little disgruntled that it had to happen like this. But no Dill vacation is a true Dill vacation without some craziness like this.

We pile back into the cars and go get something to eat! Yeah for food! We just went to a local diner and had to wait for about an hour! The food wasn't that great, but it was food. We all decide that we want to have some fun on this trip and not just be mad about it. So, we go back to the beautiful Lake Michigan! We wanted to go inside the lighthouse, but we were 20 minutes too late...they had closed! Oh well though! it was beautiful to look at!

Yeah for sisters!

Not sure what this is all about, but I believe he was changing back into his swimsuit

(Yes, Josh was not very happy with his first Dill vacation)

Me on the BEACH!!!

My dad and Grandpa!

So, Josh and James decide to bury Shawnee in the sand! It was a great idea, because I believe this is the only reason she got into the lake. When they tried pulling her out, her legs were buried too deep, so they had to dig them out. Here are a few pictures:

Logan, James, Josh, Shawnee, Dad and I all went swimming in Lake Michigan. Shawnee and my dad didn't stay in very long. But the other three and myself had a blast. The waves were pretty awesome and we really just have a GREAT time. There are no pictures of this, because I was in the lake the whole time...sorry! While we were swimming this is what Brayden did...

We all really did have fun and the day ended on a great note with lots of smiles.

Josh left early on Sunday to go to his interview in Philadelphia! (By the way, he thinks he did really well. We are just waiting on the MCAT score! They will let him know in two weeks!) The rest of us slept in!!!! We were exhausted. We ate lunch, packed up then piled into the van. We drove around the local area and my dad showed us some of the places he went to when he was younger. It was pretty cool. On our way to the aiport, we drove through a town called Chelsea, Michigan. It was a way cute town and it is the home of Jiffy muffin mix! We had to stop and take a few pictures! Pretty awesome..huh?

This picture I feel needs some explanation.

Basically, this is James doing a famous "Shawnee" pose!

This is the old train station in Chelsea.

After walking around for a little while, we find this ice cream store that had tons and GREAT flavors. I tried a few of them and they were all great. Honestly, I think this was the best ice cream I have ever had and that's including Braum's! We all sat outside eating our ice cream! It was a GREAT Father's Day. After that, we headed to the airport! Traveling home was another adventure in itself, but we will save that for another day!

Overall, we had a great family vacation! I'm just curious, but are your family vacations this crazy too? I mean, this is a pretty typical Dill vacation!