Weekend Adventure: Michigan Trip

Two weeks ago...

We'd all been fighting illness; Bronchitis, Bronchial Pneumonia, and Laryngitis, but we still decided to proceed as planned and head to Michigan for the weekend.

My grandparents live on a lake in central MI and my family was planning on spending Friday and Saturday there then head over the South Haven on Lake Michigan to well, first of all see the lake, and to visit with my uncle, aunt and cousins who were there on vacation, we we had decided to join them.
In our own car though.
My family would have to own a school bus now if they wanted to be able to haul around themselves plus the four of us ;)

Albeit short we enjoyed a fun, mostly relaxing, trip.
We went on a pontoon ride around the lake, we went tubing and Wesley went for the first time, and undoubtedly the most memorable part of our visit with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Larry was our attempt to find "The Pines".
A few trips ago we went to "The Pines", a local area of woods that mommy had gone to as a kid. It is one of the coolest places I have seen. Pine trees stretching as far as the eye can see. There's no undergrowth due to the density of the trees themselves so it makes for a beautiful and comfortable picnic area or just somewhere fun to take pictures and monkey around for a while.
Well.
This trip we had a little difficulty finding the pines. No one could remember exactly where they were so we ended up at this little sand "parking lot" with a trail leading off into the woods. We hadn't come prepared to hike because we didn't remember having to in the past. Well after fighting off mosquitoes and deer flies, lugging children, suffering through fits of coughing, shuffling in sandals along a sandy trail, and going in a loop, we found a tiny patch of pine trees that resemble wherever the authentic pines are. We called it close enough, took pictures, and enjoyed the small patch.
Here are some pictures of the pines:

These are some pictures of tubing; I believe the first is of me giving the thumbs up of survival and the second of Wesley heading out.

 Also, there are some random pictures.

We left Sunday morning and headed over to South Haven. It was our first time seeing Lake Michigan and it was very neat.