Petosky

Dear Jackson and Logan,

For the fourth of July this summer, we took you to Petosky, MI to stay at your great-aunt Pat's house on Lake Michigan. It took us about 12 hours to get there with the stops we made. One of the stops was in Escanaba, MI to buy me a sweatshirt (since I forgot my new one at home and would need one for the chilly nights). In the small mall we stopped at, there was a Claire's Boutique. Your dad and I asked Logan if you wanted to get your ears pierced and you did. While you decided on the May birthstone, I asked the clerk if there were two people to do the piercing since I was worried that with only one you'd get scared after the first ear and end up with only one earring. She assured us that she was fast. Indeed she was, but you still were scared. After the first earring, your face got red and you started to smile nervously. She quickly moved to the second ear and pierced that one seconds before the tears came. You cried for about 2 minutes and didn't want to look at them in the mirror. Eventually you did and were very proud of yourself. My grown-up 4 year old!

Jackson, you had a great time with all your family in Petosky. You got to meet your 3rd cousins Ellie and John Wagner. John was 8 and Ellie was 6. Almost every day that we were there, you somehow organized a kickball or baseball game with some or all of the family. During one afternoon, the whole gang (Judy, Minna, Scott, Logan, John Wagner, John Eric, Ellie, Melissa, Paul, and I) went into town and found a baseball field to play a real game of kickball. It was a great time and NO HOLDS BAR! You and Logan also swam a ton at the condo pool. Both you and your sister's swimming skills improved so much during the trip. You were now doggy paddling a pretty good distance and Logan was swimming all around with her life jacket on. She could put her face in while floating and doing the front crawl.

Some other fun things we did included mini-golfing at Pirate's Cove, the batting cages, golf range, kayaking on the lake, boogie boarding on the grassy hill (Ellie and Logan took turns pulling each other down the hill while Jackson played baseball with John Wagner and others), listening to the jam session Pat sang at in the house (Logan you learned "Sunny Side of the Street" from Pat)cruising on a $1 million boat, and highway cleanup along the highway your second cousin Jan was killed on.

Hopefully we will make this an annual 4th of July trip.

Love,
Mom