***Warning: There is an obnoxious amount of pictures/text below!
Near the end of July we took our family of six on our first real, week long, vacation! (And, we survived!!!) We went to Traverse City (northern lower Michigan). Jason and I had traveled there often before we had kids – but, what a completely different experience with kids! We loved {almost} every minute of it – although I was disappointed that we never even set foot in downtown TC. We did however manage our own mini wine tour during ‘nap’ time :)
The first half of the week we stayed at Grand Traverse Resort – in a ONE room (regular) hotel room. We were squished, but I was so happy it was the first half of the trip - the kids didn’t know anything different. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! Talk about ‘fun in the sun’! We spent the first three days making trips to local beaches. The kids loved the sand. They didn’t venture far into the water, but it was just fine with me.
We were smooshed into one itty bitty room (I chalked it up to some fabulous family bonding!) Quin didn’t seem to care either – her favorite part of the trip was the fact that she slept in a ‘huge’ bed, all by herself. No lie! The babes each slept in a ‘pack and play’. 
Some of my favorite comments (and we heard MORE than our fair share of them) were about the kiddos backpacks. They each were responsible for carrying their own beach towels when we were going to swim, or their blankets when we were switching hotels. 
In order to save money I brought food for breakfast (cereal, milk, yogurt, granola bars…) and we ate in our room. I also brought lunch food (sandwiches, fresh fruit and veggies, crackers, applesauce…). I packed our lunch each day in the cooler and we ate at the beach. We splurged on dinner out each night – and let’s face it, my sanity can only handle one ‘out to eat’ meal each day :) We laughed because every single place we went to, we were put in a distant corner. It was perfectly fine with me, less pressure to keep the kiddos quiet!
My kids love ranch, and were in hog heaven – the servers always brought more than enough ‘dip’ to keep them happy! Easton became accustom to drinking it by the end of each dinner – ewwww!
And, my personal belief is that, no vacation is complete unless you eat ice cream at least once a day! We found a new ice cream place each day. We were in ice cream withdrawal after we came home. 
We spent two days at an awesome park:
It had a great beach, huge playground, clean bathrooms and was right next to a marina. We spent one day there playing at the beach, but it was also the perfect place for us to kill a few hours when we switched hotels. If you are in that area with kids, it is worth checking out!
We spent the second half of our vacation at Great Wolf Lodge/Waterpark. We had a large suite, so it was a much more comfy stay! It had a large eat in area, and a separate bedroom for the kids.
Well, we didn’t fair much better at this waterpark than the last. Jason and I both laughed that we spent a lot of money for them to stand ankle deep in water – so that they could people watch the same people who were watching us! Quin and Gianna did venture down the inside water slide a few times, but didn’t love that it ended in water (crazy kiddos!). They just aren’t water kid. I need to get them into private swimming classes – anyone know of someone local who does this? (I am serious!)
The second day we were there, they opened up the outside pool and we had much better luck out there! They had a slide that had water trickling down, and the triplets loved it! They also had a fountain/splash pad area which was perfect for all four kids. The outside pool was also ideal for Quin because the shallow end was just under 3 feet deep, so she could stand. Alleluia – vacation saved!!!
I do appreciate that once you get there, you really don’t have to leave! The first night we ordered pizza to our suite. The second night we had a great dinner in their restaurant – and the kids earned their ‘wolf ears’.
We loved the clock show/story time that they have in the main lobby each night – what a great way to cap off your day! 
We took the long way home, and drove over to Sleeping Bears Dunes National Park. Jason had never been, and I thought the kids would love the dunes. Well… I didn’t totally think through the fact that it was over 90 degrees outside, which means that the sand was close to boiling! We had a good go at climbing them though! Jason took off first and I could hear him complaining the whole way up. By the time I caught up with him, Easton and Gianna’s feet were so red! We knew they wouldn’t make it much farther. Quin also decided that it wasn’t worth it. So the four of them turned back quickly. Ellery though – I love this girl! – she is one determined cookie. She didn’t care that her feet were the color of her red shirt! She wanted to get to the top. 
She and I made it about 3/4 of the way up, until my feet felt like they were going to burn up. I knew if my feet hurt, hers had to have been ten times worse. She was sooo mad. Screaming fit right there on the sand! I had to carry her, kicking and screaming, back down the dune under my arm.
Can you tell that I was the only one into the climb?!?!? Oh well!
I am so glad that we took the chance to go on our own! We had a blast – so many wonderful memories. Jason and I just have to laugh at all of the comments we got. If we had a dime for every time someone told us that we ‘had our hands full’, or asked if ‘they were all ours’ or told me that I ‘must have popped those kids out back to back’ – we could have had our whole trip paid for 
{In all fairness, for every rude comment we got, we got ten more sweet/kind comments!} A big thank you to Jason for being such a team player – I couldn’t do it without him!
