We just finished a nice vacation with Bobby, Amy and Luke and Tyler here at our house. We had a lot of fun and stayed busy, but not too busy. One of the best times we had was going to Tobeco Bay and lookinig for Petoskey stones. We found quite a few, although Tyler picked up about a 'thousand' rocks and each time said, "Nana, is this a Petoskey stone?"

Tobeco Bay is in a land conservancy that has been added to the Grand Traverse Conservancy group in the last year or two. Before, you could only reach the bay by water. Now you can drive in a little way off the highway, then take a short, beautiful hike through the forest down to the bay. There were lots of nice pieces of driftwood, too.

Luke, Tyler, and Bobby and Amy, too all enjoyed kayaking -- except Tyler didn't pull his kayak up quite far enough and it was missing the next morning. Fortunately, it was at the end of the channel and an easy recovery!

We jetskied, too and the kids really wanted to try skiing behind them again this year. They had so much fun last summer, but as you can see, it was a little too rough -- note the white caps. Didn't stop anyone from having fun, though.

Tyler tried riding the tube but he had a hard time holding it down once they hit the whitecaps!

After riding the rough waves, Amy and the boys were ready to soak up some sun and relax!

Wednesday we went to Evening on River Street -- held every Wednesday during the summer in Elk Rapids (Michigan). They close off the downtown in our little Norman Rockwell town and have music, food, magicians, etc. Luke and Tyler enjoyed a game of giant checkers that night.

On Thursday we went to the Old Engine show in Buckley Michigan. Luke and Tyler got to do several "hands on" activities, including making their own jump ropes. There were hundreds of antique and classic tractors, as well as every kind of engine you can imagine! Then there was a huge flea market too with 500+ spaces -- lots of good junk!

Then Friday, they were off to Chicago where they spent the night before flying home on Saturday. We really did enjoy them and look forward to next summer, too.

I'll close for now, but I've got some really good new recipes to put in my next post.

Mama Kay