Lake Michigan {the Beach}

Adam and I haven't been to the beach since our honeymoon over 7 years ago in Hawaii. And Sutton had never been! So when we were planning our vacation for this summer, I knew I wanted to go to the beach.

But we didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we knew it would have to be driving distance. Our original plan was to go down to the Corpus Christi/Galveston, Texas area but we wanted to camp and with temps in the 100s...I knew that wouldn't be too fun. So we looked up north and decided on Lake Michigan.

Adam found us a great camping site at Potato Creek State Park in Indiana, which was about an hour away from the beach. The second day we were there, we drove to the beach and had an amazing day! It really seemed like the ocean because it was so big.

We built lots of sandcastles complete with rocks and feathers and secret doors to hide Sutton's toy whale.

Sutton gets a little apprehensive when it comes to water usually. He's not one of those kids that will dive right in and splash around. He went up to his waist just fine, but mostly preferred to stay near the shore where it was just foot-deep.

I was just amazed at the kids that were his age or younger that were equipped with goggles and were just running into the waves and going all the way under. Sutton wanted to hold hands to wade out. :)

Smiling for the picture, but not looking at the camera...

I asked him how old he was to try to get him to look at me. No dice. But that's how he does his 3.

There we go!

Sutton made a friend. :) There were these two older ladies that were sitting in these chairs, tanning, right next to us the whole time. One of them got up and Sutton asked me if he could go sit in her chair. I said no, that's not ours. But this lady overheard and said he could sit there if he wanted. So he went over and sat down and started talking to this lady. It was quite hilarious.

Family photo at the beach! Love. Then Daddy got us hot dogs and chips from a little hot dog cart so we could eat lunch on the beach. No pictures, but we were starving and they were yummy!

Which do you like better? The sky...?

...or the sand? :)

There was this pier to our left with a lighthouse at the end. So after we'd swam and played awhile, we decided to walk out to the lighthouse to see if we could go inside.

I took photos of the sites along the way. It was so hot, but having on a wet swimsuit definitely helped!

When we got there, we found we couldn't actually go in the lighthouse. But it was still fun to climb around it and on the rocks in the water below it.

  

I just loved the color of the water.

This is looking back at the beach where we'd swam from the lighthouse area.

We found a good spot next to these rocks but back near the beach to climb down and wade a bit more without getting too sandy again. The water felt so good after the hot walk. We got in the car to leave, and it wasn't long before...

:) I just love that sleeping face.