Labor Day Vacation

The much anticipated getaway is over. It's sad, but also not, because I love our real life too (most of the time). As usual, spending time in a much more fun city raises so many questions for us about where we want to be long-term. Do we sacrifice living in a not-so-cool area for being close to friends and family? Or do we branch out and do now what we might regret not doing in the future? The question looms...

Anyway, we had a great weekend with my parents and then a fun couple nights away while they kept our little doll baby boy. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen a lot of these (and more). I mostly instagrammed like crazy to have all our best vacation pics in one place with a hashtag.

Henny was so excited to go on vacation! Or, maybe was just excited that mama was joining him in the back seat on the drive. :)

This boy got tons of quality time with Grandma and loved every bit of it.

Brown Bear burgers and ale. I did the black and bleu, Dev did the pineapple/jalepeno. So good! I didn't take a picture of mom's grilled chicken and vegetables. :)

Henrik sneakily grabbed a fry off of dad's plate. Thankfully he dropped it before taste testing.

Always need a good 'big lake' shot. Love this place.

And a good 'small lake' shot.

Yes, the boy got lots of attention. He also got his first taste of ice cream. I totally caved. But then had to put a stop to it because I think mom would have fed him the whole cone. "Oh, he's not getting much!" She kept saying.

Sander's chocolate bowl. Enough said.

H might have loved his Grandpa time even more than his Grandma time. Dad can't even walk through the room without Henrik vying for his attention.

Sunscreen plus water...crazy hair!

Baby boy loved the water and hanging out on the dock!

As usual, these two found lots of time to fish.

As usual, mom made some great food. (I helped.)

H feeling like big stuff sitting in the restaurant high chair eating his squeezable meal.

The boys.

On Monday, Dev and I took off down the west shore. Stopping for lunch, some shopping, and some awesome mid-afternoon cake.

Chilly beach walk.

Hands down, the best sushi we've had in a long time, maybe ever.

The bridge we walked on early in our dating.

This is how I would describe Grand Rapids...vintage meets modern.

Amazing breakfast spot. We went back the second morning because it seemed like a shame to only eat there once.

This was chorizo with regular and sweet potatoes and peppers and lots of amazing spices with a couple poached eggs on top.

This is such a mom picture. We went to the cutest children's store. I was oohing and ahhing over the baby carriers and wooden toys and cloth diaper selection and baby skin products. This was the changing station in the bathroom. I was kind of sad Henrik wasn't with us to try out all these fun things. :) Like I said, such a mom.

View from our room.

Art Museum

Grand Rapids is full of awesome, local joints, I think we only saw a couple chains in the whole downtown area - totally our kind of place. All these fun breweries and gastro pubs with phenomenal food and cool atmospheres. Above, Devin with his flight at GR Brewing Co.

All the while, Henny was having a grand time with his (grand)parents.

Crappy front-camera shot. I always forget to ask someone to take our photo.

And finally, back home with our dolly.

Oops wait, just got these from Devin and blogspot stinks at moving around photos. So, out of order...

Stumbled across the exact same spot we took a similar photo two years ago. Remember this?

LOVE

We always ride our bike the same route each time we go to the lake house. Love this guy.