In May, we rode in the annual Zoo de Mack bike ride with Scott's parents and his brother. Scott and I started this ride together while we were dating, and since then it's become an annual family trip. I blogged about our first ride with Carys here. Last year, I was pregnant with Harper and we thought that Carys would be too antsy to ride, so the two of us skipped it while everyone else rode. This year was exciting because we were going to do the second half of the ride with Carys and Harper. The first half is pretty hilly and it's a long bike ride (51 miles!), so we don't want to push the girls too much. We also decided to simplify things and not go to Mackinac Island this year. I love the island, so I really missed going, but it was SO much easier to stay both nights in the same place and not have to take the ferry after our long ride.
On Friday night we arrived at Boyne Highlands to check-in. The weather was absolutely beautiful all weekend. You never know what you are going to get in May in Michigan. Some years we've been freezing - riding in rain/sleet, but thankfully not this year!
The girls were really happy to get out and stretch their legs after the long car ride. And speaking of legs, check out H's - love those rolls!
We hung out at the resort while Scott and David took care of the logistics of getting everything set up for Saturday's ride. This is Scott's specialty and weeks before the ride, we all get emails from him detailing our plan for the trip. Usually this involves the guys driving our cars up to Mackinaw City and then riding back on Friday night. This works really well because then we don't have to worry about taking a shuttle back to the resort. When we finish the ride on Saturday, our cars are ready and we can head back whenever we want. It's more complicated then it sounds though to figure out what gear needs to stay and what goes, so this year it helped make things a little easier to stay in the same place.
When the guys got back we made dinner and just hung out for the night. David needed to run out to his car to get something and Carys wanted to go with him. Not long after that we heard some yelling and looked out our balcony to see this...
Apparently Carys saw the luggage rack and wanted to go for a ride. Uncle Hoon was halfway through his explanation on why they couldn't take it when he thought, "what the heck," and let her hop on. He pushed her down the hill, along the road to the parking lot and back. Of course she loved every minute!
On Saturday morning, we started with the amazing breakfast buffet at Boyne Highlands and then Grandma and Grandpa hit the road.
Not long after that Scott and David took off. Our plan was to all meet at the halfway stop, the Legs Inn, for lunch. We packed a lunch and stretched out for a nice picnic at the Legs.
After a fun picnic, the girls and I joined everyone for the second half of the ride. I'm upset that I didn't get any pictures of us on our bikes. Carys has a bike seat that she loves, so instead of putting her in the Burley with Harper, Uncle Hoon agreed to ride with her. That allowed us to use Harper's car seat in the Burley and that worked out great. Harper never made a peep the entire ride. She is used to her car seat and sleeps really well in there, so it was perfect that it strapped right into the Burley. Carys on the other hand, never stopped talking the whole ride. She was telling Uncle Hoon to catch up to other riders and go faster. Then she learned to announce traffic and was shouting, "Car back" or Car up" to the other riders. I think she also went through every snack that David was able to carry, so she definitely kept him busy! I know Carys loved every minute of the ride though, and certainly enjoyed her time spent with Uncle Hoon. Thanks David for being an amazing uncle!
We finally all arrived in Mackinaw City feeling pretty good. It was a really fun ride. The route follows Lake Michigan and is just beautiful. It always reminds me how much I love living in Pure Michigan! The weather could not have been more perfect either.
We absolutely love this weekend and look forward to it every year. It's so great that we are able to do it as a family too. Grandma and Grandpa are pretty amazing to take on this challenge each year and we couldn't be more proud of them!
On Sunday, we weren't in a hurry to head home and since the weather was so nice we decided to hit the pool with the girls. It was the perfect wrap up to a fun weekend.
Harper also started crawling while we were there. I've never been a big fan of letting the kids play on the carpet in a hotel, but since there's not much I can do I just try not to think about it too much. Of course, Harper thought she was big stuff!
After the pool, we loaded everything up, hopped back on the luggage racks, and headed home!
Can't wait for next year!
