V and Co: last hurrah at Saint Joseph, Lake Michigan

our family has been trying to create new yearly traditions.
and since we find ourselves in a totally new location in the united states, we will have to try to find new places and things that will be a part of our yearly traditions.
it's kind of fun and exciting.
as you know:
i grew up at the beach. i love everything about it.
the warm sand in between your toes, the sound of the waves, seagulls, and fun excited yells from kids. i love building sandcastles,  i love how my hair becomes a big cotton ball frizz fro, no wait i don't like that... i love running back into the water to "wash off" the sand so you can eat some watermelon. i love the smell of salt in the air and the ocean water mixed with surf wax. i love watching the sunset over the water. there is so much i love, that i think secretly i decorate and pick things so i feel like i'm just a jaunt away from the surf.
i miss my ocean.
i've not lived next to the ocean in over 5 years.
yet, i can still close my eyes and hear, see, and smell it.
it is still very much my "happy place" in my mind.

this year jake decided after hearing for a year now, so much about "the beaches of lake michigan" he decided that we would give it a try and see what all the fuss was about.
he misses his ocean too.
so much that the old glory days of surfing with his brother are getting kind of sad for us to talk about because it brought so many fun and sometimes funny memories that it just makes us miss it even more.
sigh.
but then we list and remind ourselves of all the wonderful things we have going on in our lives, how happy our children are how well we are doing, and of all the new and fun things we get to experience being in this neck of the woods.

so for our last hurrah and our attempt to find new places to create reoccurring family events, we packed up and headed out to saint joseph, michigan.
 the kids were excited, jake and i were going in with level headed excitedness. we knew it wasnt the ocean, and we werent pretending that it was, but we didn't know what we were going to get.

what we got was this:

just a few of our pictures i've managed to go through (mainly my instagram!)

sheer happiness, nostalgia, relaxation...for everyone.

the husband, when we visited the surf shop (yes they had one!) was given the run down on the best time of the year for surfing the size of the waves and yadda yadda yadda...for the area. he had stars in his eyes, and a huge grin on his face.
throughout the week we played at the beach, walked the cute strip with little shops and restaurants next to the beach which totally reminded me of the stores and cafe's i would walk past on my walk to the beach in my san diego town.
we visited neighboring areas and did some sightseeing and tried out a few different beaches. but by far i think the saint joseph one was my favorite.

i think it was at the end of our first day that jake turned to me as we watched the sunset go down into the lake that he said "i think this is going to be our best new yearly tradition isnt it?"
yeah i think so.
as we were packing up to head home the boys and katie were already talking about "next year when we come back, can we..."
yeah, this was a good new tradition.
lake michigan makes for a great fake ocean, big frizzy cotton ball head and all. till next year saint joseph!