This weekend, Team Cline had our first family vacation! We can do it!!

We booked 2 nights at a hotel in Holland, MI. It was enough time to get the feel for being away together but not too much time that it was overwhelming for our first try in a hotel with 3 toddlers. With a long weekend, Jason and I both got home from work early on Friday night and we hit the road around 6:30pm. By 9:30pm, Steven, Sammy and Amaya were tucked into their travel cribs. We were lucky there was enough room for all 3 in the hotel bedroom!

To make things easier, we got a hotel suite rather than one room for the 5 of us. It was a good call. The kids liked exploring the room and we had enough space to move freely, plus a kitchen with a fridge where we were able to store milk and prep snacks.

Saturday morning started with the breakfast buffet in the hotel bar/restaurant. Our travel highchairs really come in handy. I got the kids changed and dressed while Jason got our table set up. Everything was ready when we walked in!

After breakfast, Jason and I took some time to get ready for the day. The kids were so fascinated by my make up application. I realized it’s something they don’t see very often. Normally, I’m getting ready for work before they’re awake or while they’re eating breakfast with Megan.

Our morning adventure was a trip to downtown Holland. It’s so nice! And I hear the sidewalks are heated so the snow doesn’t accumulate in the winter. We visited a farmer’s market and wandered around the cute downtown. We also visited a park on the water where they had a perfect SSA sized playground!

As always, Steven loooooooved to swing. Loved it. His smile is the best. For the first time, Amaya gave it a real shot, too, while Sammy had fun swinging on his daddy’s lap!

Steven saw a fountain and pretty much insisted we stop by. Everyone was able to get up close when we held them on the ledge. Here, you can see how captivated Steven was.

After the park, we wandered downtown to grab some lunch. It’s getting both easier and more difficult. Steven struggles with his indoor voice, right now. He can be loud. It’s fine at home or outside but, in a restaurant, it can also be disruptive. We’ll keep working on it. I think it will help when he’s more verbal and can better express what he wants. Or maybe then he’ll just be loud and verbal!

(Steven – if you ever read this… you be YOU, okay? Being loud is awesome. Just remember there are times and places.)

We were all tired after lunch so we went back to the hotel for a nap. It was like wack-a-mole. Little heads kept popping up! But eventually everyone fell asleep, including mommy & daddy.

Saturday, late afternoon, we headed to the beach at Holland State Park. Michigan has more coastline than any other state. It’s practically surrounded by the Great Lakes on 3 sides. Holland is on Lake Michigan, on the west coast of the state. When you’re there it’s like being at the ocean from the perspective of expansiveness, but it’s much calmer & it’s fresh water.

When we arrived Steven plopped right down in the sand. Sammy wasn’t having it.

Rather than sit on the edge of the sand all afternoon, we decided to walk around the beach area instead. It’s so pretty. I can’t wait until the kids are older and we can spend long weekends at the beach.

Dinner was convenient at a snack shop right off the sand! Pizza, french fries and mozzarella sticks. Apparently SSA have stomachs of steel.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out to Dutch Village. It was cute and kitchy. The draw for us was the petting farm. We know many animals (neigh! moo! meow!) but we’ve never seen most of them up close.

Steven was pretty much game for anything. Amaya liked the animals as long as they kept quiet. Sammy liked the animals if they were brought directly to him in a basket. 🙂

We also had our first carousel ride. Sammy and Amaya rode with daddy and Steven rode on a horse. He loved every second of it and spent most of the time holding on with one hand so he could wave and say hi to everyone we passed.

Our final stop of the trip was lunch in Dutch Village. We were messy so we got mohawks. Once the hair is greasy, might as well have fun with it!

It was a fantastic getaway, and it felt like the start of lots of family adventures.

Here we are, settled back at home.

We had more than enough time for baths and bedtime shenanigans.

Today, was also a busy day. The morning was spent outside before it got hotter than hot. SSA has fun with the water table, when they weren’t busy watching their daddy work out in the backyard.

The big adventure of the day, though, was the State Fair! It was around the corner from our house so we popped by for about an hour after naps.

Steven was in hog heaven. Literally. We spent most of our time following him around from animal to animal. Sammy did get in on the action, though, and pet a sheep!

The sheep said “baa” and Amaya lost her mind. Lost. Her. Mind.

The fair is another adventure that will be fun in new ways as Steven, Sammy and Amaya get older.

Here are just a few more pictures from the week.

Megan, with Amaya and Steven.

The boys playing in their daddy’s shirts.

On Thursday, we all wore blue & teal to remember a sweet 7 month old triplet, Hailey, who was laid to rest that day. My thoughts are still with her family. I can’t imagine how they’re suffering. It was special, and heartbreaking, to see photo after photo of triplets in blue. I’m part of an amazing community. #loveforhailey

This week we wore our awesome Newport shirts from Aunt Dale and Uncle Arnie. They were a huge hit!

We support Team Grace every day, but we wore our shirts this week in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness month. If you’d like to support Grace, you can make a donation to Cookies for Kids Cancer here. Only 4% of federal cancer research dollars go to children’s cancer research so every dollar counts.

To wrap up this week’s blog post, Amaya and Chase clearly share DNA. 4 years apart, here they both are doing The Magnum.

Have a great week!