They say you can't go back...

Audrey in front of the log cabin. Notice Sawyer is doing his mowing duty, of course.

Daddy getting down to business.

The joys of eating campfire marshmallows.

Audrey looking for skippers in Otsego Lake.

Eating Jiffy Pop.

Davy Crockett

Putt-Putt at Call of the Wild.

In heaven with his bulldozer in the sand.

Fishing with Daddy.

Audrey giving Sawyer a hug, or a head lock depending on how you look at it.

Audrey's bunk. Sawyer wanted to sleep there too but we restrict this dare devil to a pack and play.

Al's Market=Candy Heaven

Candy necklaces were a fave.

but we did! Last week we spent our vacation up north at Arbutus Beach. Every summer when I was a kid we would go to Arbutus for a week to a "resort" (more like camping), until some rich doctor bought the place out and turned it into his house. BOO! My brother, Megan and I would count down the days for months before going and save our money to buy pounds of candy at the corner store. Northern MI had much cheaper candy prices than Novi so we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. I thought I would never see my childhood paradise again. However, one day I was browsing for cabins on line and to my surprise I found a listing for a log cabin on Arbutus Beach. I felt like a kid again!!

I was a little worried that it wouldn't seem like such a great place as an adult, our parents did call the place "ArPUKEus" instead of Arbutus when we were little. I was also worried that Ben would think I was crazy for wanting to rough it for a week in a log cabin while we could have been in our nice, clean house.

As it turned out I had nothing to worry about. Although the cabin was rustic, complete with a shower in the bedroom instead of in the bathroom and we did also kill our fair share of hornets and earwigs, we ended up having a wonderful week. Since Northern MI is stuck in a time warp, lagging about 20 years behind the rest of Michigan, I got to watch my kids enjoy Arbutus Beach just as I had.

The weather was crappy, big surprise, this summer has sucked in that regard. The kids did not mind the chill though. They went in the lake without any complaints while I sat in the sand in layers for half of the week. It warmed up toward the end though. We went to all of my old favorite spots. They discovered the joys of Al's Market and the cheap candy. Their favorites were candy necklaces, blow pops, and push up pops. Sawyer would stand in front of the store and chant, "candy, candy, candy". We also went to Call of the Wild, a cheesy go-cart and mini-golf place, dubbed Call of the Wallet by my dad when we were kids. That kind of sucked because Ben and I had to spend our own money this time. We had a camp fire every night The kids quickly learned about marshmallows and Jiffy Pop. We built lots of sand castles and went on many stick adventures looking for kindling for the fire.

It was an awesome week for us to relax, decompress and just spend time as a family. Maybe we'll even go back next year and carry on the tradition to the next generation.