Intro

Six years ago, my now husband came to Mackinac Island, Michigan, to surprise me with a proposal. I was there with my parents who were celebrating their own wedding anniversary. My sister and her family decided to surprise us (and I thought it was just them surprising my parents, not that they came to witness a proposal that I didn’t know was coming!). Within a couple of hours, Chad was on the island and my sister asked me to take a walk with her. Chad was waiting on a bench where my father had proposed to my mother over 35 years before.

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We hadn’t been back since that wonderful weekend but we were able to go, as an entire family (my side) and introduce the island that brought us together to our children. It was an amazing experience and one I will not soon forget!

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My little family biked around the 8-mile island twice, once with just us, and then once with my whole family. We were able to stop a few times when it was just us and throw stones into the lake which was my son’s favorite part.

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I was in tears in the middle of our bike ride, thinking of how lucky I am to be with such an amazing man, have two beautiful children, and be a part of a family who wants to all vacation together.

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Here is the whole crew (16 of us) on the road, biking our way around the island.

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Mackinac Island is my favorite place to be, not only because of its beauty, the absence of vehicles, and overall homey feeling, but because our stories started here. My family is here because my parents fell in love. They started this all and their story started on that family-famous bench.

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I can only hope that my little family will grow to be like this some day. Maybe in 30 years we will travel to Mackinac Island with our kids, their spouses, and their children and continue making memories on that little piece of land. It is a beautiful thought imagined from beautiful memories made.

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What are your favorite family memories? Have you made any new ones recently?

Much love,
<3 Jamie