The minute I heard that Pix-O-Sphere was having an animal photo contest, I knew immediately which photo I was going to enter.



It's perfect, is it not?

On Saturday we loaded into the car and headed north. Our first stop was the Lighthouse Place in Michigan City. It's an outlet mall. We love outlet malls. And we were good boys and girl. Joel and Luke each got a hat to wear to the Indians game in a couple of weeks. Joel got a pair of $8 jeans from Old Navy. And we hit the Pepperidge Farm outlet and the Harry and David outlet. Luke begged for a bag of fried green peas after trying their sample. So he got it. Why not?


Before leaving the outlet mall, we met someone who wanted to buy one of our Craigslist items (see a couple of posts below). Then, we headed up Red Arrow Highway to our next destination, New Buffalo, Michigan.

(so long, toy organizer!)

New Buffalo is home to my favorite beach within a few hours drive ever. It's small. It's clean. It's beautiful. And every time I'm there, we drive by this cute little restaurant and I want to eat there every. single. time. Well, my wish came true this time. I finally set foot in and got to enjoy the yumminess of The Stray Dog.

Luke had macaroni and cheese (big shocker there, I know). Joel had a Chicago dog. And I had the Windward Turkey Burger. It was SO good. I love guacamole on anything, though. After we were seated (we waited about 15 minutes), we were in and out within about 40 minutes. And our server was the best!

It's good they were fast, because we were meeting some friends at the beach to take their family pictures. Thanks, Clouses, for entrusting me with your family photos... I'm so not a professional so I always get a little worried before I take pictures of anyone. God was looking down on us with favor because he gave us the most gorgeous skies and the most perfect weather. And as soon as it was a little too dark for pictures, in rolled a thunderstorm.

Here are a few of my favorites from the photo shoot.





And one last photo from that night... it was fabulous.