Up, Up and Away

We just returned from the vacation to end all vacations. I mean, we've done a lot of traveling this summer, but it's not really a vacation until you can put your feet up and chillax on a sandy beach in 90 degree weather. So that's what I did. As much as I could. The setup of our cabin was unbelievable- only yards from the beach, we could safely leave kids napping inside while we soaked up the sun. And no major planning was involved for a beach visit; realize you forgot the sand toys? Hats? Sunscreen? Child? Just run back up to the cabin and grab them!

The weather was spectacular six out of eight days. At home it would have been obnoxiously hot, but this close to the lake? Bring it on! The only real difficulty was the mosquitoes. And when I say "difficulty", I mean scourge-bordering-on-plague proportions. We fought a guerrilla war against the beasts all week, planning playground visits around the level of wind, time of day and temperature least likely to attract them... but they inevitably found us. So we would move on. The middle of the lake was safe, so when in doubt we donned life jackets and drove the boat out to swim as far from the bug-ridden shore as possible.

My grandparents joined us for the majority of the week, and it was fantastic to have six capable adults covering three kids. I had my hands free more times than I can count! The boys read tons of books with Great Grandma, and Audrey developed a huge soft spot for Great Grandpa (and vice-versa, I believe). Paul and I even took a solo trip into Ely to celebrate our anniversary (seven years!) with a slow, leisurely wander through the tourist shops, Mass, and dinner. It's been a slight adjustment this week back to full-time one-on-three, but we're getting there.

As you all know, Max took his first Boundary Waters trip during the week with Daddy, Grandpa and Great Grandpa... but that deserves a post all its own. In fact there are probably several more posts coming; I hope I don't bore you with the hundreds of pictures I took! (I promise I won't share all of them...) So for now I will leave you here, with a few highlights of our week:

SUGARRR!!

She inhaled this marshmallow so quickly, she barely got sticky!

One of the ...(dozen or so)... ice cream stops

Don't they look like a couple of hobbits?

Baiting his first hook

We trusted this girl with the wheel??

Doesn't that expression just say it all...

Fishing on our ONE cold day

Thanks Mom and Dad for an amazing week!!