living the GOOD life

Lake Michigan

We took the kids up to Michigan City, IN for a stay at a "real" beach.

It was everything we hoped it would be. Perfect sand, blue water, and perfect kid sized waves.

 

Emily was quite disappointed that she didn't find any real shells. She did enjoy searching for fish, and loved playing in the sand. 

Daniel LOVED the waves. The first day had the best waves, and he spent almost the whole day in the water. He was fearless.

 

Jake followed Daniel into the water as much as possible. He LOVED it. He and I had fun making race tracks in the sand for his cars.

 

Ben finally learned the wisdom in letting us hold him in the water. He loved every minute at the beach, and laughed uncontrollably when we took him in the waves. He even took a nap on the beach every day.

On the way home, I looked into the backseat, and saw this:

 

It was a really, really good trip.

Raccoon Lake

Last minute, we decided to drive down south to Raccoon Lake for a couple of days. We wanted to go to Lake Michigan, but the campground was full. So we went for second best :)

 

The first night it rained, hard. But we stayed dry, and watched movies in the tent. However, being stuck in the tent for so long made me threaten to pack up and go home more than once.

The next morning it was overcast, but we went to the lake anyway. It was fabulous. We were alone on the beach, it wasn't too hot, but the water was warm. Best of all, the kids LOVED it. They stayed at the beach for 6 hours that first day.

 

I'll be honest, it was a poor substitution for the real thing. But the kids have never seen the real thing (not that they remember anyway) so they didn't care.

 

 

Jake kept kneeling down in the water, so that his chin was barely above the water line. Then he would pop up and say, "I'm just kidding!"

 

This is Ben when he realized we were NOT going to let him drown.

He was very upset that we made him wear a life-jacket. 

 

 

after the beach, Ben was exhausted:

 

And most of my beach time looked like this:

This was the first camping trip we have been on as a family where I wasn't totally ready to go home at the end. I really, really wanted to stay, but Kev had to go back to work.

In a couple of weeks we are going to Lake Michigan.

I can't wait.

  

Marengo Caves

My dad and step-mom came to visit this past week. We love visitors! We had so much fun while they were here. One day we made the two and a half hour drive south to the Marengo Caves.

Dad kept humming the song from Deliverance (think The Hills Have Eyes, for those of you not born in the 60's) as we drove through some of the small towns. He was convinced the advertised shortcut was a ploy intended to strand us on the side of the road where we could be eaten by the locals. Surprisingly enough, we made it there and home alive.

A much needed escape

Last week, we spent two nights at a cabin on a lake. We went sledding, took walks, played games, watched movies and made pizza. It was the best vacation I have ever been on with the kids. No stress, no hurrying to get anywhere, no set schedule. Just relaxing by the fire (which we kept burning every hour we were awake) and enjoying each other.

We can't wait to go back.

This is the cabin we stayed in. Just out of the picture to the right is the private dock with two boats. Obviously we stayed off the lake though. This time.

Our cabin had three bedrooms, which made things SO much easier with Ben. The 3 older kids slept in their own room, which had four twin beds. Ben slept in one of the rooms with a queen, and Kev and I in the other queen. Perfect.

 

The first night we had our traditional "Family Fun Night" which consists of pizza, a movie and popcorn. After a little persuading, I convinced the kids to watch Pirates of the Caribbean instead of Iron Giant. This resulted in Daniel choosing the go to bed half way through.

 

The next morning we all went sledding. Daniel and Jake were the most enthusiastic, and wanted to stay out for hours. Ben cried whether we tried to take him inside, or let him play in the snow. Eventually he was content to sit in the sled while I pulled it behind me.

After sledding, we played every single kids game we own. And again, movies and popcorn.

Before we left, I made each of the kids these little art kits. They all loved them!

Jake claimed this chair as his own, and sat in it every time we watched movies.

While Ben was sleeping one day, Kev and I took a short little walk. I can't wait to see this place in the summer, because it was gorgeous in the winter! The groundskeepers dog followed us around everywhere (along with a couple of swans. Random, I know). The kids didn't mind, and by the end, he and Kev were good friends.:)

Until next time...

Last picnic of the year

 

 

 

 

 

Trip to the Art Museum

I can't believe we've been here a year and a half, and never explored the gardens at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. They were gorgeous. They were interesting. The kids loved them.

Maybe someday we'll be able to go inside.

    

 

 

 

 

Camping

Our second solo camping trip. We probably only scored a C this time. We forgot a change of clothes for Daniel, which became quite the problem after he sat in the lake. He ended up wearing on of Kevin's T-shirts the rest of the time.

We also forgot plates and cups, utensils, and matches. Luckily we like to eat with our hands, and Kevin was able to light some paper on fire using our toaster.

Yes, we brought the toaster.

I loved the place we went. About an hour southwest of us. Beautiful lake, beautiful campground. Showers and real toilets that better have been clean considering the strong smell of bleach in the bathrooms. We camped right next to the playground too, which was convenient. Nathan came with us, and having Daniel and Emily sleep in his tent was great...for Kevin and I anyway.

Unfortunately, my love faded at night when a mixture of extremely loud rock music, coughing children, cicadas, and one crying Jake forced me to tear apart a (new and clean) diaper and shove the cotton in my ears.

It didn't work.

As Kevin and I went on our "date" (a walk to the dumpsters to throw away our trash) after putting the kids to bed, we remarked that camping trips like these are at least creating fun memories for the kids. Someday ten or twenty years from now Emily can say to Daniel, "Hey remember that time you had to wear dad's t-shirt all day and it looked like a dress?!"

Good times, good times.

Amish country

While Kevin's mom was here we decided to take a trip up north to Amish country. I will say, I will not do that again with kids. They thought the buggies were cool, but you can only point out so many buggies before the kids get sick of them.

It was interesting though, and the countryside was beautiful. I didn't take any pictures of the buggies or any people because the Amish have religious objections to being photographed. I wish I could have though, because we saw a little boy riding in the front of a buggy playing a nintendo DS, and that was an image I wish I could have captured :)

Here are a few photos:

(Kevin almost cried when he saw this place was closed)

Rexburg

We spent five days in Rexburg, ID and I have to say, my kids were right at home there. Of course Emily LOVED the horses and other animals, and they all loved the four wheelers, dune buggy, playing with cousins and of course, getting dirty. Kevin has dreams of moving there someday :)

Emily, by the way, was a natural on the horses. Within one day she was riding all by herself, no one leading the horse, no one even walking by her. She knew exactly how to steer, and when I went on a ride with her, she kept telling me how to control my horse. She is definitely a country girl. 

I was amazed that Daniel wanted to ride. Since obviously horses are animals and have bare bums. However, he loved it! 

      

Children's Museum

Perhaps one of the greatest things about Indianapolis is the Children's Museum. It even entertained Sara, which is not easy. Sara (my sister) visited for a week, and we loved having her (while she was awake anyway). Jake is missing her the most, I think. He still looks for her every morning. I say she's not here, and he says, "she's just sleeping."

Anyway, here are some pics from the museum: