Hiatus

I've had a week-long hiatus because we were on vacation. We go every year (at least once) to my BIL Jeremy's cottage. It is called the Westcottage, and was built in 1950 by his parents for about $3000. It has so many good memories and so much interesting history and sits right on one of the cleanest lakes in MI -- it's just a fantastic vacation spot, no matter how you spin it. The weather wasn't much good for swimming, but we did take a couple dips in the lake. Tim has been going to this cottage since he was 12 years old, and I have been going since I was 18. I am so glad this is a part of our children's lives.
Highlights included:
-Visiting Michigan's Adventure on our way up. This is a great little amusement park with a really large waterpark attached. For the fairly low price of $26 per person, you get admission to both parks. The rides were just intense enough for my kids to think they were exciting without being so big that they were terrifying.
-Fishing. We fished and fished and fished some more this trip. We caught at least 100 fish, some bluegill, lots of rock bass, a couple of really nice lake trout, and surprisingly, some catfish. We'd never seen catfish in the lake -- EVER. It was a little strange.
-Beach walks. The kids and I found a big patch of wild mint, some cool stones, and all sorts of nature treasures. I also found some not-yet-eaten wild raspberries. Yummo.
-Reading. We are thinking about keeping bees next year, so I had a bunch of books from the library about bees that I took with us. It was great reading. I also found a biography of Kennedy that I read up there, and inside was what looked like a funeral announcement as a bookmark. It was interesting.
-Tubing. Kids tubed about 4-5 days -- they got braver and braver each day.
-Movies. Mattie got to see Harry Potter 6 (Jonah and I didn't go, thought it might be too scary), and both of the kids got to go with Uncle Jeremy and their cousin to see Ice Age 3.

I didn't get to sail this year because Jeremy was working on the sailboats, but the final day, there were about 6-7 sailboats out on the lake, and they were really beautiful to see.

Overall, a very nice relaxing vacation. We're hoping to go back for a long weekend this Fall.