"Vacation"

I use the term "vacation" loosely these days...especially after our experience last week. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind for a restful, relaxing get together with family. I suppose I should not have expected it to go any other way, but at some point I must have convinced myself things would be different. Where did we go? What did we do? Well, we rented a cabin, which was more like 2 townhomes smashed together on Turtle Lake in northern MN. Drew's parents drove from Richland, WA and picked up Drew's grandmother who lives in Sidney, MT along the way. Drew's sister, Stephanie, her husband, Brian and their 2 kids, Hannah and Matthew, drove from Rochester, NY. The idea was to finally get everyone together...let the kids play...swim...lay out on the beach...go for hikes in the woods...make s'mores...watch movies... In many ways, it WAS still a lot of fun. The place we went to was nice and clean and I wasn't over exposed to dirt and bugs (a key component to an enjoyable vaca). It was beautiful out on the lake and there were quite a few activities that would normally keep families busy. So what's the problem you ask? Well, 1st...even on the hotter days, the water was SO COLD. It was hard getting the kids in there to enjoy it. We arrived on Saturday night and by Tuesday morning, it was pouring rain...and continued to rain for the rest of the week. Once that happened, the opportunities to spend time outdoors at all were few and far between. This left 7 adults and 4 kids under the age of 3 (Hannah turned 3, Lili turned 2 and Matthew turned 1...all in July. Will is 9 months.) indoors most of the time. Sure, there were toys and meals and naps and movies...but the kids wanted to run and be crazy down by the water. They didn't want to be locked up inside. The house was a decent size and gave us 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms for everyone to run around in, but it still seemed like a lot of people in a small space. I'm guessing that's because the 4 kids created such a mess, there was no room for the "bodies". There were toys and snacks and juice cups EVERYWHERE...and they were all running around like crazy, little monkeys! Getting them to sleep was a challenge as well. They were out of their element...off of their schedules...and only wanted to play. They were SO funny together and I had a hard time containing my laughter with at least one of them always saying or doing something hysterical, but man........they wore us out! I am definitely getting old! I would have to say that my biggest disappoint for the entire trip though is that the adults didn't even have a couple of hours just to sit around and catch up...drink a little vino...play some cards...without kids. It would have been nice to have just a short period of time with no "responsibilities" and some good, old-fashioned adult conversation. Oh well...I'm thinking that with a 3, 2, 1 and 9 month old, that wasn't going to happen no matter where we went or what we did! HA!

Now for the best part.........the PICTURES! Can you believe I took 991 while I was there? Yep, I'm sure you can!