Vacation - in the end

Sorry for the delay between posts. Things happen. Like we realized our exchange student will be arriving in less than four weeks. And I'll be out of town the 10 days prior. And we don't have her room set up yet. And her closet is mess. SOOOOOO... we spent the weekend cleaning and organizing to prepare for Mia's visit with us

But before we get to recent household activities, I need to recap the rest of our vacation. After spending the fourth of July weekend and following week at the Lake, we got up Friday and packed up everything for our next adventure: Cousin's Weekend. A few months ago, the Polack's cousins decided to organize a reunion. Our destination was a lake cottage in Michigan owned by some of the family.

But before leaving the Lake (for the Cottage - notice a theme here?), we had to have one last ride on the Sea-Doo. The Polack's brother and family stopped by for lunch and a ride too.

And then kids were really wanted to swim one more time - this time with their cousins.

Finally, we said our goodbye's to Grandma and caravaned to the Cottage. We had a GREAT weekend. The boys enjoyed playing with all the kids. The played hard.

And there were a few ice cream runs on the boat with Captain Bob.

And lots of good food.

The big cousins had fun too. Fun involving corn hole tournaments, dominoes, marshmallow wars, and other adult like activities. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I don't have any photo's. With over 20 people staying at the Cottage, we had hoped to get a group shot but it never seemed to happen.

After the Cousin's Weekend, we were off to Chicago. I had a conference to attend and since the Polack and boys don't have anything better to do, they tagged along. On our way, we made a detour in Ann Arbor to visit my cousin and his new house. He took us to his favorite ice cream place.

We were staying in the outskirts of Chicago and since I had to work, the boys didn't venture into the city. We spent our time swimming and exploring the area and decided to end our vacation with a yummy meal at a local Mexican restaurant.

My goal for this vacation was to stay close to home, spend time with family, and save the money that would have been spent on a bigger vacation. Goals one and two were achieved. We didn't do as well with number three (Sea-Doo's take A LOT of gas!) but we had fun. And that's what matters. We'll definitely make more visits to the Lake and the Turner's are already planning the next Cousin's Weekend. Woop, woop!