We Found Summer

After 2,000 miles driven in the last 2+ weeks we have returned home to Chicago with wonderful memories of our summer vacation and a sense that we were truly able to enjoy the summer without letting it just pass us by.  I know that sounds silly but I think that busy work schedules, house projects, and high temperatures over the last month have kept us from really spending a lot of time having fun outside and truly taking advantage of the nice weather.  So now, sporting a nice little tan, lots of bug bites, and still feeling relatively relaxed I'd say that this trip was an overall success.

The best part about this trip is that we really only planned locations - not activities.  So I knew that on Saturday the 16th I'd be driving with the girls to Buffalo for a week, and the following Saturday we'd leave and meet Mark at a beach house we'd rented in Indiana, and five days after that we'd go to Michigan to see Mark's parents for a night before leaving the kids with them and heading further north to go to a friend's wedding for two nights.  When I write it, it sounds like a lot, but really everything in-between was wide open to do as we please.

As you can imagine a lot happened during those two weeks, so I'll back up and start from the beginning.  The week leading up to our trip was very hectic.  There were clothes to buy, laundry to do, suitcases to pack, and lots of work deadlines.  On Friday I was starting to think I was crazy for trying to leave on Saturday with all I had to do, but managed to finish everything at 11pm and get a few hours sleep before we got out of dodge.  On Thursday, I got a little hint that this would be an interesting trip because Isla started to crawl.  As I've mentioned before, she's been up on all fours, spinning in circles, and rolling all over for quite some time, but our girl up and crawled across the room at 7 1/2 months the week before our vacation.  I admire her determination - she didn't just start with a few feet, she went clear across the room.  I knew it would make things more interesting now that she wanted to move.

I had started to get a bit nervous about driving to Buffalo with the two kids by myself, but it turned out my over preparation and acceptance of a potentially long trip made it all work out.  We made it in nine hours, with only two stops and they were great.  We pulled in at Sue and Jeff's midday and the vacation began.  We had some big family dinners, got together with aunts and cousins and their kids, spent many hours in the pool, hit up the playground, went out for lunches and dinners and ice cream and generally just relaxed at Sue and Jeff's.  We had intentionally planned our trip to overlap with my sister Julie's trip with her girls and so all of the seven cousins were finally together to play.  I think it's safe to say they all had a good time so I'm already looking forward to our family vacation with all of them next year.   A few pictures from Buffalo:

Isla loves to jump when you hold her, so Katie put together the jumperoo she got at her baby shower.  It's different than what we have and let's you jump more, so she loved it.

I kept sending Mark photos on my phone from our trip, and when he asked me to send one of Isla this is what he got - Isla excited post-swim at Mark and Jennifer's house.  She rocked some crazy hair all week because she's so fair and would pull off all hats, so I would spray her whole head with SPF50 multiple times a day so she often looked a little crusty.  She loved the water though - loved to be put on her stomach and would move her arms and legs like she was swimming.  Swim lessons for Sawyer and Isla this winter I think.

On one of the days, my Aunt Barb offered to take Isla for a few hours.  Sawyer and I were going to see her first movie but she seemed scared that the movie theater got dark so instead we hit up Target and went out to lunch where she requested a cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake.  Smartest girl I know.

We got a little off schedule on vacation and on a few days skipped Sawyer's nap.  On one such day we were headed from playing at my brother's house with Luke and Aidan to a pool party and Sawyer just zonked out in the car two minutes into our ride.  We ended up sitting in the car for awhile to let her sleep but she got her second wind at the party, refused to leave with me when I left to put Isla to bed , and got dropped off by grandma after swimming for an extra hour or so.

Playing with her new microphone - best $2 I spent on this trip.  It provided hours of entertainment while driving for Isla and Sawyer.

Sawyer is basically a huge wimp and gets scared at the oddest things so no surprise that getting her adjusted to swimming took awhile.  She actually did best when with my sister Alicia.  WIth me she would kick and jump in from the side, but with Al she would almost float on her back.  She clearly loved swimming but isn't quite a fish yet.  I think we'll do swim lessons this winter and will be joining our town pool club next summer so hopefully she'll get comfortable soon enough.  Regardless, we had some great days swimming at Wanakah where I grew up, complete with club sandwiches and chicken fingers - heaven.

Aunt Sue, or Zou as Sawyer calls her, and Uncle Jeff were so great letting us stay with them.  I don't know if Sawyer remembers staying there when she was little but she is just so comfortable there and immediately took to them again.  Aunt Zou even painted Sawyers fingernails and toes during the trip - girl was beyond spoiled, as was Isla.  Girls enjoyed themselves so much we may be back with them next trip...don't tell Jeff.

On one of the days my cousin had a huge party, and Sawyer was digging all the toys.  I always said I wouldn't buy her one of those electronic cars, but it was pretty darn cool, and she loved it...birthday present?

 My pretty girl loved to dip her toes in the water.  Check out those thighs - so meaty...I love them.

The highlight of that party though was probably the jump house.  I had told Sawyer about it before the trip and she kept asking when we were going to the jump house.  It's a little crazy inside if there's a lot of kids.  She would get launched a bit if any of the bigger kids were in there.  Despite that, she kept going back for more.

All good things must come to an end, and on Saturday we pulled out and started another 9 hour trek west.  This time we didn't get all the way home but instead went to Indiana Ogden Dunes.  Nothing crazy - we were only about 50 miles from Chicago, but gave ourselves a few days at the beach to relax WITH Mark this time.  He had missed out on the first week's fun, and I'm pretty sure realized how much he loves his girls, so was ready to hang out with them for his vacation.

During our time away it was clear Isla had been working on her crawling skills - here she is planking:

We had similar mantra to Buffalo - nothing planned.  So we'd make a big old breakfast, read, go to the beach, swim in the lake, make a sand castle and come home for baths and relaxing.  We spent a good amount of time just swinging out on the front porch as well.

Loves this new world that's been opened up to her...

A view of the city and sunset from the window at our beach house:

We headed up to Manchester on Thursday to see Grandma and Grandpa.  After some initial fear of Alex (the dog) Sawyer realized she had several boxes of toys to play with and managed to shift her focus.  We had planned for one night to get the girls settled before Mark and I were heading up north for a wedding.  Thankfully, it took less than that.  Sawyer and Mark went to watch some music in town that night and we actually had to wake her up so we could leave in the morning.  After some quick hugs she was off to play with the toys with Grandpa and we left feeling good.

Heading north for the wedding I have now added several new cities to my Michigan repertoire.  I can now claim that I have been to Lewiston, Gaylord, Mackinaw City, and St Ignace.  The wedding was the highlight in Lewiston.  They could not have gotten better weather and the outdoor wedding, bride, everything was beautiful.  We don't get to see those friends too often and really had so much fun.  I'd say within 20 minutes of our arrival we were saying how nice it was to get some time away together - meals are easier, we pack lighter, and we can finish complete sentences to each other without being interrupted.  While most of the people went up Thursday and Friday, our reservation was for Friday and Saturday so we knew we'd have a free day Saturday.  Clearly relishing our "day away", I'm still amazed at all we packed into it.  We started with brunch with friends before they left, went to the pool for a few hours with some others, played tennis with each other, and then hopped in the car and drove north to Mackinaw and St Ignace.  That's right - my first trip ever to the Upper Peninsula.  We were so close and Mark wanted to see the bridge so why not.  This is us in the UP dipping our toes in the water.

Driving over the bridge...

After stopping to take some pictures of the bridge and wade in Lake Michigan, we went to St Ignace, a small little town on the water.  We were both in need of food/drinks so stopped for a little breather at a restaurant on the water.  We watched the ferries come in and out bringing people to Mackinac Island, which we would have done with more time.  Our view included this lighthouse which we took a walk to see as well.

Mackinaw City was similar to St Ignace but bigger.  We walked around their Boardwalk area, bought some fudge, bought a photograph for our house, and ended up sharing a fried twinkie and cherry sno-cone for dinner.  It was perfect and totally random.  Didn't stay too late, and decided to hit up a movie in Gaylord on the drive home. We finally pulled back into the resort around midnight after a very busy, totally unscripted  but super fun day. I can't imagine taking a weeklong vacation away from the girls right now, but turns out that 1-2 days away is perfect.

We drove back to Manchester the following day and found two very happy girls.  It was clear they'd had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa while we were gone and even had two new teddy bears to show for it.  Grandma and Grandpa even seemed like they had fun, so I was relieved all around.

We only stayed long enough to repack their things and grab some lunch before we were back on the road - our final four hour trip ahead of us.  We pulled into our house and I have to say being home feels good.  The girls immediately picked right back up with their toys, have been getting along with each other, and we're slowly weening Sawyer off all the snacks and treats she's been given over the last two weeks.  For her part, Isla turned 8 months while we were gone.  She went from crawling, to being able to sit herself up, to being able to pull herself to standing in the span of 2 weeks.  She isn't quite walking with furniture but I think we may have another early walker on our hands with the determination this one shows.  This morning she tried to stand up in the bathroom, and I found her kneeling in front of and pawing at the wall trying to find something to grab onto to pull herself up.  Girls are getting big fast - happy I can say I took time out to enjoy it.