Lake Effect

We're back home from a quick weekend vacation to Lake Michigan. We rented an adorable cottage in Sawyer, MI that was a short walk to the beach and Warren Dunes state park. We managed to pack quite a bit of activity into a short amount of time - shopping, swimming, hanging out at the beach, long walks, cherry picking, wine tasting, and just meandering through the area. Traveling with 3 kids under 5 is tough, and we were all sleep deprived, but even with tired, hyped up kids we were able to have a great time. And even better was the fact we were able to take Ani with us, as we're pretty sure she would not have survived the sounds of fireworks on the 4th here by herself (I'm started to suspect she did a couple of tours in 'Nam, just judging by her behavior during thunderstorms and firework displays).

Everyone had a favorite part of the trip - Casey loved cherry picking, Connor loved the campfire we built (he had a weird Beavis & Butthead moment I wish we had captured on tape where he just stood transfixed by the flame and repeated "fire" over and over again in a slightly demented voice), and Riley loved the beach where she ate sand by the handfuls. I mean, alot of sand - to the point that I was concerned about how much sand an 18 month old child could safely consume, as I was pretty sure she had exceeded that mark. And I think Rob & I could agree that our favorite part was the few moments we stole Saturday night after the kids finally went to sleep and we sat by the fire pit and talked uninterrupted and ate smores (a special dark chocolate version I had saved just for us).

We really loved the area and are planning to return again. There was plenty we did not get a chance to do or see, and although we all could use a vacation to recover from our vacation, I'm already feeling the effects this morning of the wonderful memories we made our first weekend at the lake.