More Vacation!

OK, it wasn't originally planned this way. We didn't set out to have back-to-back trips like this (especially not right after the also-unplanned power outage). But back in July, when we'd originally planned (and usually taken) the trip to Michigan with Tara's family, the week we got her uncle's "cottage" was also the week when Tara was playing with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.

So, unfortunately, we had to cancel.

We thought that we would probably have to wait 'til next year (ala Chicago Cubs fans, who really believe that this is "next year"), but then we got the good news: we got the "cottage" for the last week of September!

Due to brand new baby in the house, and something about another vacation trip with sister-in-law's side of the family, Tara's brother and family didn't come up this year, so it was only us and Tara's parents. It made the house seem almost empty!

We arrived on Monday evening (what a long drive!) "early" enough to go to the beach - good enough to wind the boys down and to get a little exercise after a long car ride .

It was good to get walking along the path to the beach (Jonathan only kind-of remembered the "Michigan house" but when we started for the beach, his memory got stronger).

We did not change into swim suits or anything, which was a sure guarantee that we would end up in the water and full of sand.

You can see that the boys have their routine down: Andrew gets busy playing, running, swimming, etc. while Jonathan gets busy working. I'm not sure what kind of engineering marvel he is creating here (no, he's still set on being a fire fighter or a police officer when he grows up), but he was working hard.

Here are my in-laws: isn't this a great picture of them?

As the sun was setting, we took some pictures. It was a beautiful sunset over Lake Michigan, and once it set, we headed back up to the "cottage" to get some rest!