Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

I've heard that the health benefits of taking a vacation are more from the anticipation of the trip than the trip itself.  We had planned our summer vacation back in February.  So many times I visualized the view of Lake Huron from our rented cottage and the sound of the waves against the shore and even the smell of the campfire and fresh pine.  Through the last uncomfortable trimester of pregnancy I would picture our upcoming week at the beach.  Even during labor with Violet and after my tailbone injury, I kept going to my happy place, which was the fun and relaxation we were going to have Up North.  Truly, we all couldn't wait to experience the natural beauty and peacefulness of Up North Michigan.  A week prior to our trip it was on my shoulders to pack as Will was finishing up a college class and his last week of work before having the month of July off.  It was stressful, packing for my new family of five, and all of the different stores I needed to hit to get the random items we needed for our trip.  The most stressful part was planning and shopping for a week of food, knowing that the nearest store to our rental was at least a half hour away and probably wouldn't have a good selection of the type of food we are used to.  Finally, every last item was bought, prepped and packed and we had the challenge of fitting it into our car.  Decisions were made about whether or not we need three rolls of paper towel versus two and I spent a good ten minutes convincing Will that the giant bag of library books was in fact more important than the bottled water.  Once we were on the road, the girls started complaining that they were hungry and we realized the only edible item accessible was a tin of mints.

The girls did really good on the four hour trip up, and we only had to stop twice.  When we arrived at the cottage we couldn't believe how close it was to the beach and how spectacular the view was.  Stepping out of the car and breathing in the fresh, pine scented air was everything I had dreamed of and more.

The night we arrived was chilly with a strong breeze blowing off the lake - perfect for kite flying.  The girls and I flew kites along the beach while Will built our first campfire and proceeded to cook our dinner over it.  

The next morning we awoke at sunrise, thanks to the fact that the cottage didn't have any window coverings and the girls were convinced they had slept in because the sun was so very bright.  It was a beautiful sunrise, and we were showered, dressed and fed before we would have even been out of bed at home.  We capitalized on our early rising and took a morning walk on the beach.

On the week's menu, I made sure that at least one meal a day was cooked at the campfire.  Will had bought me pie irons for my birthday and we had delicious pizza pockets, garlic cream cheese chicken pies, burgers and fruit pies.  We also had s'mores almost every day.

Unfortunately, the bugs were so bad that Will would run from the house to the campfire and back again to make dinner while we stayed inside and killed the ten mosquitoes that came in each time the sliding door was opened and closed.

By the end of the week even Emma could fend for herself and each of us had our own fly swatter.  Emma would even yell "SKEE-TA!" and smack a bug out of mid air.  Our plans of renting a cottage right on the water so that the kids could play outside all day every day were ruined by biting black flies and amazing amounts of mosquitoes.  Thank God we traded the bottled water for library books!  The week before we left for our trip I researched children's books on beaches, vacations, and the Fourth of July and found about thirty books that I kept out of reach from the girls until we were in the car heading north.  This turned out to be the most valuable item we packed, as we spent a lot of time indoors at the cottage, waiting for the bugs to go away.

There was a super comfy and well worn Lazy Boy recliner there that every family member loved.  I fed Violet in that chair countless times and cuddled the older girls too as I enjoyed the view of the lake out the giant picture window next to the chair.  I also got some of my own reading time in.

The girls continued to get up each morning at sunrise and went to bed at sunset around 10:30 the night before.  This was not enough sleep and as a result they were super cranky, irrational and emotional.  They fought like crazy and drove us absolutely crazy.  The worst part was that they couldn't go outside which is usually the solution to fighting back home.  I had brought several new crafts for them to do in case of rainy days and we utilized those to the fullest.  Besides reading, crafts and fighting, Emma enjoyed having us braid her hair multiple times a day and begging us for food as well as playing dress up with the clothes we had packed.  Lucy enjoyed playing with Violet and tattling on Emma. 

We had packed everything but the kitchen sink it seemed and when we got to the cottage we realized that we had forgotten Violet's bassinet.  This did not help our sleep issues, as I couldn't fully relax at night worrying that someone would step on her in the nest we made for her on the floor, or that Will or I would roll on her in our bed.  Lucy and Emma woke up for various things throughout the night as well and Lucy even threw up in the middle of one of the nights.  The girls shared a bed and their tossing and turning would wake each other up too.  Needless to say all three girls kept us up to the point where Will and I were so sleep deprived we could hardly function.

Friends of ours stopped by on their last day of vacation where they were camping about 45 minutes north of us.  Instead of playing at the beach, the girls got to play in the rain.  I think they had more fun playing in the rain than they did at the beach with the rain cleared up.

The bugs were so bad at the beach that my friend Bonnie and I bailed on the kids and dads and hung out in the cottage while laughing at the crazy antics of our family members fighting off the bugs while building sand castles and riding the frigidly cold waves.

Despite the rain and bugs that day, both families had a relief from sibling fighting so we all ended the day happier than we started.

Once our friends had left, the fighting resumed and we decided that our initial plan of staying at our cottage all week needed to be revised.  We needed to go somewhere for a change of scenery - and in the hopes that all three girls would nap in the car.  We found three different light houses near by which we visited on different days.  In the bottom left picture you can see the girls swatting bugs that were so bad they couldn't even stop smacking them for a picture.

Two of the light houses allowed us to climb to the top.  This was super nerve wracking for me as I worried about the girls climbing but I was surprised to realize that the girls LOVED the thrill of the climb and kept turning around to tell me that I was going to be okay!  I tried explaining to them that I wasn't afraid for myself but for them but they interpreted my anxiety to mean that I was afraid of heights!  I've never had a problem with heights - I have a problem with heights and my babies climbing them!

We also found a waterfall near the cottage with really nice hiking trails and we had fun exploring until we were tired of fighting off the bugs.

 Another day we visited Mackinaw City and all three girls saw the Mackinaw Bridge for the first time.

For some reason the bugs in Mackinaw City weren't bad and so we had fun being outside and visited a playground, had a picnic and shopped the town's Main Street.

 The day before we were supposed to go home, we woke up to a spectacular sunrise.  After the sixth consecutive day of sunrises however, I had enough.  I looked at Will and asked him hypothetically how he would feel if we went home that day.  He looked at me and said he could have the car packed in an hour.  We kept our eyes locked on each other as we tried to gauge if the other person was joking.  After a moment Will got up from his half-dead reclined position on the couch and started packing.  It was hard for me to contain my excitement at the thought of everyone having their own beds that night and NOT waking up at sunrise the following day.  The girls were sad but seemed to get over it rather quickly.  As you can see below we had a lot of packing to do but we were fueled by the thought of not being held hostage by skee-tas in a small, cedar-lined house with a know it all five year old, an irrational three year old and a gassy newborn without a bed.

Looking at our photos after a couple of good night's sleep I am glad that we went as we made lots of great memories.  I am also glad to be home, and although we still have a nervous twitch when anything brushes our arms or legs (skee-tas!), it is nice to be back and sleeping is so much better!  Our kids are back to being our clever five year old, our sweet three year old, and our adorable newborn.  We didn't account for the bugs or the sleep deprivation but it was definitely a vacation to remember!