Michigan Vacation

We're back. I'm still a little bleary-eyed from the push to get home yesterday, despite sleeping like a rock in my own bed last night. Perhaps this is because we dove right back into our usual Sunday commitments this morning. Most likely it's because it takes a couple days to recover from an essentially sleepless night (which I had on Friday night). Plus vacations with children aren't restful the way I'm used to thinking of rest. It's a different routine and we do lots more fun stuff, but we still had lots of work keeping them fed, clean, protected from sun and sand and water, and well-rested. That last one was the toughest on me, and accounts for 3 or 4 rough nights of sleep. Hence my bleariness today.

The week was very nice, though we experienced the blistering heat everyone else in the nation did. I knew we were in trouble when the weather forecast we saw Saturday reported that Fargo had hit 102 degrees that day. We were really far north in Michigan -- the equivalent of Green Bay, Wisconsin -- but we still saw temps in the high 90s on Monday. This is almost 20 degrees hotter than normal, especially for the coast of Lake Michigan. Most residences up there do not have air conditioning -- they just don't need it. So the kids were especially uncomfortable trying to sleep at night. We spent the hot days in the cold lake water and devised reasons to drive places so we could cool off in the air-conditioned comfort of our vans!

The kids travelled really well, all things being equal. Sam and Anna know how to get each other mad (amazing how quickly siblings learn this!), so they had a few screaming matches in the van. I thought my head was going to explode -- a 5-foot-by-9-foot metal box really concentrates screaming. But they quickly saw the error of their ways -- realized they were taking their lives in their hands -- and settled down.

We went to the beach every day except one (the day the hot air got pushed to the east by a lovely rain storm -- I have NEVER been so happy to see a thunderstorm and a rainy day in my entire life). Here are some of my favorite photos from the week. As always, click the photo to see the full-size version.

Anna loved inspecting all the rocks on the beach.








Splashing in puddles is a great way to enjoy a rainy day!



Scott took Elli out for a long float on our hottest day in Michigan.







Elli and I ride a swing on our rainy day. She loved playing in the rain.






This is the beach chair my dad and uncle built for Elli. It worked well to get her down to the beach and also made a great wave rider!










Grampa took Sam out for a test drive, too.



Sam grabbed his feet, wrapping himself around the raft, and said, "Look! I'm a rectangle!"











We built a fort out of chairs and a bedsheet the afternoon it rained.





Gramma and Anna had a special bond all week.










We celebrated our last day at the beach by building a big fort in the sand.