Vacation 2011, Montague, MI

Um, Ben? Honey?

How me and Hailey spent most of our time on the beach. Yup, she's under there! It was comfy!

Abby, our first born, was exhausted and has barely moved since we've gotten home!

We had a FIRE red sunset. The camera does not do it justice!

Lenore and Blake taking it in!

You'd think this would hurt. But not Blake! He did it over and over and over again!

Popsicles on the deck! Nothing better!

Meghan and Morgan were a big help with Hailey! They were my little "babysitters"!

Mom came up for a couple nights. Lily, Maddie, and Abby were zonked! We were all fine standing since they clearly needed the rest!

Who needs suits!? Jackson and Ben jumped in!

For the first time in history, I had a week at the cottage!!! Yes, I waited until I had a 2 year old, a 5 week old, and a husband with no time off to come stay with us. My solution? Invite people! Of cours

e, those people also had kids so we had our hands full. With all the kids and just being at the cottage, holding a camera was hard, but I was able to catch some good stuff!

Thursday>Sunday: Brian was able to be there and we had a nice, quiet time with just our family of 5 (Brian, me, Ben, Hailey, and Abby). The water was perfect, some flies on the beach, warm, sunny, perfect!

Sunday>Tuesday: The Trices came! Ben and Jackson were little buddies again! They played and wore each other out every day. The waves were a bit bigger and the kids couldn't go in the water. They had fun on the beach, though!

Tuesday>Saturday: Seelye's came! The water calmed down but also cooled down! IT WAS COLD! So cold, even the kids wouldn't go in. Booo! But it was clear and the air was warm. We had beach time twice a day every day!

Friday>Sunday: Brian came back and more of the same with packing up and coming home on Sunday.

I've decided I have pretty

good aged kids for this. Ben is old enough to play and have fun and take direction a little bit while on the beach while Hailey was just fine under the umbrella with me! It was nice! Although there is no way I could have done any beach time without all the help of those who came to join me!

It was a really nice week and I just wish Brian could have been there. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be! Ben actually did WAY better with potty training there for some reason! The first day or so home he's back tracked again, but today is actually telling me when he needs to go. Yesterday and today we've been in underwear all day!

Kids update:

Ben: starting to say the most hilarious things! He's pretty funny! The funniest, and maybe most disturbing, act was when he found Morgan's doll at the cottage, held her like a baby, then said "Hmm, she's hungry!" He then lifted his shirt and pressed the doll up to his belly! Yup! You read that right! He's very...caring...

Hailey: getting BIG! She's really filling out. She's fitting comfortably into 0-3 month and solid 3 month clothes. She's interacting more and more including SMILING ALL THE TIME! I have yet to catch that on camera too well, of course!

She's sleeping pretty well. The last two nights have been great! She made 5 hour stretches 2 nights in a row! Then fed, and went right back down! She's more awake during the day which is nice at night, but making the daytime tricky to get ANYTHING done. I try to give Ben all my attention once she doesn't need any. She's starting to really like the swing and bouncy chair which is nice to free up my hands a little to play a game or do a puzzle with Ben.

Hailey is still sleeping next to me, but I think we're making the move tonight! She's napping in her room right now and loving it. Her first extended nap in her beautiful crib!

This was today, and the closest I've gotten to catching her smile. She LOVES watching her brother. He is crazy!