Thursday, August 6, 2015

4th of July 2015

Boy oh boy has time gotten away from me. It is already a whole month past the 4th of July and I have yet to document our trip. Well I’m only wasting more time thinking about all the time gone so I’ll jump right into it. We celebrated the Independence holiday with the group again this year except for the Zimmer’s who were attending a wedding of Andrew’s childhood friend back in South Dakota. This year Michelle found a really great cabin near Brainerd so we packed up the kids and the three families settled into a cute cabin for the weekend.
The BEST thing about this cabin was the water access. We had a private beach and dock but the two things that made it great were the distance the water was away from the cabin and how shallow the water was. The yard was really big so we didn’t have to worry if we turned around that the kids could already be in the water. But even better was that the water was really shallow, so much that the kids could walk out to the end of the dock and their heads would still be above water. This certainly made the whole weekend a little less stressful and more relaxing since a parent didn’t have to spend all day in the water helping the young kids swim. It was SOOOOO nice. Again soooo nice!
The kids really had fun digging and finding shells. I mean look at that big pile.
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The kids swam and swam and swam. The weather was gorgeous and we definitely enjoyed our time by the beach.
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Some of the kids swam so much that they just tuckered themselves out, falling asleep outside down by the beach.
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Baby Jaxon maybe didn’t swim much but he sure looked cute in his swimsuit. He got some nice zzz’s in down by the beach as well.
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One of the four legged friends loved the water maybe even more than the kids. It was fun to throw Molly’s toy and watch her swim after it. We brought Lily along but she is not a fan of the water at all. Molly did enough swimming for the both of them. Brynna thinks dogs are pretty neat too and decided she wanted to be like them…at least it was fresh clean water!! haha
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Brynna may have been thirsty but by the end of the first day the adults sure worked up an appetite to once again enjoy the annual lobster boil. We transported live lobsters to the cabin and enjoyed a feast that first night. Like all traditions you learn tips and tricks as you go. This year the guys think they overcooked the lobster but overall I still think it was a success…after a long day down by the beach and a couple (or more) of cocktails I think anything tastes mighty good!
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One new thing we did this year that would definitely be nice to keep as a tradition is renting a pontoon. It was really great to take the kids out for rides. I think the best part was seeing baby Jax in his infant life vest. I don’t know what is cuter than that. This was actually the first time for my kids riding on a boat and they loved it. Captain Cohen sure loved getting to “drive” the boat.
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Almost all the kids had fun swimming off the pontoon. The guys took the kids the first time and had calm waters and made for a very enjoyable experience. The girls took the next time and had less calm waters and felt like we were just floating further and further away from the boat no matter how much we tried not to. Definite workout and much less relaxing of a time. We definitely earned a cocktail or two after that.
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Now we had a lot of fun on vacation but we also took this as a great time to teach the kids a thing or two as well. You know those true life skills they need to learn. I mean every kid needs to learn how to pee in the lake, go skinny dipping, and pee on a tree outside. We are great parents I tell ya. Of course I got proof of most of said teachings just because I know you wouldn’t believe it otherwise.
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Maybe it is a good thing that this holiday is only once a year. You never know what we’ll teach the kids next….

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