4th of July 2016, part 2

While the water and weather were beautiful, sometimes you just need to take a break and have a little inside time. And what better way to spend some time inside than with a talent contest. The living room easily had enough room for all of us and the kids made sure everyone was seated and ready for the show. You can guess who was the leader of this whole idea as well as the most devoted.

It is clear that kids can create fun out of nothing. That’s why this vacation means so much to me. I don’t need to bring my kids to Walt Disney World or fly them to a tropical destination for them to have a blast. They create some pretty amazing memories just hours away from home. These kids love getting together and us adults just cherish the relationships they are building.

The adults appreciate the time together as well. Each year there is a guarantee of good food, especially the lobster boil, good conversation, and just in general a really good time. Just like the kids the time we spend together strengthens the bonds we have with each other. I feel very lucky to have such good people in my life who support me as a wife, a mother, and a friend.

Even though this vacation is not centered around celebrating Independence Day we do still make sure to celebrate some. And what better way to celebrate than with fireworks! We don’t make a point to see a fireworks show every year but instead we buy a bunch of fireworks and light them off ourselves. The kids love it.

Sadly vacation can’t go on forever and we packed up our things and headed home. But just like the prior years we left with good memories and thankful hearts. The tradition will live on.

4th of July 2016

Independence Day was never an important holiday for me growing up. I actually didn’t care much about until 3 years ago when the framily decided to make it a yearly tradition to get a cabin all together and celebrate. It has now become one of my favorite holidays. Really I could still care less about the holiday but I do love knowing every year my family has this vacation to look forward to. The kids have a blast and make so many memories. Plus us adults really enjoy our time as well. We’ve rented a new cabin each year and thankfully we’ve been happy with all of them so far. Each had different things that we really liked. This year we went back to Hayward, WI. The cabin was once apart of a resort and we learned that it used to be the bar for the resort. I think the cabin was meant for us :) It had four bedrooms with a nice open concept kitchen, dining, living room. The beach wasn’t right out the front door which was nice but it was still really close. The kids loved playing in the sand, swimming in the water, and jumping off the platform into the deep water. Andrew was the fun loving uncle taking the kids out to jump. Carissa followed his lead and took a straggler out with her.

There was a boat dock right out the front door that we took advantage of. Cohen absolutely loved fishing. He was actually pretty good at catching some. Granted they were really small fish but that doesn’t really matter when it comes to having fun. I hadn’t tried fishing in years and caught one. I think that was the 3rd fish I ever caught. It was probably as big as my finger but my excitement was much bigger. We may need to buy this kid his own fishing pole and take him out again. Also every good fisherman eats a poptart while fishing ;)

We also used the boat dock for actually docking a boat. We rented a pontoon for one day and enjoyed an afternoon on the water. After cruising around the lake, the kids and Andrew showed off their skills jumping off the pontoon. Andrew was such a good sport once again. He helped all the kids and got back in several times when another kid decided they wanted to actually take a turn. There were also some important life lessons taught on the pontoon.