catching up

Long post alert - there's a lot to catch up on between moving, vacation, settling in and back to school! Two days in and it seems like the kids had only two weeks off of school instead of the two-and-a-half months we enjoyed apart from the stress of moving.

This year, we planned to stay in Port Huron instead of Waterloo. However, a wrong turn while aiming for the hotel we spotted put us on the ramp to the border. So we spent the night in Sarnia instead.

selfie in Sarnia the next morning - it's really hard to squeeze 6 people into a picture, but Dave did an admirable job

 
Here we tested the waters of Lake Huron before heading to the cottage (you can see a piece of Michigan on the top left)...

Dave made apple pie for the journey in his new cast iron skillet - his birthday present this year. Half it was consumed on the road....

 ...And here's Moses enjoying a piece shortly after we arrive. He was quite happy. :)

  The cooler weather + strong wind most days made for perfect sandcastle building opportunities...

Here's Ben's lighthouse...

 And Brie resting after all that construction.

 More wind turbines seem to crop up each year we return. Dave likes taking the kids to see them up close and personally. Personally, it freaks me out to be that close to one.

 Luke thoroughly enjoyed the water this year and lost much of his past fear of the water. He and Isaac even ventured out to the first sandbar.

The day after we got back, we made a last-minute decision to head to our local county fair - we missed going our favorite one last year. The week at the beach must have caught up with Luke and Ben:

synchronized sleeping

But they quickly recovered. Luke  seems to be conquering much of his fears this year as he chose to brave an airplane ride with Ben...

Brianna had a hard time choosing at first. She settled for the "fun" slide, but it wasn't exactly the thrilling ride she was looking for. 

This however, was.

 We spotted it from a distance and it proved to live up to its name. Here she stands in line...

And my brave two-days-away-from-turning-ten year old soloed (she rode without one of us by her side) a ride that took her high in the air and turned her upside down.

 Brie tried her best to convince Reese to join her on the "Screamer" but he'd had all the thrills he wanted on Pharaoh's "death" ride (his name for it). It was one of those big boat rides that swing you perpendicular to the ground. Especially if you choose to ride on the very end like Reese did. After that, the fun house and bumper cars were more his speed.  

 And, in a rare photographic moment, here's Reese arriving at home after the fair. It always takes a little extra activity to wear out our Reesie. :) 

However, it wasn't all fun and games. Despite just spending a week away and a good time at the fair, three out of four arrows found it hard to say they had a good time. (Big parental sigh). I know they did, as the pictures clearly show, so it's frustrating when I see a lack of gratitude and good attitudes in our children. In these moments, I'm tempted to ship them away to a farm or a boot camp to get a good dose of hard work. But then again, I know I often do the same thing, but as an adult I'm just better at hiding it.

And, finally, Brianna turned 10! Where, oh where, did that time fly? For her birthday this year, we braved the cooler, overcast weather and had a few friends meet us at the beach. And then home for dinner and cake. Like the loving big cousin that she is, Brianna gladly helped Jack help himself to a piece of cake (rocky road cheesecake made by Daddy).