Monday, September 24, 2012

Labor Day Weekend

It was one of our best cottage summers ever.  Evie is at a perfect age and the boys loved it too.  Labor Day weekend was terrific.  Evie had her whole gang to hang out with - Jonathan, Nolan, Esther, and Charlie...and Molly.
 
 
 

William and Jack really grew to love the cottage.  They pretty much roam freely and love the family there.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Evie and gang spent many hours on the raft over the weekend.  The game of house takes a new dimension when the raft is your house.  They took an amazing number of sand toys to the raft by swimming back and forth, back and forth.  Cleaning up afterward was a chore!

Yes, William and Jack are in the water in their PJ's.

Jack is a ham around great grandma.  

First tractor ride.
 
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Monday, September 17, 2012

Ludington Camping

While we are still a year or two away from great camping, this year was infinitely better than last (see last year's post)

We spent a long weekend with the Schaafs at Ludington State Park.  Great park!

On the way there we toured Country Dairy and enjoyed bottomless chocolate milk.
 

On Friday night we biked to Big Sable light house.
 

As usual, Jack was crazy.  Standing at the top of a small dune he'd announce his intent (weady...2...GO!) and plummet to the bottom with a face full of sand every time.

William got a kick out of it.

The boys enjoyed their relative freedom for sleeping.  Nap-time was a disaster (see below) but overnight they did reasonably well.
 
Evelyn loved sharing a bed with Erin.

On Saturday we toured a nearby elk ranch.
 
 

We also spent time at the beach and hiking some of the many trails at the state park.
 
 
 

Saturday's nap-time:
At 2:30 we put Jack in a pack-n-play and William on the sleeping area above him.  Both talked and laughed for about 25 minutes with me trying to scold them to sleep several times.  At one point I heard this exchange about 5 times:
Jack: "Wa-wee, scream!"
Will: "SCREAM".
...lots of laughing
Jack: "Wa-wee, scream!"
Will: "No!"
...lots of laughing
Jack: "Wa-wee, scream!"
Will: "SCREAM".
...lots of laughing

At 3:00 I finally went into the camper to see William out of his sleeping area and 1 foot into the pack-n-play.  After a stern lecture, I left.  3 minutes later I entered the camper to see THE EXACT SAME picture of William with 1 foot in the pack-n-play.

Finally I separated them into opposite sides of the camper.  About 10 minutes later William was quiet.  About 30 minutes later Jack was finally quiet.  At 4:30 William woke up.  Erin went in expecting to see Jack still asleep but instead Jack was in his corner eating chocolate.  He had quietly climbed out of his area and retrieved 3 chocolate bars.