"Vacation"

We just returned from our annual vacation up north with the Reese side of the family. The term vacation has taken on new meaning for me lately. Before Jason and I expanded our family, a vacation meant a good number of days relaxing, maybe some sightseeing or hiking, but generally enjoying a break from the everyday work of life. These days a vacation involves visiting places and people, and watching the children experience new things and new places. Relaxing isn't really a big part of it anymore (at least while the kids are little and while we travel with the kids), and it takes a bit of time for us to recover from the lack of sleep associated with travelling with the kids. Regardless, we had a good time with family and enjoyed swimming, playing on the beach, fishing and riding in the boat and eating lots of good food. The boys also enjoyed sharing a room (which was part of the lack-of-sleep problem) and Abby slept like a baby in her cave or tunnel as she calls it, waking a few times during the night to call gently, "Mommy?" to which I responded, "Yes, Abby, night night."

Here are a few pictures spending some time around the "camp", which is the area between the two cabins my family stays in. We set up two tables and arrange chairs around the outside. In the first picture, the kids are coloring pictures on a beautiful Minnesota morning.

 Abby is spending some time with Great-Grandma Verna.

We were able to go swimming and play on the beach every afternoon. Jason and the kids built a fish mountain, a volcano, a stegosaurus, and many, many towers for all the kids to destroy which they heartily did so.