vacation!

we did it! we took the girls on a vacation with us. this is a first for us & sure, maybe we're a bit selfish to wait this long. ah well. we decided to stay close to home but wanted to take them to a beach. so off to lake erie we went to a geneva on the lake. it was only about 3 hours--but adeline told us repeatedly it was an ETERNITY & she was going to die or something. (really, she was sobbing for half the car ride. a nice, stressful way to start out a vacation, eh?).

it was a very unique town, sorta redneck, sorta commercialized, etc but perfect to take kids. there were at least 4 arcades just on 'the strip' & then across the street for the set of cottages where we stayed was a walk-up restaurant called 'effin burrito'. (which was fantastic, by the way.) there were even gluten free options at several mexican food joints & pizza spots. yumminy yumminy. 

the girls slept side by side in bed, snuggling together & also stealing each other's special animals (the bunny & the bear wars). we were about 30 yards from the drop off to the lake & a five minute drive to the big state park beach. the cottage was super nice...& we even had cable channels! & still managed to mostly watch pbs cartoons & csi (minus a few shows about swamp creatures or something like that. gross, btw).

i rate this vacation a 9 on a scale of 1-10 (because it was so damn hot & humid. thankfully, there was a fairly small window air unit in the comfy cottage, but still...walking around town was sticky). & i have to mention that we played our first game of putt-putt with the girls. amelia only stuck it out for 9 holes but addy was totally engrossed the entire 18 holes. & yea, I WON, i beat wesley. ha HA!

sitting on the cottage steps

rinse off!

sand was part of our exfoliating plan for the week's spa treatment

they actually made me a nice reclining sand seat.

addy learning to swim!

wes built a huge something or other that attracted throngs of kids for the girls to play with. this was a picture of the hole in its infancy...

trying to protect the hole

walking the strip

the girls LOVED the driving games at the arcade. & if you could see amelia's face, you would see how ecstatic & crazed she was while steering. she wrecked every 10 seconds. & yea, we are seriously worried for her future driving endeavors. 

adeline did quite well in the driving, btw. also a bit worrisome... 

on a ferris wheel that was on the edge of the lake. it went forward & felt like you would fall into the lake. i pictured the wheel falling off the supports or whatever & rolling along into lake erie. freaky. but fun!

amelia enjoyed about 1 turn then clung to my legs most of the time.

***

not much else going on here, aside from amelia learning to shriek as loud as possible, me trying to squeeze in hours of gardening into the one cool hour in the morning, adeline counting down the days until school starts...i still haven't told her that her best friend from last year's class will not be in her class this year. maybe i'll let wes tell her? & sure, let me complain about this super hot & humid weather. it sucks. i want winter back.