Summer Fun

We had such fun (and busy) summer!

After our Israel trip (see the previous 4 posts for those details), we went home for the 4th of July weekend.

The morning of the 4th, we were with Michael's family. Katie and Lisa's neighborhood had a kids bike parade and a bigger parade with floats that the adults made. Abby and Lizzy did the bike parade, and Hannah was on a float with her swim team.

That afternoon, my parents hosted a fun cook-out for both mine and Michael's families! My parents went all out with food and fun and my dad even made a photo booth for the kids.

About 2 weeks later, we were in East Texas for my cousin Molly's wedding. All my siblings (except Vincent) were able to come, and Phillip's girlfriend Loren came! This was her first family event with us, and it was really fun having her around.

We of course had a ton of fun, even though it was hot as Hades since it was the middle of July and an outside wedding.

Then to end the summer, we went to Michigan!

We did all my favorite things: sleep late, play with nieces, play lots of board games with Braeden, eat ice cream every day, read books on the beach, and play putt-putt at Craig's Cruisers

Such a nice relaxing trip and those views just never get old!

Michigan

I just love summer vacations! We spent last week in Michigan, and it was so wonderfully relaxing. We went a little earlier than usual (we normally go in August) and it was pretty nice with just us and Michael's brother Daniel and his wife Chloe at the cottage. Michael's Aunt Janna was also there, but after breakfast, she would leave for the day and not be back until dinner, so it was mostly just the 4 of us there during the days.

We really didn't do a whole lot which was pretty wonderful. I read a couple of books, laid on the beach, played games, watched the sunset every night, roasted some s'more's at a campfire on the beach, and ate ice cream from Miss Lisa's every day. 

We did get to spend time with GG (Michael's grandmother) and Uncle Elliot every evening; they would come around 4, stay for dinner, and then we usually played a round of Liar's Dice and go for a walk down on the beach before they left.

The weather was basically perfect. I wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt every morning and night, and it warmed up enough to wear shorts and t-shirts during the day. The only downside was that it was way to cold for me to swim. The water temp was around 62, so I never did more than put my feet in. There was one day where it rained all day so we played about 5 rounds of Settlers of Catan, and I was only able to win one game. Gotta brush up on my strategy skills. 

Gaius of course had a blast, and he was zonked for the ride back to Texas. He got to swim, chase a tennis ball like 1000 times, and never be on a leash for a week straight. It's basically dog heaven up at the cottage. He loved digging in the sand when we weren't throwing the ball and then laying in the hole. Crazy pup.

 And I can't forget the amazing sunsets every night! This one was my favorite :)

Pretty nice vacation if you ask me! 

Michigan Vacation Part 2: Cottage Tour!

Per my dad's request, and also to have it documented so I won't forget 10 years from now, here's a little tour of the cottage.

The cottage!

When you walk in the front door, there is a little mini-hallway (below) that leads into the kitchen.

 View of both sides of the kitchen from the front entry, its a pretty good size. The table is only used for serving all the food off of at meals since there is great outdoor seating and beautiful weather every day :).

View from the center of the kitchen looking back towards the front door. The brown door is the bathroom (which I will show next) to the left of the blue door that is open is the breezeway and to the right of the picture leads to the living room!

 Bathroom! Pretty much just a shower, water heater, sink and toilet....the dresser holds towels.

 When you walk out of the bathroom and turn right, you are in the breezeway. Usually it looks like this:

Its just an open area for hanging out inside, and pretty nice since its very open with just the screen windows on both sides. But this year, we turned it into another bedroom with screens and an air mattress since there were so many people. 

behind the blue door is the back bedroom

On the other side of the breezeway is a little bedroom with 2 bunk beds and another bathroom. This bathroom is just big enough for a little sink and a toilet, but its nice when a lot of us are staying together.

So walking back out of the other side of the breezeway, you go through the kitchen into the living room. 

sometimes you find a michael grysen in the living room:)

Off the living room there are 2 bedrooms with a dresser and 2 twin beds in each one. 

 Out back is a porch and a deck with picnic tables. That's pretty much where we eat all meals, spend time playing games, and watch the sunsets.

view of the back porch from the deck

looking to the right off the porch facing away from the house; this is where the stairs down to the beach start. 

 Then, we have one of the best parts, the view off the back deck. We are pretty spoiled to have our own private beach to use all week long.

this picture is actually from last year, but lets you see the staircase a little better

 So there you have it! I am so glad that Uncle Elliott has it for the family to come visit every year. I hope he keeps it for a very long time!