Our 4th of July!

You know you've had a great weekend, when you come home exhausted, ready for bed by 6pm, and in need of a shower.  I think it's safe to say once you've had kids, your weekends will not be restful.  Add the fourth of July, a birthday, and a trip away into the mix and it was one eventful weekend!

Scott's parents bought a new lake house this spring in Gladwin.  It only added a few minutes onto our drive since we were used to going to West Branch.  Man, this house has it all!  More bedrooms, more bathrooms, more room in general, no long hill to walk up from the water, a great beach area, no mucky water, and a bunch of parks scattered around the lake that are only a short pontoon boat ride away.  Bonus!

In prior years since we had kids and since Scott's sister had kids, we only had one group of us up at a time.  Too many kids and too many dogs made for a stressful weekend.  This year, with the extra space at the new lake house, we all went up.  A grand total of 8 adults, 4 kids, and 4 dogs shacked up to celebrate the holiday weekend and Adelaide's second birthday!

Things went off without a hitch!  We arrived Thursday afternoon and the rest of the crew came Friday morning.  We filled our weekend with bonfires, s'mores, tubing (both boys went out on the tube with Scott and his mom!), jet-skiing (both boys took it for a spin with Scott), fishing, and more.

Friday evening on the fourth, we celebrated Adelaide's birthday complete with "Frozen" cupcakes, presents, and some Pop-its in the driveway (whipper snappers, anyone?).  The lake put on their firework presentation on Saturday night, so we kept the kids up late and let them play with sparklers while eating popcorn before the fireworks started.  Two minutes before the show started, Evan fell asleep in my arms and Sean asked to go to bed.  Maybe next year for the fireworks, boys.

It was a great weekend and especially memorable since the entire Ferstle family, grandkids and granddogs, attended this year.  I've said this a million times, but I love the memories the boys are making with their cousins.  Even though we suffered a miserable car ride home, taking four hours, the boys were troopers and the mini-van's DVD player pulled through again!

It's an early bedtime for me tonight since it's back to the grind tomorrow morning at summer school.  Four weeks to go, but only working from 7:30-10:30am, Monday-Thursday makes it seem more tolerable.  Scott will be busy playing Mr. Mom, but I'm looking forward to our afternoons at the Rec Center pool and our upcoming weekend plans with Plymouth's Art in the Park and a birthday party.  Goodnight all!