mini vacation

Our group of friends usually gets together over Memorial Day weekend. This year, we thought it might be fun to make it into a weekend getaway. With 3 little ones: Liam, 18 months, Maya, 13 months, and Lily, 10 months, we had to pick somewhere within reasonable driving distance. We booked a cottage on Lake Erie, by Presque Isle. While we were all excited to get away, I don't think any of us expected a whole lot from Lake Erie, but we were so pleasantly surprised!Here's the back of our cottage, with its huge back yard. The houses on the same street were all part of a private road, making the beaches private, too. The water was clear and clean, and our beach was rocky, but so naturally pretty. I sat out on the beach a few times during our stay and saw NO ONE. It was so serene to be completely alone by the water -- I need that to be my back yard some day.

We could see the lake from our big windows, and Liam would shout, "wa-wa!" (water) every morning. "Boat!" was also common. In the distance, you can see the giant pile for a bonfire that was built before we got there. I'm not sure how that complies with the "Flames no higher than 3-4 feet tall" rule, but it was impressive.

Adrienne was off work on Friday, so she and I went up earlier in the day on Friday to get the kids used to a new place. We took them out to the beach, and they were hooked! Daddy and Liam were total beach boys together.
They loved skipping rocks (or in Liam's case, throwing), and it was good that there was an endless amount!

Liam, naturally, loved the water. He got in up to his neck, splashing and laughing the whole time.

Liam also loved playing in the sand. Bo and I were on our towels, and Liam played quietly beside us, digging, collecting rocks, and moving toys in the sand. It was glorious!Here's a picture from our photo shoot of the 3 kids, Lily, Liam, and Maya. They had so much fun playing together inside the house and out on the beach.

On Sunday night, we went to a waterfront restaurant called The Cove. It was great to eat and have drinks by the lake, even though we were on borrowed time with the three toddlers! On Saturday and Sunday nights, we built bonfires on the beach (after dismantling the insanely huge pile of driftwood). All of our baby monitors just reached the log/bench closest to the house, so we could truly unwind! There is nothing better than watching an incredible sunset over the water while sitting by a fire.

Everything about our trip was perfect. We totally got our "beach fix" (although we are spoiled and go to the Outer Banks in 2 weeks!), there were plenty of things to do (some rode bikes up and down Presque Isle), and we all had so much fun just hanging out with each other. The weekend was way too short, and it's very depressing to walk out our door at home and not see water. This was definitely something we want to make a tradition of!