Our eighth (and final) parent meeting

Tonight I attended the eighth (and final) parent meeting for marching band season.  I vividly remember the very first parent meeting I attended.  I remember the parents and how things were done.  We've made changes to so many things, but the excitement of the very first day remains the same.  I can't believe this day has arrived...the unofficial beginning of my youngest child's senior year.  It's going to be a great year. 

Back to an alarm

Since Friday, July 2, I've only had to wake to an alarm two times, and both of those alarms had a "9" as the first number...we just needed to make sure we were up to travel.  It's been wonderful.  It all ends tomorrow though.  Back to the alarm that is earlier than a "9".  My hours at work will be slightly longer than they'd been the last two weeks before being off, and additionally, band practices begin.  We still have five weeks of summer remaining, but our days are becoming a little more scheduled!

The end of our vacation

These next (and last) two days of our vacation have been nice.  Yesterday we didn't really do a whole lot.  We stopped for some afternoon ice cream, and allowed ourselves to take naps.  Catherine and Thomas spent a little bit of time at the pool.  We went to an early dinner on the waterfront, then walked along the water for a while.  After, we decided to drive around Lake Mocatawa and just see some of the sights.  We came back to watch TV and just hang out.  

Today was shopping in downtown Holland.  They have several blocks of shops, and we wanted to see them all.  We each found a shirt and our traditional ornament before finding another brewery for dinner.  Thomas and I both agreed that the best meal we had was Tuesday evening at the first brewery.  All the meals were good, some were just better than others.  Andrew and I took our sweet pup to a dog park this evening.

Honestly, it's been the perfect amount of time to be here.  Unless we wanted to spend more time at the lake, there isn't much else to do at this point.  We actually have LOTS of plans this weekend, so it should be fun.  

I'm so grateful our family took this opportunity to make this trip.  Our family enjoys vacations and I love that we make these memories together.  Hopefully someday the kids will want to take vacations with their kids and with us as well!  We are very lucky!

The beginning of our vacation

 Yesterday early afternoon we left home to begin our four days in Michigan.  We were also able to bring our sweet pup with us, which has truly been a treat.  I plugged the address into my phone, and we were off.  The beginning of the trip had us not on the interstate, which we all really enjoyed.  As we got along further, I realized that we were going to start to follow the path that my family took when we traveled to my grandparents' vacation home in Coldwater, MI.  The memories came flooding back.  Had we gotten an earlier start, I would have asked Andrew to spend 1/2 hour driving through the town.  It's been nine years since I was there for a couple of hours, and 30 years since I'd been able to really visit.

It's one of the many things that have made me want to pick up the phone and call and discuss with my dad during this trip.  He's been gone nearly eight years, but there are still so many things I want to tell him each and every day.  I know I'm not alone in that.

The trip got off to a bit of a rough start in that the motel in which we are staying is not nearly as nice as we had anticipated it being.  It's also further out of town than we had planned.  As it turns out, it's not causing any problems.  Last evening consisted of a quick dinner and a trip to the grocery.  The kids hit the pool for about 20 minutes, and we just relaxed.

This morning Andrew took our pup on a walk and then we hung out a bit more.  We decided to hit one of the state parks with a beach, and we were delighted we could bring Abby along as well!  It was very pretty, and the breeze keeps things from being too warm.  We were even able to be up on the dune where there was some shade.  It was so funny to watch Abby dig and dig and dig so that she could create a hole.  She preferred waiting for the rest of the family by sitting in that hole.  She wanted nothing at all to do with being down at the water, so she and I hung out and just enjoyed the view.  Unfortunately, she got sand in her eye and that has been bothering her a little bit.  The other downside was that while we were hiking back to our car from the beach, Abby's leash got caught around my legs.  Catherine didn't understand what was happening and wouldn't drop the leash, so I have pretty bad rope burn on the backs of my knees.  Ugh!  Life goes on though.

We had a nice dinner at a brewery where Andrew and I each tried a flight of four different beers.  We finished that up with ice cream, which always tastes better on vacation!  We still have two full days before we head home Friday, and overall we are enjoying the more relaxed pace!

It was an awesome holiday weekend.

After our wonderful evening Saturday, we followed up with an amazing evening yesterday.  We returned to our former town.  Not only did we get to see our best friends, we got to see the other couples who were always part of our circle.  Not only were our kids there, but even the older kids from the other families came along and brought significant others, and some other "kids" we had known for years stopped by.  We took a lot of pictures, and it all just made my heart so full.  After the last year, we don't take these things for granted.  I especially love that the kids want to be together, and that they still want to be a part of gatherings as well.  As so many issues have developed in my family and it just seems as though it is shrinking, I am so incredibly grateful for the friends that have become our other family.

A lovely evening and a lovely drive home

Yesterday afternoon we made the two-hour drive to visit our friends.  We had seen them twelve weeks ago, but I'm so grateful they decided we needed to not go the entire summer without seeing them again.  It was an absolutely lovely evening, and I've often felt as though their back yard is an oasis.  There was so much laughter last evening.  It was such a lovely visit.

We left them about 9:30 to make the two-hour drive home.  For the first hour, Andrew and I truly enjoyed watching various fireworks light up the sky.  It was a lovely visit with lovely weather, and then a lovely drive home!

The beginning of my summer break

I got off work just a little over an hour ago.  I don't have to be at work again until about 8:30 on July 12.  That sounds absolutely wonderful to me!  Since our office doesn't shut down at any point during the summer, this is the longest break I'll have.  I'll get some other days here and there, and of course the daily hours are shorter, but this is the only week I'm off the entire time.  Since we are leaving Monday and returning Friday, we even get the weekends at home to be productive, which helps me to feel less guilty about going away.  Today is even an incredible weather day.  The temps are in the 70's with no humidity and lots of sunshine.  It couldn't be more beautiful.  Although I'm not usually a day drinker, I poured myself a small glass of wine to celebrate the beginning of my time off!  It's delightful!