Life is Wonderful: A Mini Vacation

When found out that I was pregnant with Josie I figured that we wouldn't go on vacation anytime soon. I knew that it would be hard going anywhere with a very young baby, not to mention all of the stuff we would have to bring with us to care for her. Once Joe started his new job taking a family vacation became even less of an option. In a way that was a relief to me since I was pretty much scared to take a vacation with two young kids. I was doing fine with that decision until a couple weeks ago. I really just wanted to get out of town and enjoy my summer break with my girls. My sister and her family were going to Coldwater again this year (we've gone up there with them and my mom the past two years) and she had asked before if we wanted to go. I wanted to but I knew I couldn't make a drive on my own with both kids (Joe would not be available to go due to his new job). My mom wasn't interested at first. On July 4th when we were at my moms house celebrating the holiday, Debra was talking about them leaving for vacation the next day. I got sad and really longed to go with them. My mom had a change of heart and said that she would go with us for a few days. Whooo hoooo!

Let me just say that riding in the car with two young kids is not fun at all. Josie was good for the most part. She usually falls right asleep as soon as she gets in the car and will stay asleep for a while. Of course our drive was a 4 1/2 to 5 hour ride (with one stop on the way) so she didn't stay asleep the whole time. When she would wake up she would play for little while, babbling happily before getting really cranky. It definitely had me flustered. Sophie had me even more flustered. She took a small nap when we started the ride but when she woke up she did not want to be in the car. She has always been a bad traveler so this didn't surprise me much. Still it is difficult when you have a kid constantly whining and saying that she wants to get out while thrashing around. ACK! I'm sure that my mom wondered why she volunteered to go with us multiple times. When we finally made it to the cottage in Coldwater we were all ready to get out of the car. I'm not sure who was more excited.

The cottage where we stayed.

We basically only stayed for two days. We arrived Sunday evening, stayed all day Monday, and left on Tuesday afternoon. That is a pretty short amount of time for that long of a drive. The weather was pretty gross mess the time that we were there. There were rainstorms on the way to and from the lake and it was overcast most of the time that we were there. The mosquitoes were awful, too! It was all worth it though to see Sophie having such a great time with her cousin and for us all to be together as a family. I especially loved being able to share Coldwater Lake with Josie (Sophie has been the past two years). It was always my favorite place when I was little and for both my girls to be able to experience it means the world to me. Monday night as I was putting Sophie to sleep I told her that I love her. She replied, "Thank you for taking me on cation." My heart melted.