Vacation Times Two

I'm rewinding a couple months... forgive me.  I can hardly remember what day/season/year it is, let alone gather the wherewithal to keep the blog up to date with the family's current events. 

Anyway, for posterity, let the record show that we took 2 vacations in the course of a month. 

First, In August, we went about 3 hours north to the shores of Lake Michigan.  This has been a summer tradition for the past four years.  I could easily spend a month there... probably more.  The beaches are so pretty, we can walk to so many fun places, and, best of all... no sharks in the water!!  It's a wee bit colder than Florida waters, but, seriously, the kids do not care.  Much. 

And there you have all the pictures I took on that trip before my camera died. 

Exactly 3 weeks later, we went south.  This time, the trip was 12-13 hours on the road each way.  A bit more painful, but we've been wanting to hit Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown for several years now for their homeschool days.  They have some crazy good deals going on for that event and also several extra classes available.  Joy took a class in the print shop with Grandma, and the three middles and I participated in 'the Life of a Soldier."  Lots of fun. 

It rained a couple days, so we did the Virginia Living History Museum.  Really great.  Pada, Eustace, and 3 adventurous kids walked outside through their trails in a serious downpour to witness bald eagles, deer, foxes, coyotes, and a bunch of other wildlife I can't remember because I wasn't brave enough to go with them. 

We had a great time with my parents on both trips.  They even carted our whiniest child to Virginia for us.  God bless them. 

On trip number 2, I took exactly zero pictures with my camera.  I do have a few on my phone, I think, so I'll work on getting those onto this computer sometime in the next decade.