I know – summer vacation has been over for a couple weeks now. But you know how things roll around this blog by now. Posting only a *couple* weeks late isn’t bad! 😉
I have so many pictures to dump here from our summer break this year, I’m just going to break it up into a few different galleries. Not much explanation is needed, either – we were planning to go back to Canada finally but the border didn’t open in time for our trip so we did a couple smaller trips around here, soaked up the warm weather (thank goodness for air conditioning this year!), and enjoyed as much time together as we could. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the slideshows!
The start of summer vacation back in June and a trip to Palos and Peoria to spend time with family:
Door County and 4th of July:
A long-overdue trip to Eau Claire:
More summer fun around here, our third trip to Palos of the summer, our first trip to the zoo in about 2 years, and our first Brewers game in a long time:
We are now fully back into the swing of a new school year, so more about that will be coming up next. Stay tuned!
Despite living during a pandemic, we managed to have a really great summer vacation. Screw you, COVID-19!
We started things off with a family trip over to Paw Paw, MI, for a nice 4-day weekend with my mom and stepdad. We’d never been to their cabin there before, and it was wonderful. (P.S. All of these trips will have their own gallery since we take millions of pictures, so please click on each pic to enlarge it if you’d like a better view.)
Two weeks later, my dad came up for the weekend to celebrate Morrison’s birthday, so it was fun having Grandpa in town for a few days. (Please see Morrison’s 5-year post for those pictures!) We were home for a few weeks after that, then I took the kids down to my mom’s for a week after the 4th of July. My sister and her kids drove back to spend that time, too, so we all had a great visit and got to celebrate my niece and stepdad’s birthdays. We hadn’t seem them for exactly a year, which is crazy!
A quick half week later, and we went on another family vacation. That never happens twice in a summer, so it was awesome. Our great friends found a last-minute rental opportunity about 3.5 hours north of here in Crandon, WI, so I said count us in! We definitely did not regret it. It was an incredible place with a perfect property and lake for the kids, and we all had so much fun.
A couple weeks after that, I took the kids back down to my mom’s for another week of Grandma and Grandpa days. We were the only visitors this time, and we celebrated Della’s birthday. Another round of relaxation and fun – just what we needed!
I’m in love with these clutch purses and mini pouches I’ve discovered how to make!
We also sprinkled in a couple treat days around here – Bookworm Gardens, hunting for sea glass, donuts and the playground at school, backyard fun (we finally have grass!), the zoo, and I transformed our front porch into a perfect little sitting spot that I love.
He pulled tooth #2 by himself already!
New glasses!
His first pair of glasses!
Glasses brigade
Can’t be left out!
So now we prepare for the start to our strangest school year ever. We’ve chosen to have the big 3 attend school fully virtually for the first quarter, because I can’t bring myself to make them the guinea pigs in all this. Our other option was a blended model where students go in person 2 days a week and virtual the other 3, but I’ll see how that works before sending ours in. If everyone stays healthy and school stays open the whole time, we’ll all be happy to send them back to the classrooms with their teachers and friends. But I’m just not convinced it will all work so smoothly right away. I want them back as much as they want to be back, but I also don’t need to take any unnecessary risks. Plus we don’t have an extra room for quarantining!
So, another summer break in the books. And an excellent one at that, even with masks, social distancing, and basically nothing operating like a usual summer. Who knows what these upcoming seasons will bring on all fronts, so I will cherish these last couple days like nobody’s business. Cheers!
We finally got our car back mid-August, and then I packed what we would have been doing all summer into about a week. It was jam-packed, but it was so much fun!
We explored the Urban Ecology Center, went out for donuts then to the zoo, picnicked at a park we’d never been to before, saw a field of 500,000+ sunflowers, spent a day in Madison with one of my dearest friends and her children, went up to Bookworm Gardens, and of course, kept walking. (watch out, LOTS of pictures coming here!)
Happy to be back in our car!
Human sun dials
Super cool Lego dinosaur exhibit at the zoo
Even without a car for most of it, this was a great summer home with all the kids again, and I am sad to see it go. But all 3 big kids are excited for school this year, which always makes me so happy. Until next year, summer!
I’ve been using that hashtag on all my summer pictures thus far, so I’ll fill this post with a lot of them. Our summer vacation adventures began immediately this year, literally on the last day of school.
To start off, I took the kids down to my mom’s house on the first afternoon of summer vacation. The girls had a half day for their last day of school, we walked home, had lunch, then loaded up and drove to Palos. We spent the night there, then headed down to Peoria the following morning for what has become an annual Miller family weekend. It was so much fun, and I’m really glad we made it down this summer after bailing at the last minute last year.
We got home from that trip on Monday, then turned right around and went on our own Wisconsin family vacation that same Wednesday. This, too, has become an annual trip, and we’re trying to find the perfect cabin/lake setup to go to each year. Ideally we want it within about 2 hours of home and on the water so the kids can swim and play daily. A clean, sandy beach is perfect for them, but we’re still looking for our “permanent” spot. This year’s place was definitely not it – dirty and cramped “hotel” room, not the best company for fellow patrons; last year’s place was awesome except for lots of ants in the cabin, but it was too far away at 6 hours. So we’ll just keep trying places until we get it right and enjoying memories together along the way.
We came home from that vacation on Saturday, and our car was stolen that afternoon. Super awesome, and certainly not a highlight of this summer vacation, but worth mentioning anyway as we’ve been dealing with that ever since. We were home from our lake trip for about 2 and a half weeks, Morrison took a session of swim lessons, I got the big 3 signed up for the library summer reading program, the kids had a couple fun backyard shower sprinkler days, we celebrated the 4th of July with friends and neighbors as usual, then I flew out to Colorado with the kids for a week-long visit. Thankfully Arianne flew back to help us fly out, flew home with us as well, then flew back to Colorado, because there is NO WAY I could’ve made those flights with all 5 alone. Simply getting on the plane would have been next to impossible once the twins were out of the stroller.
That was a really fun trip, too. The kids all love spending time with their cousins, my mom flew out as well so we all got to spend the week together, and I finally got to see Marissa’s “new” house. We took the kids swimming, to a tiny town with a little train they could ride, made pizzas and s’mores in their pizza oven, even had a Christmas in July dinner. It was a great time. Hopefully they didn’t regret inviting us all out with all the noise and Nat’s screaming!
So now we’ve stopped traveling and get to enjoy the rest of the summer at home. Ahhh… The kids have a number of fun activities coming up – swim lessons for the girls, a drawing camp for the girls, zoo day camps, and Della even gets to spend a couple days at Grandma and Grandpa’s house by herself for her birthday. Lucky duck! We have a bunch of projects in the house and yards that I’m looking forward to finishing up, so it should be a fulfilling next couple months. Maybe we’ll even get our car back one of these days…
School started for the girls right after Labor Day, so we’re fully back in the school days swing. K5 for Lana and 3rd grade for Della; Lana even wore the same dress for the first day of K5 that Della did. My loves! I must admit, the first week was a little mind numbing for me. It took me all 4 of those first days to figure out exactly when I needed to get up, when I needed to wake the big 3 up for breakfast/clothes on/teeth brushed, if I had time in the mornings to make lunches or if I should do them the night before, when the babies would wake up and if they’d need to nurse again before school, what time we needed to be out the door, etc., etc., etc. See? Orchestrating 6 bodies in the morning while preserving a modicum of my sanity takes talent.
But once we made it through that first week with all the first-day morning and afternoon pictures and a couple more days to smooth out our system and schedule, I felt much better. Last week was pretty easy and harmless, and now it’s fairly smooth sailing. The girls are loving their new classes and teachers, and so am I. I’ve already had great communication with both teachers, something that’s very important to me. I like having a good relationship with their teachers, since they’re in charge of huge pieces of my heart and soul all day long.
But before we started packing the backpacks and lunchboxes again, we had a lot of fun in those long, glorious summer days. We weren’t able to make it up to Canada for a vacation this summer, so I made sure the kids got to do plenty of fun things around here to make up for it. I inflated our backyard pool and kept it filled pretty much the whole summer for the first time. It was a really hot summer this year, so that worked out well.
We went to the zoo, Bookworm Gardens, the beach to hunt for sea glass, a pool/water slide park right near our house, did the library reading program again, and the big 3 played outside with neighbor friends as much as possible. One of the neighbor girls babysat them so I could run with the twins a couple times each week, which they loved. And I let the girls each pick a camp through our rec department, which we never usually do in the summers. Della picked a week-long gymnastics camp at the high school, and Lana picked a week-long NASA-sanctioned space camp at the other elementary school. They both had an absolute blast with their respective programs, and I know they liked getting to do some new and different things.
I took the kids to Peoria for a couple days in August to see family and give the big 3 some pool time, since they’re all little water bugs. That was a great trip. Much fun was had by all, and the twins got to meet a lot of new family members.
I think I hate to see summer vacation end just as much if not more than the kids do, but I have a really good feeling about this school year. Lana was totally ready for full-day kindergarten, and her teacher has already said how good of a listener she is and how well she follows the rules. And Della loves every single thing about her class so far, and her teacher totally understood all my over-emotional messages those first couple days. Plus I’ve figured out how to transport all 5 of them when we walk and where’s the best place to park when we drive. So we’re golden. Off we go!
A couple weeks ago we took our first vacation as a family of 7, and it ended up being a lot of fun. We drove up to northern Wisconsin, rented a little cabin for a couple days, and tested the waters of big-family cabin life.
We went to a little place called Delta Lodge in Iron River, WI, which is all the way near the northern border of the state, up by Bayfield and Ashland on Lake Superior. It had 12 cabins on a small inland lake, and we were in cabin #4 – 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen, living room, and screened-in porch. We shared a dock and campfire pit with the cabin next door, and we got to use a rowboat and kayaks for the whole stay.
We split up the drive north, spending our first vacation night with my aunt and uncle in Eau Claire. That in itself was a great time, because we hadn’t been there in years. It made for a wonderful visit, and the kids had a blast exploring all their land on a couple nice long walks.
We only spent 2 full days at the cabin, after getting there around 3:00 p.m. on the first day and leaving at 10:00 a.m. on the fourth day, but Ryan and I agreed that it was plenty for this first trip. We really just wanted to get a feel of how things would go with this crew at a cabin, and we wanted to check out someplace new since we haven’t done this before. We won’t be going to Canada this summer, so I really wanted the kids to get some swimming and lake time in somewhere. This was perfect.
Ryan took them on row boat rides, Della learned how to kayak, the girls swam like water bugs with me, Morrison loved playing on the dock, they constantly fed hot dog and hamburger buns to the bluegill who lived under our dock, we made s’mores over the campfire, we played games after dinner in the cabin, we celebrated the summer solstice, the twins broke in their new playpen as their bed, and we figured out what we do and don’t want to do the same next year.
There had been some really severe thunderstorms in the area right before we arrived, and by the time we drove home, Lake Superior was still so churned up that the water looked red from all the iron in the soil up there. It was crazy.; it looked like we were on Mars.
It was a great time, and we’re already looking forward to finding another fun spot for next summer.
We’re reaching the end of the first week of summer vacation, and it’s off to a great start!
Personally, I love summer vacation, what with the total lack of schedules since I cherish our lazy days and don’t make the kids do tons of activities and lessons in the summer. People keep saying oh man, how are you going to manage all 5 at home this summer, and I just politely smile and nod and think psshht, I got this. Just like any other day.
Lana finished up K4 the day before Della finished 2nd grade, and they both had such wonderful years. I can’t believe Lana’s first full year of school is already over!
But to kick off our summer break I’ve already taken all 5 of them on a run, we got the big 3 signed up for the summer reading program at the library, they had a picnic lunch in the backyard, the girls have both created and started filling nature drawing binders, the girls are also loving the daily entries in their summer bridge workbooks (a sure sign it’s still early in the summer since Della has never wanted to finish it by the time school starts up again), we’ve played at the school playground where Della and I raced on the monkey bars (totally a tie!), and Ryan’s taken them to various parks a couple times plus out to lunch. He’s home for 4 weeks right now finishing his paternity leave from the twins and working on the attic. Plus we play with friends every day. And by playing with friends, I mean all the kids run around together while the parents enjoy cocktails.
We also sold the little wooden playhouse we’ve had in the backyard since Lana was born. The girls were outgrowing it, even though they all still played in it a lot, but they all voted to set up a new picnic area in that space instead of fixing up the playhouse. So away it went, with us all waving goodbye to a good little friend. Fortunately we are all enjoying what I like to call my new cocktail lounge very much.
We’re going on a family trip up north next week, and we’re all really looking forward to that. Summer is here, and life is good!
