After 10 days in Michigan, at the cottage, we are back home again. The ride home was pretty close to our best time this season - granted we left at 10:00 AM. We had a great week with Edwin, Dean and Rob's Mom - the most excellent part was that the thunderstorms came overnight and we were rain free during the days.
I got to escape for a few hours to visit with my girlfriend, Julie. We had a lovely lunch with tons of laughs and good conversation. I love the way we can just catch up where we left off - its been like that for over 20 years now. Ellie went to clubhouse for the nature walk and Nick went with Nana and Rob to St. Joe's children's museum and for a bit of shopping. The activity level caught up with Nick and he took a nap for Rob, by the time I got home Rob, Dean and the kids were down at the beach. When they came home I learned that Ellie will never do the nature walk again because they went all through the park and that was just too much walking for her - too funny. We all went about our own dinner before heading down to the soda bar for some ice cream.
Friday I took the kids up to Holland for a Mom and Kid day. We went to Chuck E Cheese (it was that or the arcade at the mall). The kids played games for a bit over an hour before trading their tickets in for plastic bugs, a top and some candy. We stopped by our favorite thrift stores and scored with some toys - Little People airport, Fisher Price racing car track, coloring boards for Ellie and those sort of things. We stopped in South Haven on the way back to the cottage to pick up some corn for dinner and the kids and I had some ice cream therapy and a trip to the toy store. There is this toy store downtown that is wonderful - they have stuff for a penny and up. As we walked in the owner was dispensing gummy worms to the kids - Nick wound up with a magnetic dress up boy, Joey and Ellie got a new change purse and a couple rings. We hit the beach when we returned - the water has been gorgeous all week - I don't remember this many consecutive days of warm water. The kids exhausted Rob, Dean and Edwin - I even left my umbrellas and went out for a bit. We had a bbq dinner together - Nick ate 3 ears of corn and wanted more. Ellie went to the clubhouse for movie night - Jungle Book - she really wanted Nick to come with but I am not sure he would sit still for the whole movie without us there. Dean and I went into town to pick up some ice cream - the soda bar had sold out of our choice flavors the night before.
Overnight on Friday a huge storm came through and it was dark getting up on Saturday. Dean and Edwin left early to get Edwin to the airport and Dean back to Chicago. Nana, Rob and I took the kids bowling - another first for Nick. We had them put up the bumpers but I felt like I was watching the scene from Uncle Buck where the niece rolls the ball down the lane and the ball stops rolling right at the pins - Nick was kicking the 8# ball down the lane (rolling was an unfamiliar concept - you kick a ball that big). At one point his speed was .8 mph and the ball stopped about 5 feet short of the pins. By the last 4 frames Nick was getting the rolling concept but it was still SLOW. Ellie beat the boys with one strike and 2 spares. We stopped to pick up some new sunscreen before hitting the beach. The waves and undertow were pretty decent from the storm - a good day to boogie board. Ellie played with her friend, Jackie and Rob was a good sport and played with Nick. What we have learned from this vacation is Nick has no fear of the lake this year - e will just keep walking out into the lake until he gets knocked down and Ellie doesn't understand undertow and will be 100 yards from where she began and not realize it. We spent a couple hours at the beach before heading up to clean up and go out to dinner. We ended up at our usual Italian restaurant for pizza and pasta. We had a wonderful time re-visiting our favorite moments from the week and talking about the clubhouse carnival next week. We came back to the cottage and watched a Alvin and the Chipmunks and the first bit of Chitty Chitty before getting the kids to bed - Rob and I followed about 45 minutes later.
Another huge storm went through last night but was dry by this morning. We did our clean up and got our stuff packed and headed home. I think this was a wonderful re-coup week for me - I haven't had to take a nap, I put my feet up for a while but its no longer that I am so tired I need to sleep mid-day. My feet are bad - I might need to wrap the left one. The problem with peeling skin is that mine just keeps on peeling and my feet don't seem to care the the next layer isn't really ready yet and thus my left foot has peeled down to very red and tender sub skin and it hurts to walk on it. My hands are still in a quasi neuropathy phase - still can't really feel my fingertips and they still don't have fingerprints. They, thankfully, haven't peeled the same way as my feet and seem to be better when I apply lotion. My tailbone is weird right now - it feels like the bone structure has somehow changed - maybe its just heeling - I hope.
I really liked it when Rob asked me what I had in store for the coming week and all I could say was hitting a couple new parks and maybe the pool - I have realized that I am not photosensitive any longer and just need to apply sunscreen - yeah! I finished my 3rd book last night and it was so awesome just to be able to have the time to read - I forgot how that is relaxing in its own right. Visualising my healthy body, Tree
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's good you all had such a great escape...glad you're home safe and sound! Now on to the continued healing and beefing up. Ice cream in and of itself did not achieve the desired results, so it's on to giving you 3 squares a day! Here's to a good week...missed you...love ya, Mom
ReplyDelete