Cottage closed

Weekend refresher...
Can't really recall what we did Friday before we went to Michigan. Rob got home around 4:30 and we got on the road. Had the longest ride up this summer. New construction areas and a holiday weekend. We stopped in Michigan City for dinner and to fill the gas tank. It was on the second part of the journey that we actually hit the worst traffic. We got to the cottage a bit before 9PM.
A friend of Rob's gave us a portable air conditioning unit that we tried out Friday night. Worked beautifully to get our area upstairs cooled off quickly. After we got the kids to sleep we watched a couple episodes of Nurse Jackie and then went up to sleep. We let Rob sleep in on Saturday. Dean arrived around 9:30AM.
We cleaned up the basement and realized we had enough toys to make a run to Holland to donate. We got dressed and we all went up to Holland. We had our car filled and Dean's car filled with toys and household goods to donate. We had lunch at Red Robin. Nick was laughing and lurched forward and hit his eye on the table just the right way to get an instant black eye. We put ice on it instantly and it didn't swell shut.
Dean, Nana and Ellie drove home ahead of us and Dean took Ellie to the beach when they got home. We went after we got back. The water was the warmest it has been all season. We stayed down for a couple hours and then came home. I got dinner started...meals on Labor Day weekend are always interesting because it is whatever is left in the fridge and pantry. We had pasta and meatballs, a fruit salad, zucchini and garlic bread. It was early so Dean, Ellie, Nick and I went into town. We picked up ice cream from Nemo's and came home.
Yesterday we woke up and it was instantly clear the temperature was changing. We had breakfast and then went to Jollay orchard to pick apples. They were picking Macintosh and Molly reds. We got around 12 pounds of apples. The kids asked if we could stop off at Fruit Acres (the farm stand that allows samples of most of their items). We ended up with 10 pounds of peaches.
We had lunch and went down to the beach. The waves were tremendous but the water still warm. We went in but the rip current was strong. I had Rob pull the kids in but I had trouble getting out of the rip current - dean came to rescue me. We went back up to the cottage and warmed up in hot bathes and showers. Ellie helped me find a recipe for dessert that we had all the ingredients for. Turned out we had all the ingredients for a peach blueberry crumble. Ellie helped me make it but it didn't look quite right. We grilled burgers for dinner and had cheesy mashed potatoes and broccoli. The crumble ended up tasting quite good.
The kids spent a fair amount of time playing in the basement because the cool weather outside. Ellie and Dean put together a Jeopardy board and we all played. We got the kids to sleep early and then Rob and I crashed early. It is totally beyond my comprehension how I can go to sleep early in Michigan but can't get myself to bed earlier than 2 or 3AM here.
This morning we had hot dog bun french toast and scrambled eggs. We finished off the crumble and fruit salad. We went to work cleaning up the cottage to close up for the winter. I started upstairs. I packed up all the bedding and turned the mattresses. I packed our vitamins and medicines. I cleaned out the fridge and Nana cleaned the microwave and toaster. Rob and Dean got the grill cleaned and moved. We were all at work - I even washed the couch cushions. We finished up and were able to lock up and get on the road around 11:30AM. The drive home went quite well - a bit under 2 hours.
The kids were outside playing in no time at all. Rob worked in the garage for a while. We went over to Mom and Dad's for an early dinner. Mom had veggie burgers and hot dogs, broccoli, green beans, roasted veggies, rice and beans and we brought apples and peaches. The kids played outside for a while and they found part of an animals jaw with teeth still attached outside -we think a possum. We came home and Ellie and I finished her story for her contest entry. Ellie and Nick played with legos for a bit and then Ellie showered.
Ellie helped me make egg salad for her lunches this week. We also made a batch of blueberry peach muffins for breakfasts. We were on a roll so we ended with a huge batch of applesauce. I didn't use much sugar...I tossed in dried cherries instead. Ellie joined me for some Just Dance on wii. We read books and got the kids to sleep. I just had to close the windows because the cool breeze was too much.
I am covered in itchy mosquito bites again. My feet are doing ok. I tripped down the staircase the other day and that made my left foot hurt immensely for a few hours. I did increase my acetyl-l-carnitine so maybe that will work. Visualising my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree