Things have finally settled down a bit since coming back from vacation and I'm finally catching up on our latest adventures. After leaving the Porkies on Wednesday morning we headed straight to our lake house in Cable, Wisconsin. This lake house has been in my mom's family since she was a kid and I have so many memories there. One of which is our treasure hunts!
I've written about this tradition before and how we've passed it on to the girls (and Lincoln now too) and this year was no exception! We scaled back a little after last year's DOUBLE treasure hunt and the kids had just as much fun as I remember having when I was their age. Having some new toys after camping for 5 days and playing with the same old stuff mom packed, doesn't hurt either!
It was fun to be able to share the lake with Erin this year! We always love bringing friends along to experience the beautiful lake. It's so remote, and there are never any other boats on the lake which is a far cry from what it's like to vacation at Koontz lake, Ryan's family's lake. We have around 500 feet of lake frontage and about 20 acres of property....it's so pretty there!
So, we spent Wednesday - Saturday at the lake house and in addition to the treasure hunt tradition, we did a few other "traditions" including a trip to Hayward to grab my most favorite pie of all time (the Forest Fruit pie for anyone that knows the area and may be stopping in). While there we also stopped at the candy store to stock up on all of the crappy gummy candy the girls and Ryan could fit into a bag and a record store to see if we could find anything to add to our small, but growing, collection of records.
Friday we "kids" ditched the "parents" with the babies (yes, all four of them!) and headed out for a canoe trip down a local river. Joey and I have done this trip before, as kids, but it's been quite a few years and Ryan, Andy and Erin had never done it so we thought we'd try it out. We had a great time, and only a few close calls. Erin and I canoed together, Joey and Andy in a second canoe and Ryan in a Kayak. I'll let you guess who nearly tipped over (more than once) and who missed the exit all together and needed to be pulled back across the (luckily) pretty shallow river to safety.
The big kids got to go fishing one evening with the Dad's and Uncle Joe and I got to play more than a few games of Yahtzee with Peggy and Erin. Of course there was cribbage, and popcorn on the stove, too many beers to count and lots and lots of laughs.
We even got to see Tom and Carolyn on this trip. Living in Minneapolis, they have a lake house less than an hour from ours so it's always a special treat when our trips include a visit from them. Next time we'll have to visit their lake....they've made the trek to us the last few years because the kids are small and it's easier to manage them at "home".
Oh, and Hazel's birthday! Since we were gone both of the weekends surrounding her birthday this year she didn't get a huge birthday bash like we've been known to throw but instead she got three smaller celebrations, which, ain't too bad either. One evening I baked the Ritterbusch family birthday cake (a chocolate chip sponge cake with custard frosting) and it was JUST as good as I always remember it being.
I can seriously hardly believe that this little peanut is now two years old. It seems like just yesterday we were at the cabin and I had a little 10 day old baby in my arms on the pier. Now she's running and swimming and jumping and being just as crazy as the older girls. Its so crazy how fast it all goes by. I feel like I'll have a lifetime of saying that.....but it's true!
That just about wraps up our vacation in the UP and at the lake. Of course I have more pictures than stories, so I'll just let you enjoy these last few of the girls fishing with their Daddy's. A right of passage if I've ever seen one!
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