V-cation

After we made our last-minute (2 weeks in advance) plans to take a little end-of-the-summer vacation, Sammy asked me about 100 times a day: "When are we going on v-cation mom?" And I would try to explain how 2 weeks was 14 days or it was 2 more times of going to church or whatever. Anyway, it finally happened and he had so much fun. This was our vacation to Oostburg, Wisconsin.

Oostburg is only about 2 and a half hours from Chicago. This was important to me because Wella does not love the car. We even broke up the 2 and a half hours by stopping in Milwaukee for frozen custard at Kopps. This is a favorite place of ours...especially Matt's.

We had no idea really what to expect of the town, but it was as we expected...very small and mainly farms.

The cool part was that there were all these farms about a half a mile from Lake Michigan.

You just drove past a few farms, down this little tree-lined street, and turned down a little dirt road...

...to our little cabin! It was so cute and I was so excited about it. It literally backed up to the lake...exactly what I was hoping for. My specifications for taking a trip were that the cabin had to be ON a lake so that Wella-Wella could sleep inside while we were outside having fun. I didn't want to have to walk her down to a beach and have her bake in the sun all day.

The cabin was great. Here it is when you walk in.

To the left was a little dining room (which we never used since there was a table outside on the deck).

Our room.

The kitchen.

The second bedroom where Wella slept. Thank goodness she's not rolling yet. We just laid her on this bed and she slept about 90% of the trip.

Here's the awesome sun room which faces the beach and had two twin beds. This is where Claire and Sam slept.

Outside that room is the deck....

...which led to the beach!

And there was a little fire pit area down there too.

Almost immediately, the kids wanted to blow up the boat that the Big Guy bought and try it out.

Claire loved it! Sammy did too, but he mainly liked leaping out of the boat; hence, the life jackets.

There were several sandbars so you could walk REALLY far out and never be above an adults waist. But the waves made it very exciting.

After we had gotten cleaned up the first night, we decided to make a fire. But...Sammy wasn't done. He jumped in the lake one more time with his clothes on.

And then he was cold. It gets kinda chilly there at night.

The next day was making sandcastles and all kinds of beach creations.

And generally I sat on the beach and then went into the house back and forth all day checking our baby girl.

But man, if you have to sit around nursing a baby 5 times a day, this is the place to do it: on a sun porch listening to big Lake Michigan waves!

And look. Don't you want to kiss those cheeks?

Then, before we knew it, it would get dark outside again and another day was over. OH, I forgot to add that this trip was totally sponsored by Trader Joe's. Haha. Just kidding, but on the way up there I stopped at one and bought the whole store practically, so although I guess I sorta cooked every night, it mainly meant heating up pre-prepared dinners. Thanks Trader Joe's!

And then more fires were made and marshmallows were roasted.

And, surprise! The next day was more sandcastles, boating, swimming, and general wave jumping extravaganzas.

Sammy brough this playmobile guys down to the beach to protect his castle.

Sammy dug until his arms were sore.

And lunches were eaten outside.

Sammy's favorite food ever.

Claire and Matt did a lot of their favorite thing.

"Stop reading Claire! You read too much!"

"Oh mom...stop!"

We did do a few little adventures out of the cabin. One day Claire and I snuck out during nap time to go to the Bahr Creek Llamas and Fiber Arts Studio.

Many beautiful balls of wool and yarn were to be had.

Claire picked out a pink and yellow ball of wool and we bought this drop spindle to spin it into yarn! The kind lady, Ms Demaster, taught us how to do it a little bit. It's a GREAT shop.

We loved all the farms arond there. I definitely had farm envy.

And Wella got bigger I think.

And more animated.

Matt took the kids to a fishing farm called Cedar Springs Trout Farm since they didn't have any luck fishing off the side of their blow-up boat.

That place was great! The little rivers were so stocked with fish that Matt said they could have just caught as many as they wanted. They stopped at four though. Claire loved the whole experience. Sammy was a bit grosed out by the cleaning process however.

It was a perfect experience though for the beginning fisherman. They clean them and filet them for you right there so that you can bring them home and cook them right away and the mom doesn't have to touch them too much...a big bonus. I had no idea how to cook fish so I called Bridget. She suggested butter and lemon and parsley or some other herb so I got what I could find at the local Piggly Wiggly and we ate them up after Matt grilled them.

On the last day we squeezed in apple picking.

That was fun but slightly anti-climactic because the orchard had, like, 2 apple bushes that were ripe so we just stood next to them and picked a bunch of apples.

There was no climbing or hiking around involved. Do you seem my little Adam and Eve here?

Sammy liked carrying the bag though.

And Wella slept in her Moby wrap as usual.

More boating was done.

The girls hung out.

OH! AND THE BEST PART! The Oostburg Bakery. We went there every. single. day.

...while Wella slept. Haha.

This place had the. best. doughnuts. We each ate at least 2 every day. And the coffee was free!

There were frosted and sprinkled and cream-filled, but even the cake doughnuts were perfect. Not a dry doughnut in the place. And they sold out by mid-day I heard.

Sammy was in heaven.

But after so much sugar we had to go run off his excess energy on the beach.

Beach walks.

More fires.

Warm.

Marshmallow face.

We will miss you Oostburg! You're my kind of town.