Crystal Lake (Part 2)

Well, let's see.  Where was I?

Ah yes, smack in the middle of a wonderful vacation on Crystal Lake!

We hosted a Waanders gathering while we were at our cottage, and quite a few family members came and enjoyed the lake, dinner, catching up, and lots of laughs!  It was no Happy Waanderers Reunion by any means, but there were a good number of people who came.  It was so nice to see everyone again!

Ben is a giant compared to Melissa!

Jeremiah got a new puzzle from Aunt Jeane-- he loves it!

  Tuesday we went back to New Era to tour the Country Dairy farm.  We started off at the playground-- a huge hit with Josie and Jeremiah!

Then our tour began-- it started off with an 18 minute video, which was a little hard to sit through for our little guy!

But look at Josie!  What a good listener!

But then, the tour became more Jeremiah's style-- we hopped on a trailer pulled by a tractor!

Happiness.

We got to go inside the bottling plant, and of course, no one wants hair in their milk.  So, we all had to put on these lovely red hair nets!

The Wissinks

No one is exempt from wearing a hair net!

Dad and Abe inside the cheese fridge.

Just one more hair net pic-- it accentuates the cheeks, don't you think?

We also walked through the barns and saw many, many cows!

Being silly in front of the cows.

We ate lunch at the Country Dairy in the outdoor shelter, amongst the cows.

Moo.

Wednesday was the day Uncle Ben had to go back to Chicago, so we all had to say good-bye to him!

We spent more time on the lake, enjoying yet another beautiful day!

Here is a video of how 2 year olds have fun in the water. :)
We also got a visit from Uncle Roger and Aunt Sheryl, and it was so great to see them, too!  No pictures, though, sorry.

That night we hit Tiny's Tastey Treats for some ice cream, and Jeremiah tried a new favorite flavor-- Candy Play Doh!  He's still talking about it, actually.

Snuggle time with Auntie Abby!

And then it was Thursday.  Which just so happened to be my birthday-- woohoo!  It also turned out to be quite cool and rainy, so not an ideal day for the lake or tubing down the river (we never got around to doing that, unfortunately.  Next Time!).  We decided to head down to Grand Rapids to hit some hot spots (Yesterdog for lunch, Calvin College Bookstore, and GR Children's Museum).

Yesterdog.  It tasted better when I was in college.

Out of my way!

Working in the "struction" area.

Inside a huge bubble with Daddy and Josie!

J's first experience with Elmer's glue.  He tried out every single bottle.

"Hello.  My name is Jeremiah.  This is my Grandma.  Bye."

Evan loved the drum!

And then, because it was my birthday, we enjoyed a lovely dinner of take-out pizza (and breadsticks!!!!!) from good ole Spanky's.  Mmmmmm.

Here is another video of Jeremiah and Josie acting crazy!  They tended to feed off of each other. :)  And FYI, they are yelling "MOMMY!!!!!!!"  out that window.... and neither of their mommies was out there.  Josie's mommy was in the kitchen and Jeremiah's mommy was taking the video...

Friday was basically a day to pack up, since we had to be out of the cottage by 10:00 am.  How did the week go by so fast?!?!?!?  Since we were all heading in the same general direction, we decided to put off the good-byes and stop for lunch together.  We hit McDonald's in Chesterton (always a good stopping exit!).

The cuteness is overwhelming!

Jeremiah misses Josie very much!  Just tonight I asked him if he was ready for his bath, and he said, "Yes.  With Josie!" :)

After we parted from my family, we were not ready for vacation to be over yet.  We again decided to stop in Chicago and break up the trip a bit.  We arrived in Chicago about 2:00 in the afternoon and hit the Lincoln Park Zoo!  We had wanted to hit the zoo on the way out, but the timing did not work out very well, so we were very glad that the timing worked out on the way home!  Jeremiah has the book Good Night, Chicago, which he got from Auntie Abby.  I had been promising him for weeks that we would get to go to that zoo in the book, and I am very relieved that I did not have to disappoint him!

Oh how I love this city!

Jeremiah could school those city kids on anything relating to tractors.

After the zoo, we decided to take a walk on the lakefront.  This is the area where I used to live, and I spent many an afternoon running along that lakeshore.  It was fun to be back again!  It was a pretty windy day, and the waves were crashing against the shore-- quite an impressive sight!

We watched a huge wave almost take out a biker.  Yikes.

 Unfortunately, along with the impressive waves, the wind also blew crazy amounts of sand right at us (something we had not anticipated.... oops).

This is how J protected himself from the sand.  Poor guy. :(

And then, we drove a few blocks over to my cousin Karen's neighborhood, parked the car (almost right away!  Amazing!), and met Karen and her husband Juan for dinner and ice cream.

It was so nice to see Karen (and Juan)!  Karen and I lived a block away from each other in Lakeview, and started a tradition of going out to eat once a week.  We even kept up our tradition when I moved after a year to the 'burbs (and then moved again to Logan Square.... and then moved again back to Lakeview...).  And it was so fun to be back in my old 'hood!!!!

After dinner and ice cream, we headed out to get down the road a bit.  We stopped overnight in Naperville, and then finished the trip back to Iowa on Saturday.  As hard as we tried, we could not extend our vacation any further, so now it's back to reality.  Adam is back to work and school, I have been back at school once already, and Jeremiah has been back once to daycare.  Sigh.  I just wish vacation could last forever!!!!