still brushing the sand off

I am sitting here at seven a.m. with my cup of tea and my L.O.N.G. list of things I need to get done. You know that kind of list, the one that feels nearly impossible to complete amidst all the normal responsibilities of the day.

Unpack, do the laundry, grocery shop, pay bills, return phone calls, find the missing overdue library books all sound like simple tasks until you have meals to make and clean up and those kids who actually want me to interact with them. The nerve!

But, a blog post about our vacation is one of those list items that I don't want to ignore.

We just returned from a ten day vacation and reunion with my parents and siblings. One week was spent at my dad's little slice of heaven of a beach house on Lake Michigan in the very southwest corner of Michigan.

He and my step-mom graciously gifted us a week at their home that is rental property the rest of the summer. What a gift, it was exactly what we needed to de-stress us from our normal busy schedules.

It's hard to live so far from family. We are the only ones on both sides of our families that live out west and it takes major effort, time, and money to spend time together.

Thankfully, this year we were able to overcome the obstacles and come together with all the parents, siblings, and cousins to spend a week soaking in the sun and sand.

We were so content to just "be" at the beach house. We had lazy mornings and gradually made our way down to the private beach, where we would spend the rest of our day until someone noticed that it was getting close to dinner time.

We rotated who cooked dinner for everyone and it worked out great.

My sister Amy, brother Jeff, and I (and our families) got along famously and cherished our time together. We literally didn't leave the beach house for five days until finally some of the guys went to play par three golf.

On day seven we went out for ice cream. Those were our major outings.

As an added bonus, my two BFF's from college live in the region and each came to the beach for an afternoon to catch up on some girl time.

When our week was up at the beach, we went back to my sister's house in the Chicago suburbs and spent a couple of extra days seeing the sights that the boys had never seen.

The highlight was a train ride into downtown Chicago for a tour of Millennium Park and a day at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Sorting through pictures was a nightmare. There are too many! I put together a little slide show to give a taste, but had to leave so many good pictures out!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com