Minnesota Family Vacation

First let me say we were greatly blessed by Josh's parents who paid for this vacation! It was a wonderful bonding time and we greatly appreciated it!

We headed to Rockwell, IA, where Josh's parents live, on Friday July 1st. Unpacked as little as possible and settled in for a night of relaxation before our longer drive the next day.
Saturday morning, Josh, the kids and I packed up the van again and his parents along with his youngest brother Chris packed up their truck and hitched up the boat... we were off.

Destination... Holiday resort Osakis, Minnesota!

Its supposed to be a four and a half hour drive, well that's without kids and nursing. We left at 10am and didn't arrive until almost 5pm. My husband was a bit distraught however it wasn't bothering me at all. I was fine with taking our time traveling.

Once we arrived we took a moment to settle our nerves from traveling then began carrying in our "supplies" AKA everything we owned.

That's when we discovered the upstairs!!! the two bedrooms didn't have doors and had slanted ceilings where you could stand up only in the center of the room where the ceiling was about 6' high, the entry way to the bathroom had a 5.5ft opening with a ceiling of about 5ft 7" (this is the point when I should probably mention how incredibly claustrophobic I am!!!!!) This did put a damper on my outlook for the next week. However the thought of the laughs we would have counting the number of times we all would hit our heads made me smile.

living room looking into the dining room table

THE stairs

standing in the front door looking at the kitchen, dinning room and part of living room

kitchen

these stairs were dangerous in so many ways. After grandpa Scherb hit his head on the sharp metal corner of them (he was ok but it had to have hurt bad)  I decided to tie the plastic sacks on for a bit of cushion and to draw attention to the sharp edges.

The standing shower we all shared

The upstairs bedroom that Uncle Zach and Aunt Amy used while they were here and Uncle Chris used when they were not

The downstairs bedroom that Grandpa and Grandma Scherb used

This is the upstairs room that Josh, Kiara, Kayla and I all shared but add a small dresser and Kayla's pack n play. It was a tight squeeze

Upstairs half bath

  

Josh in the main buildings screened in porch. (the only place we could get a signal on the wifi)

We stay at the cabin for a total of 7 days and 6 nights. After the first few nights Josh's other brother Zach and his new wife Amy arrived to spend a few days with all of us. 

During this week Kiara spent a large amount of her time on the small beach that was only 50ft or so from the cabins front door or the playground right next to it. 

We celebrated two of my favorite days of the year while on our trip. The fourth of July was one of them!!!

The Red, White, and Blue dessert I made. Its strawberries filled with cheesecake topped with a blueberry.

My big girl is just so sweet in her Red, White and Blue!

They had a boat parade!!!

Fireworks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

they set them off right at our resort and across the lake at 3 other resorts

And the other day we celebrated was 7/7/11 our big girl's 4th Birthday!

We celebrated her special day by taking her into the nearest "big" town Alexandria, MN. Where we went to Casey's amusement park. She enjoyed driving the bumper boats with daddy, while mommy did her best to bump into and splash them. She also took a ride with uncle Chris on the bumper boats. (This was mommy's favorite part of the whole vacation!) Next we watched daddy, grandpa Scherb, grandma Scherb and uncle Chris take turns in the batting cages. Daddy was very good at this! She also got to drive the go Kart with daddy, while racing mommy and uncle Chris around the track. All in all it was a very fun day for everyone!

Here are a few more random photo's from the vacation

So sweet! Grandpa Scherb  and baby Kayla

Look at my mean face! I got to play with Grandma Scherbs makeup!

Isn't my lip stick lovely???

goofy family photo

The outside of the cabin

My favorite photo taken while on vacation has to be this super sweet one of the three of us! Too bad the mosquitoes kept Kayla from being out in the evenings.

 God is soooo good to us!!!