Family Vacation---a little extension

We had to vacate the house on Crystal Lake at 10 a.m. on Friday, August 2.  From there we all headed to Michigan City, IN, where we joined the "other Wierses" at Adam and Jessica's vacation home.  I think that this was the first time that all 7 of the Wiers cousins were together since Grandma Wiers's funeral.  At that time there was one great-grandchild.  Now there are 11.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch all together and then went to the beach.  I took a cute picture of a bunch of those little ones eating lunch together, but somehow I managed to delete it from my camera. :( So I just have a couple of pics that I took at the beach.

Abby and Neil had to leave before the rest of us did because they had to get to Chicago to pick up one of Abby's friends from the airport.

Abby and Josie's good-bye hug

The rest of us left mid-afternoon--Ben heading back home, and the rest of us going to spend one last night together at a hotel in Elmhurst.  On our way we stopped for supper at Portillo's, which was a treat. The kids had all slept a good bit of the way from Michigan City to Portillo's, so when we got to the hotel they were full of energy.  We burned off some of that energy in the pool, and then we all gathered in Grandpa and Grandma's room for a popcorn party. 

Jeremiah 'read' one of his favorite books to Josie and Aunt Cheryl.

We had most of the day on Saturday to spend together, so after breakfast at the hotel there was time for some more swimming.  And then we headed to Wheaton for lunch at Subway and then spent the afternoon at Cantigny, which is a wonderful park.  There are lovely gardens and a history museum, which was only enjoyed by Bob and Matt.  The rest of us spent our time in the "kid-friendly" areas.  Jeremiah enjoyed all the army tanks, and they all enjoyed the playground. 

All too soon it was time for good-byes, as the Wissinks left for Iowa and the rest of us headed to Midway Airport.  But first, some hugs in the parking lot.

And here is one last shot of Josie at Midway, just before they went through security. (Evan was not posing for pictures at that point.)

And then it was a quiet trip back to Brookfield for Grandpa and Grandma, each in our own car.  Lots of good memories to keep us company, but really missing everyone already. 

Family Vacation, Part 4---Cottage time

Well, if I wait much longer to finish these vacation posts I won't even remember what was going when I took the pictures!  I really haven't posted any pictures yet of what we did when we were hanging out at the cottage, so here are a bunch of random pictures of our time at the cottage.

We really only had a couple of days when the weather was good for being on the beach and in the water.  The kids had a great time on those days!

Ready to jump....

...and in they go!!

It was also lots of fun to watch the fish swimming near the dock and to feed them stale bread.

Abby entertained us with some fireworks that produced smoke in different colors. We watched from the safety of the deck.

And of course we had a campfire and s'mores one night. 

Not all our fun was outdoors---here's a game of Crazy 8's.

And here's Evan catching up on his texting on Auntie Abby's phone.

Did you ever see a cuter pair of cousins?

This shot, or one like it, will probably show up on our Christmas card. :)

And that wraps up our week at Crystal Lake. I love looking at all these pictures--- they bring back so many good memories!