Oops - We Did It Again (Or Road Trip Part 1)

After our trip to South Carolina in March, you'd think we'd have had enough "family fun." You'd think that forty hours in a car with your children would be enough. You'd think.

The thing is, Eric and I are both first-borns. We are both achievers. We opt to take the hard route in life whenever possible, because our birth order has rendered us serious, nose-to-the-grindstone, do-what-it-takes people.

This is the only explanation I can come up with. Because upon our return from South Carolina, we gleefully made plans to take ANOTHER road trip with the kids. No, not a fun little weekend jaunt. Not a four-hour drive to somewhere fun.

Canada, people. We decided to go to Canada.

And, once again, we had a blast. And we all lived to blog about it.

The first leg of our trip was to Appleton, Wisconsin for my high school reunion. Fortunately, this is also where three of our four grandparent babysitters live, so the boys were scooped up by Grandma Anna for an evening of fun while we were out trying to pretend we had really grown up in twenty years.

Grandma with the boys in her beautiful garden

Another shot of her beautiful garden

The next morning, we had a quick visit with Grandpa Pat and Carol, who took us to see more beautiful gardens at a park in Appleton.

Grandpa, Carol and the boys

Me, Grandpa and Theo

Ben and his "I'm falling!" schtick

Then we hit the road, and drove through Chicago and around the south shore of Lake Michigan. We pulled off the highway somewhere (Indiana? Michigan?) and happened upon a sand dune beach. Without further ado, the boys stripped off their shirts and swam for the first time in Lake Michigan. It was glorious. The water was beautiful, the sand white and fine.

So beautiful, in fact, that one hardly even notices the nuclear power plant belching in the distance.

Eh, what's a little waste by-product when you're having fun??