The cottage

The cottage holds a special place in our hearts! We were so grateful to go back again this summer. Jay had to work so I once again took all three kids by myself.  This was Jacob's fifth summer at the cottage!  

The weather was beautiful, the three days we were there. Here we are hanging out on the porch. 

 Rebecca and Seamus, unfortunately Uncle Jim was unable to go this year also.

 This was the year of the water snake. We saw a half dozen snakes, including one that stayed in the bushes near the cottage for days.

 Getting ready to swim.

 Theo was very busy and it was difficult keeping him out of trouble.

 This was a fun tree stump that the boys played on and around.  Some favorite activities included a morning scavenger hunt, ring toss, many walks, book reading and of course swimming!

 I love my mom!

 The one day the water was super murky.  The water had tons of algae spores (or so they appeared to be) floating throughout the entire lake. There were also many more zebra muscles this year. Raphael kept calling them elephant bones or tiger muscles.

 It was difficult at times to keep tabs on all three boys.  Both Jacob and Raphael jumped into the water and also wanted to go underwater. Theo was content in his raft.

 All the trouble makers.

 Theo and Seamus sat on the floor for their meals.

 As a fun family project we made tie-dyed shirts. I thought they turned out cute.

 The grandsons

 Our little stinkers.

Thanks Rebecca for carpooling with us. It made the trip a lot more bearable. As always the time went by way too fast. The boys are already saying that they want to go back again this week!