A week at Minaki...(or Vanaki in Ella's words).

It's really good to be home, but I honestly could have stayed at the lake for another week! We had SOOOO much fun. It was relaxing, fun, restful, busy and great all at the same time. We sat on the dock for the better part of 7 days (trust me, I still feel like I'm rocking with the motion of the water...it's a really odd, disorienting feeling and it made it REALLY hard to drive home today), went swimming, fishing, ate and ate and ate until we couldn't eat one more thing and then somehow still ate more! Visited with some of the most important and wonderful people in my life, played dice (a game called Ten Thousand, or Nuscht which is translated into "nothing" in low-German), did I mention all the food we consumed? I'm not sure what it is about the lake that makes us want to fill ourselves with everything and anything bad for you. At one point Jer was going up to the cabin and I said to him, "Jer, can you bring my ketchup chips down? And maybe some chocolate and the sunflower seeds...and OH, is there still raspberry cheesecake left?" Yeah, not a bright shiny moment for me (I'm telling you, stomachs look MUCH better tanned, so all the junk doesn't look like it did as much damage as it probably did). Okay, so here's a few of my favorite pictures (of the 99 that I took in the last 3 days of our holidays because the first 4 days I was too busy doing nothing to bother taking pictures. I wasn't sure where to stop, so there are 20 pictures below and then is Aidan's birthday post if you missed it.)

These are my silly girls NOT SLEEPING!! This was the first time they have ever had to sleep in the same room together by themselves. It didn't work very well and it only lasted one night. There was a lot of commotion in the room and when I went to check, I found them standing on the bed looking out the window to see what was going on out there.

A view from outside of Aidan not sleeping.

Ella's bum must have been very hungry this week. She had a perpetual wedgie and I know she's going to hate me one day for showing this totally inappropriate picture, but she has the cutest little behind I've ever seen. Sorry Ella!
Three cute little girls on the dock.Jer being VERY lazy and sitting whilst drying dishes. Yes, sitting! Drying the dishes that he was too lazy to wash.
Aidan having a great time with Daddy in the water.Ella pretending to put Aidan to bed and saying prayers with her. Made my heart melt.
The girls having a blast on one of their many boat rides.
Just another one of Aidan's cute moments.
The fishermen going out yet again.
Rub a dub dub how many girls fit in the tub?
Me doing what I did best, NOTHING!! Relaxing by the lake working on my tan was my specialty.
I was elated to find out that my girls loved to be in the water (last year we couldn't get them near the lake). For someone who loves to swim as much as I do, it would be devastating to have kids who don't like water!
My two sweeties looking all cute in their pink "baby suits" as Aidan likes to call them.
Our view from the dock. Couldn't be better!
Okay, maybe it could. This was our sunset on Thursday night. Spectacular.
And even more beautiful!
Ella posing for Mommy on a rock outside our cabin. Reminds me of a picture of me that my mom took when I was Ella's age at Minaki.
More sweetness!
Our convoy of vehicles winding our way around the curving road.

So there it is. My holiday. Sorry about all the pictures. I tried to get Flickr to work for me, but I'm just too tired to care. So maybe next time I won't have these long posts with all the pictures on my blog. Happy weekend everyone. I'm sure I'll have more to say soon. Always do : )