Every summer we pack up the van with the ridiculous quantity of things you need when you go anywhere with three little girls (especially when one of them is under 2) and we head up to my parent’s cottage. It should take us about 4 hours to get there but it seems to always take us between 5 and 5 and half hours to get there with all the stops we have to make. But once we get there we enter a peaceful haven in the woods.
Two of the three girls take after me and LOVE water. The first night we got there we headed to the beach for an hour of water fun before dinner. 
Capri was happy to see her beloved blow up dolphin – ‘Dippy’ that my parents got the girls a few summers ago. 
The girls also really enjoyed zooming down the slide into the lake. 
They have definitely gotten braver since the last time we were here and swam out to the diving raft with Papa on that very first night. It’s so great to see the girls enjoying ‘Up Nort’ just like I used to when I was a kid. It was always my home away from home and I hope that we can fit trips up there more often so they can create some of the memories like I did.
Every night we were up north we built a fire and had smore’s. Pip enjoyed running around in the grass behind my parents house. The older girls were supposed to take a quiet walk and then talk about what they heard. From my perch on the back deck I’m assuming all they heard was Cedi talking 🙂
On day two we headed back to the beach with all the girls. My third child, Pip, is not a water lover like her sisters – but she did enjoy the sand! Papa dug a hole in the sand and filled it with water. Before we knew it Pip was hanging out in that puddle playing. 
When I came back in from hanging out with Cedi while she did cannonballs off the raft (yes – Uncle Brain – you would be proud) I pulled my chair into the lake and relaxed with a book. Before I knew it – who joined me in the lake – PIP! I was so excited to see her out of the water and enjoying herself!
My parents came by just after one, hung out for awhile and then took Pip home with them for a bath and a nap. We ended up staying with the beach with the older girls for five hours that day! So fun!
The next day, we were going to head back to the beach but our friends who have a cottage and boat on the lake called us up and invited us to go tubing. The girls really enjoyed this and Tony did a great job pulling them at just the right speed. They both even gave water skiing a try! They didn’t quite make it up but they did a bit of ‘butt’ skiing. I was SHOCKED that Capri even tried when she didn’t even really want to get in the water that day. Six ours later we packed the wet, tired, sunned girls back in the van and headed to the cottage for dinner. We didn’t have a fire that night but we did get to see a cool slideshow of Grandma and Grandpa’s latest trip to Alaska.
Overall our trip was great – another calm and relaxing trip Up Nort’. I really think this was the most relaxing trip we’ve had so far…it just goes to show that in some aspects – things do get easier as the girls get older.
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