Our first big vacation as a family was a success! The rental home was dreamy, the days were filled with fun, and the weather was mostly cooperative. Amazingly, the kids adapted to the new environment quickly, taking naps and sleeping as usual…that was a big relief. They loved the lake, and requested to go to the beach (aka the big sandbox) every day. Having spent my summers as a kid on a lake in NH, I’ve missed it terribly, and I was happily surprised to find that despite it being in PA, the familiarity was there. Thanks to the kids, I conquered my bathing suit phobia and got into the water–it was quite liberating. We all loved being surrounded by so much nature – we saw a family of deer numerous times, and even had a wild turkey frequent the backyard (we named him Tom). As much as I wanted to see a bear (from afar), that didn’t happen…but they did manage to get into our trash and drag it into the forest for a feast. That made for a fun cleanup…good times. I was snap happy and took a zillion photos…you can see many more + some video of our vacation over on…

steller stories