The end of Berube family vacation 2017:

Cora told me LOTS of stories on the swings this vacation:

Ribs for dinner one night.  Traditions are excellent things, in this case... :)

Porch fun.

How my family parties on vacation:  READING!  Wheeeee!

The view from the porch

Because:  summer

She told me SO MANY stories on this little swing jaunt...

Claire caught a snake...

Layla was extra brave to pet it...

And THEN she wanted to HOLD it.  My baby is growing up.

Poker game on the porch at night.  Dad cleaned up and took all the money.

The view before we left.  Goodbye, little slice of heaven...

What a view out your window, eh??

 After we left the Caron's house we headed to the Hampton Inn and Suites right on Lake Bemidji.  It'd a fine hotel in and of itself, but we had an awesome view out our window, and the kids LOVED the 3 different swimming pools in the rec room, along with the lake shore fun outside.  It also had a Green Mill attached to it, which is convenient for "family" eating.  I gotta tell you, though...by the time we had eaten 4 meals in Bemidji (2 lunches and 2 dinners, eating breakfast for free at the hotel) we had kind of eaten through any good food options Bemidji has for take out...haha.  :)

Hours and hours and hours spent in the pool.  

Cora and I ate breakfast together around 6:00 a.m. one day.
It was pretty great that the breakfast place opened at 6, and the pool at 7...that's right up our family timeline!

Anja reading stories to my kids, post-pool...

THEN we headed just across the lake from us to see Paul and Babe, and play in the playground near them:

Cora is trying to hang on and make going down hard for anyone behind her.
This could never have occurred to Layla or Finn.
3rd child, man.

She ASKED me to take all of these photos....

Inside the visitor's center, looking at all of Paul Bunyan's stuff that he left behind...including nail clippings.  Gross, guys.

My kids had their first push pop on this vacation, thanks to Aunt Renee's money bag pockets...haha.  :)
Aunt Renee says yest to ALL the fun things to eat on vacation!  I'd highly recommend traveling with her!

Eating some Green Mill take-out on the porch facing the lake one night.

We were watching what looked like a storm across the lake, but it never reached us...

They played on the sand for a long time, and the temperature was perfect for me, a regular hate-summer, over-heater...

Anja and Jon up on the porch facing the lake.

Cora in the outside portion of the hot tub.  Half was outside, half was inside, with a human doggy door in between...haha.  The kids LOVED it.

Finn is a quiet swimmer.  He is not into action, unless he can ride on someone.
So being all by himself in the pool one time was awesome.

He loves to float, but is hesitant to do it when the spashing types are around...

The view of Lake Bemidji from our room window.  

How cool is this, guys?  I found it in the hotel gift shop for $4.  It represents HOURS and HOURS of my childhood, up at my grandparent's house.