The Lake, 2012 edition

Wow - I've spent several hours (I think) uploading pictures and editing only a handful.  It's hard to get just about anything done with a crawling/wild/curious/climbing baby moving around this house like the tazmanian devil!  I swear, one look away and he's across the room climbing up the vacuum cleaner... 

And since I took about 1000 pictures during our visit to Michigan (how could I not, it was Benjamin's first time on the annual Monroe trip!), I decided to only post a "few" here on the blog and put the rest (well, 300 or so) in an album for those of you adventurous enough to peruse it.  I promise there are some super cute ones in there, but I'm guessing it may not interest many of you :)

First, for fun, here are some random OLD pictures of me at the very same lake as a kid... (awww!).  We're so blessed to have this tradition in our family.

 

 

 

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Our trip out went as good as can be expected with a wild, almost-8 month old flying at the worst possible time of day (right before bed time).  Tears were shed (by both him and me - it was a turbulent flight!!), but we survived!  And the rest of the trip BW was outstanding.  He even got a "He's the happiest baby I've ever seen" from my 89 year old (usually quite blunt/grouchy with her comments) grandmother! 

We had such a great time celebrating the marriage of Aaron and Anne.  Their wedding was uniquely perfect for them.  Perfect.  From the lawn chairs, blankets, beers, and personalized fans/programs during the ceremony to the mason jars, pre-rehearsed dance in costumes, polaroid camera with props, and fabulous lawn dancing at the reception, everything was amazing.  It's safe to say that everyone had an unbelievable time.  The whole thing took place minutes from where we spent every summer vacationing as Monroe grandkids (thank you big Willys!), and the Inn they chose was just rustic enough to be ideal for the fun times.  Way to go Glassers! :)  (Some cute pics from their photographer are here if you're interested!)

After the whirlwind of the wedding, we spent the next week relaxing at the beach, enjoying the amazing cottage our folks rented (thank you, thank you, thank you), and hanging out with family.  The only bad part of the trip was Matt having to leave early!  Thankfully, Amber stood in excellently as "dad" and helped out quite a bit with Benjamin (including on our last night when the pack and play was somewhere on I-70 in my parents' van so BW "slept"/played between Amber and I in bed all night... oy!).  Such a terrific Aunt!  Benjamin LOVED the beach and the water, and the only challenge was trying to get him to not eat 1 gallon of sand every day.  Cute at first, not so cute when it comes out ;)  And our trip home was ten times better than on the way out - no tears from Benjamin (or I!), though the airline did temporarily lose our checked carseat... I could have done without that extra 1+ hour at the airport.  BUT, a small price to pay for such a great vacation.

Gram and all the grands:

Four generations:

Rock Club induction of Anne-Marie:

Rock Club in 1996: