Having a ball in Holland!

Well, it was an amazing (and amazingly tiring) weekend up (down? over?) in Michigan with the fam and friends. We left Friday morning early since, much to our chagrin, James still had class scheduled for Thursday night. Friday was spent with Mom and Dad L., Brian and Keri (in visiting from Grand Cayman), and Rach - had a little cookout, then watched the fireworks at Kollen Park. Last year Jeran refused to either watch or listen to those sparkling bursts of wonder we "ooh and aah" over. This year, thankfully, after a few moments of doubt, he was all about them and quickly picked up the requisite oohing and aahing. Ben was a peach, as usual, and fell asleep moments before the festivities began. Which was just fine. It's always risky when you keep a kid up about 3 - plus hours past his bedtime.
Saturday was beach day!! I was so stoked to be back on a beach with CLEAN sand and without risk of shut-down due to high bacterial levels (Chicago is good for many things - a decent beach is not one of them). James left EARLY (5:45 a.m. early) to go fishing with some of his bros, nephew, and dad so I boldly pulled together all the beach gear I could possibly want and need, along with the two boys and trekked to the beach to meet up with Mom and the rest of the fam. We got a rock-star parking spot, and I am proud to say I lugged us all down to the beach without incident. Of course, the second we hit the sand I realize several errors I had made in my haste to begin our day of beachly fun.
Error #1: Upon awakening from a great 2 hour nap, I mistakenly take Ben's constant good nature as a sign that he can hold off on eating for now. Therefore I neglect to feed him at that time.
Error #2: I neglect to wrestle Jeran into swim diaper and suit and slather on the sunscreen BEFORE leaving the house.
Error #3: I do not read the directions for Ben's borrowed beach tent nor do I set it up (or lay out any towels for that matter) before taking the boys out of the stroller at the end of the "boardwalk".
These 3 errors resulted in a hairy first few moments at the Holland State Park. Thankfully, Mom and Keri showed up not five minutes after I had gotten there, to find me a stressed-out wreck with a hot, hungry, screaming baby and anxious-to-hit-the-water three-year-old running around half-naked. Following those first few moments of tension, however, it was a FAB-U-LOUS day. Perfect weather, unbeatable company...it was great. Jeran, the water rat, could not get enough, so I'm betting we'll be back as soon as possible. Ben was not as enchanted but remained a trooper (as did his daddy).
Saturday evening we were finally able to chill out with Mom and Dad G. following their motorcyle trip up to my aunt's cabin.
Today we pretty much were wiped out from the previous two days filled with fun. We were able to spend a short amount of time with some friends (from Chicago, no less!) at their condo on Lake Mac, but we were probably pretty deadbeat company at that point.
Tomorrow it's back home. James took the day off (hooray!) so we can mosey back. It's always a little bit hard to leave, but I'm grateful this time around that we've had such a long weekend here. When we visit, it's usually a whirlwind day and a half, so it was great to have 4 days to spend with our loved ones.