Fourth of July Vacation 2013

(I forgot a friendly reminder: I won't be posting on weekends...)

OH MY GOODNESS.  I want you all to think about your favorite annual or tradition-vacation...

Ours is always over the Fourth of July.  And we love it.  I can speak for the group confidently (about this love), because of how many smiles, fish, funny stories from holidays past, and hugs are shared.  We all get to revisit what's been happening since we saw each other last.  

We always spend 4 nights in Milwaukee area with my aunt and uncle.  "We" is a large group between 10 and 25 people...  This year it was my Aunt (dad's sister), Uncle (dad's brother-in-law), and their daughter (10 y/o), my Aunt (mom's sister), Uncle (mom's brother-in-law), and two cousins (22 and 25 y/o), Dad, Mom, Sister, Brother-in-law, Niece (8.5 month old), [ex]bf (see here), his daughter and her friend (both 11 y/o).  It was a FULL house.  

We got there Wednesday night and pretty much just hung out and went to bed... The first fishing group went out at 4:45am on July 4 and caught 17 fish (when I say they went out, I mean they went two miles out on Lake Michigan and fished in water that's like 200 feet deep).  The second group that day went out at 2pm (while I watched Kylie, Melissa and Tyler went.  EEK!!!).  We got to spend some time at the pool, eat a lot, and watch fireworks.  

The next day (Friday), we went fishing at 5:30am and caught 8 fish (of which mine was a Monster).  After we got back, we went to The Boathouse and got the fish we caught, cooked!  We had blackened, broiled, and fried fish and oh my word, it was amazing...

And in the second group (the three youngest girls, Somebody (see yesterdays post) and myself), we caught 2.  Evidently our capabilities need refining. :)  When we got back to land, we packed up and went home to play yard games and have some drinks.  

my 38" fish from July 5, 2013... it took over an hour to reel it in!

Saturday was a little lower key - only one group went out to fish and while they were out, the rest of us went to the market on the pier, the candy stores, a toy store, then to the beach.  When we got back to the house, we played yard games (one of which my brother-in-law thought up) and had an awesome supper.  

We left for our respective homes at 8:00am on Sunday - it took 7 hours and 3 stops (food, fuel, etc).  

All in all it was an AWESOME trip much like every other year.  We caught some awesome fish, and made many more memories.  Thank goodness for close family.  Love them all.

And now, enjoy the photos :)

patriotic baby and I :)

Kylie got a little rowdy with a bottle of wine in the Italian Grocery Store

Dad and I fishing on July 5, 2013

Xoxo

Rebecca

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