Vacation?

We ventured out of the house for an unprecedented family vacation!

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Our first stop was the hollowed halls of Notre Dame. Instead of visiting all of the sights of which I was so fond, we spent quite some time in the Bookstore trying on silly hats.

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(Patrick, Joseph and Luke)

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(Patrick)

We did get to the Basilica where we pointed out everyone’s patron saints on the walls and ceiling. The boys got restless before we could find St. Andrew, but baby Andrew didn’t seem to mind.

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At the Grotto, we lit candles for my college friend Sara's mother who is dying of ovarian cancer and for our family. The boys all wanted to help with the actual lighting, but were happy to carry the unlit candles and to pick out a special spot for them. They all said a Hail Mary together in the Grotto, too. It was precious. Of course, we had to say hi to the ducks around the lake.

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Next we headed to Ann Arbor. For two days, we met up with my college friend Heidi and her little boy Daniel to visit some local parks. After the parks and a PB&J lunch at the hotel, we took naps and woke up to daddy being done with work.

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He took us to dinner at Macaroni Grill one night and the boys stuffed their faces (literally!) with spaghetti (without sauce, darn dairy allergy)

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Luke had a tiny breakdown in the restaurant and we had to make a quick exit after that, but things went well considering.

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At night, we got into our jammies and watched movies!

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Daddy and Andrew had to do some work.

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Finally, it was off to the BEACH!! We went to Michigan City, IN, where we enjoyed the clean soft sandy beaches of Lake Michigan. I had some college friends with family cabins along this same beach, so it brought back a lot of fun memories for me.

The boys had fun burying each other,

Getting sand on their faces,

Splashing in the waves,

and making sand castles with our makeshift buckets (Good old Meijer was all out of sand buckets so I bought a set of Ziploc containers)
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We all enjoyed the boys' general excitement of being at a beach for the first time in their lives.