Vacation to Escanaba: hanging out with Jed

One of the best things about this little vacation was all the time I had to spend with Jed. When we are home, even though I am taking it easy, I am still busy cleaning house, doing laundry, cooking, running errands, you know--normal life! While we were there, I didn't have to do any of those normal chores and Jed and I had so much more time to spend together. I absolutely loved it.

As I said yesterday, we swam every day in the hotel pool. Jed prefers the lake to a swimming pool (he likes the zero-entry, I think) and he mostly stuck to the stairs in the pool. We had so many good conversations while he played on the stairs and I pretended to remember some exercises from when I did water aerobics in college. Those two plus hours passed very quickly each day, but we had so much fun!

We went to the mall on Tuesday afternoon and Jed got to do whatever he wanted. We did go into a few stores that I wanted to check out (it is a tiny mall, so there weren't that many to choose from) but really, Jed was in charge. He got an ENORMOUS blue gumball and proceeded to drool it down his shirt and all over the floor of the Bath & Body Works. The ladies were nice enough to let me use the sink to clean him up and even wiped up the floor where I couldn't.















He found all the little ride-on toys in the food court and rode them to his heart's content. Jed doesn't know that you can put a quarter in them and they will move, but I think this is for the best.
















He really just enjoys steering and playing with various joysticks and I am pretty sure that the noise and movement would scare the pants off him. Also, I am cheap.

We went to the Tractor Supply a couple of times so he could play with all the tractors. He loves to line them up and let them all play together. I found a camp chair (totally ruining a hunting-blind display, oh well) and just watched him. He had a blast.















And he got to pick out one tractor to bring home with us.















Above is a closeup of who he chose.

Wednesday we went to the beach. It was so much fun! I always have fun at the lake with Jed. I have to say (and I'm trying to be unbiased, here) that our beach at home is the best. The Lake Michigan sand is a little coarser and a lot more rocky, the water was several degrees cooler and the beach was steeper. With all of that, though, we still had a fabulous time.
















We got to watch some swimming lessons. How fun would it be to have swimming lessons on the beach?!















We dug and played in the sand, and we swam a LOT. We stayed for 4 1/2 hours and it was great.















Thursday we explored main street in our red wagon.















Jed found a gorgeous geranium that someone else had picked and then discarded and he carried it in to store after store.
















Friday on our way home, Jed chased seagulls while we looked at the bridge. He loves to chase seagulls and his biggest ambition in life currently is to catch one. I am not sure if I want this to happen or not.




















Jed was a great sport every day last week about saying goodbye to Dave. He still really doesn't like it when Dave goes to work, but he doesn't throw himself to the ground in tears any more, so we're making progress. He is always happiest when Dave is with us and they can play together. For the record, he tried to give me a shoulder ride, too, but the skirt I was wearing that day didn't accomodate us very well (and I was not going to have photographic evidence of that).

I am so glad that Jed and I had so much time to spend together last week. especially this close to our baby brother's impending arrival. It reminded me how great Jed is. He has a funny sense of humor, amazing powers of observation, and his intelligence always amazes me. I am SO grateful for the chance we had to just slow down and be together.