Staycation 2012

We had a Baranko staycation last week, and we packed in the fun!  We had considered renting a house in Michigan for our summer vacation, but when considering our criteria and looking for places, we soon realized our own home checked all of the boxes!

- pool

- close to the beach

- close to hiking

- close to kid's activities

So staycation it was, and we loved our decision.  Not only did we save the money on renting a house, but we saved all the time and effort of packing and driving.  For people as busy as we seem to be, these time savings were much appreciated.  So starting Friday evening, July 20th through Sunday evening, July 29th we just enjoyed ourselves!  It helped that we had friends and family here the whole week to help us have fun.

The Richardson's were our guests for the first half of the week (our last visit with them before they move to Tucson in mid-August).  On Sunday, though, Katie & Joe went to a family party in WI for the day while Luke and I met Mom and Dad and PJ at the Bristol Renaissance Faire.  Then on Wednesday, right after Katie & Joe left, Mom and Dad and the Carpenter's came, with the Carpenter's staying until Friday.  Then Saturday we hosted our 4th annual Baranko pool party for our friends, and on Sunday the Carpenter's came back through from their trip to MI for their family reunion.  In between all that we took Donna and Emil's speedboat onto the lake 3 times (it was AWESOME!), we went to the beach several times, we hung out in the pool literally everyday, had a bonfire and ate yummy vacation food.  It was action packed, but we had nice downtime every day too, thanks to Isabelle, PJ and Luke's naps.  

Bristol Renaissance Faire playground

Luke's first "ride". PJ had to grab him around the waist and say "No, Lukers, no!" when halfway through the ride he started crying and tried to climb out!  What a good cousin.  

Steering the pirate ship

Bristol Renaissance sand box

Afternoon in the pool after the Renaissance Faire

The kids retired to their fort picnic table to eat their ice cream.

Does this kid ever where clothes?

"Why is this guy leaning towards me?" - Isabelle

Just a day at the beach

He LOVES his trucks.  They seem to go everywhere with us.  

We brought our Egg Harbor lunch takeout to the Chicago Botanic Garden to eat, it was beautiful as usual.

Cheers to vacation!

Pretty swimmer girl!

Luke kept climbing in here and then getting stuck!

Avocado mash for Isabelle - look at her eating solid food!  Big girl!

Luke checking out Isabelle

Luke pulled his chairs over to the coffee table to sit on them.  So funny when he did that!

Luke checking out the dogs on the chaise lounge, look at that little bottom!

Night swim on a Tuesday night!  Why not, it's vacation!

Relaxing in the shade on Wednesday.

Sisters on a boat.

Family picture:)

Enjoying the free Thursday night concert in the square in downtown Lake Forest

It was also car show night.

Luke brought all of his toys under his picnic table to play with, like a little fort, it was so cute!

PJ and Luke are really starting to play together, it is awesome to watch them have fun together.

Josie Yttre, of our guests for the party on Saturday.  We had perfect pool party weather!

Olivia Bullock, 6 months old!

All the kids and a couple parents watch the kids.

Jeff and Sarah came too, thanks, guys!

That's all folks!

PJ's 4th Birthday

Ms. Paige Jane turned the big 0-4 on July 13th and boy did she have a party to remember.  Kristin and Cory treated her to a Pretty Preppy Princess party at their house, with her closest dozen or so girlfriends (plus Lukers, the ladies' man).  The party featured adorable mini-manicures, pedicures, facials, makeovers, dance party and fashion show.  It was unbelievably cute.  Luke didn't participate in the activities, except for taking a spin down the catwalk at the end!  Happy Birthday to PJ!

Paige loved all the pampering, she took to it quite naturally!

Isabelle also was very comfortable with these treatments.

Mom and Luke observing the action.

Josie Yttre with her beeyootiful makeup:)

Elise Miller= cutie fairy dancing around

On the catwalk!

My turn!

The night before the big birthday party Matt and I went to Abby & Omar's wedding reception in Milwaukee while Kristin and Cory watched the Dukersons (thanks, guys!).  Abby and Omar were married in January in Mexico and then hosted a gorgeous Lake Michigan-side reception in Milwaukee.  Abby, Shelley, Andrea and I were close friends since we all were really little, bonded by swimming.  The party was just fabulous and it was awesome seeing Shelley and Rob who were in town from New Jersey for the event.  Congratulations to our dear friend Abby and her new husband Omar, and best wishes for a long and happy marriage!

I'll close with a shot of Luke and his little friend Eloise sitting on their mini Adirondack chairs.  We went to the downtown Lake Forest Thursday night concert with Eloise and her parents Rebecca and Peter.  Rebecca brought these cute little chairs and they loved them.  Funny story, Rebecca and I met while serving on jury duty together.  We soon discovered that her daughter and Luke are in music class together and also go to library storytime on Fridays together!  She knows Isolene, but we had never met!  We hit it off immediately and Matt and I are excited to have made some Lake Forest friends (finally!).  

Dog Days of Summer

Cool Hand Luke

 While it IS the dog days of summer, the post title is actually a nod to the fact that we actually attended the local canine festival "Dog Days of Summer" last weekend.  We were feeling bad that Spumoni has been left out of many of our activities this summer, so wanted to do something just for him.  Neighboring town Libertyville had this dog festival going on so we went over there on Sunday.  It was really neat seeing the "dock jumping" competition, especially.  Those dogs have some kind of long jumping skills!  There were tons of dogs there, and of course we were stopped every two minutes to answer the always-asked question "What kind of dog is that?".

Spumoni enjoying his "doggy snowcone" which was shaved ice with gravy over it.

"I like this place"

Look at that jump!

After the dog festival we hit up another local activity, Greek Fest!  We went for the gyros, to be honest, but it was a cute little local church festival and Luke loved the kiddie bounce house.  He didn't want to get out.

Other big news of the weekend is that Grandpa and Gram bought an 18' speedboat!  On Saturday we accompanied them on their test drive and everyone gave the thumbs up.  It is a perfect boat for what they are wanting, which is something to fish on (for Grandpa) and to take the family out on boat rides/ski/tubing on occasion.  We are excited for them and excited for us, since they say we can use it too whenever we want!

It was fun just going on the test ride!

There she is!  Now she just needs a name!

Big plate of food at lunch after the boat test drive

We also hit a park last weekend.  We had such great weather!  The heat finally broke and it was a perfect 82 degree day.

Just reading myself a book.  All BY myself!

Luke Hearts Independence (Day)

Luke has been so increasingly independent lately, that I think he felt a special affinity for Independence Day this year.  He always wants to do everything all by himself, whether it is drinking out of a big boy cup or walking down the street trying to tug his hand out of yours the entire time.

In any case, we celebrated Independence Day with two fun celebrations.  On July 3rd we scrambled home from work to get up to Milwaukee for the annual fireworks on the lakefront.  All of us Mackus's were there for at least one more year of holding up our TRADITION!!  Luke seemed scared by the fireworks at first and almost choked me he was hanging on to my neck so tight, but after a while when he realized it wasn't going to stop anytime soon he loosened his grip and actually snuck a few peeks at the pretty colors.  It was a late night, though, we didn't get home and in bed until 12:30am!

Luke and PJ on PJ's NEW birthday wagon

Family pic:)

Carpenter Clan 

Grandma and Grandpa

Our picnic area.  It was one HOT night!

Awesome hour long fireworks display.

Then on the 4th of July we hosted our friends Doug and Jade for a holiday barbeque.  Actually, even though we had the get together at our house, they brought the full smorgasbord of amazing food!  Thanks so much, guys.  We hadn't seen them in a long time, and hadn't even met their new baby daughter Maeve yet.  She is already 3 months old and SUCH a cutie.  Big sis Stella is adorable and Luke just followed her around.  After a relaxing afternoon by the pool we headed to the park near our house to catch the tail end of the Kenny Loggins concert and the Lake Forest fireworks.  The fireworks were beautiful, too, but about half way through the show Luke crawled into his stroller on his own and indicated that he was ready to go home.  Two nights in a row of festivities and late bedtimes tuckered him out!

Doug and Maeve

Jade and her Hollywood starlet

Relaxing on the raft

Stella (with Luke looking on adoringly)

The Long Awaited Wedding!

 Last weekend we were excited to attend the wedding of my cousin Brian and his loooooongtime girlfriend Kristin (read: 11 years of dating!).  We are so happy they made it official!  The wedding was a beautiful and hot outdoor ceremony followed by a very fun, pink-themed reception.  It was awesome seeing my Mom's whole side of the family.  Everyone was there except for my two cousins in the Marines.  (Wish you were there guys, and many prayers for Warren who is still in Afghanistan.)  Luke got to spend the day and evening with Aunt Linda and Uncle Ben before they flew out the following morning.  

Kristin and Brian

Mr. and Mrs. Luyster!

Aunt Barbara (Mother of the Groom) with cousins Hayden & Tracy

Sisterly love

Meanwhile.. this pic from Ben and Linda, who took Luke to the Morton Arboretum while we were at the wedding.  They went with Gram and Grandpa, cousin Theresa and Great Aunt Irene.

Uncle David hosted a pool party the next day for everyone to continue visiting.  We had a great day!  Pictured are Mom and Dad with Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathy in from Baltimore. 

 The night before the wedding we had one last family dinner with all 7 of us before Ben and Linda went home.  Linda grilled out and everything was delicious.  Luke loved the beach ball gift that Ben and Linda brought him (a great find from when they rented a sailboat on Lake Michigan).

 These past couple of weeks our road has been under construction.  Luke, as many of you know, is obsessed with construction equipment so this has been like front row entertainment for him.  He literally sat at our front window with a snack and just watched the road work.  In the evening he got to check out the equipment up close!

 I think I forgot to mention in one of the past posts that our baby birds have flown the nest!  They got too big for the nest and then one day, they were just gone!  I hope Luke isn't getting any ideas:)

This is how crowded the the nest was right before they flew away.