This past weekend, we rented a cottage in Grand Bend with the Websters and all 3 of their small people and the Browns and their 2 not so small anymore people! We made the booking back in maybe March because we had tried to make a cottage week/weekend happen last year to no avail. We ended up finding a place on airbnb that was a reasonably split cost of 220 per family for 2 nights.
We headed up on Friday and tried to make it at 2pm, which meant really with all the prep we barely made it for 3pm. We managed to both squeeze in workouts, go to Costco, Farm Boy and No frills, prepare food all before we left at 2pm. Oh and Logan also had a good 2 hour nap. This is all the stuff we packed for 2 nights - the murano was packed. Good thing we only have 1 kid!
We all saw pictures of the airbnb that were posted on the website, but we had no idea that we were getting this huge mansion like, modernized cottage! There were multiple options of porch sitting (because when you get bored of a patio, you may want to change it up...), a massive living room with another sitting area overlooking it loft style and 4 bedrooms, 2 of which were massive. There were 6 of us adults, 6 children and we could have fit more! Plus, in the basement there was a pool table, air hockey and shuffleboard.
While Aleksy was out getting ice, Logan and I were back at the cottage getting really excited for our friends to arrive and took some happy moment selfies.
<--- this guy always does something funny for pictures!!
Everything about the place was amazing, but the 2 staircases were not so 1 year old friendly.. and there were 3 of them in the house! So we had to improvise with blocking stairwells as you can see. Logan wasn't convinced this was a gate, but it managed to work for the weekend!
And we found our room - this was a spacious room that was actually one of the small ones. But plenty of space for Logan's playpen and to sprawl our bags. Logan just liked to open and close all the doors (they weren't knobs but handles and he can so easily open those which made things more tricky!)
And next, our twins, Cadie and their parents arrived not too long after us! Selfies with Mason and Logan!
They are actually really hard to tell apart, at a quick glance I look for Mason's necklace, and watch for their colour differences - Lincoln in blue and Mason in any other colour!
Cottage guidelines: leave the place as you found it. It was all Windex on Sunday before we left with these 4 and their little fingerprints (and sunscreen) on the windows!
A line of cute blonde kiddos!
While we were waiting for the last of our friends to arrive, we headed out for a walk to the beach before supper. The beach was super close - maybe 5 min walk and we were located in the best treed area that was only a 15-20 minute walk to the strip.
Logan loved running down the cottage country streets and trying to keep up with his 3 year old friend Cadie!
Logan saw the water and pretty much bolted for it. He wanted to "swim! swim!" so bad! And I quickly caught on that this year at the beach was going to be way different than last year with a running baby. We are going to keep the life jacket or a puddle jumper close at all times!
We let him put his toes in even though he wanted to swim more!
Hammock babies with Chels right before our friends arrived and we had some burgers for supper.
It was a late supper around 730 so the kiddos went to bed shortly after. Logan was so sleepy that he went right down. We forgot the monitor, but soon realized that sound carries quite well through the house so it wasn't a problem! Although we did have to do lots of ear checks when sitting outside...
And when all the babies go to bed, the banana martinis come out! The family classic of banana liqueur, vodka, OJ and maraschino cherries.
After some good old' Asshole where Aleksy and I lost bottom 2, we played some pool and made it to the nearly the 1am hour!
But we should have gone to bed at 830 with the kids because there was a mistake for sleeping arrangements and the 3, 6, and 7 year old girls were put in a room, and didnt sleep the whole night - I could hear them off and on, using the washroom and knocking walls then at 4-6am, they were basically running back and forth down the hallway and using the washroom. It was madness!!
This is Saturday morning... although Logan was so restless and was telling us he was "all done" with his sleeping, he was the happiest baby on the Saturday.
We had bg breakfasts planned for both mornings, but Logan requires multiple breakfasts, so this is his breakfast #1 of cheerios and a banana on Saturday before our big breakfast of ham, eggs. fruit and toast!
There was lots of play time Saturday morning too and as you can see Logan was the happiest to have playmates all weekend! He loves being around other kids!
While everyone was prepping to go to the beach on Saturday morning before lunch, Logan and Serena were making their own closet peek a boo game up. Serena loved this just as much as Logan!
And we made it to the beach! It was just a quick 5 minutes down the street - and took 1 second to realize how freezing the water is! Logan only cared intermittently. It was a cycle of getting really excited and wanting to go in the water, go further in, get a little afraid of the waves and a bit cold, ask to be picked up and go "out" and repeat.
This picture doesn't zoom in quite enough to see the best expression ever on Cadie's face! So cold! But Serena and Natalia didn't mind...
After attempts at swimming, we settled on some beach toy play instead. The warmer option. All the kiddos played in the sand (and the older girls in the water) but then it began to look like rain and when we started to hear the thunder and see lightning, we decided to head back for lunch and basically jut missed the rain!
And once we got back, it was lunch time! I already prepared the salad and it was build your own sandwiches so it was an easily prepared, no wait meal. This is the kind of meal that I love more than ever now. The Browns were brilliant and brought a folding table from home which gave extra space for the kiddos to eat at.
And of course mimosas were had with my lunch!
After lunch came nap time - and this nap time was glorious. Because the kiddos were so tired from the night of chaos (or at least Cadie and Logan were super tired, they napped for over 2 hours! We hung out right here. We were wanting to head down to the strip for ice cream and it kept getting later and they woke after 4!
Once all the kiddos woke from their naps, we headed down to walk to the strip for ice cream! A massive crowd we bring on our walks...
On the Grand Bend strip heading toward the water to the best ice cream stand of them all! Logan of course insisting on walking.
Ice cream! Logan loved his soft serve chocolate (which is actually not an easy find weirdly), and it was prefect for him because he can't quite scoop his own hard ice cream and cones are so messy! And I got the smores and Aleksy good ol' chocolate mint.
Group shot of ice cream and fam shot of us at Grand Bend beach, where we stopped for some play on the playground before heading back to the cottage for supper.
The Browns brought upper for Saturday night, and instead of the usual hamburgers, hot dogs, and those kind of basics, we had a roast beef supper with gravy, potatoes, carrots, veggie skewers, asparagus, AND sausages. Seriously roughing it.
And we just did burgers the night before and sandwiches and salad for lunch!
And after the kiddos went to bed on Sat night and the guys had their cigars, we came inside for a bit more Asshole and this cheese, meat and fruit platter that we made!
We did not make it nearly as late as the night before and were in bed well before midnight!! 5 hours of sleep just doesn't cut it...
Sunday morning, Logan woke up bright and early just after 6am. It was fathers day so after Logan had his morning bottle, he gave Aleksy his new Illbury and Goose shirt, and Logan put on his matching shirt (well kind of... different colours, same brand print!).
That morning, we had an awesome father's day breakfast complete with 3 different breakfast meats" peameal bacon, bacon and sausages. Also with eggs, waffles and fruit.
Then the massive clean up/pack up began! It took a while to get everything packed, all the sand in the house swept, and clean out the fridge but we managed to do it for around 12.
Then we headed our separate ways because we were heading to the beach and no one else had planned to beach it that day - they were going the splash pad.
After grabbing a needed Timmies, we headed back to the private beach that we had access to from our cottgae (because it was way better than the main beach!). The weather as not bad but the black flies. were. everywhere!! They were swarming and biting which is the worst feeling in the world. The little jerks even bit Logan and made him bleed! So as you can imagine, our beach experience was super short and I didn't even finish my beer and we headed back to London town and go home around 1:30pm with a successful nap transfer from car to crib!
