Geneva, OH

Ah, vacation. We have been blessed twice this month, and it has been glorious.

Just returned from Geneva, Ohio, where we spent a fantastic week with the Dippel family. The town is almost exactly halfway between Chicago and New York, near the Pennsylvania border. This is our third year meeting up for a week of fun, and we all agreed that this house and location were definitely our favorite. The house was all one level, so no steep stairs for the kids (or slightly inebriated parents) to navigate. The layout was very open, complete with four big bedrooms, a nice kitchen, comfy living room, and a large square table perfect for gaming. But the best part was the backyard, which had tons of running space for the kids, a covered picnic area, large grill, fire pit with lounge chairs, and gorgeous trees (even a little peach tree) made for climbing. To us city dwellers, the yard was a slice of heaven.

The towns of Geneva and Geneva-on-the-Lake were small but charming. We went to the beach at Lake Erie; took the kids to Adventure Town for a day of arcading, merry-go-rounding and go-karting; checked out some of the local shops, including a great ice cream place (caramel cashew! dark chocolate peanut butter!) and a candy store filled with obscure treats and treasures from our childhood (slo pokes! goo goo clusters! bb bats! charleston chews! clark bars!); and devoured a yummy meal at the Honeybee diner for the unbelievable cost of $45 for all eight of us. The Mathews family discovered the ipad (thank you Claire for sharing), Sophie and Maggie solidified their friendship, and Emma and Charlotte deepened theirs. Mostly, we relaxed during the day and played games late into the night. We tackled Agricola, 1960: The Making of a President (my favorite), Puerto Rico, Age of Steam, Battle Line, No Thanks, some Hollywood game that was really fun but whose name is escaping me right now, and many hands of Tichu. Favorite memories include:

• Watching the kids just be together - from tree acrobatics to picking peaches to water gunning to watching "The Brady Bunch" (which Em kept calling "The Bratty Bunch" by mistake) to snuggling in the same bed with the Nintendo DS to running around the house playing hide n seek and monster and anything else that popped into their heads. My absolute favorite memory is of listening to the oldest three snoring quietly together after finally giving in to sleep. Very few disagreements + lots of giggling = total lovefest.
  
• Claire running madly around the carousel, trying desperately to keep up with the girls and looking absolutely adorable.
  
• PIE! Apple crisp, very berry, peach, apple cinnamon. All homemade, and all divine.
• Listening to Chris D. read the Powerpuff Girls comic book as a bedtime story and sing the theme songs to "Eight Is Enough," "Family Ties" and "Alice" as lullabies.
  
• Claire and I doing our we-just-won-Tichu! happy dance while the boys glowered.
• Watching Chris D. proudly play with his pieces.
• Claire judging a beauty contest for the girls' My Little Ponies.
  
• The boys going out for supplies and returning with fake mustaches on.
• Claire's odd, frequent and hilarious use of the word "awkward." (ie, "My [insert body part here] just fell off." "Oh. That's awkward.")
• Sharing stories and advice about the joys and challenges of raising feisty, bright, emotional, independent, complex, radiant girls.
  

Chris and I gained at least five pounds (oh, who am I kidding? it's probably closer to 10) and are totally sleep-deprived, but we had a hell of a time. As always, it was so hard to say goodbye. We managed to hold our emotions in check, but I was pushed over my edge upon returning home after seven torturous hours on the road and hearing Sophie utter simply, "I need Claire." I promptly went upstairs, shut myself in the bathroom and had a good little cry.

Chris, Claire, Charlotte and Maggie: dear friends, we will miss you more than you can know.

And now...back to the real world. But first, some pics.