otter lake 2010

that is right we did it. we successfully completed our first family vacation. each year we visit dan's family in ny in july and this year we got to introduce donovan. i was super nervous about the trip but it went off without a hitch. what usually takes us 12 hours took us 15 spread over 2 days with a hotel stay in pennsylvania each way. dan and donovan had their first sleepover in the hotel while buck and i had the other bed. dan and i were like a well trained pit crew as we stopped to feed, change, let donovan stretch, and walk buck.

we arrived on saturday afternoon in time for dinner with dan's dad and jackie. don and the kids came as well as steve and our fsil robin. we had a great time showing donovan off and spending the night with donovan in dan's childhood home.

sunday morning we did our grocery shopping and headed to the head of the adirondacks where dan's family camp is at otter lake. there we spend the week with dan's mom, stepdad, 7 siblings and their families. we spend our days at the dock and shopping in old forge and our nights playing cards and shuffleboard.

some highlights of the trip were that donovan slept until 7:30am every morning but one, which we were very excited about. he seems to love big crowds and lots of noise...donovan is the 14th grandchild and was one of 28 people and 6 dogs packed in 2 houses for the week. we have often worried about donovan having too much stimulation, but it turns out he gets fussy at home because we bore him :) we got to celebrate our godson, nolan's, first birthday with him complete with cake enough for us all to eat all week. dan and i got to leave 2 mornings to run some errands while donovan's aunt colleen babysat. and last but not least we got a surprise visit from dan's brother kevin who told us he could not come. he parked at a neighbor's house and snorkeled in to surprise everyone.


we look forward to donovan enjoying otter lake with his cousins for years to come. he has lots of tubing and skiing and card playing and shuffleboard to learn.....and an awesome family to teach him how :)