The Dunes

One of the nice things about where we lived in Indiana was we were 20 minutes from the Indiana National Dunes.  It is a beautiful stretch of beach along Lake Michigan.  We got a season's pass to the state park and spent lots of time there this past summer.  Camping with grandparents and cousins, swimming with friends, 4th of July fun at a beach house.  These are pictures from our last trip.  Our friends the Jannings from Ohio have a grandpa that lives in Valparaiso.  They came to visit him and met us at the beach. (I just realized I never blogged about the other trips so I'll have to go back once I'm caught up and fill in te things i missed)

Jenna and Katy- these 2 have been friends since nursery.

Jared was working 90+ hour weeks for about a month.  It was physically and mentally draining for him.  It was also very hard on the kids and I, but especially Jacob.  I could tell how much his missed Jared by the way he latched on to Jay.  I was grateful to Jay for playing allowing Jacob to monopolize a lot of his time.

This is not the best picture of us, and I debated skipping it, but the water is so pretty in the background.  We have both lost weight since this picture was taken!!

Experimenting with the fish eye setting on our new camera.  Wish I always was that tall and skinny!!

Kids being kids. LOVE THE BEACH!!!!

The Dunes parks is probably what I will miss most about Indiana. I loved the hikes over the dunes, and field trips the school took took to the Nature Center.  I wish we would've had more time to explore Chicago.  Jared worked such crazy hours and we planned on living there at least 2x as long as we did so we didn't make sightseeing a high priority.  So much I still wanted to see.....