Our Vacation Home

Our friends, the West's go on vacations a few times a year, and when they do we usually get to stay at their house to watch their dog and hamster. The girls absolutely LOVE it! I also enjoy staying in a nice, big, new home on the water, but it can also be a little stressful. We've stayed there about four times now and each time the girls almost ruin a piece of furniture (furniture that costs more than we make in a few months). I'm learning how manage it though, and it's definitely getting more enjoyable for me.

 The girls enjoy jumping off the dock and swimming to the rocky shore or using inner tubes and rafts. The rocky shore gives endless amounts of crabbing and discovery.

 The girls also spend lots of time jumping on the trampoline. Carly has perfected her back flip and has also worked on her front flip and back handsprings.

Here's a shot of the beautiful kitchen. Eating is one of the house-sitting things that can be difficult. Normally I like to make our meals (dinner mostly) from scratch, but I don't want to use all of the West's food and I don't want to bring my whole pantry. So, we usually buy some freezer meals and bring a few essentials from our home.

 They have tons board games. A couple of our favorites are LIFE (I win every time) and Say Anything.

We certainly enjoy the beautiful views from their home:

Other fun things we (mostly the girls) like to do there:

-hide and seek

-check on Luna (the hamster)
-play with and love Sandy (the dog)
-watch movies

(Update Feb. 2015: This post was written before we stayed there over Christmas break 2014. That was rough. I was going through morning sickness - tired and yucky feeling most of the time - and the freezer meals did not sit well with me. And for some reason Sandy was really annoying me (probably the morning sickness thing), but she follows me around EVERYWHERE. Poor dog. She really is a sweet, good dog, but I just couldn't deal with her. Also, their washing machine broke (probably our fault), and the girls got permanent marker on one of their tables, and Aubree literally chipped a piece of their brand new coffee table off with a crochet hook! So..... I don't know if we'll be staying there again.)