Ready, set, go!

Being here at Oyster Haven for almost two weeks before the kids were due to arrive has been such a HUGE blessing! We’ve never had the luxury of doing so since we bought the house in the fall of 2015 and opened it up as a vacation rental the summer of 2016.  We get our one week each year that we block off for our own family.  But that’s it…until this summer.  Between some burst pipes in the winter that needed repairs and a last-minute late June cancellation, we had the house blocked off the whole month of June, so we were able to move right in as soon as we came north. It has just been wonderful staying here!

We were able to get a number of overdue projects done inside and out, set up all the rooms for everyone, and shop for groceries and other supplies.  I was even able to bake coffee cakes and several batches of family-favorite cookies, which I stashed in the freezer—because otherwise, would there even be any goodies left by the time the kids arrived?!

We will have four out of five boys and their families this year.  Son # 2 and his wife just welcomed a fifth son on June 16, so they will not be joining us.  It’s hard to ever get 100 percent of the clan together for this week, with all the various commitments they have.  (Adulting is hard!)  But we are thrilled to have as many as we can get spending the week under our lake house roof.

As far as sleeping arrangements: it’s cozy…yeah that’s it, cozy.  It reminds me of summer trips to my husband’s parents’ house (the one just down the road, where we stay when we’re not at Oyster Haven), when our boys were growing up.  Very crowded communal living for a week!  That’s how they bonded with their many Pearl cousins, even though they were spread out all over the country. 

Many of our boys’ kids are lucky enough to live close to each other year-round; sons #2, 3, and 4 live within striking distance of each other in VA.  But with son #1 about to settle in a new house in WI and son #5 currently living in TN, we have to try to get everyone together as often as we can, 

Are you interested in room arrangements?  Let me show you how we’re fitting 10 adults and 16 children in a house where we only allow 13 guests total when we have renters.  (I won’t show you the master, where my husband and I are sleeping, because it’s a mess!)

Son #4 and his family are getting the Aviation room.  It has a queen and a twin.  We added a queen-sized air mattress, and they’re also bringing a pack ‘n play.  He and his wife have four little ones.

Our youngest son and his wife have one baby girl, four months old, who is currently co-sleeping with Mom and Dad. This little family gets the Little Cherubs Room.  It has a full and a twin, and we’ve pushed the beds together. 

Our oldest son has six kids with #7 on the way.  We converted the basement ping pong room into a bedroom for his family.  We dragged a queen-sized bed from the other makeshift basement  bedroom into this one (it might have been hard for our pregnant daughter-in-law to be comfortable on an air mattress!). Then we added two air mattresses, a king-sized and a queen-sized, and also a pack ‘n play for their youngest.  (After the picture was taken, we added a twin mattress on the floor for their young son.)

Finally, son #3’s family gets the Norman Rockwell Room.  It’s a huge room, which has a queen and two twins already (the second twin is not shown in this picture).  We added two  twin air mattresses. Their four oldest kids will sleep with them in this room.

Their youngest will be sleeping in the walk-in closet in Papa and Grammy’s room.

Oh, and then there’s this, which my husband saw on a Sam’s grocery run and thought we ought to have for the grandkids.

 

Well, before I had a chance to post this, the kids started arriving!  Let the fun begin—we’re ready!