I enjoyed my last breakfast at the lake with my Martha Stewart Living. It’s so nice to leisurely enjoy breakfast instead of scarfing down my eats in a rush to get to work. I really should take my time more often, not just when I’m on vacay.

Gonna miss this view.

All the tall trees.

Maybe even the bugs and bees.

The flowers

The outdoor seating.

Mismatched plateware and silverware.

The butterfly bush outside the house, just in front of the porch swing and all the beautiful butterflies that flocked to it.

The wooden porch.

Patches of shadows from the leaves.

Bathing suits strewn about.

The kiddos playing with Bailey.

Bailey running around.

I made more mocktails today, which I enjoyed lakeside whilst snapping some photos of the fam swimming.

Hubby’s sister and fam went for a dip today.

Hubby brought Bailey out for some fresh air.

I think he wanted to go for another dip.

Duckies!

Last meal al fresco!

Hubby’s “Uncle Bob” stopped by last night with a pork roast in tow. He roasted it low all night and it was perfectly tender for lunch today. I enjoyed it with some mac and cheese and a large serving of salad with cherry tomatoes from our garden and sunflower seeds.

Post lunch we finished packing up and hit the road.

One last view of the lake before we left.

Soon enough we were home sweet home! Bailey was ready to sleep on his own bed…or…couch. lol

I’m sad to leave the lake but happy to be home. Here’s to sleeping in your own bed!

Hubby and I hit up the pub for an afternoon drink and some bar food.

I really, really wanted a nice frozen strawberry daiquiri but the pub’s blender was broken. But at least we had some free serenading compliments of this 16 year old local who swung by to show off his talents – guitar-playing and singing. I overheard him say he’d been playing guitar less than a year but he sounded pretty good to me. Apparently he’s going to try out for American Idol when he turns 17. Go kid, go!

I ended up getting a vanilla-vodka-coke and some chicken fingers with fries. Hubby and I split the eats as an afternoon snack.

We took a minute to walk around and discovered these GIANT red flowers! They were as big as my head!

Back at the house I whipped up some sauteed zucchini and onion.

Bailey hung out in the kitchen hoping someone would drop something. lol

When he figured out he wouldn’t get anything he hopped up on this cozy arm chair where I was casually reading some of my magazines.

Hubby’s mom whipped a variety of flatbreads on tortillas with Alouette cheese and toppings like crab, salmon and even a veggie one using some of the zucchini/onion mixture I cooked.

Plus raw veggies and marinated mozzarella.

Turned a piece of my banana bread into a dessert by toasting it, buttering it, topping it with cinnamon/sugar and placing it over ice cream.

I just had a small piece toasted in a toaster oven.

Plus I had this Diana-sized Ben & Jerry’s froyo in Chocolate Fudge Brownie. It was the perfect size!

Bailey hopped up on the couch for some more cuddle time…

…while the boys played poker.

Don’t let em see your p-p-p-poker face!

PS After blogging this post, THIS song has been stuck in my head all night! And yes, I do mean the Glee version.

What games do you like to play on family vacations?

It rained a bit on the Monday of our trip but luckily only in the morning. By the afternoon it had really cleared up. So, we decided to take Bailey on his first canoe trip.

He may look thrilled to you.

But the poor little guy was pretty scared and was trying to climb into my lap for almost the whole time we were out. We didn’t stay out long since he didn’t seem to be having as much fun as we hoped.

He did settle down a bit and seemed to get pretty comfy near the end.

Hubby thought Bailey would enjoy swimming more and indeed he did!

We got him to jump off the dock a couple times.

Apparently Claire was at our dock.

After a good swim it was time to dry off.

Hey, at least he liked the swimming part!

Does your pet like the water? Boats? Swimming?

It’s beautiful here!

I should have snapped a photo of all the rooms before we settled in but…alas – here’s the beautiful chaos of a vacation home-  snacks and personal items strewn about in that we’re-on-vacation-and-not-picking-up-out-stuff way that totally doesn’t bother me.

Hubby and I were in charge of dinner Sunday night. We got all our groceries from Trader Joe’s and were all ready to prepare a fabulous vegetarian dinner, since half of hubby’s fam are non-meat-eaters.

Recognize this?

When we offered to cook dinner for 8, we weren’t exactly sure what to make. We knew it had to be vegetarian and kid friendly. What feeds a lot of people with ease? Lasagna! Lasagna + vegetarian = Kath’s The Best Vegetable Lasagna (click for recipe)!

We figured since we liked it so much the first time we made it that hopefully it would go over well in hubby’s family.

NOTE: To adjust for our large family, we made the lasagna in a 9”x12” casserole dish and just added some extra sauce, lasagna noodles, and veggies (used the same amount of cheese, though).

We cracked open this bottle of Green Fin California table wine (made with organic grapes) to sip on whilst the lasagna baked away.

We also cut up some havarti cheese, which we served with crackers alongside the wine for the family to nibble on.

Cheers!

Hubby and I set the table and prepped salads.

Dinner would not be complete for us without BREAD! We brought a bunch of Great Harvest Virginia rolls with us for our veggie family dinner. They were a BIG hit!

Salad time!

All baked up and looking deliciously ooey-gooey!

I served myself a generous portion.

I love how Bailey snuck into this family photo from dinner.

Post-dinner, I had some organic cherries for dessert.

Hubby found a puzzle for us to work on.

It’s a 3 foot long puzzle of New York City!

I tackled the text section on the bottom – note how much more complete it is than the other parts. haha jk the other parts were harder to do than mine.

Banana bread made for great puzzle food.

I totally got wrapped up in this puzzle. It was 1am before I knew it so I decided to hit the sack.

What do you like to cook when you’re feeding a large party (8+)? I could use your tips for next time!