Heaven is a beach house.

We just came back from the most fantastic family vacation. We rented a house for a week on the south shore of Nova Scotia, and spent our days exploring the beaches and breathing in the sea air.

It was like a huge exhale.

Troy and I basked in the amount of nothing to do. For a week, the to-do list had evaporated. We hung out with our kids and, without all of the brain clutter, could actually hear what they were saying.

Most of our travel usually centers around visits to our families. Our kids are well seasoned vetrans of the six hour drive between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in one direction or the other. This summer, we decided to combine a family visit and a true vacation.

My cottage hunting criteria included walking distance to the shores we've been missing, private and quiet Nova Scotia scenic beauty, and enough room to invite the whole clan to vacation with us whenever they could fit it in. The plan was to have everyone come to us instead of 'descending upon them like locusts' (a favorite quote of mine from my cousin, another mother of four who realizes how bulky it feels to land at family's house with a family of six).

  

Troy's mother was able to spend the week with us, Troy's brother and sister and father had visits for a few nights, my sister and nephew joined us for a few nights as well, and even my parents, 'stopped by' for a surprise visit for an evening. (I knew they were touring on motorbikes for the weekend and as far as I knew headed to St. Andrew's in New Brunswick. They failed to mention it was via Nova Scotia. For those of you not familiar with the Maritimes, Nova Scotia is not in any way en route to New Brunswick from New Brunswick. Whatsoever. It was funny. Mostly a great excuse for them to ride Nova Scotia's beautiful lighthouse and evangeline routes.)    

It was so nice to just spend hours of uninterupted time enjoying the company of our families. I am in the lucky position of loving my inlaws. With the greatly improved adult to kid ratio, the kids were basked in time and attention. Claire virtually had her own personal assistant in Grammie Hutt, a position Grammie had been waiting for I'm sure. 

Between Grammie's help and the extra spare time, we even breezed through laundry and food. Dare I say even laundry was enjoyable in that setting? We returned home with suitcases full of clean clothes.

A sure sign of a perfect vacation.