Swimming in Lake Michigan in October who would have thought it was possible. Not me that is for sure. I thought it would be fun to live down by the lake so that is where we rented between houses. It was a fully furnished summer rental that was "off season" so we got a pretty awesome deal. It ended up being much less then a hotel. Plus we got the benefit of really good beach weather almost the whole time we were there. I actually got more of a tan in that last six weeks then the whole summer. We walked down to silver beach park about every day to play in the morning. We also loved going to the Saint Joe library that was right up the street, and the little toy store down town. It was a little cramped and the beds were really uncomfortable, but it was really kinda like a little vacation. I have now however decided that real "on the beach" living is not from me because it is just too dirty. I think that I swept up sand about 3 times a day and it still was in our beds and the carpet no matter what. What it really all boiled down to was it just wasn't home. The kids knew that. Ethan had a lot of behavioral issues because of it and it was always really awkward and not very tranquil at bedtimes. About 3 weeks in Ethan said to me in tears one night "Mommy I don't love Mr. Owls rental house anymore! I just want our old house." (Mr. Al was our landlord) So any how it feels so good to be finally home, but at least we got to swim in warm Lake Michigan in October, something that will most likely never happen again.