Thursday - Friday 22nd, 23rd

Thursday morning Alex got his new bike. Matt, Amy, Grandma and Papa went in together and got him a really nice Specialized "Hot Rock". It's blue and black and very slick looking. I plan to get some pictures of him on it when we get back up north. He loves it!
Matt, Amy, Ben and I went back up to Escanaba lake trail to mountain bike. No unusual animal or bird sightings this time. We were thankful for the hard core bug spray we had grabbed though - holy mosquitos batman!
It started raining as we were coming home. We ran down the hill to jump in the lake and ran back up - the water was warmer than the air and since it was raining it didn't pay to bring a towel down so that run back up was chilly!
Legos and coloring after lunch until company came later. Lori, Mike, Jessie, Grandma Ruth, Jared and Zoe came for visiting and supper. Considering we were all packed in the cabin due to the rain and the kids had no naps they did a great job.
We did get outside briefly, Alex rode his bike some more and Maya got out her "balancing bike" too.
Maya went to bed pretty early and Alex went to bed without any problems and just read until he could sleep.
A whole group of us went out to Otto's (Beer Garden/Pub downtown Minocqua - 2 kinds of KBC on tap) that night. Tourists + live music = priceless entertainment.

Friday morning we packed up (mostly laundry!) and came back south again. We met Paul and Karrie in Wittenburg and dropped Alex off with them. He was going to stay the night at their house and we will all meet in New London again this afternoon.

Wednesday July 21st

Ben and I started the morning with a bike ride - just local, the road out to the Bearskin and down to the Hwy 51 bridge and back. We came home and ran into town in search of the awesome bubble wands but they were all sold out so we ended up with foam water cannons instead. Which is why there are not many pictures of us swimming from this day - I kept my camera safely away from the dock and the resulting water shooting!
Ben and I got out in the sailboat for a quick spin. As we were heading up to the house to say good bye to Erik, Maya fell off the dock. All the way under. Ben was in the water right next to her so he got to her right away but she was already trying to stand up. She actually got her head back out of the water herself to take a breath and except for the initial surprise when she took in a little water she held her breath the rest of the time. She did a great job, she cried for a little while and when she stopped enough to talk she said she was crying because she couldn't see under the water and she had her eyes open and she wanted to be able to see under there!
After supper we went to the Min-Aqua bat ( I know, so clever right? In their defense I think they were named 60 years ago) waterski show. This is a highlight of vacation for Alex every year.
Towards the end of the show when the sun was setting, to the left of the sunset there was this odd rectangle of light coming up over the trees, almost like a little rainbow but without all of the colors. The camera captured the shape of it in that last shot but not the colors exactly right.

Tuesday July 20th

Slow moving morning....we eventually got out of the house and ran into town to the library to get new books and use the computer. Were not able to get online for some reason..oh well!
Home in time for lunch and then got Maya down for a nap. Mom stayed with her and sewed while Alex, Erik, Ben and I went to hike the nature trail at Star Lake. It's such a great trail with a wide variety of different types of terrain to hike through in the 2.5 miles.
The regular rain this year has led to so many different shapes and colors of mushrooms, they are fun to look at. Alex seemed to really enjoy the hike and did well with the distance. Towards the end of walk we found the skeleton of a Northern Pike. It must have been an impressively big fish based on the size of the jaw and spine. Alex thought it was totally cool. I am always amazed by their teeth!
We stopped for ice cream at the camp store in Sayner - we use to spend a lot of time there when the Razorback Ridge mountain bike trails were maintained there. Alex thought it was pretty fun that we were eating ice cream at supper time!
What started out as a foggy rainy day had turned into a really nice afternoon and beautiful evening. After out real supper we went down and swam for a couple hours until after sunset. The neighbors were out on their dock with these giant bubble wands they found at Whoops! (downtown Minocqua - great toy store with unusual toys and games if you are ever up here) so we went down and Alex got to try one out - he ended up with the record for that day of the biggest bubble! He was so proud of himself that he did just as well as the "big kids".
After bedtime all the grownups ended the night with some drinks and card games.

Monday July 19th

Mom took Alex and Maya on a nature hike this morning with all the neighbor kids. Ben and I headed to Escanaba Lake trail to go for a bike ride. We don't get to ride together very often at home so that was exciting. One frustrating thing about mountain biking though is that I can't carry my big camera along and we always see something interesting. This time we saw a red tailed hawk land on the shore of a lake in the midst of a group of Canada geese and try to take off with one - a full size goose! It did not go over well among the geese, there was a lot of flapping and honking and eventually the hawk gave up and went about 10 feet down the shoreline and glared at the geese for a while before flying away.
We got back and went to jump in the lake and clean up, by the time we got back up the hill my Grandma and Grandpa Bergeon and cousin Erik were here. We all went down to the lake so the kids could swim and play. We had left Maya's regular floaty in Green Bay by mistake so she got to try out the fancy one we found in the lake shed.
We got a somewhat normal bedtime and Ben and I got to sit on the dock and watch the sunset. There is a girl's camp across the lake and it must have been the night of the mixer dance with the area boy's camp because there was dance music streaming across the calm lake.
Cards and Scrabble before bed................

Sunday July 18th

Sunday morning Ben took the kids to the Packer Hall of Fame while I finished up laundry and packing. They have a really nice "Kid Zone" that we figured they could run around and play in for a while. Well the kid zone was closed for renovation but I guess the rest of it was just interesting enough because they had a ball.
We got back up to Minocqua just before supper, ate and had a short time to play before we went to a birthday party for one of the kids a few doors down. This family has two hairless dogs - I can't remember the exact breed. They both loved Ben for some reason and the one slept on his lap the whole time we were inside! This family stays in the boathouse on their property when they come - it's a really cool space with sleeping lofts and hidden ladders and little cubby holes and nooks all over. All the kids (6 of them) played hide and seek until it got too wild for the small space and we took it outside. No early bedtime this night!

Cousins!

Saturday was a visiting day - Tony and Tiffany's house then over the Paul and Karrie's. Alex and Maya had great fun with their cousins. We hardly even saw Alex and Brendan they were so busy! Annalea talked up a storm and all the boys are getting to be so grown up. Maya was tired and a little shy at Tony and Tiffany's house but was quite social by the time the day wore on.
Can't wait to see more family and play more next weekend!