And finally the end....

Alex LOVES to kayak! He held onto the paddle almost the whole time and "helped". He listened well and sat very still. We went along the edge of the island and across the channel and back before he got tired and said he was done.
We packed up tuesday night and made plans to come home. Terri and Lori decided to ride along and come see our house and town.
Alex fell on one of the beds in the big bedroom while we were packing up and getting ready and smashed his mouth on the metal headboard. He just split the inside of his lip but it looked terrible, tons of blood and screaming :(
It was a very rainy day so we couldn't stop many of the places we had talked about stopping on the way over here. We even had to ditch our picnic plans and eat lunch at the Big Boy in Manistique. We did stop at a very cool pottery place near Petoskey though and they had a frog pond that Alex liked.
Thursday was a very nice day so we got to do some sightseeing while they were here, Lori and Teri got the one day quick tour of the area!
We are having a bit of "vacation hangover" here today. Mom and Lori and Teri left this morning and Alex has been alternating between asking where they are to asking to go for a car ride and then being just really happy to play with his toys in between.

We didn't even get a full sunset this night before the first storm blew in from the left side of this picture! "It's a'licious!" is what Alex had to say about Grandma's leftover ice cream cake!
He even got his toes in the right spots!
 

Saturday night was that wonderful sunset. Unfortunately the waves of storms that were building behind it were pretty intense. We were lucky enough to miss the brunt of the damaging winds and hail but the lightening we got was incredible. No one on the island got much sleep that night, all the kids were up scared but I doubt anyone would have slept much anyway considering how bright and loud it was! The lightening was actually like a constant strobe light and there was always a dull roar of thunder puncuated by louder cracks here and there. 

Up the "big steps" at Grandma Ruth's after feeding the fish!
Alex the entertainer!
After his first bath in the lake :)
Linda, Eric and Grandma and Grandpa Bergeon came over on saturday and hung out by the lake with us and stayed for a cook out. It was so nice to get to visit with them and again it was a perfect lake day.
The gallery mom has her quilts in was part of the Northwoods art tour this weekend so she had to work and do demonstrations all weekend. When she got back sunday night we had a pizza and ice cream cake party for her birthday!
Ben left sunday morning to head back home. Alex and I stayed a couple more days which turned out to be the best idea ever considering how hot it was everywhere. We just sat in the water in the afternoon! Mom and Alex and I went to Boulder Junction one morning to check out some of the galleries there that her friends have their work in and found a really great book store too. 

this last picture is just for Erling :) 

My cousin Jessie worked as a lifeguard at one of those hotels w/ an indoor water park this summer in Minocqua. So we got to go check it out (w/out having to pay the ridiculous fee they usually charge the general public)
It took a few tries but once he got the hang of it Alex loved the kiddie slide and pool and also loved jumping off the edge of the regular pool. Ben and I tried out the big people slides too! 

Epic vacation cont......back to Blue Lake!

After a great time in Crandon we headed over to Rhinelander/Minocqua area on wednesday morning. We stopped in Rhinelander and surprised Grandma and Grandpa Bergeon with a visit on our way through! Alex loved exploring their yard and garage and Grandpa's wood shop.
Then we went and settled into the cottage. Just about every day was HOT and sunny. In almost all of the sunset pictures you can see the storm cloud building on the horizon. We had some extremely intense lightening storms w/ loud thunder which made for many sleepless nights in the cottage. Poor Alex whimpered and cried a lot in his sleep and he informed us that George (the stuffed monkey Joe and Mary gave hime that he sleeps with) and Puffin (stuffed Puffin bird mom and dad brought back from Norway for him that he also sleeps with now) were scared of thunder and needed big hugs while they were sleeping.
We got in some bike rides and lots of swimming! 

 

Epic vacation cont...Appleton and Crandon

Monday the 24th it was off to Appleton in the morning to visit an old friend of Ben's. We enjoyed a visit and Alex enjoyed their playground and matchbox cars! Then we headed from Appleton up to Crandon to join Joy, Doug and Maddie at their cabin. Tuesday was a perfect lake day for swimming and lounging and then family naps! Tuesday night we had some thunder storms and unfortunately Alex has decided that he is a little scared by loud thunder.