Collapsable hamper = storage bin = Alex's play cave

Moomers

Today we went to take a tour at Moomers Ice Cream. It's a local dairy farm and ice cream shop that has amazing ice cream. We started on a wagon and drove behind the store, through the woods, past the pastures and some young cows and then to their milking barn. Then back to the shop for ice cream!

And finally...the BIG news

Alex can use the potty. Not just his little potty.....any potty. Even public bathroom potties, which in case you didn't know he use to be terrified of even being in the stall with someone. In fact he decided he doesn't want to use the little one at all and only use the regular big potty.
We have been diaper free during the day for a week. And he's been keeping his diaper dry at night every night as well so it's just a matter of time (and guts on mommy's part) before we get rid of the night time ones too.
SO WAY TO GO ALEX!! We are very proud.

"Sit right back and I'll tell a tale, a tale of a......"

Thursday night Ben got to go salmon fishing out on a charter in Lake Michigan for work. The "seas" were a bit rough....ok, really rough. But we now have a freezer full of yummy salmon.

I *heart* Craigslist

We have been watching rummage sales and craigslist all summer for one of these little houses, Alex just loves them. Finally found one on craigslist for a really great price! Happy early birthday Alex!

Blueberries

Yum.

(Photos courtesy of Nicole)

Oh Fudge!

Really, fudge. The moms club decided to play tourist or "fudgie" as the slang expression goes around here and go to one of the fudge shops and watch how fudge is made.

Stuff

King Chewy:He's got a pretty good swing, and can also hit a ball that's pitched to him w/out the tee now!


Being silly with one of the baby hats I knitted:

Back to the beach:

Friday Night Live - Jazz Night

This week's theme was jazz! There was one really great band in particular that Alex loved too. The other big hit of the night (aside from blue ice cream with your buddies) was the jugglers.

Horsin' around

That is one of Alex's favorite Backyardigan episodes by the way, but also this thursday we went with some friends to a big horse show near by. There is a brand new facility just east of Traverse City that had their first show. They had been advertising it all over town so we took the kids to see some horses jumping......

Well, lets just say that the Equestrian type crowd there was not overly welcoming. I didn't take a lot of pictures because I didn't know if we were suppose to or not. It was hard to tell if we were even suppose to be watching from where we were watching and if it was ok to cheer or even talk. The kids liked it though!

After we felt we had probably out stayed our welcome we decided to go for a hike at Sand Lakes Quiet area because we were already pretty close by. Alex, Colin, Drew, Carter and Carter had a blast running thru the woods together and looking for bears and blueberries.

Potty learning

Alex has been doing a great job working on using the potty since we got home. We are really proud of him and he is really excited. I had brought up some extra rolls of tp from the downstairs bathroom but hadn't put it away in the upstairs bathroom yet one day and this is how we found Alex in his room. He said he needed some toilet paper.

(I blurred out anything private)

Our first fruits

Shortly after we got home from vacation we got to pick the first veggies out of our garden....zucchini! Alex was SO excited about our "first va-cchini".

And check out his new tie dye shirt courtesy of my friend Cindy! Alex calls it his "cool" shirt. :)

Back into the swing of things...

The week after we got home we started to get back into a regular routine of seeing friends and doing fun things around here. Our first outing back with friends was to the farm market on wednesday morning and then over to the park (it used to be a zoo which is now closed and they are slowly making it into a children's park.....or so it is rumored).

That first friday home was the start of Friday Night Live in downtown TC. They block off Front St. for several blocks every friday night until the end of August and have live music and booths and kids activities. Alex loves it, he loves to watch all the people, he really loves the music and he loves the fact that he can usually end up with blue ice cream before the night it thru. Each friday has a theme, this week was Harry Potter night in celebration of the book release at midnight. People dressed up as Harry Potter characters, Alex wanted to wear his fireman hat.

So there you have it.

Saturday we hit the road and drove all day. We got home around 6:30 eastern time. Vacation was fun but it's good to be home as well. The trip was pretty uneventful, that's a good thing! Now we are trying to get back into the swing of regular life.

Our last day

After the park on thursday we spent the afternoon visiting in Rhinelander again.

Friday after the park in the morning we packed a picnic lunch and went to Crystal Lake. Mom used to go there a lot as a kid and wanted to take Alex. We didn't bring swimming stuff because it wasn't an overly warm day - mid 60's and only sunny on and off. But there were tons of other kids swimming there and when the sun was out it actually felt fairly warm so of course Alex wanted right in the water!

Hydrology/geology lessons w/ Papa, recreating the Mississippi River delta.....





Friday night Grandma Ruth, my aunt Teri, her daughter Joanna and her granddaughter Katie (my cousin Dan and his wife Melissa's little girl, so Alex's 2nd cousin) came over for supper and then Lori and Mike stopped by later.

After putting Alex to bed, Ben and I went into town friday night to meet Bucky and Andy at Otto's. Bucky and Andy are friends of ours from when we lived in Houghton, we met them thru my cousin Jared and our families all know eachother as well. Andy's grandparents live in Minocqua and Bucky's family is nearby. We got a surprise when we got to Otto's, Andy's sister Sarah was up visiting too and Bucky's girlfriend Amanda stopped in later! It was great to see everyone again and catch up a little.

There was a band at Otto's...I had forgotten how great the people watching is in Minocqua during the summer. We used to go out there quite a bit during the summer when we first had moved to Houghton. You get quite a mix of people between the Milwaukee/Chicago tourist crowd (think high maintenance suburbian soccer moms and baby boomers gone wild), the "townies", and the international college students that come in the summer as camp counselors and restaurant/shop staff.

Torpy park pictures

Both thursday and friday mornings Ben and my dad rode their bikes into town (Alex rode in the bike trailer, town is about 5 miles) and took Alex to Torpy park to play. Friday mom and I drove in and met them there.

Lessons in physics with Dad and Papa: