Times A Flyin'

I can't believe the 4th is less than a week away. In many ways, it seems like we just got here. But we are very excited since that means Daddy will be here tomorrow! Rylee was very disappointed when she found out Rio wasn't coming with him this year though. Her mouth dropped open like a cartoon character and she said, "but I need my Rio dog!" in her pretend wail. :)

Let's see, what else do I have to update? Monday: we spent the day playing with the cousins and then Rylee and I had swimming lessons that night.

Yesterday: we spent the morning with my cousin, Sierra, and her 6 month old, Marley. Then Rylee went to evening dance class. That class has more kids in it (5) and they are a little older than Rylee too. She was a bit intimidated I think, but overall she did well keeping up and had a good time. Most importantly, she looked "adorbs" in her pink leo and new hello kitty tutu. Wish I had a picture for ya. Last night, Papa babysat so my mom and I could go to dinner with Chelsie, Linda and Glee. It was a great girls night out.

Today we have story hour and then plans to play at the park, followed by a boat ride and some playtime in Rylee's sandbox. Should be fun!

It's starting to feel a lot like summer up here ... finally!

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Cabin Fever

We spent a very relaxing weekend at the cabin. Actually Papa, Rylee and I relaxed, Gaga cooked four meals and cleaned up the kitchen etc. :)

Saturday was beautiful and sunny so Rylee played in the kiddie pool, built castles in the newly cleaned up sand box, and was even brave enough to float out in the middle of the lake with Papa. I took two steps down the pontoon ladder and crawled right back up. That water was beyond cold! I guess a month of rain and cloud cover hasn't helped the water temperature much - shocker! (in more ways than one ha ha!)

Today was overcast and rainy, but we still managed to have fun. Greg and Sara came out and we were able to squeeze in a couple pontoon rides between the rain showers.

I had my camera with on Saturday, but haven't had any Internet access to upload photos yet. I guess you'll just have to wait. :)

Hope you all had a relaxing weekend too.



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Foto Friday

After a week of nonstop rain, we finally had a sunny day today. We made the most of it by hanging out at the lake with Rylee's cousins (Nick, Maddie & Ben). Here are some silly Rylee shots from the day.

Her first tire swing ride. She looks like she's hanging on for dear life, doesn't she? She loved it though.




Lounging in the hammock. Again, she looks like she's about to get tossed out on her keister, but really she was just swinging.




My parents picked us up after work so we could fit in a pontoon ride on our lake as well. Here Rylee was forced to carry her fish toy creatively since her hands were full.




It was a fun day. Rylee and Ben really had fun playing together (they are only six or so months apart in age) much to Maddie's dismay. Maddie complained to her mom: "I've been waiting and waiting to see Rylee and now Ben stole her!" :)

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Loony Birds

Rylee loves "feeding the fish" when we're out pontooning (throwing bits of her snack overboard). The fish don't seem to be all that enthused, but the gulls sure love us.

Rylee thought it was very entertaining. My Mom was mostly worried they would poop on all our new upholstery. :)

That same trip we also witnessed a loon bath. It was so cute. It would roll onto it's back and rub and peck and then somersault around in the water. Then it would flap its wings out. It reminded me of a penguin actually. This must have went on for five or so minutes (roughly 50 photos worth). Don't worry, I'm only sharing one. :)

Father's Day Recap

I guess I better back up a few days first. Kathy and Lilly came down for the weekend so Friday night all the girls, Rylee included, went to Lonesome Pine for dinner.

Saturday was a cabin cleaning day, but we managed to have some fun too. I took Rylee and Lilly to the DQ for lunch where Rylee had her first slushie - the girl is addicted to ice so it was a big hit. Lilly is at the age where she wants to know all the stories and little details about you so there is never a shortage of conversation. We've covered high school drama, my car accident on graduation day, Jon's scavenger hunt proposal, our wedding, my job at NASA, Rylee's birth etc. It's been fun reliving all those times.

Sunday was Father's Day so my Mom whipped up a good breakfast for us all at the cabin. Here are some shots of her slaving and the rest of us chowing down. Their dog, Scooter, got to eat all the leftovers, but I didn't get a picture of that. :)

Breakfast:

It wasn't a great weekend weather wise, but we did manage to get out on the pontoon so we were happy about that. Here are Papa and Rylee enjoying the ride.

Happy Father's Day!

Rylee wanted to sing Jon a special song for Father's Day. To her "Happy Birthday" is the ultimate special song. Luckily, it's easily adapted to any situation. :)

Happy Father's Day to you!

 

Happy Father's Day to you!

 

Happy Father's Day dear Daddy!

 

Here's a big kiss for you! And many more (kisses)!

 

Rylee is super excited to see her Daddy when he comes up for the 4th. She has enjoyed talking to Jon on the phone and listening to his voice read her bedtime story (I had Jon make one of those Hallmark recordable books and brought it up here with us - she loves it!), but it's no substitute for the real thing. We are counting down the days!

Love you Daddy!

*This probably won't mean anything to anyone but me, but if you look closely you'll see that Rylee is using a mini glue stick as her microphone. Well, that glue stick is one of the few things my Mom actually saved from my childhood toys. I had a pink one and a blue one and they were my "microphones" when I was growing up. My friends and I would play downstairs in my parents basement and use the fireplace as a stage or the wet bar as our club. Honestly, I can't tell you the countless hours of entertainment those two glue sticks provided. (I don't think they were ever used for glue - my Mom may have even picked them up to be microphones since they had a big rounded ball as the cap. Anyway, the pink one still has the swirly design paper around the handle, but the blue one must have been removed years ago.) When my Mom brought them up the other day for Rylee to play with, it sure brought back memories!*

Picture Puzzle

My Aunt, Pat, has tons of dance photos from the olden days around her studio. I snapped a couple of pictures of the ones I could stand near. Pictures of pictures aren't the best, but you should still get a laugh. These are from 1986, I think. Bonus points if you can find me. :)

I can't remember what we danced to, but it was a ballet number obviously.

 

This was our costume for "Ghostbusters." I remember that when we danced it at competition, our tape messed up and we had to dance the majority of the dance with no music. I also remember that one part of the choreography had us doing sliding splits backward under our partners legs. I loved that part apparently otherwise I'm sure I wouldn't remember it! :)

 

I took dance there for 10 years. I love that Rylee is getting to be a small part of something that meant so much to me. Good times!

Dance!

I just spent 15 minutes working on this post and then it didn't save. Argh! I can't finger type it out again - too frustrating.

You can figure out what the pics are on your own (from her first dance class last week). :)

Big Grandpa Bob

Today we went to library story hour and stopped in at the hospital to meet my cousin Brandon's new baby boy, Liam. Very cute, big boy- I think 8 lbs 14 oz- Jody had a C section!)

But these photos are actually of Big Grandpa Bob's 90th birthday party from last Tuesday.

1st Boat Ride

I finally ran up to the library and uploaded the pics from last week's adventures. These are from our pontooning trip on Serpent Lake (last Monday).

Rylee loves to be on the water, she's not so sure about in the water (fish! ...weeds! ...muck!). Sometimes she's soooo me. :)

Some Minnesota loons (my favorite bird):

Fishin' on the dock or rather casting on the dock. Rylee pulls her pole away from the fish if they come too close to her line (even if there's only a casting plug on the end).

Rylee and Joe contemplating life:

Hairdos

Yesterday was another cabin day. I did sneak out for a few hours to attend a 40th anniversary party for the parents of one of my best friends from high school. While I was away, the rest of the crew got the pontoon up and running. We were finally able to get out on Agate Lake!

Before our ride, Lilly braided our hair. Rylee looked quite "adorbs" as Lil would say.

Lil also took control of the camera for the night and got some great shots.

Cutie pie Rylee:

Me in my braids:

And here's the amazing Lilly:

I was a bad Mom and let Rylee stay up late both cabin nights - 10 and 10:30 - gasp! Worse yet, she never fell asleep during her naptime today so she was a little wired during her first swimming lesson tonight. Hopefully she'll do better next week. :)

What's Happening

Thursday we spent the morning swimming at the community pool and then had Greg over for his birthday dinner.

Friday was a workout morning and then Papa babysat so my mom and I could attend an evening baby shower for the new twins (Jake & Cole).

Today was supposed to be the maiden voyage for our newly updated pontoon. But if it weren't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all so: the dock collapsed and during the repair my Dad forgot his iPhone was in his pocket, the new pontoon table wasn't the easy install we were hoping it would be, and in the end, the pontoon wouldn't start anyway! Argh!

Rylee decided she wanted to nap at the cabin (or Lily's house as she calls it) so I'm relaxing on the couch waiting for everyone to return. Hopefully we'll get the pontoon issues figured out in time for a night ride, but I'm not holding my breath just in case. Turns out boat ownership is a lot like home ownership - a pain in the butt! :)

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It's All Relative

Today, Rylee and I spent the morning with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Chip and Jon's aunt and uncle on his mom's side. So in the past two days, we've seen all but one of Jon's aunts and all his uncles. I don't think that has happened since our wedding or possibly his high school graduation. :)

The rest of the day was spent finishing Rylee's fairy house. Who knew a Huggies box, a little scrapbooking paper and some scavenging could create such a cute little thing! (Technically my Mom knew, but you get my point.) The cell phone pic doesn't do it justice. I have some pics on my real camera, but this will have to do for now.




And to make my model maker husband cringe, I confess that we did the whole project without any measuring devices. Instead we used the very scientific method of an eyeball here and a fold or a crease there to cut along. Oh, and since I find glue messy to work with, it's held together with packing tape and fairy dust. :)

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Up to Date

We took Rylee to the Little Falls Zoo on Sunday. We had just as much fun this year as last year. Rylee loved the bears (they were very active - wrestling and climbing), but her favorite animal was the donkey in the petting zoo. I have pictures of her feeding him, but they are on my real camera.

We had plans to play at a nearby park afterward, but Rylee was completely zapped from the sun - her body isn't used to it after these past few dreary weeks. (FYI it was 98 degrees here today!)

Yesterday, we spent the day at Ginny's Beach (a family friend and Grandma to the twins I posted about earlier). Her four year old grandson, Joey, was there to play with Rylee. The kids got along great - they are both a little "stinkery." I could recognize things that Rylee does in Joey. At least I know I'm not alone. :)

Ginny took us for our first pontoon ride on Serpent Lake. The water was calm as glass, but freezing. Rylee and I opted to watch Joe "wim" as he calls it. He is quite the daredevil, jumping off the pontoon in the middle of the lake is nothing to this kid.

Today, Rylee had her first dance lesson at my old studio. My aunt has pictures of her students going back to 1984 so Rylee got to see me in some very interesting costumes! It really took me back. Those were some good times. Anyway, Rylee loved her tap shoes and her ballet shoes. She was an excellent listener and followed along with the steps to the best of her ability. It was a proud moment for me. :) The best part is she really had fun. Occasionally she'd look through the glass at me and give me a thumbs up or yell "this is fun!" I have pics, but again they are on the real camera.

Today was also Big Grandpa Bob's 90th birthday. Rylee sang "Happy Birthday" to him, gave him a card and even dished out two hugs. We also got to see all Jon's aunts and uncles so that was a nice bonus.

Ok, now we're up to date again. :)

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Girl's Day

Sara and I took off for a girl's day adventure on Saturday. We headed out to Ruttgers for some shopping (I bought a funky cocktail ring) and a coffee before our pedicure appointment at their spa. My feet and toes are now sandal ready!

It was such a lovely day that we decided to loop back to Brainerd to shop the sale at a store closing (I bought a $100 dress at 75 % off!). Then we drove up to Nisswa for lunch (at the A&W) and strolled their shops (two checks off my summer to do list).

Rylee had a fun day too as evidenced by this picture and text my mom sent me.



Brr. Bad grandparents! Put in cold water/only toast for breakfast and chips and candy for lunch!

Too funny! I wasn't any better when I got home. We built a campfire so I let Rylee stay up till 9:30 eating S'mores. :)

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Over It

Rylee is over the cloudy, rainy, cold MN days. I've heard her say "I'm brrr-ing" too many times. The first thing she asked me when I went to get her out of bed yesterday was, "Is that the sun coming out? Great!" Sadly it was just an illusion and we found ourselves freezing our butts off at the park once again.

So today when we were getting ready to get in the car, Rylee asked if she could pretend drive for a minute. Then she added, "I'm driving us to summer!" :) They say it will be in the 90s tomorrow and that we should have a sunny weekend... we'll believe it when we feel it.

Speaking of parks, Rylee and I have had issues other than the weather. All the parks here have gravel or mulch for ground covering and that turns out to not be so foot-friendly when all you brought to wear were crocs. Thus we both splurged on $10 sneakers at Walmart. Rylee's $10 sneakers are adorable (her first ever with tie-able laces) and she loves them. My $10 sneakers are white and ugly and have a weird feeling in the sole. Luckily I'm not planning on running any marathons in them so I think I can suffer through a couple of park trips.

I'm sure you're all getting tired of the awful cell phone pics, but with no easy Internet access for my computer, they are the best I can manage most days. So here's Rylee in her new kicks after an exhausting park trip that was close to nap time (hence the blankie face).



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Lastly, I have to give a shout out to Jess who gave birth to Baby Caleb on Tuesday night! Head on over to 21 Days to see the adorable little guy with his munchable baby cheeks!