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! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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).



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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!