Summer Stuff - PhotoPalooza

A switch flipped at the end of June and we went from crappy, cold, wet spring to insta-summer. I'll take it, thankyouverymuch. So we've been out and about a lot and since I've been a blogging lame-o brace yourselves for a lengthy catch up.

Starting with a few weeks ago. Genevieve has always been an 'ebb and flow' sleeper - weeks on end sleeping beautifully, followed by weeks on end getting up time and time again. Brutal. The night before this little outing had been one of "those" nights and I decided the best solution for a super deep sleep was to wear this girl OUT all morning. Hellloooooooo zoo.

Ride the "hOOOOrsie"


Tentatively pet the (smallest) goat


Ooh la la, fancy tattoo (1/2 off before noon? Score.)


Baby's First Ink

The next weekend was Fourth of July, which we planned to spend at the cottage. The weather was basically perfect and we swam a LOT. It was fun to see G be so much more confident around the water than she was last year. We hung out on floaties and took snoozies and ate until we exploded, then we watched two nights of fireworks.

Hi hi


Miss Fourth of July, 2011


I wanna go in the "flOOOOOOOOOatie"! (not unlike hOOOOOrsie)


Holding on to the mom tow-floatie


Warm me up, pops


Hanging on the sun deck


Step aside top models, there's a new girl in town


Some things never change.


Ready...............


GO!!


Catching some air

As you can see, we took a page from the Harms' "teach your kid to swim" playbook and strapped G into her life jacket for some fun jumping and to work on paddling. At first she wanted nothing to do with floating on her own, much less actually kicking, but after a few rounds she started to catch on. Check out her first "swim" on the weekend of the 4th, followed by some serious progress just one week later:

We came home on Monday and hit up Elm Grove Park Monday night for the fireworks show here. EG is pretty small so we weren't expecting an hour long show, but they did a terrific job. It didn't hurt that there was a family sitting next to us with a daughter who was 4 days younger than Genevieve and a 2-month old baby in tow. GG split her fireworks time between watching them pop and seeing what the other little girl was up to. It was great that we could just walk to and from the park, but by the time we got home it was pretty late. Again. The next day was a back-to-work back-to-school day, so six bells came really early for us all. I don't recommend putting your nearly 3-year old to bed at 10:30 for three consecutive nights, but when it's a long holiday weekend, what can ya do?

Off to yet another fireworks bonanza


Ready for the show!

So all of that was through Monday night. By Thursday of last week I was on another packing extravaganza, preparing to jaunt off to our first ever family camping weekend, with all of our college buds. In a tent. On the ground. I managed to weasel my way out of this little adventure last year (we had a legitimate excuse. I have no recollection of what it was, but it was legit), but we were all in this year. 5 months pregnant and all. Friday afternoon I got home a little early and packed up most of the gear, food, coolers, totes, and any random thing I could find that someone *might* need (activity #1 that a prego should relieve herself of). Matt and G arrived home and an hour later we were on the road to Bass Lake Campground in the Dells area. Knowing it was our first family tenting adventure, Shawn and Kyle volunteered to take our tent and set it up for us in advance. LOVE YOU GUYS. We staked her down once we got there and unpacked the mess for our adventure. Everyone was there by Friday night and on Saturday morning there were six hungry bellies waiting to be fed.

It takes a (tent) village


The brood

We spent most of the day Saturday in the pool, and thank god there was one because it was murther furking hot and humid. Which is to say nothing of the gnats and mosquitoes which ate us alive for 72 straight hours (item #2 a prego should relieve herself of: gallons of deet. Sorry fetus). The kids had a super time in the pool and at the questionably rickety playground

Off to the races!


Yeah, our little group took about 2/3 of the entire pool


No Fear Harms


Bros


High flier


Slimy pool smooches


Wheee!


Addie chooses to lounge vs launch

Saturday night we chilled by the campfire and waited for the predicted rain. Sure enough on Sunday it was rainy and ridiculously humid. Our choices were to (a) sit in our tents and attempt to keep the pack of howler monkeys busy or (b) Hit the road to a giant arcade in the Dells where the nuts could burn off some steam. Did I mention it was air conditioned there?? Mount up, folks!

Sillies


The only shot I have of the wee ones sitting in a line, minus Henry who I believe was on diaper detail

Anyone going into this ball pit thing at the arcade needed socks, and when 5 of the 6 kids decided to have a "I'm scared" meltdown, the parents all made mad dashes to the car in hopes of finding a pair or two. I won't lie, we also rotated which may not have been super hygienic, but considering that we had spent the previous day up to our ears in chlorine how bad could it have been? Once there were moms and dads on the scene all the kids had fun. Matt managed to be the only one of the 14 of us to hurt himself, aggravating a heel injury he got in baseball a few weeks ago. G couldn't handle being up there by herself so I was on (item #3 a prego should relieve herself of: crawling through small tunnels).

Get me outta here!


Who's having more fun?


Hey mom!


Seriously, don't tell my OB I did this. She would rage.

We drove back Sunday afternoon and had another super campfire dinner. Huge thanks to pro campers Melissa, Anna, and Robin for showing us the cooking ropes!! Everyone was out by about midnight only to be awakened three hours later by the park manager telling us there was a huge thunderstorm on its way with, quote, "threatening winds" and we "may want to seek shelter". Terrific. So into the bathroom the 14 of us hustled, complete with bleary eyed tots and smart phones, all checking the radar. Fortunately the storm was short lived and needless to say it was the first time in G's nearly 3 years that we allowed her to co-sleep. By 3:30 in the morning really who the H cared? We were up and at 'em by about 7:30 and after feeding the babes everyone packed up to head home. Blissfully we made it to McDonald's with ten minutes to spare before they stopped serving breakfast. How to fix a late and restless night? Hot cakes, obviously. All in all it was fun to see the kids have such a great time and it is always good to make time for the friends who live far away.

We landed back in the Grove at about 1 p.m. and an hour later were back out to shop for supplies for our next summer project: converting the screen porch to a proper mudroom. What, like we'd take a weekend off??