Wisconsin was awesome. I don't know any other way to put it. The four of us slept in one bedroom, there was no A/C, and 8 people shared one bathroom. Sounds like something you'd run screaming from, right? WRONG!!! First of all, we hadn't seen Dawn, Ryan, and the kids in almost 2 years. We spent almost every waking minute with them for the 7 months we were stationed together. Just getting reacquainted was fabulous. The kids immediately jumped into shooting each other with water guns:
I think Daniel caught the brunt of it all!
We took walks around the lake & the boys got to throw rocks into it. Little boys & rocks--that's all I'm gonna say about it!
All four kiddos actually sitting still at the same time! William (5), Alayna (4), Calvin (6), and Daniel (3). Little man is pouting for the picture & I could NOT get him to smile. As we were walking off afterwards, I quietly asked him what was wrong. He got all pouty & said he never got any rocks IN the water! He's pretty much been too little up to this point to really get the point in most of the activities he participates in, LOL! He just goes with the flow & does what everyone else does, so I was surprised he'd been so intent on actually getting one in. I thought he was just having a blast throwing rocks for the sake of throwing. A little later, we walked over a bridge & he was able to get one IN the water. Problem solved!!
And, boys, being boys, found the biggest puddle on our walk & immediately began to kick water at each other. Daniel managed to fall in the puddle (imagine that!) and they were all soaked before we got back to the cottage.
This is Dawn's parents' cottage. She grew up heading here for the summers & that's what prompted them to buy their cottage when it became available. I didn't manage to get a picture of their cottage, but here you can see how adorable they all are!! I think Scott & I might have to put ourselves in the market for a cottage on the lake in Wisconsin!
There is a little beach for use by all of the cottage owners & we headed there on our walk, then came back later in our bathing suits to play properly.
A tree had fallen during the rainstorm & we got to stand & watch while some men cut it into pieces with a chainsaw. Alayna & William stood there holding hands while they watched & then continued to hold hands on their walk. It was pretty adorable!!
Clean boys in PJ's. Calvin & William being silly:
C-man having a snack. Calvin LOOOOOVED Colin & kept insisting Colin wear his Milwaukee Brewers hat. Colin would wear it happily for a few minutes, then start to chew on it, which flustered Calvin to no extent. But, he kept giving it back to him & the cycle would begin again! Doesn't he look so cute???
The big boys got to ride in the rowboat & Mr. Ryan even let them "oar" for a little bit:
The majority of the time was spent in the lake. They grabbed noodles & swam around:
Leapt off the floating dock & had races to the ladder:
And, went down the slide after shouting "1, 2, 78!" (a throwback to Dawn's daddy's football days--that was one of his favorite "hiking calls"). My kids now "1, 2, 78!" everything, BTW!!
Pretty Alayna climbing up the ladder to take her turn at the slide:
Daniel doing the same:
And, of course, we roasted marshmallows to make s'mores:
And, the obligatory "open your mouth and show me all your chewed up food pic"! What is with kiddos and that?????
And, then just because I've missed her so much, a couple of snaps of me & Dawn. Please excuse the lake hair and the no make-up ;) I don't think I saw a mascara wand for a week & it was fabulous!!
The only downside to the lake was that it was either overcast or raining almost the entire time we were there. Made the cottage cooler, but unfortunately, the lake was, too! Dawn's kiddos were completely used to it, but mine would get purple lips inside of an hour & have to come out & dry off. Maybe if we get invited back next summer, we can put in a request for some sunshine?!?!?!
2 comments:
Oh Sarah!!! We sure did have a good time didn't we? The weather wasn't the best, but we really didn't let it slow us down too much. So glad we got to spend time with you guys and hopefully next year Scott can join us!
Looks like you had a lot of fun!;-)
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