Lake Clitherall 2010

For the past, oh, at least 12 years, Mom & Dad have rented a cabin on Lake Clitherall in Minnesota the same week as Uncle Mark, Aunt Becky & Cousin Brian. 

This year was Alexis’ 3rd trip and Noah’s first… they’ve both gone every summer of their life (okay, that’s cheating a little, I know).  It’s become a great annual getaway for everyone involved.

This year, the four of us stayed in a tent.  Concerned about the heat in the middle of July, it actually ended up being on the cool side over night… something we didn’t really prepare for.  But we’ll know now for the future.  We fit a large air mattress, pack-n-play and bed for Alexis all in our tent. I figured we had fit a dog crate in there at one point, so the pack-n-play should fit too, right?  Well, it was a tight squeeze.  The other hiccup… Alexis wakes up at first light: 5:30 am!  So, we would hang out in the tent until the 'cabin’ people woke up . 

We also had some severe weather mid-week… but thankfully, the tornadoes stayed to the east of us.

    

Annie, Uncle Mark & Aunt Becky’s dog, figure out she could climb into the kids playset… had to grab a shot of that!  Everyone else had fun on it too… Dad included!

The lack of a bathtub in the cabin meant bath time happened in the sink.  Busha was great about getting the kids all clean!  Noah loved it as usual!

  

As for Alexis, she spent her time on the play gym and wrangled just about everyone in the family into pushing her on the swing.  She just didn’t get enough… all week long!

    

Yes, we did do some swimming too, but it took a little bit of finessing.  Last year the water was so cold, Alexis wouldn’t even put her toes in.  This year, she wasn’t a whole lot different, so we practically pulled her into the water… slowly.  Started in the kayak, then Aunt Becky coaxed her into the water with the sand sifter and bucket so she could make sand castles.  Then she had to ride on the floatie with Dzia Dzia, but refused to sit up or move.  Noah, on the other hand, got used to it rather quickly and enjoyed floating around in his star.  I’ll call it a success!

 

Balloons, Bath Time, Bouncing & Bella

This is just one of the very cool things we’ve gotten to watch from our back door & deck in our new house.  We’ve had a pretty regular showing of hot air balloons behind our house this summer.  Alexis loves to see them!  We were bummed this year that we were out of town for the Great Plains Balloon Race, but it turned out the weather didn’t cooperate and they didn’t get to launch any anyways.  So, we get to see them behind our house instead!  

Mr. Noah is getting to be quite the messy eater!  Loves to rub squash in his hair… but bath time takes care of that!

This moment was too good to be true!  Got them both to sit on the couch, together AND smile!

You know your child is too big for the jumper when she can crawl in it herself!  A little territorial, Alexis insists she gets to bounce when ever we mention putting Noah in it.  He actually isn’t very interested in it anymore now that he’s mobile.  Would rather crawl through the tunnel or follow us around the kitchen with his toys, leaving them for us to trip on. 

**** Dimple Alert! ***

And Bella got to come over and play with Alexis this month for a short while while her mom was at at work late.  Need to do these play dates more often! They do a great job getting along!

Harleys & A Haircut

Hot Harley Nights is an annual event we go to/participate in to help raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation. 

It begins with a motorcycle poker run, which lasts much of the afternoon.  Bill and I usually borrow his mom’s motorcycle and his parents ride Tom’s.  Then we all ride the poker run with a group of their friends.  We didn’t have babysitters this year so Bill rode alone and we caught up for our traditional early super at Texas Roadhouse.

Then all the motorcyclists take part in a parade from J&L Harley to Downtown Sioux Falls. 

This year, we took the kids to watch the parade instead of riding in it.  It lasts about an hour… typically, the parade is so long, the first bike has arrived Downtown before the last one even leaves J&L!

Uncle Brent decided to join us and rode his bike from his apartment.  From there, we too head Downtown for the HHN street party.

This was also the day of Alexis got her first haircut!  You’ll notice it’s remarkably shorter and more even.  I still needed to get her 2 year pictures taken and her hair was so all over the place, I thought this would help it look less messy while helping it grow!

I took her to my stylist, Crystal at Salon Ne Zhoni, who did a fabulous job!  Alexis didn’t feel comfortable sitting in the chair by herself, so she sat on my lap.  She got a little clingy at times, but Crystal was able to get a straight cut… at least it looks that way!

But once she was done, Alexis was pretty proud with her new look.  When Dad got home from his motorcycle ride, I told her to show him her hair & she flipped her hand under the bottom of it & spun around as if she had done it all before.

(Thanks to Aunt Carissa for taking the photos!)

Happy Birthday Brent & USA!

Noah was sleeping at photo time… but not left out!

Anticipating our trip to the lake at the end of the month, Brent had jumped on the sale of a jet ski (which we rent every year anyways). So for his birthday, we all chipped in to get him some gear to go along with it… 2 lifejackets, a deck tube (it doesn’t have the hole in the middle of it), tow rope and misc. items. Alexis had to try on the life vests too!

And since it was the Fourth Of July and all, we had to get a picture of Noah in the same bib his sister wore two years ago:

Yep! That's her! I went post happy, trying to catch up. So, keep reading!!!